fairfolio
Saved Projects

"How Does the Buckeye Grow?" -California State Senator Dean Florez, August 13, 2004

CSEF · 2005 Plant Biology

Christine Haas · Clovis East High School, Clovis

Overview

Objectives/Goals California Senator Dean Florez stated, "In your previous research Buckeye trees seem to have been effective in eliminating mosquitoes." He then asked me, "How easy would it be to grow these trees in large numbers?" Therefore, the purpose of this project was to determine if is possible to mass-produce the California Buckeye Tree. Methods/Materials For Experiment #1 & 2, I sought to germinate 24 buckeye seeds in six different chambers. For Experiment #3A, six already germinated buckeye seeds were placed at four locations. For Experiment #3B, the seedlings from Experiment #3A were placed outside to see which treatment had prepared them the best. Results Buckeye Germination Experiments #1 & 2 Two out of forty-eight seeds germinated, and they had signs of deformities. Growth of Buckeye Seedlings (Experiment #3 # PART A) Seedlings outside grew to 1.875#, in Greenhouse #1 grew to 3.5#, in Greenhouse #4 grew to 7.667#, and in the 15ºC Germination Chamber grew to 9.333#. The seedlings at 15ºC had the strongest growth and the best root systems. Growth of Buckeye Seedlings (Experiment #3 # PART B) Seedlings from the 15ºC Germination Chamber had the most growth with 11.292#. Seedlings from Greenhouse #4 were 8.25#, from Greenhouse #1 were 4.667#, and from outside were 4.625#. Conclusions/Discussion The seeds germinated better in nature and then grew extremely well in the 15ºC Germination Chamber. I believe it is possible to cultivate the California Buckeye tree on a medium-large scale by starting the seeds at 15ºC and transplanting the seedlings to a natural setting.

Summary statement

An attempt to mass-produce the California Buckeye Tree to test the feasibility of growing these trees in order to create the "Buckeye Toxin" for use on all stages of mosquito development.

Help received

Conducted experiments at Clovis East High Agricultural Center. Mother helped with board.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2005 Plant Biology · Entry S1604

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google