I am doing a science experiment in which I grew 9 spider plants, 3 watered with tap water, 3 with liquid jello, and 3 with coffee. The project came out really great. The plants with the jello grew significantly bigger than the others, probably because of the sugar content in the jello. The plants with the coffee kind've shriveled up and died, but that's good. Now I know what coffee does to plants.
Now there's another problem, my science teacher wants to know what the future outcome of growing spider plants in jello or coffee would be, and i'm stumped! I don't know if it would change the environment(which I highly doubt), or if it would just be a little more of a creative way to water plants? PLEASE HELP!!!
spider plants (NEED HELP)
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ChrisG
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Re: spider plants (NEED HELP)
Hi Lollybug,
Congratulations on a well-done experiment. It sounds as though your teacher would like you to speculate about the processes at work in your experiment, and what might be some consequences of those processes in the long run. For example, what are the long term implications of adding gelatin to the soil? Does that sound like what your teacher wants?
One possible reason your plants grew faster with gelatin additives is that gelatin is derived from collagen, which contains a lot (18% or so) of nitrogen. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient and is applied heavily in agricultural areas in the form of manure and inorganic fertilizers. Shallow groundwater in agricultural areas has high concentrations of nitrogen in the form of nitrate (NO3) often above the drinking water standards set by the EPA.
Adding things to soil always changes the environment in some way. There may not be a large or widespread consequence, but any time you change the soil you are changing the environment.
Regards,
Chris
Congratulations on a well-done experiment. It sounds as though your teacher would like you to speculate about the processes at work in your experiment, and what might be some consequences of those processes in the long run. For example, what are the long term implications of adding gelatin to the soil? Does that sound like what your teacher wants?
One possible reason your plants grew faster with gelatin additives is that gelatin is derived from collagen, which contains a lot (18% or so) of nitrogen. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient and is applied heavily in agricultural areas in the form of manure and inorganic fertilizers. Shallow groundwater in agricultural areas has high concentrations of nitrogen in the form of nitrate (NO3) often above the drinking water standards set by the EPA.
Adding things to soil always changes the environment in some way. There may not be a large or widespread consequence, but any time you change the soil you are changing the environment.
Regards,
Chris
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olgakay
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Re: spider plants (NEED HELP)
Dear Lollybug,
You got great results, congratulations! However it is also important to draw good conclusions from your results. I like the reply you got form Chris about gelatin. Most likely nitrogen is what the plants got out of it. You mentioned that plants got sugar from gelatin. That would be us humans: we need sugar as our food. Plants do not consume sugar as food. Plants make sugar themselves by photosynthesis. So from the soil (or water) plants get only minerals: nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. Please review the plant nutrition and photosynthesis chapter in your book. You will see your results in a new light.
Here is another thought: Chris suggested that you think whether it is a good idea to add gelatin to soil. There is a cheap source of gelatin. What is it? Would it be practical to use this cheap gelatin to improve soil?
Again, great work. Knock their socks off with your presentation!
OlgaK
You got great results, congratulations! However it is also important to draw good conclusions from your results. I like the reply you got form Chris about gelatin. Most likely nitrogen is what the plants got out of it. You mentioned that plants got sugar from gelatin. That would be us humans: we need sugar as our food. Plants do not consume sugar as food. Plants make sugar themselves by photosynthesis. So from the soil (or water) plants get only minerals: nitrogen, phosphorus, etc. Please review the plant nutrition and photosynthesis chapter in your book. You will see your results in a new light.
Here is another thought: Chris suggested that you think whether it is a good idea to add gelatin to soil. There is a cheap source of gelatin. What is it? Would it be practical to use this cheap gelatin to improve soil?
Again, great work. Knock their socks off with your presentation!
OlgaK