Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Dear Experts,
I have an interest in agriculture and agribusiness. I recently read an article about fertilizers and Roundup Ready seeds in John Deere's The Furrow publication. Would it make for a viable science fair project to research the factors that increase the effectiveness of different fertilizers on crops such as time of day, temperature, etc. Inorder to make the tests as isolated as possible would I need to construct a greenhouse and other structures? I also like the notion of hydroponics, but I'm not sure what could be done with that, any suggestions? I also had another idea about engineering crops that use less organic matter from the soil so they would be more amicable towards double-cropping. Is this viable or should I leave to the R&D department at Monsanto? Thank you very much I know I'm kind of all over the place.

Hi,

If you are interested in agriculture, your ideas all sound like they could be pursued successfully. To help you focus successfully, you might want to read the Science Buddies Science Fair Project Guide, as it has lots of good ideas and guidance(See link in the top banner of the web page).

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml

Here is a link to some hydroponic ideas(scroll down the page to see the good stuff):

http://www.juliantrubin.com/encyclopedi ... onics.html

I strongly encourage you to follow your interests wherever they lead you. Monsanto R&D does not have a monopoly on good ideas( though they are very good).

Best regards,

Barrett L. Tomlinson

Hi JohnDeere9630T,
My own research is related to agriculture so your post caught my attention. I agree that those are all good ideas. Depending on where you live, you might want to see what kind of work is being done at local universities or at a USDA-ARS office
http://www.ars.usda.gov/pandp/locations ... cetype=Map
Good luck. I look forward to hearing more about your experiments.
Chris