Lab Report

Marco Dal Canto, Seth Nolan, 

Kylee Bourbon, Ben Fodor, 

Kela Moore Period 1 

 Seed Germination Lab Report 

 Introduction: For our experiment, we decided to test whether regular water or 100% concentrated coconut water made kale grow faster. Our hypothesis was that water would work better because if coconut water did make the plants grow faster, everyone would be using it instead of water.

 Methods: The first thing we had to do was collect our materials. This included 100% concentrated coconut water, water, soil, kale seeds, a ruler, a graduated cylinder, and 4 plastic cups (two for coconut water and two for regular water). To start our experiment, we first poked holes in the bottom of our cups to allow excess water to flow out. Then, we labeled each cup with what the plants would be watered with. We then filled the cups with soil, leaving about six centimeters of space between the soil and the rim of the cup. Then we planted ten kale seeds in each cup, about ⅓ of an inch below the soil. Since we weren’t in class every two days, our watering schedule wasn’t very consistent. We watered it for the first time on September 6th, then again on the 8th, again on the 12th, on the 13th, and finally, on the 15th. After every watering, we would record the measurements of the plants and a brief description.

 Results and Data Analysis: We didn’t start seeing growth until about the 6th day into our project. It also happened to be a Monday when we first noticed growth, meaning that the majority of the growth happened over the weekend. On this day, September 12th, we noticed that the plants watered with coconut water seemed to have a reddish tint and mold was collecting at the surface of the soil, creating a foul odor. The next day, we noticed more of a reddish tint at the roots of plant C2 (coconut 2). On the last day, September 15th, we noticed that none of our kale plants looked very strong, probably due to the lack of sunlight in the classroom. We also noticed that the plants watered with regular water had grown much more than the plants watered with coconut water. Below is a line graph showing our data. We decided to use a line graph because it made more sense considering we had four sets of data. The graph clearly shows that water worked better than coconut water.

Conclusion: Based on our results, we can conclude that water works better than 100% concentrated coconut water when growing kale. In fact, the water showed almost twice as much growth than the coconut water. The coconut water started to grow mold in our cup. Our plants didn’t get enough sunlight and they started to get too long to hold their weight and then ended up falling over. If we were to do this project again, we could have tried using different percent concentrated coconut waters. We would also take our plants home to make sure they are getting the correct amount of sunlight and that they get watered consistently.