I am in grade 8 and I am doing my science project on phytoremediation of pestices. I want to see which plant better phytoremediates pesticides. I will grow my plants to about 5 cm and then adding 5mL of pesticides. I am going to monitor the change in pH. If the pH becomes lower, then it is working and there is less pesticides (more alkaline or base).
There are 2 groups: cabbage seeds and alfalfa seeds
each group has 3 cups and seeds inside them. I am growing them hydrophonically and I have some problems.
Right now this is what it looks like:
The plants are about 1.5 cm tall and the leaves are less than 0.5 mm.
I put them on a wet paper towel in a plastc cup. I covered the cup with a plastic wrap and then a rubber band to close it tight. I poked 10 holes on the plastic wrap to allow oxygen.
The alfalfa seeds seem to be rotting and I don't know why. It isn't the sunlight because I put it on the the windowsill everyday. I also want to know how to grow the plants hydrophonically properly so that I can measure the pH of the water.
It would be greatly appreciated if you can help me.
Thank you so much,
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
-Anatole France
I am in grade 8 and I am doing my science project on phytoremediation of pestices. I want to see which plant better phytoremediates pesticides. I will grow my plants to about 5 cm and then adding 5mL of pesticides. I am going to monitor the change in pH. If the pH becomes lower, then it is working and there is less pesticides (more alkaline or base).
There are 2 groups: cabbage seeds and alfalfa seeds
each group has 3 cups and seeds inside them. I am growing them hydrophonically and I have some problems.
Right now this is what it looks like:
The plants are about 1.5 cm tall and the leaves are less than 0.5 mm.
I put them on a wet paper towel in a plastc cup. I covered the cup with a plastic wrap and then a rubber band to close it tight. I poked 10 holes on the plastic wrap to allow oxygen.
The alfalfa seeds seem to be rotting and I don't know why. It isn't the sunlight because I put it on the the windowsill everyday. I also want to know how to grow the plants hydrophonically properly so that I can measure the pH of the water.
It would be greatly appreciated if you can help me.
Thank you so much,
Hydroponics are very interesting- it is very easy to grow stuff hydroponically once you know how, but if you don't, then you get rotting seeds. I like your experimental plan to test for remediation. I would go to the library and get a book on the subject. There are many books on this topic, including detailed plans for a hydroponic garden.
You have a good idea to look at green plants to degrade pesticides; however I have a couple of questions.
You are adding 5ml of pesticide, but what is the concentration of the pesticide, and at what point in the stage of growth of the plants are you making he application?
A change in pH does not necessarily indicate degredation of pesticide.
You will ge good information from the links listed in the last posting.
Thanks you so much for the advice, it really helped me. I booked some books on the topic Hydroponics.The alfalfa plants died so I went and bought a new carton of alfalfa sprouts and some cotton balls. I am going to plant them in it and see how it goes. Hopefully, this time it will work out. I know that you have to put fertiliser in it but where do you get them or how do you make them? Can I just put the sprout in the cotton ball and then in the distilled water? Or should I raise it a bit with toothpicks or something? I'm just afraid that it may drown.
For lighting do you mean like UV lighting or like light bulbs? The concentration of the pesticde will be 5mL straight from the bottle. I don't know how you say it in ppm though. I'm going to do the application when there is about 6 or 7 leaves and about 7 cm tall.
I have a question: If the change in pH doesn't indicate the degration of pesticides, then how can I measure the amount of degration?
Thank you so much
Joanne
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
-Anatole France
You can fertilize your alfalfa sprouts with MiracleGro or something like that.
Dampen the cotton ball with fertilizer (mixed according to directions) and place the seedling (alfalfa sprout roots) in it. Gently push the plant into the cotton ball. Do not have standing fertilizer soltion or water in the pan with the cotton ball.
Use regular light (40 watts).
Do a quick Google search on meqsuring or detecting pesticides for techniques.
Thanks for the advice ! When I was looking at another website, they said that I can't use Miraclegrow because it doesn't contain enough of the essential nutrients. I was wondering if I should use QuickGrow because that is what someone used on another website but I don't know where I can get it or if it's ok. I kinda already dampened the cotton ball and put the sprouts in it. I put 3 in one cotton ball and three cotton balls in a cup. There is 9 sprouts in a cup. In total, I have 27 sprouts. How come I can't leave standing fertiliser in the cup? Does that mean that I should just put enough to make the cotton ball damp? Should I just inject it in the cottonball?
