Plant Growth in Different Liquids
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Background Paper
Botany is the study of plants, whether that includes studying the plant’s structure, its taxonomy, its habitat, or something else. This experiment will focus on how different liquids will affect the growth of a certain plant, which in this case will be garden cress. Botany is important for the world’s survival. The world’s population relies on botany to study plants for food supply, and to understand the threats they face. Medicine relies on certain plants to be able to be made, which keeps the population from sickness. Certain plants become endangered from threats of sickness or pests, during which botanists can conserve these plants and keep them healthy.
Many factors contribute to the growth of a plant. For example, water, temperature, and sunlight all contribute to an individual plant’s growth. The optimal amount of these substances differs from species to species. Some plants need more or less of these factors to survive, which is why testing is critically important. To grow a plant to its best, you must know exactly what that plant needs.
In some instances, water isn’t the only substance able to be used to “water” these plants. Some substances can be used to do this job. While some might not be the most effective, it is interesting to be able to see how these liquids affect these plants. Will their growth increase? Will it continue at a slower pace? Will it kill off the plant entirely? To answer these questions, we must resort to testing.
In this experiment, we will be testing this theory. Using garden cress, as I stated earlier, we will test how water affects this plant’s growth, then in a separate pot, we will test how milk affects growth, then the same with nettle tea. Over the span of a week, as garden cress is a naturally fast-growing plant, we will see how much each plant has grown and therefore rank them in order. Mind you, the results may differ. As it is in the start of December, the lack of heat and sunlight might affect the plants themselves.
This is another prominent part of botany when testing. I will be using different liquids on these plants, but weather, season, and average temperature matter as well. If someone were to recreate this experiment with the same liquids, yet in a different season, it might very well change the results. This is why in botany, being precise is a must, unless you yourself are looking for different results.
There are many factors in growing plants that might change the results of a specific experiment. This is why, when experimenting with botany or any branch of science, people often will recreate their experiment themselves to track for any changes, as we have done. This ensures our experiment’s results are precise and don’t depend simply on a short-term circumstance. If they are similar enough, we can simply average the results.
You might be wondering, how would these separate liquids help these plants in any way. Most likely you’ve seen people water their plants, or even give them certain nutrients, but different liquids? It might sound insane, but let’s look at the first of our liquids–Tea.
First, we must remember that tea is organic matter seeped in water, does that sound familiar? Second, tea is slightly acidic when added to soil. This can actually help certain plants with their growth. It acts as a natural fertilizer for some plants, other than our alkaline-loving ones.
Milk also has benefits to plants. Milk is rich in certain vitamins, but because of certain bacteria, too much can cause a plant to die. For this reason, we will be diluting the milk so our plants will benefit from the milk without noticeably harming it.
Using these liquids, I will test this experiment and see what results come of it.
Many factors contribute to the growth of a plant. For example, water, temperature, and sunlight all contribute to an individual plant’s growth. The optimal amount of these substances differs from species to species. Some plants need more or less of these factors to survive, which is why testing is critically important. To grow a plant to its best, you must know exactly what that plant needs.
In some instances, water isn’t the only substance able to be used to “water” these plants. Some substances can be used to do this job. While some might not be the most effective, it is interesting to be able to see how these liquids affect these plants. Will their growth increase? Will it continue at a slower pace? Will it kill off the plant entirely? To answer these questions, we must resort to testing.
In this experiment, we will be testing this theory. Using garden cress, as I stated earlier, we will test how water affects this plant’s growth, then in a separate pot, we will test how milk affects growth, then the same with nettle tea. Over the span of a week, as garden cress is a naturally fast-growing plant, we will see how much each plant has grown and therefore rank them in order. Mind you, the results may differ. As it is in the start of December, the lack of heat and sunlight might affect the plants themselves.
