Livestrong Plants Korea

The purpose of this experiment was to measure how much root growth will be inhibited by varying amounts of foreign materials in the soil This experiment has real world value as it can be a starting point to see what a radish grower can expect from the soil that they have at their disposal

Our hypothesis is: If there is more than 50% foreign material in the soil, then the radish growth will be severely prohibited by the interference with the plant's roots.

The materials and equipment we used included: Three growth chambers Fifteen radish seeds Three pounds of soil One cardboard box Ruler Scissors

Put 2 scoops each of soil into each of the 3 growth chambers Mix in 25% and 50% cardboard into growth chambers 2 and 3 respectively Plant 5 radish seeds in each growth chamber, 1/2" under the surface of the soil Water daily Record size of stalks in cm daily during the 3 week period to maintain a record of growth Dig up and record size of root/plant from tip to root in cm at the end of a 3 week growing period

Radish Growth0% Foreign Material 25% Foreign Material 50% Foreign Material Day 1 ( )0 CM Day 5 ( )5.5 CM8 CM5.5 CM Day 7 ( )8 CM11 CM9 CM Day 11 ( )10.5 CM14 CM11.5 CM Day 13 ( )10.5 CM14 CM11.5 CM Day 15 ( )11 CM14.5 CM12 CM Roots Length ( )4 CM6 CM1 CM

The data shows that the soil with 25% foreign material had the most growth of the three soils with a root length of 6 CM The pure soil came in second with a root length of 4 CM The 50% foreign material severely prohibited the root growth with a root length of just 1 CM.

In conclusion, we have seen that putting 25% cardboard into soil will actually help your radishes grow larger This is probably because of the biodegradable and organic nature of the cardboard acts as a fertilizer This can be applied in the real world because people with slight amounts of cardboard or other biodegradable and organic materials in the soil may help the radishes grow

In the end, our hypothesis was validated, as we did see a severe drop in growth from the 50% foreign material soil But, we did not expect the 25% soil to help the radishes grow more than even the pure soil