Shining A Light on Plant Growth

This project aims to demonstrate that plants thrive better in a heated and enclosed terrain than a cold and dark environment. Two variables and one control can produce the results that are needed in this project.
Bhagat Hithesh Karter Chong
Grade 6

Hypothesis

Does Grow light enhance a plant's growth?

This experiment involves growing herbs/vegetables in 2 greenhouse boxes, each filled with the same soil, the same amount of water, fertilizer and number of seeds. The only factor that differs is the light. A grow light  is fitted on one of the boxes, Box B and another one relies on just the natural light,  that is Box A.  The independent factor  for this experiment is the light, while the dependent variables are the length of the plant, length of the leaf, droop of the plant, and number of leaves. We think that the box with extensive light shall have increased growth of the plants inside.

Research

Do Growlights Improve A Plant's growth? 

Plants are one of the biotic principles of life as life itself revolves around plants, for thousands of years humans have tried many different supplements and inventions to enhance the growth of a plant but only a few have worked, including the growlight. The growlight made in the 1960s became a popular invention for plants. But the question remains the same 'Do Growlights Improve A Plant's growth?' After extensive research we have concluded that grow lights are not as powerful as real sunlight but an easy solution for indoor plants. As our project had been set in weak sunlight and the grow light had been switched on for 24 hours Box B had a strong advantage. After many experiments conducted in the 1990s by NASA it was proved grow lights enhancd a plant with normally weak or no sunlight. This was a crucial part of finding a way to grow plants in space. The grow light industry  pulls nearly a billion dollars in revenue as more and more people have found it as better than using traditional methods like growing it outside. In total our project tried to demonstrate the impact of growlight within a greenhouse system and the results are positive

Variables

In this project we have one independent variable, one dependant variable and 4 controlled variables.

Independent Variables

The independent variable is light as there is no difference between Box A or Box B except light as Box B has a grow light attached to the roof of the box.

Dependant Variables

The dependant variable is how an extra advantage over light can change the plant growth between Box A or Box B.

Controlled Variables

The other four controlled variables are water,soil,seeds and temparature.

Procedure

Procedures

  1. Germinated plants in plastic bags until plants started to sprout/germinate on February 3rd.
  2. After 4  days we took them out and planted them in little compostable cups and started watering them every 3-4 days,  30 squirts a day.
  3. For 1 month we continued to water these plants and mostly let the plants grow on their own.
  4. For the next 4-5 days we took many photos and measurements to find the differences between the plants, We discover the diffrences of the Hight of the tallest plant for each seed/box. We also found how many stems each plant had.

Observations

Month

 (From Log book)

Observations

Oct.

  

 

Nov.

    

Dec.

    

Jan.

  

Radish:Germination, 4-7

Lettuce:Germination, 7-10

Basil:Germination, 7-14

 

 

Feb.

  
  1. Keeping the germination packet moist
  2. On 9th morning check for germination if possible


 

Feb

  

Saw ample germination in lettuce & radish but no germination for basil 

Feb

  

Feb: 8 Lettuce and radish both sprouted but basil has not germinated

Feb

  

Feb 10: Saw huge amounts of growth for both boxes. Nearly 2-3 cm of growth.

Feb

  

Feb 13: No sprouting from basil seeds. Box A has a taller stem while Box B has more sprouts with more leaves.

Feb.

    

Feb:

  

Feb: 20 No growth for basil on both boxes. Box A has more stringy plants while Box B seems to grow bigger each day. 

Feb.

  

No observations.

Feb. 

  

No observations.





 
     

Feb.

  




 

Mar.

  








 

Mar.

  

 

Analysis

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

Conclusion

 

After months of preparations and watering the plants we have finalized the results.The plant with the most growth goes (Box B) to the plant with a 24/7 grow light and here's why, due to the grow lights immense amount of light which is also happening 24/7 unlike the other plant (Box A) which simulates normal lighting. In total we find the outcome successful .

 

Application

 

Application

Humans have been growing plants for centuries, for various purposes including medicine, food and resources, but as the world's population grows and grows the amount of food farms have to produce is truly astonishing. Even without as many mouths to feed farms have been fruiting less and less food each year. The main key player for this is global warming also known as climate change. Our project has proved that grow lights seemed to increase and improve plant's growth by more than double. This could prove crucial to future farming and sustaining life in space. Growing plants indoors is a smart idea as the plants can grow freely despite treacherous conditions outside. When NASA conducted a study in the 1990s plants seemed to grow better in conditions with a grow light then without a grow light. In conclusion our project proved that grow lights are an excellent path to future farming.

 

Sources Of Error

Errors 

 

Though our experiment was a success, we noticed small details that we could have done to make it more standardized. For example, we over-watered the Basil seeds, which may have impacted the sprouting of the seed itself. One of the ways this could have been prevented was spraying equal amounts of water per ziploc. Another error was relocating the boxes from where it was initially kept, which may have changed the temperature , humidity, and other conditions.

 

 

Acknowledgement

In this project we were fortunate enough to have some amazing people to help us and give advice. Primarily we would like to acknowledge Ms. Friesen our science fair coordinator and mentor for Tom Baines School. She gave us amazing advise and details about this project and science fair. Namely , encouraging us to participate, Introducing the steps of the science fair  projects,and  regulary checking in for us.

We would also like to thank our parents for supporting and motivating us, specifically for helping us select seeds and helping us find the perfect greenhouse setting, designing the trifold & preparing graphs!.

 

Thank you for all the help!