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BIO 111, February 9, 2012

A Study On The Germination of Rape Seeds And Baking Soda

Catherine Page, Andrew d'Ablaing Bryan College Dayton, Tennessee 37321 Abstract: For this research project a collection of rape seeds were tested with trace amounts of baking soda, to see what affect such a solution might have on the seeds germination. Because we thought that baking soda is not a harsh chemical, we suspected that there would be no effect on the germination of the seeds. For this we used a method of serial dilution and tried different strengths of Baking soda solution on different groups of seeds, while also tracking them for a week to see how many of the seeds would germinate. We found after a week of study that baking soda under different strengths can in fact significantly inhibit the germination of rape seeds, showing in the end that our hypothesis was in fact wrong. Introduction: The germination of seeds is a delicate process in which different chemicals can really cause some problems. For this experiment we wanted to see what would happen when a seedling was exposed to different levels of baking soda, so we used a method of serial dilution, and tested different strengths of backing soda to see what effect they would have on the germination of rape seeds over a weeks time. Methods and Materials: We first prepared a serial dilution using a 10% baking soda solution, which we then diluted using the serial method over four other test tubes that each contained 9ml of distilled water. We also put aside a fifth test tube filled only with 9ml of distilled water as our control. After achieving the appropriate dilutions, we added 10 rape seeds each to sterile dish, one for each tube of solution, and added approximately 2ml of solution to each from their respective tubes. Each had decreasing dilution as follows: dish one 10%, dish two .1%, dish three .01%, dish four .001%, and dish five 0%. Finally, we kept track of the seeds germination progress over the next week by measuring their growth and noting any other differences seen.

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Results: Over the week we found that the different strengths of baking 3 soda seemed to have significant 3 effects on the germination of our Dish 1 rape seeds. As can be seen from 2 2 Dish 2 2 the graph our first set of petri Dish 3 Dish 4 dishes with the strongest dilution 1 1 1 1 1 Dish 5 1 had no growth at all. On the first day there was absolutely no 0 0 0 0 0 change in any of the five petri 0 Time (in days) dishes. Day two we added ten Andrew d'Ablaing/Catherine Page drops of the solution to each dish and in dishes one and two there was no change. In dishes three and four there was one sprout in each dish and in dish five there were two sprouts. On day three there was a green discoloration to the seedlings and once again in dishes one and two there were no sprouts. The one sprout in dish three was beginning to grow a leaf and dish four now has three sprouts. Dish five remained only having one sprout. On our fourth day of research, dish one had remained the same but dish two had two seedlings beginning to sprout and crack open. Dish three had remained the same and dish four had remained the same as well. Dish five had no change and most of the sprouts had withered away. Lastly, on day five there was absolutely no change in any of the dishes.
4 Germination Rate of Rape Seeds 4 4 4

Discussion: According to our study, it appears then that baking soda can after all have a tremendous effect on the germination of seeds. In high concentrations the seeds did not even begin to germinate and instead began to wither and decompose. However, as the concentration decreased we started to see a significant increase in the germination of seeds. So much so that dish four actually out performed dish 5. This would appear to indicate that while baking soda in high amounts can inhibit germination, in lesser amounts it can actually aid in the process. This means that our hypothesis that there would be relatively no negative or positive effect is in fact wrong. By looking at the data it would appear that the LD50 would be somewhere around .01% baking soda concentration. However, in looking back on the project there could have been many other factors involved in the results. Some of which could have been: Poor and/or unequal lighting for each of the petri dishes Too much/or too little moisture Possible errors in the mixing of dilutions

For this reason, while it does appear that our data is for the most part sound we would need to do more in order to confirm our findings.

Number of Seeds Germinated

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References: Hartz, Stephanie, and Steve Barnett. "Scientific Method." Introductory Biology 111: Labratory Manual. By Stephanie Hartz. Dayton: Bryan College, 2012. Print.