SCIENCE INVESTIGATION PROJECT

THE EFFECTS OF SALTS, ICE AND RICE WATER ON THE GROWTH OF BASIL PLANTS

Salt water

Ice water

Rice water

CONTENTS
1 Abstract 2 Introduction 3 Material And Method 4 Result And Analysis 5 Observation 6 Tables 7 Discussion And Conclusion 8 Acknowledgement And References 3 4 5 6 7 8 12 14

ABSTRACT
The objective of this project is to find out whether salt water, ice water or rice water affects the growth of basil plant. This topic is not researched on by scientists around the world, but similar experiments have been conducted by other people. For the beginning of the experiment four basil plant seeds were planted in a pot and this was repeated for another three pots. Three of the pots were kept constant in all for pots. In this experiment, the growth of the plants was compared by comparing their average height. The plants were measured every evening at about 6 PM. The hypothesis of this experiment is that the basil plants watered with rice water was the best, followed by the basil plants watered with tap water and lastly the basil plants watered with salt water. For the first day tap water was used to water the seeds but after that the basil plants were treated with the various treatments. There was buffer time of about a week for all the seeds to sprout into seedling when all the seeds sprouted into seedlings. When all the seeds sprouted into seedling; the plants watered with ice water and the plants watered with rice water were tallest subsequently, the plants, watered with rice water had a faster growth rate then the other plants and soon the different in height between the plants water with rice water and the once watered with rice water was 0.50 cm. the plants watered with salt water grew at fast but its height decreased after a week and only have an average height of 0.23 cm at the end of the experiment. This proved that the hypothesis of the experiment was wrong. The other plants were still healthy with the only difference being the height of all the plants. Based on results, the conclusion was that the basil plants watered with rice water was the healthiest with an average height of 4.67 cm followed by the basil plants watered with ice water with an average height of 4.17 cm the plants watered with tap water with an average height of 3.80 cm and the unhealthiest being the basil plants water with salt water with an average height of only 0.23 cm at the end of the experiment.

INTRODUCTION
Factors like suitable temperature, sufficient water, light nutrients and air are equally essential for the growth of plants. The variation of any of these factor would in inevitably affects the growth of plant. Water is an essential need for plants without water, plants will defiantly not survive except for a few plant like the cactus which can live without water for a long time basil plants were chosen as the control for this experiment because of their speedy growth rate that would produce result in a few weeks. Many people would probably have heard of the myth that rice water is good for plant growth but compared to ice water and salt water is it really true ? that is exactly what the main topic is all about. The aim of this experiment was to find out whether different types of water either aided or were detrimental to plant growth as well as to test the hypothesis that rice water is helps plants to grow best. Secondly it is common knowledge that mineral salts are good for plant growth. However the ordinary table salt found in the kitchen is not good for health at all. Not only so the plants will also dry up. This is because primary component of salt, sodium chloride when absolved by plants, it will cause, the plant to loss water through osmosis. This is parallel to effect of salt water and humans where consuming sea water to maintain hydration is counter productive in the long run, more water must be expended to eliminate the sea waters salt that is gained from drinking. The sea water itself. This occurs because the amount of sodium chloride in humans blood is actively regulated within a very narrow range of 9 g/L (0.9% by weight ) by the kidney drinking sea water (which contain about 3.5% ions of dissolved sodium chloride ) temporarily increases the concentration of sodium chloride in the blood. This in turn promotes sodium excretion by the kidney, but the sodium concentration of sea water intake the blood concentration of sodium will raise to toxic levels, removing water from all cells and interfering with nerve conduction ultimately giving seizures and heart arrhythmias which become fatal. a side from the above to examples, this experiment includes a novel angle to it as well. Not many people have actually tried to find out the effects of ice water on plants, especially in a humid climate like Singapore. Thus, this experiment also attempts to test if using ice water would speed up plant growth.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

