PLANT QUESTIONS:

 

1. Scientific names:

Lettuce/Latuca sativa 

Cabbage/Brassica oleracea

 

2. Has your plants met your expectation? 

Our plants have not met our expectation. 

 

3. Why or Why not? 

We said no, because at first our seeds would not germinate. However, Dr. Parrott gave us a cabbage plant. This plant seems to be improving but at a slow rate, which makes us happy!

 

4.  What have you done to make it met your expectations? 

Our team has stayed after school to take care of the plants. We switched medias from cotton balls to hydroton clay, and now the media is coconut coir. We have also changed the water a plethora of times by adding freshwater. And we've added more seeds to the bottom where the water is to make sure they're getting enough nutrients. 

 

5. What would you do differently? 

We could try putting the daylight overhead instead of off to the side. We could replace our media containers with strainers so that all sides are consistantly getting water flow.  Our group can use waterbottles as a dome to keep in the moisture (recommended by Dr. Parrott). If we were able too, we should have tried the ebb and flow. This will allow the plants to germinate successfully. We could have also gotten a bigger tank so it would have been more space and produced a better outcome. 

 

6. Describe how your plant looks and how it has grown over the past month? 

Cabbage: With the Brassica oleracea plant some of the leaves had fallen off which were yellow, and it doesn't seem to be recieving enough water. However, it has grown from 10 cm to 10.2cm since we've been growning it. 

 

Lettuce: Unfortunately, our Latuca sativa didn't germinate. Therefore, there is no apperance of the plant, and it has not grown since our team began the aquaponics unit.