This is another prominent part of botany when testing. I will be using different liquids on these plants, but weather, season, and average temperature matter as well. If someone were to recreate this experiment with the same liquids, yet in a different season, it might very well change the results. This is why in botany, being precise is a must, unless you yourself are looking for different results.
There are many factors in growing plants that might change the results of a specific experiment. This is why, when experimenting with botany or any branch of science, people often will recreate their experiment themselves to track for any changes, as we have done. This ensures our experiment’s results are precise and don’t depend simply on a short-term circumstance. If they are similar enough, we can simply average the results.
You might be wondering, how would these separate liquids help these plants in any way. Most likely you’ve seen people water their plants, or even give them certain nutrients, but different liquids? It might sound insane, but let’s look at the first of our liquids–Tea.
First, we must remember that tea is organic matter seeped in water, does that sound familiar? Second, tea is slightly acidic when added to soil. This can actually help certain plants with their growth. It acts as a natural fertilizer for some plants, other than our alkaline-loving ones.
Milk also has benefits to plants. Milk is rich in certain vitamins, but because of certain bacteria, too much can cause a plant to die. For this reason, we will be diluting the milk so our plants will benefit from the milk without noticeably harming it.
Using these liquids, I will test this experiment and see what results come of it.
Investigation Paper
In this paper, I will be explaining the instructions for my project. I will be testing the growth of a plant, in my case garden cress, if watered with different liquids. I will be using exactly nine samples of garden cress for this test, which would be enough for three of these experiments. I will be explaining how to do one of these, which then can be repeated with more samples as many times as one likes to make sure the average results are constant.
Step one will be to make sure I have supplies for this experiment. I will need milk, preferably 2%, spring water, Nettle tea, nine clay pots, gardening soil, and finally your garden cress seeds. I will only need around three seeds per pot. I’ve used miracle growth for the soil and traditional medicinal organic nettle tea to be specific. I’m using four-to-five-inch clay pots, as my project only tracks growth for a week, but you may extend your tracking. Note you will get different results if you do this.
I will be growing my garden cress inside, as it is still February. It’s usually an average of 71 degrees Fahrenheit inside. After filling each of my pots with soil, I’d put around three seeds in each pot. Before I start watering, I have to decide which pots will belong to each liquid. I’ll choose three pots for each liquid. Next, I label each one for spring water, nettle tea, and diluted milk. Now I may start my watering.
Note I will need to prepare my liquids. Spring water will do fine alone, but I will need to boil my tea and let it cool in the fridge for about 20 minutes. For the milk, I will need a quarter of a cup of my water and a quarter of a cup of my milk, diluting it. This step is important for the plant’s growth. In the background paper, I explained, while having helpful properties, giving a plant milk alone could actually harm the plant, even mildewing it. It is critical for my plant’s health that I dilute my milk properly.
After getting the liquids prepared, I will water my garden cress with a quarter a cup of each corresponding liquid every day through a spray bottle. My experiment is only lasting a week, but can be extended if you are looking to measure results over a longer period of time.
Garden Cress requires moisture, and should not be let to reach a dried-out state. Although keeping Garden Cress moisturized is important, it still can be overwatered. There are signs to this which can be caught. An overwatered plant’s leaves will often feel mushy, and, like underwatering, can wilt. By sticking your finger up to the knuckle in the soil, you can usually tell if you are overwatering or underwatering a plant. If it is crisp and dry, you are underwatering. If it’s moist and mushy, you are overwatering. It is best to wait till the first two inches of the soil to dry before watering again.
Each day, I’ll take the first of my plants, it doesn’t matter which, and find the tallest shoot. Using a measuring tape, I’ll start at the base of the stem and measure in centimeters, then I’ll write it down.. I’ll do this to each of the pots in one group, as in all the tallest plants watered with spring water, all watered with nettle tea, etc. Once I have all three measurements from one group, I’ll average the results. Now I repeat this with the remaining groups. I’ll be keeping each of the individual results, along with the average. I will repeat this each day for the entire week.