Basil plants were used for the experiment because they would not get damaged easily by the wind or rain. This is important as if the plants are week they might get damaged or get uprooted and this will affect the result of experiment. On the first day of the experiment, we got four pots of the same sizes, planted 3 basil seeds with even spacing in each pot and watered them with tap water. The seeds were retrieved from the basil plant grown at the backyard used for cooking pasta. The pots were all filled with the same amount and type of soil, which in this case in garden soil. There was 500g of garden soil in each pot. For this experiment the variable is the course the type of solution used to water the pants. The pots were labeled rice water, ice water and were placed outside the house where the plants were exposed to sunlight, an essential factor for the growth of the plants. Subsequently ,from the second day onwards we started exposing the plants to three different treatments ,and continued that ,watering the plants with the same amount of liquid everyday at 6 PM salt water consisted of 100 ml of tap water mixed with 5g of salt and this was repeated everyday to water the basil plants ,rice water was created by washing three kg of rice and the rice water was stored in a 2.5 L bottle and was used to water the basil plant throughout the experiment and ice water was created by putting a 1 L bottle of tap water into the refrigerator and was also used to water the basil plants throughout the whole experiment and was refilled when empty we measured the height of the plant daily , right after watering the plant with a string and a ruler to produce more accurate result the three different treatment are salt water , ice water and rice water. We gave 100ml of each solution to the plants everyday. The temperature of the surroundings varied from the time and the weather. The experiment was carried out over a period of (5 days, and recorded over data in table form).

RESULT AND ANALYSIS

The height of each basil plant was measured using a ruler and was measured as accurately as possible. Since there were three plants for each pot, a total number of 12 recordings were made per day the experiment was conducted over a period of 25 days. By having three specimens for each variable, this increase the accuracy of the experiment as it showed a consistency of the effect of the variable, on the growth of basil plant grow. Concluding from the results produced using rice water to water the plants is the best way to help the plant grow. At the end of the experiment, the average height of the basil plants watered with rice water was the tallest with an average height of 4.67cm. The basil plant watered with ice water which had an average height of 3.80cm. lastly, it can be concluded that the saltwater was detrimental to the basil plants growth as at the and of the 15 days , the only had an average height of 0.23cm. the basil plants watered with rice, ice and tap water had a consistent increase while the basil plant watered with salt water had a relatively steady increase at first before there height decrease and world have died if the experiment had been longer. Tables of the raw data are attached at the appendix

OBSERVATION

TABLES Basil plants watered with water

Height of the basil plant 1(cm) (1d.p.) Height of the basil plant 2(cm) (1d.p.) Height of the basil plant 3(cm) (1d.p.) Average height of 3 basil plants (cm) (3 d.p.)

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Day 15

0.0 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.7 0.9 1.2 1.9 2.3 2.8 3.2 3.4 3.5 3.8

0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.2 1.5 1.7 2.5 2.9 3.3 3.6 3.9

0.0 0.0 0.2 0.3 0.6 0.9 1.0 1.3 1.7 1.9 2.4 3.0 3.2 3.5 3.7

0.000 0.000 0.133 0.267 0.467 0.767 0.933 1.233 1.700 1.967 2.567 3.033 3.300 3.533 3.800

Basil plants watered with rice water

Height of the basil plant 1(cm) (1d.p.) Height of the basil plant 2(cm) (1d.p.) Height of the basil plant 3(cm) (1d.p.) Average height of 3 basil plants (cm) (3 d.p.)

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Day 15

0.0 0.1 0.3 0.6 1.0 1.4 1.7 2.1 2.5 3.0 3.5 3.6 3.8 4.2 4.5

0.0 0.2 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.4 1.5 2.2 2.5 2.8 3.4 3.7 4.0 4.4 4.7

0.0 0.2 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.3 1.4 1.6 1.9 2.2 2.8 3.3 3.8 4.4 4.8

0.000 0.167 0.400 0.700 1.033 1.367 1.533 1.967 2.300 2.667 3.233 3.533 3.867 4.333 4.667

Basil plants watered with salt water

Height of the basil plant 1(cm) (1d.p.) Height of the basil plant 2(cm) (1d.p.) Height of the basil plant 3(cm) (1d.p.) Average height of 3 basil plants (cm) (3 d.p.)

