Good Grief.

oh gee, great.

So I decided to add all my photos onto my report because I think it'll look more genuine LOL.

Then I asked Ms Zhang if it was necessary to put all the photos on the report and she said that you really only need to put the photos on your report that you're going to talk about. O_O

I spent like 3.5 hours trying to put all the photos neatly, in order and now.. sigh.

Oh well, I'm not sure if I'm going to put it on. I'll see at the end when I've finished my report. Yes that's all (:

and btw, I have gotten around to watering my sunflowers in the last few days after my experiment finished and yes, the backyard soil sunflowers have wilted pretty quickly. They're like literally dried and shrivelled up. However, I have watered them, so it's all good. (:

And btw, the potting mix and compost sunflowers haven't really been affected by the shortage of water. Just sayin'.

LAST DAY.

SOOOO, I'VE TOTALLY, UTTERLY, COMPLETELY FINISHED MY EXPERIMENT!

AREN'T YOU JUST SO PROUD OF ME? LIKE REALLY, THIS IS THE ONLY TIME I'VE FINISHED WHAT I'VE STARTED LOL.

Well, yes, I measured my plants and I've posted them on my excel spreadsheet and I've copied that table and the line graph I produced into Microsoft Word, onto my report. I feel so.. organised. For once.

hahaha, that's a first.

OMG, did you know that Sam Stosur beat Serena Williams? That is like, dude, soo awesome! AND, Rafa Nadal is through! hehehe, I'm a huge tennis fan btw, even though I might not seem like one.

Yes, that's all.

I'm really going to miss this blog. NOTE: the sarcasm. LOL

not really, I kinda will miss this blog. :/

What will I be doing in my free time from now on? Facebook? (not like I don't already)

Well, it's getting late and I'm off to sleep. Not really, I'm going to continue eating M&Ms. Btw, are the brown M&Ms the ones with less food colouring? OH WELL. I like the blue ones. I like being a blue tongue lizard - without the lizard part. (:

toodles.

one day to go.

omgggggg, in less than 24 hours, i will have officially finished my srp! :D

so proud of myself. 7 weeks. sighhhh. (:

WELL, i don't particularly like trudging outside in my thongs at 11pm into the rain to bring my plants back into shelter so that it won't die, buuuuuut, i did.

Only because I said to myself, "Only one more day you have to deal with this. Only one more day.."

so, it's all good now. and wow, it's grown so tall in such a short time. well 7 weeks isn't really all that short but close enough. it's like.. my baby. my precious baby; I planted the seeds and waited for it to grow.. and grow.. and grow. And it did! Despite comments that when you actually want your plants to grow, they don't and when you don't mind if they do, they grow.

hahahaha, oh yes.

well, i decided to put like 21 photos of my sunflowers into the "results" section of my report. do you think that's too many photos? It's one photo of sunflowers in compost, one in backyard soil and one in potting mix for each week, multiplied by 7 gives 21. However, there's still tomorrow. Sooo, 24. enough? LOL.

helloo? anyone there to answer me? (:

yes, feel free to answer/comment on my blog post/s. hehehe

well, off to sleep.

'til next time, BAZINGA!

hahahaha, i felt the need to say that.

Sunflowers - Results Week 1 - Week 6

ABOVE: Results for Potting Mix

ABOVE: Results for Compost

ABOVE: Results for Backyard Soil

So, here are the results for my experiment so far. The last column is for the average of the plants for that day when they were measured. The sunflowers were measured weekly.

Update - Peas (may be unnecessary)

well, even though i may not be using my peas for my experiment anymore, i just thought i'd say that they have grown to around 64 cm.

i'm so proud of myself and them.

yesterday, i needed to collect larger wooden stakes from our old garage to use as stakes. and since they're curling around and around, i decided to do that to my peas around the stakes. it actually looks pretty cool! :D

and i have taken some photos. i shall post them up later on. (:

i never knew peas could grow so well, so quickly.

and guess what, i'm uncapped tomorrow. just sayin'.

(:

Photos - Day 42

Sunflowers - Potting Mix

Sunflowers - Compost

Sunflowers - Backyard Soil

Finally found my day 42 photos. And they are late but here they are. (:

They have consistently grown and my plants have shown that the backyard soil sunflowers have definitely grown taller than the ones in the compost soil.

