celery food coloring experiment

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Celery Food Coloring Experiment

Capillary action, the fascinating phenomenon of liquids moving through narrow spaces without external forces, can be easily demonstrated using celery and food coloring. In this simple science experiment , we observe how water, dyed with food coloring, travels up the tiny vessels in the celery stalks!

By immersing celery in colored water, we can witness firsthand how this natural process drives fluids against gravity! Get started below and see for yourself. Explore biology easily at home or in the classroom with our science experiments for kids .

More Easy Experiments That Demonstrate Capillary Action

• Color Changing Flowers
• Walking Water
• Leaf Veins Experiment
• Broken Toothpick Experiment

Celery and Food Coloring Experiment

Explore the process of water moving upward through the plant’s stem and into the leaves. It defies gravity!

• Celery Stalks (choose as many as you like to color and one extra if you choose to set up a science experiment. too) with leaves
• Food Coloring

Instructions:

STEP 1. Start with nice crisp celery. Cut the bottoms off the celery so you have a fresh cut.

Don’t have celery? You could try our color changing carnations experiment !

STEP 2. Fill the containers at least halfway with water and add food coloring. The more food color, the sooner you’ll see results. 15-20 drops, at least.

STEP 3. Add the celery sticks to the water.

STEP 4. Wait 2 to 24 hours. Make sure to observe the process at regular intervals to note the progress. Older kids can make drawings and journal their observations throughout the experiment.

Notice how the food coloring moves through the celery’s leaves! Water is making its way through the cells of the celery, as indicated by the color.

Note the red food coloring is a bit tougher to see!

How Does It Work?

How does water travel through a plant? By the process of capillary action! We can see this in action with the celery.

The cut celery stalks take up colored water through their stem, and the colored water moves from the stems to the leaves. Water travels up tiny tubes in the plant via the process of capillary action .

What is capillary action? Capillary action is the ability of a liquid (our colored water) to flow in narrow spaces (thin tubes in the celery) without the help of an outside force, like gravity. Plants and trees couldn’t survive without capillary action.

As water evaporates from a plant (called transpiration), it pulls more water up to replace what has been lost. This happens due to adhesion forces (water molecules are attracted and stick to other substances), cohesion (water molecules like to stay close together), and  surface tension .

What is the difference between capillary action and osmosis?

The process of osmosis also involves the movement of water. However, capillary action is driven by surface tension and the interactions between the liquid and solid surfaces, while osmosis is driven by differences in solute concentration across a semi-permeable membrane.

Capillary action is often observed in the movement of liquids in narrow tubes or capillaries. At the same time, osmosis is a process commonly observed in biological systems involving water movement across cell membranes.

Capillary action can occur in both upward and downward directions, depending on the specific conditions, while osmosis generally occurs from an area of lower solute concentration to higher solute concentration.

Check out fun ways to explore osmosis here.

How To Apply The Scientific Method

Extend this celery and food coloring experiment by applying the scientific method for older kids ready to delve deeper into the scientific realm. This structured approach to inquiry involves formulating hypotheses, conducting experiments, collecting data, and drawing conclusions.

Start by encouraging students to ask questions such as “What factors could influence the movement of water through the celery?” Some examples are the concentration of food coloring, the amount of time the celery is immersed, or the temperature of the water.

Ask kids to make predictions about how changing the variables might affect the results. For instance, they can predict what will happen if they use more food coloring, leave the celery in the colored water longer, or change the water temperature.

Have them develop a hypothesis based on their initial observations and then design an experiment to test it.

Older kids can better understand the scientific principles by altering variables, recording measurements, and analyzing results. This extension challenges them to think critically and apply analytical thinking.

Learn more about applying the scientific method with examples and how to choose variables.

Free Printable Science Process Pack

Extend the learning opportunity by creating a science journal with our free science process pack for kids!

Helpful Science Resources

Here are a few resources that will help you introduce science more effectively to your kiddos or students and feel confident when presenting materials. You’ll find helpful free printables throughout.

• Best Science Practices (as it relates to the scientific method)
• Science Vocabulary
• 8 Science Books for Kids
• All About Scientists
• Free Science Worksheets
• Science Supplies List
• Science Tools for Kids

Why Is Science Important For Kids?

Kids are curious and always looking to explore, discover, test, and experiment to find out why things do what they do, move like they move, or change like they change! Indoors or outdoors , science is definitely amazing!

We are always eager to explore chemistry experiments , physics experiments , and biology experiments ! Biology is fascinating for kids because it’s all about the living world around us. Activities like this celery experiment show us how water moves through living cells.

Explore how water travels through a plant with a simple demonstration you can do in your own kitchen with just a few items! We love kitchen science that is not only easy to set up but frugal too! Learn about capillary action with a couple stalks of celery and food dye.

More Fun Science Experiments To Try

Explore plant experiments , water science experiments and more.

• Potato Osmosis Lab
• Walking Water Experiment
• Drops of Water On A Penny
• How Do Plants Breathe
• Growing Gummy Bears Experiment

Printable Science Projects Pack

If you’re looking to grab all of our printable science projects in one convenient place plus exclusive worksheets and bonuses like a STEAM Project pack, our Science Project Pack is what you need! Over 300+ Pages!

