PLANT NUTRITION EXPERIMENTRose Brusaferro, Megan Levin,

Olivia Warner & Trina SeunarineStevenson UniversityBIO 114 – Dr. Kimber

Introduction•Question- Is pellet form the most effective method of administering fertilizer to plants, with regard to plant growth and nutrition?

•Hypothesis- Plants may benefit from fertilizer being administered in powder or liquid form which could be more readily absorbed by the plant roots.

•Anticipated Results- Plant growth will be greater among plants fertilized with crushed or dissolved fertilizer pellets.

Materials & MethodsMATERIALS METHODS

4 quads and necessary planting materials

48 RCBr seeds 24 fertilizer pellets Mortar & pestle Graduated

cylinder Ruler Disposable pipette Reservoir and

water mat Stirring rod

Brassica rapa seeds planted in…

Quad A – with no fertilizer. Quad B – with fertilizer pellets. Quad C – with crushed fertilizer

pellets. Quad D – with crushed fertilizer

pellets dissolved in solution

Results The quad that contained

crushed fertilizer had the highest growth rate and the quad that had the lowest growth rate contained no fertilizer (Figure 1). The quads that contained fertilizer pellets and the quads that contained dissolved fertilizer had average growth rates that were in between (Figure 1). 7 14 21 28

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

No FertilizerFertilizer PelletsCrushed FertilizerDissolved Fertilizer

Time (days)

Plan

t H

eigh

t (m

m)

Figure 1. Plant heights of B. rapa plants exposed to varied fertilizer conditions over 3 weeks.

Discussion Plants administered crushed fertilizer pellets

had the highest average growth rate followed by dissolved fertilizer pellets, then fertilizer pellets, and, lastly, no fertilizer.

Possible sources of error: inconsistent measuring and planting techniques, and crushed pellets dissolved in liquid may have washed out of the quad before being absorbed.

Further experiments: Re-do experiment, but apply dissolved fertilizer to dry soil to ensure all of it is absorbed.

Conclusion Plants grown with fertilizer grow

better than plants grown without fertilizer. However, plants grown with crushed fertilizer pellets had a higher growth rate than the other two methods of administering plant fertilizer, dissolved fertilizer pellets and whole fertilizer pellets.