The purpose of this lab was to determine which concentration of Miracle Gro was ideal for the germination of seeds. I hypothesized that the 1.25% concentration of Miracle Gro would allow the plant to grow the fastest, unfortunately, my data does not support my hypothesis. According to the information we collected, the amount of concentration with the fastest speed and greatest height of growth was the 0% with plain tap water (control group). Two days after “planting,” my group measured the seed with the greatest rate of growth: 0% exhibited 2.5 cm of growth, 1.25% had 0.9 cm, 2.5% showed 1.2 cm, 3.75% displayed 0.8 cm, and 5% had 0.5cm of growth. As evidenced by the data collected, the height of the sprout decreases as the percent of concentration increases. We checked the growth of our mung bean seeds a second time and we observed the results: 0% exhibited 15 cm of growth showing signs of growth through its stalk, roots, and leaves. The 1.25% and 2.5% both grew 2 cm and began sprouting a stalk. The 3.75% and 5% turned dark brown and appeared to have shrunk which are signs that the seed’s embryo is dead. The data did not match our expected data, because the Miracle Gro had some way prevented the imbibition of the seed which is why the 3.75% and 5% died. Imbibition is a critical developmental process in seeds and our control group with only water demonstrated the most successful amount of growth.
We experienced a number of errors in our experiment. Sources of error were human interaction, inaccurate measurements, and incorrectly handling the seeds and materials. In the future, these problems can be avoided by interfering with the plastic bags that contained the seeds, adding the most accurate amount of solute as possible, or making sure that we don’t crush the seeds or the towel that was inserted in the bag. Ideas for future experimentation would be to plant the seeds outside so that the sun would be used as the