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Day 15

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.3 0.5 0.5 0.9 1.1 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.5 0.2 0.0

0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.5 0.7 0.9 04 0.2

0.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.7 0.8 1.0 1.3 1.6 1.8 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.5

0.000 0.000 0.067 0.167 0.333 0.433 0.500 0.733 0.900 1.067 0.967 0.900 0.800 0.467 0.233

Basil plants watered with ice water

Height of the basil plant 1(cm) (1d.p.) Height of the basil plant 2(cm) (1d.p.) Height of the basil plant 3(cm) (1d.p.) Average height of 3 basil plants (cm) (3 d.p.)

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 Day 8 Day 9 Day 10 Day 11 Day 12 Day 13 Day 14 Day 15

0.0 0.0 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.0 1.5 2.1 2.4 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.7 4.1

0.0 0.1 0.5 0.7 0.9 1.3 1.4 1.9 2.2 2.6 3.3 3.5 3.8 4.0 4.2

0.0 0.1 0.4 0.6 0.7 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.9 2.1 2.9 3.3 3.6 3.8 4.2

0.000 0.067 0.400 0.600 0.767 1.067 1.200 1.600 2.067 2.367 3.067 3.333 3.600 3.833 4.167

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Inferring from the results obtained, the height of the basil plants watered with rice water, ice water and tap water had a very steady increase from the start of the experiment while the height of the basil plants watered with salt water increased over 9 days when they started to droop and eventually basil plants watered with salt water increased over 9 days when they started to droop and eventually only had an average height of 0.23 at the end of the experiment. From the results, a conclusion can be drawn at the end of the experiment that the rice water was indeed beneficial to plant growth. Likewise, it was concurred that salt water did indeed dehydrate the plants, as the basil plants watered with salt water had a shocking average height of 0.23cm which was very much shorter than the control-the basil plants watered with tap water. Thus, our initial hypothesis was proven correct. The decreasing growth of the height of plants watered with salt water should not be coincidental as plants watered with salt water had an average of 3.57cm less than the plants watered with tap water at the end of the experiment. The plants watered with ice water was only a bit shorter than the plants watered with rice water while the plants watered with tap water was about 1cm shorter than the plants watered with rice water and ice water. A repetition of the experiment was not conducted due to a limited time span, but positive results were still achieved at the end of the experiment. Nevertheless, despite such positive results, there are areas that can be improved on in further investigations. Firstly, the time span for this experiment was too short and the tallest basil plants were only less than 5cm and they were not exactly developed yet and the plant growth could be only due to the 4 main stimuli (air, water, warmth and nutrients) and the treatment might not have much effect on the plants. An improvement could be made by extending the experiment over a longer period of time, or conducting the experiment on mature basil plants instead. Secondly the basil seeds were not exactly the same with exactly the same genes and this could have affected the results since they might have a different growth rate. A better experiment could be conducted with seeds of the exact same genes to ensure a more accurate result without any variation in growth due to difference in genes. `

Thirdly, the set-ups were not given soundproof environment so the growth of it may be affected by other stimuli like soundwaves. An improvement that could be made would be putting the set-ups in a covered container preventing the plants from being exposed to other stimuli. Lastly, the plants were only watered once a day and due to the hot weather, the solutions might dry up before being absorbed by the roots of the plants and the treatment could have been useless. To improve on this, they should be put in a shady area or alternatively water them twice a day. Since our original hypothesis was proven correct, a future extension of research study could be done using the results from this experiment. The aim would be to maximize plant growth, now that rice water has proven to be the best aid. Based on this result, other environmental factors could be modified to find further ways to enhance plant growth. For example, experiments could be conducted by testing out different kinds of soils or fertilizers to find out what are the variables in the set-ups that will eventually aid plant growth the most at the end of the experiment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank my parents and neighbours for helping and supporting me throughout the experiment.

REFERENCES
Parents Teachers Internet