• 90+ classic science activities  with journal pages, supply lists, set up and process, and science information.  NEW! Activity-specific observation pages!
• Best science practices posters  and our original science method process folders for extra alternatives!
• Be a Collector activities pack  introduces kids to the world of making collections through the eyes of a scientist. What will they collect first?
• Know the Words Science vocabulary pack  includes flashcards, crosswords, and word searches that illuminate keywords in the experiments!
• My science journal writing prompts  explore what it means to be a scientist!!
• Bonus STEAM Project Pack:  Art meets science with doable projects!
• Bonus Quick Grab Packs for Biology, Earth Science, Chemistry, and Physics

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Celery Science Experiment

• Elementary , Everyday Materials , Experiment , Pre-School , Science Experiments

36 Comments

While I’m an art educator by trade, having small people pull at my pants has turned me into a mini-alchemist who’s suddenly found herself reading books to her kids about Galileo and brewing all sorts of concoctions in our kitchen (vinegar and baking soda, anyone?). Preschoolers are simply curious and see no boundaries between art and science, making this celery experiment a wonderful early STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) activity for young children.

The celery science experiment is easy to achieve with basic kitchen materials and it’s embedded with all sorts of opportunities for introducing the scientific method (in short: asking scientific questions, making predictions, and conducting an experiment).

• Celery with leafy tops
• Clear glasses
• Food coloring

The Celery Science Experiment

N poured water into three glasses. about 3/4 cup in each.

Then she added a few drops of food coloring — 5-8 drops, but who’s counting! — into the glasses and stirred with a piece of celery, which was left in the glass. And then we talked about what might happen if we left the celery in the colored water for a while.

We oohed and ahhed over the lava-lamp effect of the food coloring as it hit the water.

The Scientific Method: Make Predictions

We started off with red, yellow, and green, but N really wanted to mix colors and added blue and red to the green water (far right). We revisited our earlier discussion and made predictions about how the celery might change.

While waiting for something to happen, I chopped the celery heart off the bottom of the stalk and set up a printing activity.

N humored me by making a few prints and then asked if she could play with colored water. Totally!

While I only have one photo of this, it was probably the highlight of the afternoon.

When we checked the celery a couple hours later, this is what it looked like. I put a leafy top next to it so you can see how subtle the change is. Hmmm. While I could see the change, I wasn’t sure it would make a big impact on my daughter. And then I realized that I should have just put the leafy parts in the water for a more dramatic result. Done!

A few hours later the blue/green had the most pronounced shift, but the red and yellow were visibly different too.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the red and blue-green died celery tops, about 16 hours after the stalks had been sitting in the water. N seemed to appreciate the difference, but wasn’t nearly as impressed as her dad and I were.

Why does celery absorb food coloring?

In terms that preschoolers can understand…

Plants need water to survive and they draw water up from their roots through their capillaries. The capillaries are hollow and act a lot like a straw. Adding color to the water helps us visualize this usually invisible process.

I did this activity with my boys using Queen Anne’s Lace, and this year it’s probably good timing to repeat it with my daughter. Queen Anne’s Lace has small, delicate white flowers in a cluster, so the effect is noticeable and pretty. (Also, another name for Queen Anne’s Lace is Wild Carrot–the scientific name is, I believe, Daucus carota–and if you pull one up by the roots you can see how the root resembles a carrot–it smells a little carroty too).

A big hit with my boys when they were younger was comparing the melting rate of ice cubes. We put one on the counter, one on the fridge, and one on the deck, and then we observed them and wrote down our observations, every ten minutes or so.

LOVE the idea to use this flower!! Thank you for that tip!

Queen Anne’s Lace would be an incredible way to do this activity — so rewarding and bright once it soaked up the color.

Your ice cube melting idea reminds me of a chocolate melting experiment I did in the 6th grade – put one bar in the trunk of the car and one on a hot sidewalk. I lived in LA, and I think they melted at the same rate! Ha.

Good idea ! I have old celerys and we move in 1 week. Time to use them !

Good thought — no need to cart celery along on the move. Good luck with that! I hope it’s smooth and stress-free.

This is one of our favorite things to do! You have to be sure to use A LOT of food coloring to turn them faster. 🙂 One of our favorite things to do is to make rainbows! We actually enjoy doing it so much and with so many different mediums that my daughter made this her Science Fair project. She entered at her school (she is only in Kindergarten, but she takes some 2nd grade courses so she had the option to enter if she wanted) and she took 1st place in the K-2nd grade category!!!! All these little projects instill in them a desire to learn, and grow! So many people think I am wasting my time doing these things every day and yet she remembered our foray into rainbows so much that she turned it into a prize winning project! (all of which she did at school under the watchful eye of her teachers so that it couldn’t be said that anyone’s parents did their projects for them!!)

Oh, Michelle, this is so fabulous. When we create an environment that supports creativity and critical thinking at an early age, we set children up for a future of independent thinking. It’s awesome that you helped your daughter follow her interests from such a young age. Do people really think you’re wasting your time? Send them my way if you’d like 🙂

Looks like your daughter N had great fun! You are setting your daughter up to be a great scientist/artist! Love to see how you make everything look so amazing to do! You should write a book with all these experiments and great photography! I would buy it!