Thanks so much,
Joanne
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
-Anatole France
MiracleGro will be just fine. I use it for experimental plant work all the time.
It is OK to have a little fertilizer solution in the bottom of the cup. If you have a continuious film (1/4 inch of solution) there will be a shortage of oxygen for the roots.
It sounds like you have your plants set up OK. You can inject the cotton ball or apply fertilizer with a straw on the ctton ball with a straw.
Ok thanks, i'll just use miraclegrow then. It makes my life easier to find that . I'll let you know of my results later on. The alfalfa plants are fine and are not rotting. Will the plants die if I put the plastic wrap on the cup? I am worried that they may overheat or something because I put aluminum foil on the botton to prevent algae growth. I just poked a few holes ontop of the plastic wrap. It might not be enough oxygen. Because I see moisture and water droplets building up on the film. when I was in grade 3, they grew plants in jars with soil and covered it in plastic wrap and it looked fine. I don't know maybe they let some air in every day or something. I just want to prevent my plants from dying.
Thank you soo much for your help!
- Joanne
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
-Anatole France
It sounds like you are doing a good job with the set up for the growing conditions. The holes in the plastic wrap cover are enough for air exchange. Just keep the top of the cups a couple of feet rom the light source. The concern is heat from the lights.
Thank you for your reply!
So how would I measure the pH because all of them are covered in cotton. The plants that is. And any more water or other things will drown the plants. So should I just stick the pH paper in the cotton? I'm afraid it might be inaccurate. The cotton might be treated with something that might change the pH. Or maybe the plastic from the plastic cups has has some toxic stuff. I don't know. I need enough water or like the mixture (pesticle,fertiliser, water) so that I can measeure the change.
But the the other problem is that pH might not even determine the degration of pesticides. I couldn't find much info on that so I asked another expert in the chemistry forum and it might work or not. It depends right? On the chemicals and stuff in the pesticide
Thank you once again,
- Joanne
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
-Anatole France
A control for the effect of the cotton ball on pH is to soak some cotton balls with the solutions applied to the plants and the measure the resulting pH. One for each pesticide, one with the fertilizer and water only (make sure it is water used in making the solutions). The data collected here will tell you if the cotton ball contributed to the pH. pH papers will be just fine. A pH meter would be better but not essential.
I suggest an additional test for pesticide degredation - place each pesticide solution, fertilizer mix and water used in the mixture in a glass vessel (closed) and place in the sun (in a window) for seven days. You can use plastic wrap and a rubber band to cover the bottles. Measure the pH of the solution each day at near the same time. UV light in sunlight degrades most pesticides over time. There should be a change in pH over time in this part of the experiment.
Thank you so much! I get it now. So I could just compare the differences - if there are any. What is a pH meter? I though there where only two types: the paper kind and the liquid kind where you put drops of colour changing solution. When you were talking about the solution in the vessel I had an idea that I can set it up differently.
Maybe I should poke about 5 holes on the botton of the cup and let the solution leek on the a vessel of pan and the let the plant itself take the amount of solution it needs. I will use seperate vessles or shallow glass pans for each type of plant. I guess so then maybe I should put like small petri dish like things on the bottom of each cup and then test that water. It might be easier for me. Do you think this will work?
Thank you for pointing out some of the variables. I never thought that UV energy might degrade pesticides.
thank you so much!!
- Joanne
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
-Anatole France
See Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PH_meter) for more information on a pH meter. Most are very expensive, but a doing a quick web search found an inexpensive one (http://www.pulseinstruments.net/index.a ... egory=1242). The only benefit for buying a new one would be if it could get you more resolution than pH paper. Or if you think it'd be easier to get the meter in the cotton ball. Your idea about having the solution leak out into a petri dish underneath might work, too. I'd do some experimenting with that method, beforehand, though so that you can make sure it doesn't create more problems than it solves.
Thank you so much for your advice. I think I'll just stick to pH paper because I don't really need that accurate pH results. I am going to modify my project abit by not using pesticides but hydrochloric acid. It would be almost the same just that it might work better. Because after talking to another expert, I found out that pH might not find the degration of pesticides. Yes, I guess I should experiment with that.
I'll get back to you with more results later on.
thank you so much,
- Joanne
"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe."
-Anatole France
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I need enough water or like the mixture (pesticle,fertiliser, water) so that I can measeure the change.