Photos - Day 35

Sunflowers - Potting Mix

Sunflowers - Compost

Sunflowers - Backyard Soil

hehe, these are my day 35 photos. Yes, I know they're a bit late but still, they're here aren't they? (:

I still have to find my day 42 photos. I know they are somewhere on my computer. I shall find them tomorrow. and post them up tomorrow.

NOTE: the backyard soil sunflowers may seem to be taller because sure enough, there are more sunflowers than I remember planting.. oh my gosh. My mum planted them. which means she decided to add a few more. That doesn't matter because I've chosen 6 for results, like the potting mix one and the compost one. And, it's all going fine. (:

Now, I'm back to doing my tutoring homework. sigh, what a way to end a Friday night.

research.

Hellooo, did some more research just then.

Apparently: (this is all from http://www.agr.state.nc.us/cyber/kidswrld/plant/nutrient.htm)

Soil Texture (the amount of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter in the soil)

Soil texture affects how well nutrients and water are retained in the soil. Clays and organic soils hold nutrients and water much better than sandy soils. As water drains from sandy soils, it often carries nutrients along with it. This condition is called leaching. When nutrients leach into the soil, they are not available for plants to use.

An ideal soil contains equivalent portions of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter. Soils across North Carolina vary in their texture and nutrient content, which makes some soils more productive than others. Sometimes, the nutrients that plants need occur naturally in the soil. Othertimes, they must be added to the soil as lime or fertilizer.

Maybe this is a reason why plants should grow faster in more organic soil such as potting mix because the texture affects how well nutrients and water can be kept in the soil rather than with backyard soil where the texture is not thick enough to absorb all the nutrients and water necessary.

more infoooo on compost soil: (http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/factsheets/pottingmix.html)

Compost is rarely used by itself as a potting medium. Compost alone does not have the optimal water holding characteristics, and soluble salt levels are often higher than optimal for potting mix. Plus, high quality compost can be relatively expensive so it makes sense to dilute it with other ingredients like peat. Organic potting mixes are typically made with 20% to 50% compost by volume, depending on the type of crop that will be grown in the mix, the container size, and the growing conditions.

This should explain the slower growth of the sunflowers in compost. I always thought that the more nutrients it had, the faster it would grow. That is true in some cases but not in others; just like here where water cannot be held strongly enough. ooooh, nice, I like it when things make sense. (:

Update - Day 40

hello, I realised that I haven't posted in a while.

Well, nothing exciting has happened over the past 2 weeks. Just the usual, taking its time to grow.

Yes, I just decided to do my experiment for 6 weeks. And today is Day 40, making Thursday the last day for my experiment. Even though my experiment stops, I will continue to grow my sunflowers into the garden.

And, have I informed you that I am only doing sunflowers now? Well, I am and I'm just going to use my peas as a further observation into my experiment. For example, I am going to use it as backup evidence for my results. It's much easier this way than trying to measure tangly peas that like to tie themselves to each other.

Yes, oh and I'll post day 35 photos tomorrow. We're a bit out of internet at the moment. LOL

(:

DAY 35!

guess what!

my plants have survived in my backyard's environment for 35 day!

cool or what? and apparently, my friends have doubted my experiment saying that if you actually wait for your plants to grow, they don't grow. oooh snap, they did. (:

anyway, new results into my results book. hehehe

my experiment is going nicely.

one thing though, my compost soil sunflowers aren't growing taller than my backyard soil.i hypothesised that it would definitely grow taller than backyard soil and possibly even the potting mix plants but no, doesn't seem this way right now.

oh my gosh.

This morning I went to check my sunflowers because I heard that it had rained quite heavily last night.

And my plant was drenched with water, and about 3 centimetres of water was lying on top of the soil. I hope my plant didn't die!

I had to pour all the water out and tried to give it as much sunlight as possible. BUT, i think it's okay now. so it's all good. (:

yes, I was bored. so I decided to do some science srp stuff.
and instead of like scanning my messy recording book, i've written calculated the averages of the height of the plants over the past four weeks (I measured the height every week) and made it into a line graph. oh whoops, this graph is for sunflowers. I forgot to add that to the title LOL.

but not to worry, this is only a draft graph. (:
took me a while to realise how to do my line graph though; didn't turn out correctly a number of times.Publish Post

bored. again.

this is going to be a really useless post, but, I'm bored and I have nothing better to do.. so, science it is! YAY.. LOL

yes, nothing much has happened over the past few days and my plants seem to be growing a lot slower than the germination period. it was like a plant's growth spurt back then. but now, it's growing fairly slowly.

