The Story of the Seed

Louis Pelletier

Introduction

We wanted to test the growth rates of cauliflower seeds with four different liquids. The control group was water. We also tested with a salt solution, a sugar solution, and diet Arizona green tea. 

Purpose

The purpose of this experiment was to test our knowledge of doing a full scientific experiment. This means we used the scientific method. 

Hypothesis

I thought that the plants would grow the best with the sugar solution because the sugar is a type of carbohydrate. Carbohydrates are used for quick energy so it might make the plant grow faster.

Materials

-Cauliflower seeds

-Plastic sandwich bags(4)

-Paper towels

-Water, sugar, salt

-Diet Arizona green tea

-Plastic spoon

-Potting cups(8)

-Potting dirt

-Graduated cylinder

-Stirring stick

Procedure

1. Take the 4 paper towels and put 6 seeds on each paper towel 
2. Fold the paper towels in Fourths and put one in each sandwich bag
3. For each bag (or cup) pour in one of the mixtures

1. Water mixture: 20ml of water
2. Salt mixture: 20ml of water then a small spoonful (plastic spoon) of salt
3. Sugar mixture: 20ml of water then small spoonful of sugar
4. Arizona: 20ml of Arizona green tea

1. Repeat step 3 once a day for 3 to 4 days or until seeds have sprouted and have developed roots
2. after the seeds have sprouted carefully rip the paper towel around the sprouts so you don’t rip the roots of the seed
3. transfer the seeds (about 3 per cup) to the potting cups with dirt and repeat step 3 until fully grown\

Observations

-Day 1: The seeds in the bags marked water and sugar started to develop roots and small sprouts. Arizona had mold and salt had nothing developed.

-Day 2: Water and sugar have roots and sprouts. Arizona surprisingly formed spouts. We all thought that one would fail. Salt still nothing

-Day 3: Water, Sugar, and Arizona have all sprouted but salt is still not growing. We will transfer the seeds tomorrow

-Day 4: Transferred from bags to potting cups. Sugar is growing the best and water and Arizona are about the same. Salt as usually isn’t growing

-Day 5: Sugar is tallest, next is water, then Arizona. We think salt just kills the plant.

-Day 6: Same as Day 5

-Day 7-10: Same

Data Analysis

-The sugar solution grew the most at around 7 cm.

-The control group or water grew around 5.5 cm.

-The Arizona grew around 4.2 cm surprisingly.

-The salt solution killed the plant.

The reason some of the bars don’t start at zero is because they were already tall when we planted them.

Discussion 

It turns out my hypothesis was right. The sugar made the plant grow faster by supplying the plant with energy to grow. The Arizona was diet so it had no sugar but it still made it grow. Salt killed the plant. The water did what it was suppose to do. The Sugar solution also made the plant grow at a really flat rate of about 1.4 cm every day in the cups.