MY QUANTATITIVE DATA IN GRAPHS!
Analysis of data:
This data answered a lot of questions, and clarified/ contradicted my original predictions. My
original predictions were: “I am expecting that each plant will grow differently with their
light source. I believe the plant in the dark will not grow very much, and each time it does
grow it will die very quickly. I think the one in the shade also won't grow very well, but it
will grow if I water it enough. I believe the one in natural sunlight will grow quite well
compared to the others, and the on in the grow lights will grow the best. However, the
one in grow lights may not survive that well because it will dry out very easily and I can't
really add more water. However, the one in sunlight won't dry out as easy and the
amount of water will be sufficient.”
In fact, as you can tell from my above data, the result was quite the opposite. The plants in the
dark grew the most, the ones in the shade grew quite well, the ones in sunlight grew, but not
very well, and the ones in the grow lights died before all of the rest.
Dark: If you look at the graphs above you can see that over time the plants’ stem lengths grew
in a pretty straight slope. Although the stems did not grow very straight in the drawer, they did
grow pretty long. I think that the reason these ones grew well is because the sun did not dry the
soil out. Every 2 days when I would check on and water the plants the ones in the dark’s soil
were always moderately damp- unlike the ones in the grow lights especially which were
extremely dry. Also, although people would usually believe that plants can’t grow in the dark
because “photosynthesis can’t occur without light”, I believe that, in fact, one of the reasons
these plants grew so well is because they were trying to find the light, and trying to grow
towards it. Therefore, in the middle of the assignment I moved 3/5 plants from the dark drawer
into a dark box with holes in it, and set it on the windowsill so it would get light for the plants to
grow too. Although the product didn’t turn out like I wanted, because the plants didn’t go out of
the holes, I think they would have if they hadn’t already been on the verge of death from staying
in the dark for too long.
Shade: I was not TOO surprised when the plants in the shade started to grow well. I personally
think that shade is the best conditions for these plants in this season. I think that because the
sun is so strong, if you put them in the shade they can get light for photosynthesis and to grow,
but their soil doesn’t dry out as easily, because the sun isn’t too strong in the shade. If you look
at the data you can see that the shade plants’ stem lengths were growing very well until the end,
which is when they died. I think that in the end they died just because I wasn’t giving them
enough water, and I probably should’ve come in everyday to water them. However, a quality
that the ones in the shade had that others didn’t was that there were a lot more stems. I planted
about the same amount of kale seeds in each pot, with the same soil and yet almost ALL of the
seeds grew in the ones in the shade, but only about 2-5 grew in all the others. Also, the ones in
the shade grew up very straight, which I think is a sign that they are in a good condition because
they are not leaning for light or anything.
Sun: The plants in the sun did not grow as well as I’d hoped. I think it may be that they would’ve
grown better if I had just come in to give them more water, and if I had planted A LOT more
seeds in each pot. However, I was still quite surprised when they died so early. In the beginning
they were growing well, not very tall, but up straight and they were a really good green colour,
and had a LOT more leaves than any of the others. Then suddenly, 2 days after the ones in the
grow lights died, so did they. If you look at the graph for their weights you can see a decrease in
weight over time, which I think is due to the drying out of the soil. The ones in the dark were
bound to way more because they had more water staying in their soil. Also, if you look at the
stem length graphs for the ones in the sun you can see that there is a steady increase in stem
length. Although they were not that tall, they were growing in an upward slope with good colour.
Grow: These plants were absolute failures. I think it may be because there weren’t enough
seeds to grow, and because the lights were SO strong they dried out the soil. However, Alvin
managed to grow large amounts of amazing kale in the grow lights, but mine died very quickly.
Maybe I simply wasn’t giving them enough water. Also, if you look at the graph for their weight it
is a little misleading. The first day I set up my experiment I forgot to put the grow light plants in
the grow light, and I left them in the sun. That’s why the first measurement is so high, because
they got to grow in the sun for 2 days. Then, the weight stayed relatively the same for the rest of
the time because no more water weight was added because it was dried up so quickly, and if
the stems weren’t growing, then there would be no more weight. However, the stem length
actually managed to keep the stem length high after the first day for a couple more days. I think
that is because they were just starting to grow, and they were shooting up. However, then they
dried out and slowly shriveled before dying. 