I might actually go and check on them now, because I'm so bored. sighhh.

Update - Day 29

hmm, I went out before to water my plants and realised that my backyard soil sunflowers are getting a lot greener than the other two. I wonder whether the drainage hole has something to do with this.. because I'm pretty sure the hole for my backyard soil one is bigger than the others.

And yesterday it DID say "more nitrogen needed" for the plants with a lighter shade of green. but, do you get nitrogen through the hole?

I'm not really that good at science sooooo, yeah. I shall research that further.

hahahah (:

Update - Day 28

Sunflowers - Backyard Soil
Sunflowers - Potting Mix


Sunflowers - Compost soil

hiiiii again! :D

i'm just really excited about my plants today because it's day 28, meaning week 4!

i've recorded maore results and taken more photos.

Also, the results seem to be pretty consistent, growing at a considerable rate.

here are the photos. (I can't get them to go under this passage sooo, it's above)

well for the sunflowers... i might post the peas tomorrow.

oh yeahhh, i found some fairly strong sticks in my backyard that i'll use as temporary stakes until I find some suitable ones in like Flower Power or something (on the weekend, preferably when I'm not busy. (:

Peas at stake.

OHH yeah. I thought I had to say something but I forgot what it was, hahaha

Well, my peas have been like drooping, not really drooping, but like been at an angle from the ground and need stakes to grow properly. So, I shall do that tomorrow.

I asked my dad if it's necessary to have stakes for the peas and if they'll grow without them and he told me that it's a lot more convenient and grows a lot quicker and healthier than if it were at an angle, about to lie on the ground. Apparently, there are a lot of insects on the ground that'll eat the plants if they are on the ground and the plants won't get as much sunlight as it needs. ALSO, the leaves will rot a lot quicker.

Yes, that's all.

Wow, 3 posts in a night. hahaha

Shouldn't more organic soil mean greener leaves?

one really, really weird thing I noticed with my sunflowers today was that my sunflowers in the backyard soil had a darker tinge of green in the leaves compared to the one in the potting mix and compost soil.

which is really odd because when I researched this, I came up with the fact that "The peas main nutrients are phosphorus and small amounts of nitrogen. If your soil is naturally nutritious, don't add anything else, but if not add in some fertiliser with the water every 2 or 3 weeks. One way to tell whether your plant is getting enough nutrients to judge from it's colour. If the colour is pale green, you will need to give the peas more nitrogen."

Quote from and with reference to: http://beta.essortment.com/15962-growing-snap-peas.html

Information obtained: 9pm; 12th May, 2010

Author of article: Nathalie Van

Yes, even though I'm talking about my sunflowers, and not my peas, I'm pretty sure the same theory will apply to all plants.

The potting mix already has many nutrients, meaning the leaves should be greener than the backyard soil, however, this isn't the case with my sunflowers. I think I should write this down as an observation. Wow, it's nearly day 28. tomorrow is the four weeks mark! :D

yes, that's all. (:

Method - Sunflowers

So, here is a fairly late experiment, because I wasn't sure if I had to post a method for the second submission, after posting a method in the first.

This method is for my sunflowers. The post under this is the method for the sunflowers.

Aim:

To investigate whether different types of soil affect the growth rate of sunflowers.

Hypothesis:

The soil with the more nutrients will affect the growth and height of the plant that it will grow quicker and taller than the ones without as many nutrients.

Equipment/Materials:

3 containers to hold the experiment in

sharpie and paper for labeling the plants

Water for watering the plants on a regular basis

A packet of sunflower seeds

3 types of soils:
Backyard Soil
Compost Soil
Potting Mix

Method:
1. Buy and collect all the equipment required for this experiment.
2. Add 1/3 a bucket full of compost soil into the bucket.
3. Plant 6 sunflower seeds from the packet within the soil, following the steps on the packet.
4. Water the soil with 25 mL of water so that it's damp.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for potting mix and backyard soil.
6. Water the each of the plants daily, making sure the soil is always full of moisture.
7. Observe and record the results of the growth of the plant every 7 days.
8. Compare the results when the period of time for the sunflowers to grow finishes.