Hi Melissa ~ You’re the best! I’ll direct all potential publishers to this post to read your comment 🙂 I’ve always been a visual communicator, and find that sometimes pictures tell a better story than the words I might choose.

It can be a bit tricky with science experiments sometimes to know which ones are going to impress your children. My kids’ favourites are ones where you mix things together – like seeing what things will dissolve in water, bicarb and vinegar volcanoes and different kinds of slime. I wrote about our most recent science experiment, using marbles to explore inertia, this week at http://adventureskids.blogspot.com/2011/04/inertia.html

That is SO cool. I’ll be bookmarking that for when my little ones are a bit older. Your blog is great — thanks for sharing!

Thats a fantastic idea… love such fun learning tips:)

Thanks Roopa 🙂

thank you help me with my science project thank you.

Next time I buy celery, we are going to have to try this. I think my son would really enjoy seeing the change in the celery.

I bet he would! I always buy it for a stalk or two, and find that I usually have too much left over. Very frustrating, and clear that I need to find more celery-rich recipes!

Who woulda though celery? I always have leftovers from the bunch – no one seems to like to munch on them over here. I guess a science experiment will be in the future.

Aren’t the simple parts of the activity always the funnest, the ones that you didn’t plan?

Thanks for supporting It’s Playtime this week, I hope to see more of your ideas, as I always do, next Thursday too!

Jamie @ hands on : as we grow

it’s so true that the unplanned parts are almost always the most enjoyable…probably because they’re spontaneous! Look forward to your next Playtime 🙂

I did this experiment with my nearly-3-year-old daughter last week. The Usborne book I got the idea from suggested cutting the bottom of the celery stem in half and standing each half in a different colour food colouring. This leads to a lovely 2-colour-effect stem, with the leaves on each side of the stem being a different colour – it even interested my daughter!

Angela! That is such a cool idea…and now I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it 🙂 We will have to try that next time. Thanks for sharing1

Love the concentration on N’s face as she is pouring the coloured water. Gorgeous 🙂

Thanks, Christie! The concentrated looks always help us know when a project is going well, no?

Oh gosh, this takes me right back to childhood – this was one of our favorite experiments at home growing up.  We could get the celery really bright red and thought it was sooooo awesome!

This is sooo cool, I will be doing this with my little girl for sure.  You can also do the same thing with daisies :D 

This is so fun because there are so many different things all in one! The color changing, te playing with coloured water and stamping with the base! I’ve only done this with carnations, which is fun, and pretty – you can even split the stem and put each side in a different cup and get a two-tone flower! I guess it’s similar to the queen Anne’s lace idea, we just don’t have that near us!

we did this, it was a hit in our house! http://alessandrahayden.blogspot.com/2012/06/celery-experiment.html

I did this experiment with my KG daughter today. I like your idea of using the cut off heart as a stamper. I usually pull my stalks off, but today, I decided to just cut the whole end off and it was so pretty – looked like a flower!

When I was in school, we did this with white Carnations. I also saw a similar experiment where you take the Carnation and split the bottom of the stem into four. You take each piece of the stem and put it in a differently colored cup of water, and it makes a rainbow-looking flower when it’s done. 🙂 Pretty sweet.

Organized content is the best way to display or post an article, thank you for making it easy to digest your

Saw a little one do this with a carnation. She split the stem into 4 parts and put each part into a different color and ended up with a rainbow flower!

I LOOOVEE THIS

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Color-Changing Celery Experiment

This exciting experiment illustrates transpiration, the process of plants absorbing water through their roots. The water travels up tubes in the stems called xylem to all parts of the plants and is used during photosynthesis to make food for the plant. When food coloring is added to the water, it travels with the water into the celery’s stem and then into the leaves. The food coloring illustrates how nutrients are delivered to all parts of the plant.

This experiment will take 12-24 to see full results.

This popular experiment was shared with us by the International School of Louisiana. Find the protocol here or see a video demonstration here .

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Materials Needed for this Lesson Plan

• Color-Changing Celery Kit

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Celery Experiment – How to Change Celery Color With Food Coloring

Updated on June 16, 2022

Celery color change is the answer to the claim that plants and gardening are not fun for kids. While celery dye isn’t technically gardening, it still gives your kids the opportunity to have a little bit of fun experimenting with plants and colors. You can think of it as the first step to introducing your children to the wonderful world of plants and gardening.

This experiment is both simple and engaging. You can either choose to let your kids do all the work while you supervise, or you can take part with them and explore more creative ways to paint your celery the colors of the rainbow . At the end of this article, we’ll introduce other plants for you to change their colors and improve on the handiwork of Mother Nature.

Required Materials to Change Celery Color

Even though celery might not be the favorite item in any salad , smoothie, or juice, that doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it. Or at least you can coax your kids into loving this unpopular veggie by taking it off the kitchen table and adding it to the game time. So put on your science hat and get ready to have some colorful fun.

But before you start, you should have the following items ready first.

• Four plastic cups. The cups should be clear to allow the kids the see the dye.
• Food coloring. For starters, you can limit your options to blue and red colors.
• Four stalks of celery with leafy tops still intact. Make sure they are inside stalks with pale green color.
• A pitcher full of tap water. Room temperature water will do fine for this experiment.
• A kitchen knife. That will be for your own use.
• A ruler or measuring tape.
• Paper towels, preferably white ones without any patterns.
• And eye dropper.
• A timer or a clock.
• A vegetable peeler.
• A magnifying glass.
• A flashlight for better visibility.

