Turtle: The Incredible Journey

A long time ago we cleaned up a heap of junk in the back yard. When we got to the bottom of the heap we found my long-lost Chia Pet turtle half-buried by gophers. Recently, while shopping at Trader Joe's I found a bag of chia seeds. Chia seeds, it seems, are today's miracle food.

Now, with a cleaned up Chia Pet, chia seeds, a camera and intervalometer in hand, I could finally make the movie I've been dreaming of ever since I started this little hobby.

I set the turtle in the garage on the crate we had our cash register shipped in. It's under the sky light that lights up our laundry area. I also pointed two LED desk lights at it so it was always lit.

I set the camera to shoot in Aperture Priority mode with a fairly small aperture so it would have a nice depth of field. I focused on the surface of the turtle but I didn't know how close the tops of the chia plants would be and I wanted them to stay in focus. I think it worked out.

I set the intervalometer to shoot a picture every 15 minutes. I play them back at at rate of 30 frames per second. That speeds up the action by a factor of 27,000.

I spritzed the turtle several times a day and kept the turtle filled with water. A couple of days after I started the processes we had some very hot days (it got up to 103º one day). I came home at lunchtime to spritz the turtle so the seeds wouldn't die before they got going.

The little plants grew quickly. After about a week I wanted them to think about dying so I quit watering the turtle. I guess the plants stocked up on the water so they happily kept living for more than a week longer.

They finally started dying but took five days to completely die and shrivel.

It took 19 days from the time I smeared the seeds on the turtle until the little plants got crispy.

1/27,000^th of 19 days is less than a minute. I hope you enjoy watching the life and death of a Chia Pet. As usual, watching in the highest resolution your connection deals with is recommended.