Is Water Really the Best? Grate Stewdant Dozier Middle School 6th Grade Mrs. Marioneaux December 1, 2011

Abstract Just like animals, plants need a lot of fluids to survive. In nature, they use their roots to absorb water from the ground in order to stay healthy. But is water always the best liquid to use on plants. For example, people make fertilizers that are better than the ones in nature and plants that use these man-made fertilizers grow bigger. Could adding liquids with sugar in them add nutrients to the soil that help make the plants grow better? In this experiment, different liquids were added to bean plants to see if the plants would grow taller. The four different liquids were Pepsi, orange juice, milk, and water. There were 5 plants in each group and the plants getting water were set aside as the control group. Even after the first day, it became evident that the plants not getting water were not growing as much. After five days, the plants getting Pepsi were wilted and sick looking with an average of 1 mm growth per day, the plants getting orange had juice averaged 3.5 mm per day and they were dead, and the plants getting milk had only averaged two millimeters per day. However, the plants receiving water had averaged six millimeters growth per day, were healthy, and had some flowers starting to form. This experiment proved that water really is the best liquid to help plants grow.

Purpose Is water really the best liquid to put on plants to make them grow? I got interested in this project when I saw someone throw away half a cup of soda on someone’s garden plants. I wondered if the sugar in the soda would help the plants grow better. I think that the results of this experiment could help gardeners grow bigger and stronger plants.

Problem What is the effect of different liquids on the growth rate of bean plants?

Literature Search There are many different types of sugars. There are white sugars, brown sugars, and even liquid sugars. The chemical names for the different sugars are: sucrose – table sugar, fructose – fruit sugar, lactose – milk sugar, and maltose – grain sugar Glucose is a sugar made by plants during photosynthesis. People get glucose when we eat plants. It is then used by every cell in our body in order to stay alive.

I also learned that . . . Every plant in the world makes at least a little sugar, but sugar cane and sugar beets have the most. Plants grow from seeds. In order for the seeds to germinate, or sprout, they need water. After they start to grow, their roots pull water up from the soil to keep them healthy. If sugars are put into water, then the plants cannot pull the water up from the soil. It will also attract insect pests and fungus. Most plants will suddenly wilt and/or die.

Experimental Design Independent Variable: The different types of liquids Pepsi - 5 plants Orange Juice - 5 plants Milk - 5 plants Water - 5 plants Dependent Variable: The growth of the bean plants Constants: The type of bean plants, the amount of liquid, the soil, the pot, and the amount of sunlight Control Group: The plants with water

Hypothesis If Pepsi is added to the soil around plants, then those plants will grow taller.

Materials 20 Blue Lake green bean seeds 20 identical small pots 1 large bag of potting soil Measuring cup Spoon Sunny area to place all plants for one month

Procedure Place the same amount of dirt in each pot Plant one seed in each pot and place in warm sunny location Water with 50 ml of water per day until the plants are all about 6 inches tall In 5 pots, use Pepsi instead of water In 5 other pots, use Orange juice In 5 other pots, use milk In the last 5 pots, continue using water Measure the growth of the plants for 7 days

Results Pepsi Orange Juice Milk Water Day 1 2.5 mm 2mm 4mm Day 2 1.5mm Wilted Day 5 0.5 mm Turned brown 6mm Day 6 0mm Turned Yellow Roots black Day 7 Looks sick Dead wilted 7mm Bushy, flowers Totals 7 mm 3.5 mm 14 mm 35 mm Averages 1 mm / day 0.5 mm / day 2 mm / day 6 mm / day

Graph of Results

Conclusion The purpose of this experiment was to see if adding soda to plants would help them grow. Soda has a lot of sugar in it, and it was thought that it would be nutritious for the plant. However, the literature said that sugar would cause it to wilt and that is exactly what happened. Orange juice has acid in it, and that probably caused those plants to die. The plants with milk on them did not die, but they did not look very healthy either. The plants with water on them were very healthy. If this experiment were to be repeated, then the results would be more relevant if the other liquids had more sugar in them and less acid as the hypothesis focused on only sugar.

References Chi, J. D. (2010). What happens when you water plants with soda?. Retrieved from http://www.gardenguides.com/90495-happens-water-plants-soda.html Evans, E. (n.d.). Watering houseplants. Retrieved from http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/quickref/houseplants Plants. (2010). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 28, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant#Structure.2C_growth.2C Sugar. (2010). Wikipedia. Retrieved October 28, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar What's cooking america. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://whatscookingamerica.net/Information/SugarTypes.htm

Growth of Bean Plants

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