Growth Of Morning Glorys Essay, Research Paper

How Sun Light Effects Growth of Morning Glories Description of Morning Glory s (background)The Morning Glory (Ipomoea purpurea) family is Convolvulaceae, it contains 1200 species of herbaceous plants. Morning Glories are an outdoor plant. They received their name by their growth. They bloom for only one single average morning. I chose the Heavenly Blue species. They were discovered in the 1920 s by a home gardener. They are 4-5 across with creamy white throats contrasting with a heart shaped shy blue foliage. Their vines grow to be 20ft tall reaching for the sunlight. They are often used for covering trellises and arbors because of the growing vines. Morning Glories are an annual flower. ProblemDoes 12 days of plants exposed to sunlight vs. 12 days with plants exposed to no sunlight effect growth process of Heavenly Blue Morning glories? HypothesisWhen I was in 5th grade, I entered in the Science Fair. I chose the topic: If plants are watered daily, then they grow more than plants not watered. By doing this in 5th grade, I already knew the out come, so I decided that this should be my topic now: If Morning Glories are not exposed to sunlight, then they will not grow as well as being exposed to sunlight. Materials-Jiffy Strips 32 (potting holders)-Morning Glory seeds -SCHULTZ Professional Potting Soil Plus w/time-release Plant Food 0.08-0.12-0.08-10mL of water (each plant, 10×20x12= 2,400mL of water total)-liquid measuring cup-tape measure-sunlight (controlled variable) Controlled FactorPlants exposed to sunlight vs. plants not exposed to any sunlight. ProcedureSteps:#1: I put 1 package of Morning Glory seeds into a damp paper towel, then into a sealed plastic bag to begin germination process.#2: Next, I left them in the sealed bag for 2 days, one day longer than recommended on back of seed package.#3: I filled cups + full of soil.#4: I used a pen to make a cm deep hole to put my seeds in.#5: I then put one seed per pot in with a cm of soil covering them.#6: I then put 10 of the cups by a window for sunlight.#7: I put the other 10 in my closet to keep away from sunlight.#8: I then filled a measuring cup with 10mL of water and watered all 20 of my plants, once a day for 12 days.#9: Everyday I waited for approximately 3 hours after I watered the plants to measure the length of the plants.

Data/Results*each measurement is of the two tallest plants out of the 20 experimented Average measurements of Exposed to SunlightDay Height in cm1 1. 52 1.183 2.54 2.755 3.1256 3.87 4.758 5.049 5.9810 6.12511 6.2512 6.25 Average measurements of Non-exposed to SunlightDay Height in cm1 02 03 0.054 0.055 0.756 0.987 1.1258 1.289 1.4110 dead11 dead12 dead Journal Day One:I just planted my seeds. Because of germination process lasted a little bit too long, the plants don t look too healthy. Day FourThe plants exposed to sunlight are growing well. My seeds not exposed to sunlight have not grown yet. Day SevenThe exposed plants are growing well, they have grown around 4cm each. The non-exposed plants have not grown well, but did reach 1cm. Day TenThe exposed plants are starting to lean but have grown to be around 6cm. My non-exposed plants have now died. I noticed that they were falling on day five, and now they are dead. End (day twelve)My exposed plants did turn out to grow to be at least 6cm each. Some have fallen over. All my plants that weren t exposed to sunlight have died or have not grown at all. I also noticed that my soil would become dry easily, but I did water a constant 10mL per day to each plant. ConclusionMy hypothesis and problem were proven to be correct in my experiment. It isn t positive that my plants didn t grow because there wasn’t any sunlight, because I only tested them for twelve days. It was correct that the plants did grow well with sunlight. A way to correct this experiment would be to:-Germinate accurately-Test more times than just twice-Use better soilIf these variables were slightly changed, it may improve the outcome of the experiment. As you can see the non-exposed plants did not grow as well, it could be that poor soil and no sunlight would make a huge difference. All in all, I did prove my hypothesis with the variables staying constant. Bibliography Miller, Kenneth R. andJoseph Levine, Biology,Prentice Hall, Engelwood Cliffs, NJ 1995 Gamble, JoanBiology Teacher, Feb. 24, 1999 Jesiolowski, JillTwining for Morning Glories,Organic Gardening, 1 Mar 1998 Cavers, PaulMorning Glory,The 1998 Canadian Encyclopedia, 6 Sep 1997