| Explore | I am exploring the growth of vegetable plants in different kinds of soils. |
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| Research Question | How does plant growth response to different types of soils- organic compost and soils from limestone like Florida soils. (radish, nasturtiums, and peppers) |
| Predictions | Based on the variables that we are working with, the plants in composted soil will most likely grow taller and produce a more abundant number of leaves and fruits. Good, nutritious soil is the basis of how effective any plant will germinate. Due to the consistency of Florida's "soil," which is composed of mostly limestone or sand, it does not hold water or nutrients very well. In other words, the only way the radish, nasturtiums, and peppers will grow as healthy in the composted soil is if we were to add organic amendments to the Florida soil. On the other hand, organic matter improves the ability of soil to hold water and nutrients. Compost soil contains nutrients that aid in the process of growth. Exactly! So I am in another group and working with the same question. The nasturtiums I got did not germinate well. I am supposed to grow them in dirt from house waste, the compost and soil collected just from wild I guess. So if they are not germinating I am not sure how long I should wait. |
| Experimental Design | Nasturtium project- I have six pots, they are slightly different sizes, hope that is ok. And I filled them with compost dirt and with soil and put three seeds in each, not much is happening though. For my project, I have two pots with the soils provided, the Florida soil and the compost. They each have three plant species, which are peppers, radish, nasturtiums. We divided the species within the same pots; it is relatively large, which gives enough space for the plants. I have been growing the species for almost two weeks now, watering them every morning, a cup each. However, because of the heavy rain during these days, I have taken the pots out for a while, so the watering process has been varying. During the early morning (7:30 a.m.), I take the pots out to receive the light from the sun and bring them back in just before mid-day (11:00 a.m. or so). The gradual growth results have been surprising. The pot with the compost soil, the plant species of radish, and nasturtiums are taking a while to grow. Yet, in the Florida soil, their growth spurt is different; they look healthier and are a bit taller. The same has happened with the pepper plant. There is only a small height difference, but what surprised me most was that, in the Florida soil, it looks healthier and sturdy, and its leaves are longer. So far, I have measured the height and width of the species and inputting the data in Excel (I will share the measurements in another post). (D.G) |
| Investigation Theme | AFW |
| Grade Level | Undergraduate Students |
| School Name | MIAMI DADE COLLEGE |
| Session | Fall 2020 |
| About this Project | This team has provided an excellent description of their project and their results. |