Lab Report
Questions and Hypothesis:
Seed germination, plant growth, and sprouting of leaves are affected by several factors: supply of nutrients, water, exposure to sunlight, and conditions of surroundings. Due to certain stimuli in the surroundings plant “hormones” cause plants to behave in ways that ensure the most efficient use of resources while preserving the most energy. One stimulus to consider, is the exposure of plants to sunlight; when plants are just sprouting and are underground, the stimulus of not having any sunlight prevents the plants from growing chlorophyll and thus from growing leaves. SInce no sunlight is present underground, growing leaves would be pointless and would stunt the very essential growth of the plant as well as wasting very precious resources. Therefore hormones in the plant signal the formation of proteins that inhibit production of chlorophyll and promotes extensive growth, ensuring that the plant will reach sunlight as soon as possible. This process is called etiolation. Once the plants reach the sunlight, they start the reverse process, called deetiolation, in which their growing significantly slows, they sprout leaves and start producing chlorophyll. Another factor to consider is the amount of nutrients available; nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium are three very essential nutrients that collectively aid in photosynthesis, growth, formation of proteins, and overall quality of the plants. Not having these essential nutrients may result in various diseases, leaf discoloration, and very limited growth.
In our experiment we decided to test how exposure to sunlight (or lack thereof), and the amount of nutrients available to plants affect seed germination as well as overall plant growth.
We did this by exposing some plants to light while others not, and by applying the synthetic fertilizer, MiracleGro, in a likewise fashion. We hypothesized that plants that do not receive sunlight should be white (or at least not
Seed germination, plant growth, and sprouting of leaves are affected by several factors: supply of nutrients, water, exposure to sunlight, and conditions of surroundings. Due to certain stimuli in the surroundings plant “hormones” cause plants to behave in ways that ensure the most efficient use of resources while preserving the most energy. One stimulus to consider, is the exposure of plants to sunlight; when plants are just sprouting and are underground, the stimulus of not having any sunlight prevents the plants from growing chlorophyll and thus from growing leaves. SInce no sunlight is present underground, growing leaves would be pointless and would stunt the very essential growth of the plant as well as wasting very precious resources. Therefore hormones in the plant signal the formation of proteins that inhibit production of chlorophyll and promotes extensive growth, ensuring that the plant will reach sunlight as soon as possible. This process is called etiolation. Once the plants reach the sunlight, they start the reverse process, called deetiolation, in which their growing significantly slows, they sprout leaves and start producing chlorophyll. Another factor to consider is the amount of nutrients available; nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium are three very essential nutrients that collectively aid in photosynthesis, growth, formation of proteins, and overall quality of the plants. Not having these essential nutrients may result in various diseases, leaf discoloration, and very limited growth.
In our experiment we decided to test how exposure to sunlight (or lack thereof), and the amount of nutrients available to plants affect seed germination as well as overall plant growth.
We did this by exposing some plants to light while others not, and by applying the synthetic fertilizer, MiracleGro, in a likewise fashion. We hypothesized that plants that do not receive sunlight should be white (or at least not