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