Method - Peas

Okay, so this method is going to be fairly similar to my method I did for my first blog submission. I re-added this method like fairly late because I didn't realise we had to have one for blog submission two. This method is going to be for my peas. I've decided to continue measuring them and nearing the experiment, I might ditch the peas and go for the sunflowers. However, I may not, and end up using both of the plants. Yes, I've changed my mind again. hahaha

So this is for my peas.

Aim:

To examine whether different types of soil affect the growth of peas.

Hypothesis:

The soil with the more nutrients will affect the growth and height of the plant that it will grow quicker and taller than the ones without as many nutrients.

Equipment/Materials:

3 containers to hold the experiment in

sharpie and paper for labeling the plants

Water for watering the plants on a regular basis

A packet of snow pea seeds

3 types of soils:
Backyard Soil
Compost Soil
Potting Mix

Method:
1. Buy and collect all the equipment required for this experiment.
2. Add 1/3 a bucket full of compost soil into the bucket.
3. Plant 6 snow peas seeds from the packet, into the soil.
4. Water the soil with 25 mL of water so that it's damp.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for potting mix and backyard soil.
6. Water the each of the plants daily, making sure the soil is always full of moisture.
7. Observe and record the results of the growth of the plant every 7 days.
8. Compare the results when the period of time for the snow peas to grow finishes.

Update - Day 26

okay, yes.

I've decided to totally scrap the idea of the peas. I shall just use them to bear food, haha.

So, now I'm just going to be using my sunflowers. The only thing is that I feel like it's all going to such a waste.. sigh.

Yes, that is all. I think. (:

And they are growing fairly well. in 2 days, it'll be my 28th day mark! I'm so proud of myself.

Oh, and I've been noticing that my sunflowers growing in the backyard soil are not growing as green as the rest. Or is it greener than the rest? I'm not sure.. but I know that it's definitely not the same green as the potting mix or the compost. I shall check that tomorrow.

Using this blog for our SRP was a good idea. So, I don't really need to record ALL of my observations since I'm going to be blogging about it. Then, I can always refer back to my blog for information and results. (:

Also, apparently we're supposed to have an ACTUAL method. Well, in March for our first blog submission, I remember doing a method, so I'll just use a method on along those lines. I'll post that up tomorrow.

Sunflowers - Day 21

Sunflowers - Compost Soil
Sunflowers - Backyard Soil

Sunflowers - Potting Mix

sigh, i've been thinking. after measuring my plants yesterday, I've decided to quit measuring the peas. it's really hard to measure them because i have to stand there for 1/2 an hour just trying to measure the peas because they grow all over the place. When i first saw the packet, it looked like it grew fairly straight and tall but, I think it's wrong.
Well, I dunno.. I'll think about it a bit more over the next week.
I don't really want to abandon them because I actually have 3 repeat experiments for the peas (including the one my dad mowed). But, my sunflowers also has a repeat experiment, there's only one repeat experiment for my sunflowers (the potting mix). So right now, I'm just hoping that both of the different types of plant grow with the same conclusion. Whether it is that it takes longer for plants to grow in backyard soil, or not.
Well, that's all for now. I'm going to find the photos that I took yesterday and they'll be in the next post. (:

Ms Zhang, can you please help me decide what I should do? Should I just continue measuring my sunflowers AND peas or should I just measure my sunflowers from now on and use my peas as evidence to support my conclusion and observations? D:

Update - Day 21

haiii. so like today after school, I went outside to water my plants and when I got to my peas, they were at a very acute angle, nearly touching the ground. i was very disappointed.

And when I asked my mum what to do, she told me to buy a net on Saturday so that the peas could climb up the net as support, just like a stake would help flowers. Maybe it's natures way of growing. I'm not sure. :/

Yes, that was an update. (:

Oh yes, by the way, remember how my sunflowers did this one week ago? Well today, I checked and they're growing taller than ever, straight as a pole. (not a bent pole). So I'm happy; and I'm hoping that's what's going to happen to my pea plants.

And i recorded my results again today. Very interesting.

Update

yes, so nothing odd or interesting has come up over the past few days.

