Struggling to Keep My Plant Growth Experiment Consistent

[tomcowell]

Hi everyone,
I'm a college student taking an introductory biology lab, and my current project is looking at how different LED light colors affect basil seedling growth over four weeks.
I thought this would be pretty straightforward, but I'm running into a problem. Even though I'm using the same pots, soil, watering schedule, and light duration, a few of the seedlings grew much faster than the others in the same group. Now I'm not sure if it's just natural variation between seeds or if I'm missing a variable that I should be controlling.
At this point, should I start over with a larger sample size, or is this kind of variation expected and something I should discuss in my analysis instead? I'd love to hear how others have handled this in their own experiments.
FNF

[maybe_zimmel_nadir]

Hello
I'm not really a biologist, but I'd like to help you out I'd say the variation youre experiencing within the control group can be tied back to the genetics of the seeds, which could be impacting how efficiently they photosynthesize and therefore grow
I'd say discussing it in your lab report is a good idea, but you should probably explain how you corrected it. Expanding your sample and finding an average is a good, and maybe looking to see if its written on the seed package how long they should take to grow would help in creating reliable data

Again, maybe take my advice with a grain of salt, but these were just my first few thoughts. I hope your project is going well!