For better and quick results, choose celery stalks that have been lying around for a few days. Fresh stalks won’t absorb the dye as quickly as wilted ones and the kids might get bored while waiting for the celery to change color.

Celery Experiment

Now that you got all your needed materials and the kids are as excited as they can be, let’s start our celery color change experiment.

• Fill the four plastic cups halfway with water.
• In each cup add 10 drops of red food coloring and the same amount in blue coloring. This gives you a purplish color. If the resulting color is not bright enough, you can add an equal number of drops from both colors into each cup.
• Lay the four celery stalks side by side on the table making sure the leafy part are level.
• Use the ruler to measure 6 inches and set a mark on the stalks with the pen.
• Cut the bottom part of the stalk with the knife. The fresh cut makes absorbing water a lot faster. Now you have 4 celery stalks, exactly 6 inches each.
• Pick 4 paper towels and give each one a label using the pen. Label the first with “10 Minutes”, the second with “20 Minutes”, the third with “30 Minutes”, and the last with “40 Minutes”. (If you want to reduce the duration, you can cut the above time by half on each paper towel.)
• Place a celery stalk in each cup with the leafy top sticking out of the water.
• Start the timer.
• After 10 minutes, remove the celery stalk from the first cup and place it on the towel labeled “10 Minutes”. Do the same for the rest of the stalks when their time is up.
• Use the peeler to remove the celery skin and with the flashlight and magnifying glass to observe the subtle celery color change in the stalks.
• Put the stalks back in the cups and leave them overnight. The leafy tops will change color as well.

Multi-colored Celery Dye

If the first experiment to achieve celery color change has passed with flying colors, why not try something different and a little more advanced? In this experiment, we’ll try to give on celery stalk two different colors at the same time. You’ll need the same materials, but instead of four celery stalks, we’ll use just one.

• Cut the celery stalk lengthwise in half using the knife or a pair of scissors. When you’re about one inch from the leafy top, stop and keep it intact.
• Now you have a partially split stalk still connected at the top.
• Fill two plastic cups with water halfway.
• Add 10 drops of red food coloring in one cup and the same amount of blue color in the other cup.
• Cut the bottom of the celery stalk to accelerate color absorption.
• Place the two cups next to each other and dump on half of the celery stalk in each cup.
• Leave the celery stalk in the cups for at least 24 hours.
• To get the kids excited, ask them to predict the color of the leafy top of the celery stalk. Will it be red? Blue? Or Purple? Which color will prevail? Will the colors mix or will the leafy top have splashes of different colors?
• After 24 hours, the stalk would have absorbed the colors in both cups, blended them together, and created a new color that is a mix of red, blue, and light green.
• Experiment with different colors and color combinations to create radiant and vibrant colored celery stalks.

The Science Behind Celery Color Change

Naturally, the kids will become curious as to what happened and what type of magic was involved in the celery color change. Explain to them the basic science behind it in terms suitable for their age. The two main scientific principles related to water in this experiment are adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion allows water particles to stick to various surfaces and staying there until they evaporate. Cohesion is the reason the same water particles stick together and move up in small and narrow tubes. This is often called capillary action.

With the help of a flashlight and a magnifying glass, the children can see for themselves, the colored water particles making their way up the celery stalk slowly but steadily. Explain to them that this is how the plant gets the moisture and nutrition it needs when it’s growing in the garden .

Since the water molecules attach themselves to the food coloring , when the water moves up the narrow veins of the celery stalk, it brings the dye with it which changes the color of the stalk and leafy top.

This ability of plants to absorb materials in the soil can work to our benefit. Poplar trees are known to absorb toxins such as excess nitrates in the soil while mustard plants can absorb selenium. As for sunflowers, their roots can draw uranium not just from the soil but also from adjacent lakes and bodies of water.

Change Color of Other Plants

With the science behind it explained, you can now take this scientific experiment a few steps further. Naturally, it works not just with celery, but with other plants as well. The best candidates are large flowers that are originally white . Here you can get as creative as you like with the color combinations to color the carnations with different shades of the same color.

We recommend you start with the flowers of the Iceland poppy , SunPatiens , daisy fleabane , blackfoot daisy , and plumeria among others. They each have white blooms that show the subtle changes in coloration much faster than colored flowers. Here’s how to change the color of the cut flowers.

• Make sure the flower stem is at least 6 inches long and make a fresh cut at the bottom of the stalk.
• Fill a cup halfway with water and add about 20 drops of food coloring to the water. You can start with red color for best results or you can create your own color combinations as we have seen above.
• Check on the flower at different times of the day to make sure the color of the petals is changing.
• Remove the flower from the water when you have achieved the desire color shade. Keep in mind that the longer the flower remains in the dye, the deeper the color change will be.
• Experiment with different flowers and create stunning blue daisies, purple plumeiras, orange SunPatiens, and turquoise Iceland poppies. You’ll have unique floral arrangements that give you bragging rights among your friends.

Celery Dye Tips and Tricks

The key to getting the kids interested in a science experience that involves celery is to make sure the experiment is a success. Let them take part and record their own observations. Allow them to mix the colors and come up with their own ideas for plants to color as well. Here are some tips that apply not just to celery color change but to other plants and flowers as well.

