Alfalfa seed Lab report Sierra Roy, Loan Do, Hector Herrera

Research question  Do Alfalfa seeds grow better soaked overnight soaked for 3 hours, 6 hours, or nine hours?

Hypothesis  We predicted that Alfalfa seeds will grow faster soaked overnight for 9 hours before germination.

Plant information  1. What is the Scientific Name?  -Alfalfa Medicago Sativa  2. What is the plant family?  -Psoralea Lanceolata  3. The area they grow in?  -Alfalfa is grown in almost every state of the United States. Alfalfa is grown generally for baling providing feed hay with valuable nutrients for a cattle and other livestock. It is also grown for pasture and for cover, to minimize erosion, and as a rotational crop to provide the soil with nutrients.

Plant information continued. 4. Where is this plant native were they come from?  -Eastern North US.  5. Anything that you can find of the germination of the plant?  -Rinse your Alfalfa seeds thoroughly with water to remove any derby acquired during shipping or in the store, soaking is optional

Experiment Plan  Problem Statement: Do Alfalfa seeds germinate faster when not soaked overnight, soaked for 3 hours, soaked for 6 hours, and one soaked for 9 hours?  Hypothesis: We think our seed will germinate faster soaked nine hours before growth.  Why we say this? Because we believe that the more an alfalfa seed is soaked the faster it will grow.

Experiment plan continued  What is an independent variable?  -An independent variable is the factor in the part of an experiment that is manipulated from the "usual" it is the part that is being tested.  What is a dependent variable?  -Dependent variable is the variable that may change in effect to the independent variable.  What is a constant?  - Everything else that is the same in our experiment besides the independent variable  What is a control group? -The control group is the group of the experiment that is not being done anything “unusual” to.

Experimental plan continued…again.  Our independent variable- The amount of time each group of seeds was soaked  Dependent variable-The seeds  Constants-Alfalfa seeds, cup, dirt, the type/amount of water, the time each of the plants will sit out in the sun and be watered.  Control group- The seeds that are not being soaked before germination

Procedures  Procedures: 1. Collect the number of seeds in each cup 2. Soak seeds on each time frame it needs to be soaked, if needed. 3.After being soaked you (if needed) plant each seed. Make sure to use the same amount of soil and same cups for each seed. 4. Water, and let it grow with sunlight until a seed sprouts first. 5. Record which seed sprouts first. 6. Make data table and lab report.

Results 7 am 7pm7am7pm7am7pm7am7pm7am7p m Control hr hr hr

Analysis  Woah! That most likely looked like a lot.  We planted ten seeds in each cup.  We did three trials of each (not soaked, soaked for 3 hrs, 6 hrs, and 9 hrs)  We checked on our plants twice a day to see with how many seeds had sprouted.  Recorded our data

Analysis continued  In our analysis we came up these results: The control group sprouted in mostly all the morning times, but was the slowest to sprout. The 3hr soaked alfalfa sprouted with a a mixture of morning and night times but mostly mornings. The 6 hr soaked alfalfa sprouted noticeably quicker than the control group and the 3 hr soaked plant and sprouted faster and had more quantity when sprouted. The 9 hour soaked alfalfa sprouted with a mixture of morning and night times and sprouted an amazing 4 plants.

Pictures

Discussion  We accepted our hypothesis because the seeds that were soaked for nine hours germinated before all the other ones. Our research question was does Alfalfa seeds grow better not soaked at all, soaked for three hours, soaked for six hours, or soaked for nine hours. Our hypothesis was correct when we did our three trials. It was slightly taller than the one that was soaked for six hours. We put around the same amount of soil in each cup that you provided us with and watered the seeds one-third of a cup once a day. We let the seeds be together in the same environment. Our plant grew pretty well. Also, when we soaked the seeds, we soaked them in one cup of water.

Questions for further thought/discussion  Some questions that if we had more time would explore would be: -Why do the plants seem to sprout in the morning times? What link does that have with the plant? -When soaking the seeds how in detail does it effect the germination? (we would use microscopes, pick the seed apart, ect.) -What can we do to not only help the alfalfa germinate faster, but grow taller (considering our plants were short)

Credits/ sources! (:   We would like to thank Mrs. Doll for her extreme hard work to get us to enjoy this wonderful experience to create our own research experiment, we know she put in a lot of behind the scenes time and we appreciate it!