I've been watering it regularly. and yes. that is all LOL

I shall keep you posted on the growth of my plant. (:

Day 14 Photos continued.

Yes, sadly, this is the mowed down backyard soil peas plant.

Peas - Backyard soil

Day 14 Photos - Sunflowers and Peas

Compost Soil - Peas

Potting Mix - Peas

Compost Soil - Sunflowers

Backyard Soil - Sunflowers

Potting Mix - Sunflowers

damn, can't add anymore photos to this post, so i shall add more later. (:

Wow, I feel like I haven't blogged in agesss!
Well, I would have blogged, except my dad pulled out the internet on my computer, so I'm on my mum's computer now. (:
Anyway, quite a lot has happened over the past few days, to my plants.
They've grown considerably since last week and I recorded week 2's results yesterday. I feel so organised. hehe.
And one bad thing happened on the weekend that I was really annoyed about.
Well my dad told me he was going to mow the lawn in our backyard and I specifically told him to stay at least ONE METRE away from my plants. And I said that about 5 times. He OBVIOUSLY didn't listen because when I went outside 20 minutes later, I had realised that one of my pea plants had been completely mowed and only about 1/2 a centimetre was left, growing out of the ground. Then, I went to my dad and he said one word to me; "oops."

Not even a sorry! Well luckily i made repeats for my experiment and he only mowed one of my repeats which is good!

I guess I'll have to add this in my report as human error and say that I didn't plant my seeds in a protected place.
Yes, in the morning of yesterday, all my sunflowers were fine and then when I came home from school, I was out in the backyard ready to measure the height of my plants for week 2. and guess what i see? my sunflowers that were growing in the backyard soil were all bent to one side. I then asked my mum to help me and she told me that it was the wind that made that happen. However, to me, my mum's theory wasn't plausible as ONLY the sunflowers in the backyard soil were bent and the rest of the sunflowers, the ones that were right next to the pot with the bent stems, were fine and stood straight. After telling my mum that, she told me it was natural but again, I didn't believe her because all of the others were fine so I got some toothpicks and some straws (we ran out of toothpicks) and some string and i used the them as stakes for the sunflowers to lean against. My observation is that maybe backyard soil doesn't help sunflowers grow as tall and strong as if it were with potting mix and compost soil as they give plants more nutrients to grow in and with.
Yes, and that's all. Oh yeah, I've taken a few more photos of my sunflowers and pea plants. And also my mowed pea plants.
And if you're wondering why I am growing sunflowers AND peas, it's because sunflowers are used as a backup if the peas don't grow. So, at the end of my experiment, I will choose one with definite results and that'll be my experiment. And then, I can include the other plant as evidence to support my results and conclusion (that's if they both grow with the same hypothesis).

Day 10 Photos - Sunflowers

HEHEHE, day 10 photos.

For some reason, I desperately wanted new photos to be taken so at 9 pm tonight, I went outside to take pictures of them. hahhaha. It was like a sudden urge. But here they are, hopefully fine, after surviving the heavy rain last night. (:

CLIMATE GRAPH FOR SYDNEY

YES, here is my climate graph. Took me about 20 minutes to colour the blue part, haha.

Nevertheless, I did it! I feel so organised for once. (:

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY, COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY.

Yes, so last night, it rained, pretty heavily.
And since my plants were outdoor plants, there were, err, pretty soaked. ahhaha.
Last night at 12, i suddenly woke up when i heard it raining and the first thing i remembered were my sunflowers. However, it was cold and rainy and I didn't really want to go outside in my PJs. So i just hoped and hoped my plants wouldn't die.
I don't think I will be watering my plants that much today. But I don't really see not watering them as a problem because as long as I do the same thing to each pot, it will be a controlled variable and the experiment will work.
So this morning when I woke up at around 8:30, I ran outside to bring my plants into some shelter outside, under the pagola.
Yes, that's all. I just thought I'd share that with all of you. (:

It's Anzac Day; Lest We Forget.

LILY

HOLEY LEAVES.

