NatureThe BestieBeginner
How to Grow a Plant, a free nature course on Tomo

How to Grow a Plant

Discover how a sleeping seed wakes up and turns into a healthy, leafy plant. Learn hands-on ways to pot seeds, balance sunlight and water, and decode plant signals.

Like Duolingo, but for How to Grow a Plant. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Sowing and Sprouting and Caring for a Thriving Plant. It starts from scratch.

11 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Barnaby the Bunny, the guide who teaches the How to Grow a Plant course
How to Grow a Plant
with Barnaby the Bunny
11
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in How to Grow a Plant

  • A seed holds a tiny living plant that is resting inside
  • The hard seed coat protects the inside from drying out or getting damaged
  • The food supply inside fuels initial growth before the plant can make its own food in sunlight
  • Moisture softens the hard seed coat so the baby plant can break out
  • Warmth signals to the seed that the season is right for growing
  • Seeds do not need sunlight to germinate, only moisture and warmth
  • Seeds should be planted about 2 to 3 times as deep as their width
  • Burying a tiny seed too deep exhausts its stored food before the sprout reaches the surface
  • Big seeds have larger food stores to push up through deeper soil
  • Seeds need good contact with damp soil particles to absorb moisture
  • Stamping or packing dirt tightly squeezes out air pockets that roots need to breathe
  • A gentle pat with fingertips provides firm contact while keeping the soil fluffy
  • A clear cover traps evaporating water vapor so the soil surface doesn't dry out
  • Trapping moisture creates greenhouse-like humidity that helps seeds crack open
  • The cover must come off as soon as green sprouts emerge to let fresh air circulate and prevent mold
  • Green leaves absorb sunlight like solar panels
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives How to Grow a Plant the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

What Wakes Up a Seed

What is the main job of the hard seed coat?

Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.

Course map

Where How to Grow a Plant takes you

  1. 1

    Sowing and Sprouting

    • Waking Up a Seed
    • Balancing Sun, Air, and Water
  2. 2

    Caring for a Thriving Plant

    • Reading Plant Clues
    • Giving Roots Room to Expand

2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Bestie

How to Grow a Plant is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

Start free

Start How to Grow a Plant today.

Download Tomo, search How to Grow a Plant, and play your first lesson in under a minute.