After the week is up, I will create three graphs showing their growth over time, one for each individual liquid, using the average results. I plan to also post my notes on each of the sample’s individual growth instead of the average, showing the difference between the two. Using these results, these graphs will show my final results, including which of the three liquids actually improved the Garden Cress’s growth. This will prove or disprove my hypothesis that water is the best option to use when watering your plants.
Step one will be to make sure I have supplies for this experiment. I will need milk, preferably 2%, spring water, Nettle tea, nine clay pots, gardening soil, and finally your garden cress seeds. I will only need around three seeds per pot. I’ve used miracle growth for the soil and traditional medicinal organic nettle tea to be specific. I’m using four-to-five-inch clay pots, as my project only tracks growth for a week, but you may extend your tracking. Note you will get different results if you do this.
I will be growing my garden cress inside, as it is still February. It’s usually an average of 71 degrees Fahrenheit inside. After filling each of my pots with soil, I’d put around three seeds in each pot. Before I start watering, I have to decide which pots will belong to each liquid. I’ll choose three pots for each liquid. Next, I label each one for spring water, nettle tea, and diluted milk. Now I may start my watering.
Note I will need to prepare my liquids. Spring water will do fine alone, but I will need to boil my tea and let it cool in the fridge for about 20 minutes. For the milk, I will need a quarter of a cup of my water and a quarter of a cup of my milk, diluting it. This step is important for the plant’s growth. In the background paper, I explained, while having helpful properties, giving a plant milk alone could actually harm the plant, even mildewing it. It is critical for my plant’s health that I dilute my milk properly.
After getting the liquids prepared, I will water my garden cress with a quarter a cup of each corresponding liquid every day through a spray bottle. My experiment is only lasting a week, but can be extended if you are looking to measure results over a longer period of time.
Garden Cress requires moisture, and should not be let to reach a dried-out state. Although keeping Garden Cress moisturized is important, it still can be overwatered. There are signs to this which can be caught. An overwatered plant’s leaves will often feel mushy, and, like underwatering, can wilt. By sticking your finger up to the knuckle in the soil, you can usually tell if you are overwatering or underwatering a plant. If it is crisp and dry, you are underwatering. If it’s moist and mushy, you are overwatering. It is best to wait till the first two inches of the soil to dry before watering again.
Each day, I’ll take the first of my plants, it doesn’t matter which, and find the tallest shoot. Using a measuring tape, I’ll start at the base of the stem and measure in centimeters, then I’ll write it down.. I’ll do this to each of the pots in one group, as in all the tallest plants watered with spring water, all watered with nettle tea, etc. Once I have all three measurements from one group, I’ll average the results. Now I repeat this with the remaining groups. I’ll be keeping each of the individual results, along with the average. I will repeat this each day for the entire week.
After the week is up, I will create three graphs showing their growth over time, one for each individual liquid, using the average results. I plan to also post my notes on each of the sample’s individual growth instead of the average, showing the difference between the two. Using these results, these graphs will show my final results, including which of the three liquids actually improved the Garden Cress’s growth. This will prove or disprove my hypothesis that water is the best option to use when watering your plants.
Conclusion Paper
In this project I tested the growth of plants, in this specific case garden cress, when watered with different liquids. I used nine clay pots, three pots for each different liquid, and planted three seeds of garden cress in each pot. The duration of this project was made to last for seven days. Garden cress is a naturally fast growing plant, but needs to be watered daily in order to keep moist. I set each group of pots on a paper plate and labelled them according to their respective liquid in order to keep track of them. This project was conducted indoors at an average temperature of 71 degrees fahrenheit with pots placed in front of a window getting approximately eight to nine hours of sunlight per day. The first set was watered with purified water, as it is the most natural form of watering plants. The second set was watered with cooled nettle tea. The third and final set was watered with a mixture of diluted milk.