OMG. This morning, I went out to water my plants and I noticed a lot of the leaves in the compost soil has been eaten away. WHAT DO I DO? DO I LEAVE IT OR DO I SPRAY IT WITH PESTICIDE?
But, i told my mum and she told me not to worry and the plants will still grow.
I don't want to use pesticide because my sister told me that the sunflowers will die if I spray them with it. However, if I do decide to use pesticide, I'll spray all of my sunflowers with it and the pesticide will become the experiment's next controlled variable.
So now, I'm just hoping and hoping that all my plants will grow alright and they don't die!
Oh yes, slowly but surely, my pea plants are growing. Well, most of them anyway. I won't speak too soon just in case they stop growing.

ARGH! I just remembered, my climate graph was supposed to be posted here a few days ago, like I said I would. Damn, I shall do it and post it on here by the end of tomorrow.

sigh, that is all for now.
LILY

Day 7 Photos - Sunflowers

Above: Backyard Soil
Above: Potting Mix
Above: Compost soil

YES, I'm obviously obsessed with my plants. haha, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Who knew planting sunflowers would be so interesting and exciting? :D At least they've grown considerably. (:

So, today, I was really happy with the growth of the plants so I took some more pictures. Here they are. (: And I also reckon that my hypothesis is starting to become clear, well clearer, because my sunflowers growing in backyard soil are growing a little slower than the sunflowers in the potting mix and the compost soil.

Hm.. I think I'll post the ones of the peas later because they have grown a teeny bit.

LILY

Day 5 Photos - Sunflowers

You see, a few days ago, my peas hadn't quite grown then, so really, if I post those pictures of the peas onto the internet, there'll be no point because there were barely any changes.

So, here are the sunflower photos.

And er yes, again, please excuse the unprofessional photos. I'm obviously not good at photography.

LILY

Another Update

yah, so i'm back, hellooo. (:

Well, I've been regularly checking my plants and watering them so they don't dry up and die.

over the past few days, I've been er, i guess a bit protective of my plant and I've been taking quite a lot of photos of them. I guess it's just because I'm excited that they're actually growing because from what I've heard from my friends, plants are really hard to grow when you're constantly monitoring them.

I've recorded my first results a couple of days ago in my experiment book. (It's just an exercise book I found somewhere in my house, hehe)

It still seems that my peas aren't growing that well, to be honest. In my potting mix soil for my pea plants, they've grown steadily since I've planted them. However, sadly to say, my other plants are not as successful as in some of them, only 3 or 4 have grown out of the ground, out of 6 peas that I've planted. Like I've been telling people, I'm just going to wait a little longer and hopefully they grow a bit more.

On the other hand, my sunflowers are growing really well and I've seen a change and growth in height every day.

So, that's all for now. And if something else happens, I shall quickly post it on my blog.

Byeeeeee.

LILY

Update, Day 4

helloo.

Well today, I looked at my plant again for like the 15th time in the last 4 days. hahaha. I think I'm getting obsessed with my plants.

Well it seems as though my sunflower seeds are growing because I can actually see something sprouting out of the seeds. No, I didn't dig up my plants to see if they were growing. Some just happened to be coming out of the soil. I'm actually getting excited because I didn't think my plants would grow at first. However, it doesn't seem like my peas are growing just yet. I'll give it a few more days and see how it goes. Also, the sunflower seeds have seemed to grow a lot faster than I had expected.
Well, tomorrow is school so I guess I'll be off for now. But don't worry, this blog will be updated with my experiment observations regularly, from now on. (:

OH YES, and I shall do my climate graph and post it on here ASAP. Which would be some time like tomorrow or the day after that.

LILY

Photos, Day 1

Above: Sunflower; Potting Mix Soil

Above: Sunflower; Compost soil

Above: Sunflower; Backyard soil

Above: Peas, Backyard soil

Above: Peas; Potting Mix Soil

Above: Peas; Compost Soil

Err, the picture above of the peas looks really bad because I think it's my photography skills. D:

But, trust me, it looks a lot better in my backyard. And if you look really closely, there should be six patches of soil (in the photo just above). (:

Yes, now I admit that I really do suck at photography. haha

Anyway, the pictures below are of the sunflowers planted in the soil.

Below: Left - Potting Mix Soil

Middle - Compost Soil

Right - Backyard Soil

Oh yes, and I shall keep you posted on the growth of my plants, weekly. :D

That is all for today, BYE! (:

LILY

Seeds Planted.

oops, I haven't blogged in a while. But, two days ago, I went to Rockdale Plaza with my friend, Jessica Chan. First, we went to Big W but I couldn't find seeds which could be grown in the period of time between the end of Summer and the start of winter. So, next we went to Woolworths where we found a range of seeds. Finally, I decided to go with the sunflower seeds and the Chinese snow peas.