• To prevent the celery stalks from knocking over the plastic cups, prop them against the wall or a hard object.
• Use slightly wilted celery to get good results.
• To speed up the experiment and cut down the boredom, take the measurements once every 5 minutes.
• Make sure to do all the cutting and peeling yourself. The kitchen knife and peeler are not for the children to use or play with.
• Use plenty of paper towels to absorb dye spillage and avoid making a mess.
• Keep the kids entertained while you wait for the celery to change color by flashing light on the stalks and use the magnifying glass to observe color absorption in real-time.
• Make sure everyone is sitting comfortably and that you time this science experiment before , not after, laundry day. No matter how careful everybody is, you might end up with more food coloring on your clothes than you like.

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Celery Food Coloring Experiment: DIY Science Project Ideas for Kids

Have you ever wondered if celery can be any other color than green? Is it possible to have blue or red celery? Yes. With the celery food coloring experiment, you’ll be able to make your own rainbow-colored celery. Kids often have trouble understanding their science lessons.

Performing such science experiments for kids helps them understand complicated science concepts like capillary action. Additionally, this celery food coloring experiment also helps kids understand how plants absorb water.

Step-by-Step Instructions on Celery Food Coloring Experiment

Here is a step-by-step guide to performing the celery food coloring science experiment:

What You’ll Need?

Performing the celery food coloring experiment is very simple and needs very few things. Here is a list of things you’ll need to perform the experiment:

• 6 Mason jars
• Leafy celery stalks
• Red, blue, green, pink, purple and orange food coloring (you can use any food coloring of your choice)
• Pen and paper

How to Perform Celery Food Experiment for Kids?

Follow these directions to perform the experiment and create your own rainbow celery stalks.

• Fill each of the mason jars with water until it’s half full. 
• Add 2 drops of red food coloring into the 1st jar and 2 drops of blue food coloring into the 2nd jar. Similarly, add 2 drops each of the green, pink, purple and orange food coloring into the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th jars. 
• Trim the ends of the celery stalks and place one stalk in each of the jars. 
• Place the jars by a window or a place with good sunlight for a few hours.
• Check after 3-4 hours and see if there’s any change in the celery stalks. Note down the changes.
• Now, let the jars sit undisturbed overnight and check them the next morning. Note down the changes.

What You’ll See?

After 3 – 4 hours, you’ll notice that part of the celery stalks have changed color. When you check the celery stalks the next morning, you’ll notice a significant change in the color of the celery stalks. The stalk and leaves would’ve changed color and turned the same color as the liquid in the jars. 

Remove one of the stalks from water and cut it in half. You’ll notice that there are several colored dots inside of the celery stalk. These are the tubes that absorbed the water and transported it to the leaves. 

Science Behind Celery Food Coloring Experiment

So, how did we end up with rainbow colored celery stalks? Let’s learn the science behind the celery food coloring experiment to understand why the celery stalks changed color.

• Why did the celery stalks change color?

The celery stalks changed color because the stalks absorbed the colored water. 

Celery stalks are made up of tiny tubes called xylem. And not only celery stalks, these tubes are present in all plants. The celery stalks absorb the colored water, which travels through the xylem to the leaves. This phenomenon is called capillary action. A plant’s roots absorb water from the soil, which then travels through the xylem to every part of the plant by capillary action. 

• What is capillary action?

Capillary action is the process by which nutrients, water or any liquid moves through something solid or a material with a lot of holes. The liquids are usually transported through structures like tiny tubes or straws using forces of cohesion, adhesion, and surface tension. 

Capillary action is how plants transport water absorbed by the roots to other parts of the plant. Similarly, our bodies also use capillary action to move the blood to all parts of our body. 

• What are the tiny colored dots you see in the celery stalk, when you cut it?

The tiny, colored dots that you see in the cross-section of the celery stalk that is cut are called xylem. These are the tube-like or straw-like structures that transport the colored water up the celery stalk to the leaves. The xylem, which is in every plant, transports water and nutrients to all the parts of the plant.

How to Perform Rainbow Celery Science Experiment?

Still curious about capillary action and the rainbow-colored celery stalks? Then you should definitely go a little further and experiment more with the celery stalks. 

What You’ll Need:

• 1 celery stalk with lots of leaves
• 3 mason jars with red, blue and green colored water

Step-by-Step Instructions:

• Take the knife and split the celery stalk lengthwise. Cut it only about halfway up the stalk, so you can divide it into 3 parts. ( You can use any of the stalks you used in the experiment above.)
• Place one part of the celery stalk in each of the 3 mason jars with the red, blue and green colored water.
• Let it sit for 24 hours, then check the celery stalk. How colorful is it? Do you see a magical, tri-colored celery stalk? What colors are the leaves? Note down your observations.

Check our kids learning section for more experiments, activities and other learning resources.

Frequently Asked Questions on the Celery Food Coloring Experiment

What does the celery food coloring science experiment show.

The celery food coloring experiment shows capillary action. It helps us understand how plants move water through the xylem in their stem to the other parts of the plant.

What do you need for the celery water food coloring experiment?

For the celery food coloring science experiment, you’ll need celery stalks with lots of leaves, food coloring, water, and mason jars.

