Fast Plants Materials and Methods Essay Example for Free

Fast Plants Materials and Methods Essay When first preparing our fast plants we had to set up four different systems that would dictate our variable of fluorescent light. Each system would provide light to our fast plants for different amounts of time per day. Our systems were set up for 0 hours of light, 6 hours of light, 12 hours of light, and 24 hours of light. To setup the lab we began to setup our lighting system with fluorescent a timer for each set of fast plants. Our 24 hours was set up in the classroom with a lighting system directly above it. For our 0,6, and 12 hours we placed the fast plants inside of a cabinet to prevent the fast plants from being exposed to outside light. Once our plant light houses were setup we began preparing the growing systems and plants. We started by using a thoroughly wet water mat and wick. We fed our wicks up through the bottom part of our plant pots, which were made out of Styrofoam. After the wick was fed through we placed the water on top so the top 3cm of the wick was touching the water mat. After preparing the wick and water mat we then placed the prepared soil and blue crystalized fertilizer in the plant pots. After the soil was placed we distributed 4 plant seed evenly throughout the plant pots. After we labeled each Styrofoam plant holder accordingly to date and variable used, we covered the plant seeds lightly with fertilizer. Once the seeds were planted we placed the Styrofoam holders on top of a container of water with bottoms of the wicks placed in the water. Then we placed four different Styrofoam pots under each of our lighting systems. Once the plants were placed we made sure the plants were about 10cm below the light. After the growing system and plants were complete we set the timers for the light systems to four different times: 0hrs, 6hrs, 12hrs, and 24hrs. After four days of growing we observed and measured each plant that grew in our 8 pots (4 seeds per pot). Once measured and the data was recorded, we removed the 3 smallest plants from each pot, which left us with 32 different fast plants. This method of removing plants to prevent overcrowding is called â€Å"thinning†. Each day we replenished the nutrient solution and replaced the plants so they were about 10cm from the light source. On day 18 we terminated and new buds or flowers so that the plant can focus on seed growth. Then on day 37 we removed our plants from our watering system and allowed them to dry until brown and crispy, which was about one week. Then we cut off our stems and seed pods and crushed the seed pods to acquire our seeds.