EXPERIMENT RESULTS AND DATA The water absorption ability of Different types of Fiber And the possibility for the Palm Fibre to replace Sphagnum Moss as the Moisture Maintaining Media for Orchid Culture 16/1/2017

Problem Statement Can Palm Fibre be used as a water absorption and moisture remaining medium for agriculture/orchid culture as a substitution for Sphagnum Moss? How does the water absorption ability differs according to the types of fibres ?

Aim of the Experiment To study the ability of palm fibre to absorb water and it’s possibility to replace the usage of Sphagnum Moss as a moisture remaining medium for agriculture/Orchid culture. To study the water absorption characteristics and time taken to lose water in different types of fibres.

Materials /Apparatus Sphagnum Moss Long Palm Fibre Short and Crushed Palm Fibre Coconut Fibre Tap Water Beaker 1000 ml / Container 1000 ml

Methodology Set up Experiment by taking notes on several parameters such as weight of the sample room temperature, amount of water, Time taken for the sample to absorb water and loss water Prepare controlled sample as a reference (Sphagnum Moss 10g) and other fibre samples and fibre +moss samples (10g) as the study materials Soak the samples in water one by one for 1 minute to let it absorb as much water as possible Squeeze the sample and let the excess water to come out Weigh the sample after absorbed the water . Weigh the sample for every 30 minutes for 5 hours to measure the amount of water lost Collect and interpret data.

Parameters/ Variables Controlled/Fixed Variables: Room Temperature(24 °C) , Amount of water prepared for each sample to absorb(1000ml), Room Relative Humidity level = 40-50% Time to soak the sample in water (1 minute) Controlled sample (Sphagnum Moss 10 g)

B) Manipulated Variables 1) Types of samples 10g of Sphagnum Moss (set as control sample) 7g of Sphagnum Moss + 3g of Palm Fiber (Long FIber) 7g of Sphagnum Moss + 3g of Palm Fiber (Crushed FIber) 10g of Palm Fiber (Long Fiber) 10g of Crushed Fiber 10g of Coconut Fiber 2)Time taken to weigh the sample every 30 minutes (5 hours) .

C)Responding variables/Outcome Weight of the sample for every 30 minutes (water loss,g) Time taken for the sample to loss water completely ,(min) Percentage% of water absorbed Percentage% of water loss

Procedures 1)Prepared 6 types of samples as following: 2) Weigh each sample for 10g and set 10g of Sphagnum Moss as a controlled sample 3) Set up a 1000ml beaker and fill it with tap water till 1L 4)Soak the sample inside the water for about 1 minute 5) Take out the sample and then squeeze it to remove excess water 6)Place the sample on the weighing balance to read the amount of water absorbed 7)Repeat step 4-5 for each sample 8)Weigh the sample for every 30 mins to see the changes in weight (water loss) 9)Collect and record the data 10g of Sphagnum Moss (set as control sample) 7g of Sphagnum Moss + 3g of Palm Fiber (Long FIber) 7g of Sphagnum Moss + 3g of Palm Fiber (Crushed FIber) 10g of Palm Fiber (Long Fiber) 10g of Crushed Fiber 10g of Coconut Fiber

Data Collected Types of sample, 10g Time (min) Sphagnum Moss (controlled sample) Sphagnum Moss+ Long fibre Short fibre Long Palm Fibre Short Palm Fibre Coconut Fibre 70 63 57 23 22 25 30 65 59 46 60 53 40 16 18 90 58 39 15 17 120 55 50 33 13 10 12 150 27 180 54 44 20 210 43 240 37 270 31 26 300

Data Interpretation Amount of water absorbed (g) vs Types of samples

Bar graph shows The Final Weight of the sample after water loss (g) vs Types of samples after 5 hours

Sphagnum moss +long palm fibre 63 23 84.1 63.5 Types of sample Initial weight (g) weight After soaked in water Final weight (g) After d % of water absorbed %of water loss Sphagnum moss 10 70 27 85.7 61.4 Sphagnum moss +long palm fibre 63 23 84.1 63.5 Sphagnum moss + short palm fibre 57 17 82.5 70.2 Long palm fibre 56.5 Short palm fibre 22 54.5 Coconut palm fibre 25 60 .

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Sphagnum Moss+ Short Fibre Long palm Fibre Short Palm Fibre Sphagnum Moss+ Fibre Sphagnum Moss+ Short Fibre Long palm Fibre Short Palm Fibre Coconut Fibre .

Conclusion Sphagnum Moss known to be a good water absorbing and moisture remaining media therefore it was set as the controlled sample to study the possibility for palm fibre to be used as a substitution for the Moss in orchid culturing . In this experiment, Sphagnum Moss (controlled sample) shows excellent water absorption and poor water losing characteristics .The sample that contains Short and Long fibre with sphagnum moss also shows some good water absorbing properties and maintained its moisture for longer time. At the same time the water absorption ability of long palm fibre, short palm fibre and coconut fibre were also tested. The outcome shows that they absorb less amount of water but loss almost all the water quickly compared to the other samples. The sample Sphagnum Moss + Long Palm Fibre absorbs more than 50% of water and loss water after some longer period. Therefore it can be concluded Long Palm fibre with sphagnum moss can be used as a substitution for the controlled sample.