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Science Fun

Rainbow Celery Color Science Experiment

In this fun and easy color science experiment for kids, we’re going to make rainbow colored celery. 

• Food coloring

Instructions:

• Place the jars out in a nice organized row in a place where the will not be disturbed for a couple days.
• Fill each jar or drinking glass about halfway full with water.
• Now add a different colored drop or two of food coloring to each jar.
• Put one stalk of celery into each jar.
• Check on your celery every few hours over the next several days and write down your observations.

EXPLORE AWESOME SCIENCE EXPERIMENT VIDEOS!

How it Works:

The celery uses capillary action to pull water up from the soil and into the plant. In this experiment, the food coloring attaches to the water molecules and travels up into the celery stalk. Xylems are the small tubes in the celery that carry the water up into the celery. 

Make This A Science Project:

Try this experiment with white carnations. Try this experiment in direct sunlight. Try putting this experiment in the refrigerator. 

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Colorful Celery

I love vegetables! They taste delicious, they’re healthy, and they come in so many fun colors! There are red radishes, orange carrots, green cucumbers, and purple eggplants. Today’s science experiment is going to turn plain, green celery into many other fun colors!

What you need:

• 3 glasses or jars (or more or less depending on how many colors you want)
• Celery stalks with leaves
• Food coloring

• Fill each glass about halfway with water.

• Add different colors of food coloring to each glass (these will be the colors that the celery turns into). I used blue and red food coloring, and I combined yellow and red food coloring to make orange. I would not suggest using green or yellow food coloring because they will not change the color of the celery significantly.

• Cut about 1/2 an inch off the ends of the celery diagonally. This will allow the celery to take up more water.

• Place an equal number of celery stalks in each glass. It’s best to use multiple stalks in each glass, but if you only have a few stalks with leaves (like me), using just one per color is fine, too.

• Watch the celery stalks for 1-2 days as they slowly change color! Our celery stalks in the blue and orange water had gorgeous color changes, but the celery in the red glass did not show much change.

• The veins of the leaves and the tips of the celery are a great place to see the color change.

• To see the paths in which the water traveled up the plant, break the celery stalk in half and observe the stringy fibers.

How do the celery stalks change color?

Plants need water to grow and live, just like humans. However, most of the water that plants absorb is from the dirt in the ground. The plant has to have a way to carry the water that is absorbed by its roots up to its branches and leaves, too. Two special properties of water, cohesion and adhesion, help aid this process. Cohesion is the ability of water to stick to other water molecules, and adhesion is the ability of water to stick to other molecules that are not water molecules. Adhesion helps water molecules stick to the inside tissues of a plant and “climb” from the roots to the leaves of a plant. Cohesion helps the water molecules stick to other water molecules and carry them along on the trip up the plant, too! This process of the water traveling throughout the plant is called capillary action. In this experiment, the celery is using capillary action to carry the colored water to its leaves. The colored water is dispersed throughout the plant, and the celery appears to change color.

Maisie Escobedo

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• Celery Experiment

The Celery Experiment and How Plants Absorb Water from their Roots

Description.

Clear glass jars, cups or small clear vase

Fresh Celery stalks with leaves. Preferably the lighter leafier stalks near the center.

Food Coloring

• Explain experiment. We are going to find out how plants absorb water and grow. See Educational note for more.
• Separate and select stalks of celery with leaves. Cut about a quarter inch off the bottom. The lighter stalks near the center will show the most color.
• Put about 8 ounces of water into glass jar or vase.
• Drop 3-4 drops of food coloring into jar.
• Place stalks into the water and using stalk stir very gently until food coloring is dispersed evenly.
• Have child/class make predictions about what will happen. Write it in a simple sentence and "point and read" together.
• Make 2-3 observations and write them down. Check at intervals depending on availability, you will see slight results after 3 hours, significant results overnight and again at 48 hours.
• Cut the bottom of the celery and you can see where the water was transported up into the celery stem.

If you plan to do only one color, consider selecting blue. We found blue to have the most vibrant results. The colors we tested were purple, red and blue, green and orange. The blue was significantly brighter. After trying this three times, we noted the blue water level goes down the quickest.

Use the lightest, innermost stalks for this experiment. The darker green did not show the colors as well and were less healthy in comparison with the lighter green stalks.

Be sure to trim the bottom of the stalks with a knife or shears (adult step). Examine the bottom after 24 hours to see where the water is being drawn up into the stem. Blue showed this the most clearly of all the colors.

• Select either the loop or the hook side to place on the board. If you select the hook side, you will always use the loop side for your cards.
• Place a dot at the top for the title and 3-5 more dots in a row under it. You may want two rows of dots
• Glue pictures of the experiment onto cardboard or construction paper and stick on a velcro dot on the back of each. Remember to use the opposite piece as the one you put on the board for the pictures to stick.
• Have your child place the pictures in the correct order. For older toddlers you can print a simple sentence about each picture as well, cut out and mount on cardboard and match the sentence to the picture.