Yesterday, I found different types of soil in my backyard. I chose 3 which were background soil, potting mix soil and compost.

Since my experiment needs 3 different types of soil, I used those three and in my backyard at the very back, next to the fence, I planted my Chinese snow peas with the same amount of soil and peas in each so the results of the experiment would be reliable. I planted the peas in each types of soil twice, which was done so that my experiment could be repeated and so the results are once again reliable. So, altogether, there were 6 patches of soil where I planted my Chinese snow peas.

I bought sunflower seeds as a backup to the experiment if the Chinese snow peas don't work.

The sunflowers were planted in 3 containers; each container was filled with different types of soil. However, after sowing the seeds in the soil, I realised that I didn't have enough seeds to repeat the experiment, so hopefully, the results of the Chinese snow peas work and the sunflower seeds will also grow with the same hypothesis of my experiment. This will hopefully give me the results that I am looking for in time for the due date.

Also, I am deciding to water my plants every day with 1/4 cup of water because that is what I read on the internet when I researched a little more for my experiment. Furthermore, I am going to check on my plants every 5 days and observe and record my results and observations.

Yes, I did realise that I have planted my seeds in fairly late but my experiment really only needs the height difference so all I really need is something growing out of the ground!

So now, I'm just hoping that my experiment goes to plan and something actually comes out of the soil. But the final submission is in week 9 so by around week 8, it would definitely have grown because on the packet is says it should mature at around 8-10 weeks. Okay, I shouldn't speak to soon or it'll be jinxed.

By the way, in my next post I'm going to add a few photos so that you can get an idea of what my experiment looks like. However, I'm not going to post all of them since there are quite a few and I'm not going to upload them on this blog post because they're not in the position I want them to be. :D

Experiment

I have come up with an experiment draft on how to test my question: (I may have to change this experiment a little bit, though)

Aim:

To examine whether different types of soil affect the growth of one type of seed.

Hypothesis:

The soil with the more nutrients will affect the growth and height of the plant that it will grow quicker and taller than the ones without as many nutrients.

Equipment/Materials:

3 buckets to hold the experiment in

· 1 sharpie and paper for labeling the plants

Water for watering the plants on a regular basis

A number of snow pea seeds which are going to be put into the buckets to grow

3 types of soils: (POSSIBILITIES) soil from the bush, organic soil and soil from a backyard

Method:
1. Buy and collect all the equipment required for this experiment.
2. Add 1/3 a bucket full of soil from the bush into the bucket.
3. Plant the snow pea seeds within the soil.
4. Water the soil.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for organic soil and backyard soil.
6. Water the each of the plants daily, making sure the soil is always full of moisture.
7. Observe and record the results of the growth of the plant every 2 days.
8. Compare the results when the period of time for the snow peas to grow finishes.

So far, this is all I have for my SRP, but I may need to make a few changes to it and I might change the type of seed I want to use for my experiment, but this is the general idea for my project. I went to this site which did a similar experiment to the one I am about to do:
http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/History/2006/Projects/S1619.pdf
However, I will be doing it slightly different to it this experiment as I will be using different soils and a different type of seed and based on this site, I will see if the conclusion will match mine when I do finish the experiment.

That is all for now, GOODBYE.

With the help of a few friends, I have decided to do my science project on:

"What types of soil affect the growth of one type of seed (e.g. tea leaves, gravel, coffee ground, etc.)"

I will use a few types of soil for one type of seed and over a couple of weeks, I will see how the plants grow. and how differently they will grow under the same conditions.

Again, here are the variables that will be used in this experiment:

Independent variable: the two or three different soils the plants are put in.

Controlled variable: the amount of water and light, same type of plant/seeds, same amount of soil for each plant/seed, same temperature and same planting pots.

Dependent variable: the growth and structure of the plants.

So now, I have to try and think of an experiment that will hopefully not take very long to do.

Over the next couple of hours and days, I will start researching different types of soils and how they affect the growth of seeds and I will post another blog and update what I have done.

I have to go now, BYE.