To water the plants, I chose to use a spray bottle as it would allow the liquid to absorb more evenly without causing the small garden cress seeds to seep further into the soil, as they were only planted one quarter of an inch below the soil. While water could simply be put into the spray bottle and water the plants immediately, it was not so with the other two liquids. For the nettle tea, it had to be prepared with 8 ounces of hot water, steeping the tea for ten minutes. Then the tea had to be cooled for about twenty minutes in a refrigerator before it could be used in a spray bottle. The milk had to be diluted half and half; quarter of a cup of milk and a quarter of a cup of water, then added to a spray bottle.
Each day, in the morning, I would water every pot with half a cup of its respective liquid. The garden cress did not sprout until the third day. Then, every night, I would measure the individual results of each pot, then the main results would be averaged between each pot’s highest sprout. The results showed water to have the highest average, with a final height of 4.33 centimeters.
This result supported my hypothesis that theorized water would have the fastest growth. It is important to consult the factors in between the start and finish, as the garden cress which used water often had lower averages in the beginning compared with the garden cress which used nettle tea. Nettle tea’s growth was dominant in the beginning, and might have even surpassed it in the individual results, but as the results are averaged, water came out on top.
Nettle tea’s averaged result came close behind at an average height of 4.16 centimeters. Last came the half and half mixture of diluted milk at an average of 3.5 centimeters. The averaged results for each day will be posted on the growth graph on the posterboard where you can see their growth over the full seven days.
In conclusion, based on the data I gathered from my experiment, water and nettle tea both will produce higher growth volume in comparison to the diluted milk mixture I used. The diluted milk’s results could have been caused by the milk to water ratio that was used. However, I hypothesize that if I were to increase the amount of water used in the mixture, the growth may have increased. With that being said, purified water still produced a higher growth rate than that of nettle tea and the diluted milk. Concerning garden cress, some practical benefits that I have taken from this experiment include: the benefits of using exact measurements, the importance of proper documentation, and edible uses of garden cress (would not recommend).
To water the plants, I chose to use a spray bottle as it would allow the liquid to absorb more evenly without causing the small garden cress seeds to seep further into the soil, as they were only planted one quarter of an inch below the soil. While water could simply be put into the spray bottle and water the plants immediately, it was not so with the other two liquids. For the nettle tea, it had to be prepared with 8 ounces of hot water, steeping the tea for ten minutes. Then the tea had to be cooled for about twenty minutes in a refrigerator before it could be used in a spray bottle. The milk had to be diluted half and half; quarter of a cup of milk and a quarter of a cup of water, then added to a spray bottle.
Each day, in the morning, I would water every pot with half a cup of its respective liquid. The garden cress did not sprout until the third day. Then, every night, I would measure the individual results of each pot, then the main results would be averaged between each pot’s highest sprout. The results showed water to have the highest average, with a final height of 4.33 centimeters.
This result supported my hypothesis that theorized water would have the fastest growth. It is important to consult the factors in between the start and finish, as the garden cress which used water often had lower averages in the beginning compared with the garden cress which used nettle tea. Nettle tea’s growth was dominant in the beginning, and might have even surpassed it in the individual results, but as the results are averaged, water came out on top.
Nettle tea’s averaged result came close behind at an average height of 4.16 centimeters. Last came the half and half mixture of diluted milk at an average of 3.5 centimeters. The averaged results for each day will be posted on the growth graph on the posterboard where you can see their growth over the full seven days.
In conclusion, based on the data I gathered from my experiment, water and nettle tea both will produce higher growth volume in comparison to the diluted milk mixture I used. The diluted milk’s results could have been caused by the milk to water ratio that was used. However, I hypothesize that if I were to increase the amount of water used in the mixture, the growth may have increased. With that being said, purified water still produced a higher growth rate than that of nettle tea and the diluted milk. Concerning garden cress, some practical benefits that I have taken from this experiment include: the benefits of using exact measurements, the importance of proper documentation, and edible uses of garden cress (would not recommend).