• Take pictures of the major steps in this toddler science experiment, glue onto construction paper and add a sentence for each by printing on a computer or handwrite neatly. Have your child tell you the sentence or phrase if they are able to. Your child is more likely to be able to "read" something he or she says. This is also a great way to help reinforce and build comprehension skills.
• Another example of osmosis can be used with carnations. Use the same materials and steps above. You will have very pretty results!
• Take pictures of the entire process Dropping coloring into glass, placing the stem into the colored water, Glue onto separate pieces of cardboard. Have your child place in the correct order on a flat surface. Or cut out the pictures, have your child arrange them and glue them onto a single sheet of construction paper and display.
• A book is a great way to introduce a toddler science activity. Go to the library or a bookstore and find a book on plants.
• Plants absorb water through their roots through a process called transpiration. The water travels up tubes in the stems to all parts of the plants, and is used during photosynthesis to make food for the plant. When food coloring is added to the water, it travels with the water into the celery's stem and then into the leaves. Plants also absorb nutrients from the soil through the roots and up through the phloem in the plant's stems. The food coloring illustrates how nutrients are delivered to all parts of the plant.
• Seeing the color of the celery leave change and the level of the water going down.
• Hearing and listening to directions given.

Communication

• Oral Explanation of how plants absorb water
• Pictorial Showing pictures of plants in a book

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SCIENCE EXPERIMENT: CELERY AND FOOD COLORING

By: Author Agnes Hsu

Posted on Last updated: February 18, 2021

Categories Latest , Learn

Only a few basic kitchen tools and ingredients are needed to show your little one how plants extract water. Super cool, and very appealing for visual learners!

Agnes Hsu is a mom of three and has been inspiring parents and kids to get creative with easy activities and family friendly recipes for over 10 years. She shares her love for creative play and kids food to her 2MM+ followers online. Agnes' commitment to playful learning and kindness has not only raised funds for charity but also earned features in prestigious nationwide publications.

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Celery Coloring Science Experiment

Preschoolers are simply curious. This celery experiment is a wonderful STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) activity for young children that teaches them about how water absorbs in to plants.

Quick tip: If you have school-aged children this would be a great writing and drawing assignment. Ask them to write about the process and results and draw a picture of what they see.

• 2 – 3 Celery stocks
• Food coloring in colors of your choice

Instructions:

• Cut ends of celery stock
• Fill cups halfway with water
• Add several drops of food coloring into each cup
• Place celery stock into each glass
• Put off to the side and observe changes each day
• Take pictures each day
• Have older children write about the results at home
• family activities Science Activities

• Cooking & Baking /
• Kitchen science /

Celery & Food Coloring Experiment

This simple experiment with celery and food coloring will thrill kids and teach them science!

Ages: 3 - 8

30 minutes - 1 hour

A little messy

Grownup needed

Materials you'll need

• food coloring

Step-by-step tutorial

Use the pipette to get food coloring into the water.

Final result!

Cut up the celery and place it in the colored water. Wait for the color to change!

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Celery and food coloring experiment.

Do you like to water the plants in your home or garden? We already know that plants and flowers need water to grow and live, but what happens after that? Find out what really occurs when you sprinkle that water with this fun celery science experiment that uses food coloring to show how plants absorb water!

What You Need:

• Tall, clear glass or jar
• Red food coloring
• Celery stalk with leaves
• Printable Observation Sheet

What You Do:

• Fill a tall, clear glass or jar half-full with water.
• Add a few drops of red food coloring and mix well.
• Trim the bottom of a large stalk of celery, leaving the leaves on the stalk.
• Place the celery stalk in the glass or jar. Leave overnight in order for the stalk to “drink” the water.
• Print out the observation sheet for this activity. Have your child draw a picture of the celery stalk “before” it drinks the red water and then have them write a sentence to describe what they see.
• The next morning, observe what has happened. Let your child tell you where they think the water has gone and what has happened to the celery. If your child is stumped, explain that water has been absorbed into the celery stalk, tinting the stem and leaves red. Ask them if they think the whole plant gets water for food, and help guide them to see that yes, the whole plant did get the water for food since all parts of the plant have now turned red (from absorbing the red water that was in the cup the day before).
• Have your child complete the “after” portion of the observation sheet. They can draw a picture of what happened and write a sentence to sum up their findings.

Now that you have seen how plants absorb water, try this experiment in a new and different way!

• Take a celery stalk with leaves and trim the bottom.
• Using the scissors, make a slit up the middle of the stalk stopping an inch below the leaves.
• Fill two glasses half-full with water. Add a few drops of food coloring to one glass and add a few drops of a different color food coloring into the second glass.
• Mix the food coloring in each glass and place the glasses next to each other. Put one-half of the celery stalk in one glass and the other half in the other glass. Leave overnight.
• The next morning, observe what has happened. What changes do you notice about the celery and the water? What's different about this experiment compared to the first one? Each half of the celery stalk will have absorbed the colored water and the two colors will have blended together as they moved up inside the stalk!

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Celery Science Experiment

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Use this celery science experiment will teach children how plants absorb water from the ground . Using just a couple of common kitchen supplies, this activity is easy to set up at home or in the preschool or kindergarten classroom.

Getting the Celery Science Experiment Ready

We headed to the kitchen to gather a few simple supplies:

• Food coloring
• Freshly cut celery stalks

The kids wanted to dye their water blue and purple so they added about five drops of food coloring to each jar. We dropped one stalk of celery into each jar and then sat back to watch what would happen.

How Do Plants Drink Water?

