PLANTS!

Two days ago, I started working on my school science fair project. We have to make a display board and a research paper. It took me a while to decide, but I finally decided on what to do the project about. I'm doing the project to determine whether plants grow best naturally (with only water) or with plant food/fertilizer.

The hardest part, of course, was setting up for it. We bought a cart to display the pots and whatnot on. We had to get the pots, plant food, seeds, soil, etc. We bought special Brassica rapa seeds from Wisconsin Fast Plants online. They go through the entire life cycle in 35-40 days, which my dad and I thought was perfect for the project since we didn't have much time. We got Schultz Plant Food Plus, soil and whatnot from Home Depot, and two fluorescent light-bulbs (Fast Plants seeds, rather than requiring sunlight, need fluorescent lights in order to grow). I am growing four plants; two grown naturally and the other two grown with plant food.

We also got these things called HydroSpikes which automatically water your plants for you. They are similar to AquaGlobes, but you need a reservoir at hand rather than just filling it up in order for it to work. We put them in the soil and they work wonderfully. They stopped lots of likely scenarios from happening. If I had watered my plants manually every single day, I could water too much or too little. This would make my project inconclusive, which would not be very good for my grade or for my presentation.

My dad also set up a camera to take a picture of the plants every half-hour. This way, we could put together a stop-motion video of the plants growing. Later, we also decided that I would wake up at 6:30am to turn off the lights so that they could cool down, then turn them back on at 7:00. The same thing at night; I would turn the lights off before dinner, then turn them back on after we were done eating.

Today, the plants finally started to bloom. Buds have appeared and I'm very excited about it! I can't wait to see beautiful flowers blossoming. It will look wonderful. My hypothesis is that the plant food supported plants will grow best because of the nutrients that come with it. I hope that my plants will grow smoothly and that my project is a success. Let's just wait and see!

-Dom