Blog 10: Genetics Experiment Update

We are all set up for our experiment, but we are waiting on the phosphorus to arrive before we can plant our fast plants. Therefore, we are doing research now and finishing up our planning and calculations. This is what our set up looks like:

We have four groups of plants: neutral, small, medium, and large. There are 16 cells per group, and we are planting three seeds per cell. We are also going to place 3 fertilizer pellets in each cell. Therefore, there will be 192 fertilizer pellets and seeds total in all four groups. As you can see, we have already added wisps in each cell (the blue rhombus-like materials). We have not yet determined the exact lighting or watering system yet, but we will have a better idea when we actually being the process of planting. We know that it will be a constant system. However, we have decided how much extra phosphorus we will be adding to the small, medium, and large groups. The neutral group will still have 3 fertilizer pellets in each cell, but we will not be adding any additional fertilizer. What we did was find the average amount of phosphorus in 3 pellets. We found the average weight of 3 fertilizer pellets is 0.071 g. Then we took that number and found the value that is 14% of that because the fertilizer is a 14-14-14% ration of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. That number we determined was 0.001 g. Therefore, in each cell (with 3 fertilizer pellets and 3 seeds), there is 0.001 g of phosphorus. We decided that it makes the most sense and we will get good results if we double the amount of phosphorus for each group. That means that the small group will have 0.002 g of phosphorus added in each cell, medium group 0.004 g, and large group 0.008 g. I've never worked with fast plants before, so I'm excited and hoping to see some different lovely shades of purple!