It takes a little while for anything visible to happen. While the celery was hanging out in the colored water we talked about how plants drink.

I asked the kids how very tall plants get water all the way up to their highest leaves and branches . The kids had lots of very funny creative ideas!

I guided the discussion and asked questions to lead the kids to the conclusion that plants absorb water through their roots in the ground. Water moves from the roots up through the stem and into the leaves through tissue called xylem. We looked closely at the cut celery stalks and could see the xylem. They look like tiny circular veins running up through the stalk.

After about an hour we started to see little blue dots appear on the cut celery. As we studied closer we could see that the blue water was moving up the celery stalk through the xylem!

We left our celery science experiment overnight to develop. The next morning we could easily see how the celery “drank” the colored water. Not only could we see colored water in the xylem, but we could also see how the edges of the stalk were tinged with blue and purple . The kids were ecstatic!

How the Celery Science Experiment Works

As mentioned above, water moves through plants through the xylem . But how does the water defy gravity and move upward to the very highest leaves of a tree?

The answer lies in capillary action , which is defined as the process that plants use to pull water up from the ground. There are several factors at play that make capillary action happen.

First is the force of adhesion , which is the attraction between water molecules and plant fibers.

Second is the force of cohesion , which is the attraction of one water molecule to another water molecule.

Third is transpiration . When water evaporates from the leaves, buds, and petals of a plant, more water is drawn upward to fill in the empty space. It is similar to what happens when a person sucks water through a straw.

All three of these factors combine to enable a plant to draw water from the ground and distribute it throughout the entire plant. Doing this celery science experiment makes it easy to see how capillary action works!

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Science Project Ideas

Celery Experiment

This easy science project is as good to be done with preschoolers and kindergarten kids, as with grown up children in the lab, or at science fairs. It is a great activity to make the concept of how plants get their nutrition from the soil clear to the young, ever-inquisitive chaps. Remind them to keep their worksheets ready before starting.

Celery Food Coloring Science Experiment

The leaves and trimmed ends of celery stalks get dyed when placed in colored water.

• A tall, clear jar or glass
• Red food coloring (or eosin dye)
• Large celery stalk with leaves
• Half fill the tall glass with water.
• Add 4-5 drops of red food color and mix nicely.
• Trim the bottom of the celery stalk neatly.
• Place it in the glass. Leave it overnight.
• Make your observations. You may record the data carefully in a chart if you are making observations every 2-3 hours.

You will see that the leaves get a red tint. When you take the stalk out of the water you can watch small dots of red color at the trimmed end. You may rip the stalk open to observe a pronounced coloring effect. If you want, you can mark the initial level of water with a chalk and later you will find that the level has gone down.

Celery Experiment Video

Explanation.

Plants draw water and minerals from soil through the capillaries or tiny tubes in their stems known as xylem. This is known as capillary action that is nothing but the pulling of the water up to the leaves and other parts of a plant, just like you suck on a straw. Another important phenomenon that is responsible for the upward movement is osmosis due to which the dyed water enters the cells of the celery, giving rise to turgor pressure that eventually draws the liquid up. This action is facilitated by the transpiration (the slow, continuous loss of water from the leaves of a plant) of the water molecules that are already present in the leaves.

You can also try

• Put the celery stalk in salt water and check the changes after 4 hours
• Put it in freshwater and report the results after the same time period as above.

Since the salt water is a hypertonic solution (less of water and more of salt), due to osmosis, the water from the celery cells passes on to the solution making the plant soft and mushy. On the other hand, the opposite happens in the second case making it rigid and stiff.

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Color Changing Celery Experiment

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There’s just something wondrous about learning why things happen and understanding why they don’t.

One of our favorite experiments, no matter how many times we do it, is the Color Changing Celery Experiment .

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We first did this experiment as part of an online class I used to teach called, Science Sleuths: Exploring the Garden , and it’s been a hit ever since.

The best part?

It’s super easy to do!

It’s also a great experiment to start off with if you want to introduce the scientific method for kids !

Let’s get started!

Watch the color changing celery Experiment

• 3 stalks of celery – preferably with leafy ends
• 3 sturdy cups
• food coloring
• paper towels
• safety goggles
• color changing celery observation sheet (It’s in the Freebies Library ! Sign up below if you’re not already a member!)

Directions:

• Place each cup on a separate paper towel and label the paper towels “A”, “B”, and “C”.
• Fill the cups about 1/4 way with water.
• Place four drops of food coloring in cup A.
• Place eight drops of food coloring in cup B.
• Place 12 drops of food coloring in cup C.
• Place one stalk of celery in each cup and let them sit for a few hours.

Get the FREE Printable experiment tracking sheet in the freebies library!

After letting the celery sit, hypothesize what will happen.

• Will the food coloring travel up the celery?
• Will it travel equally in all three stalks?
• Will the stalk in the cup with the most food coloring be darker or will it not make a difference?
• How would the food coloring travel up the stalk?

After letting the celery sit for a few hours, go back and record your observations.

Sketch the stalks of celery and write down your conclusion.

You might also want to try the experiment again using different variables: more water, less water, shorter celery stalks, longer celery stalks, more food coloring, a different color of food coloring, letting it sit longer, etc.

Have fun, Science Sleuths!

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Celery and Food Coloring Experiment

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