fairfolio
Saved Projects

Surviving Drought II: How Much More Food?

CSEF · 2016 Environmental Engineering

Gavin C. Joyce · Raney (Letha) Intermediate School, Corona, Riverside County

Overview

Objectives/Goals The goal of this experiment was to determine if recycled water grew squash fruit in higher quantities and in higher quality than tap water. Methods/Materials Materials 1.18 pots 2. 18 square feet of black fabric 3. 9 small bags of rocks 4. 4 1/2 trash cans of soil 5. 18 squash seeds 6.2- 2 gallon watering cans 7.Recycled water source 8. Tap water source 9. Biomass scale 10. Thermometer 11. Clock Method: 1. Place pots in two rows of 9 each 2. Fill the pots 1/3 of the way up with rocks 3. Cut and place one square foot of fabric in each pot, covering the rocks 4. Fill pots another 1/3 of the way with soil 5. Plant 2 squash seeds in each pot 6. Water daily and adjust amount used to the temperature and season 7. Record data on amount of fruit produced and stand-out qualitative traits Results The recycled water grew roughly double the amount of squash fruit that the tap water grew. The recycled water squash was also more developed and healthier than the tap water squash. Conclusions/Discussion The results of my project show that recycled water is great for producing food especially when it contains high amounts of phosphorus. This is important because it may not be the quantity of water that will help us through this drought but quality in water that will help us in the end.

Summary statement

After last year determining that vegetables can be grown with recycled water, this year I wanted to investigate if recycled water grew more squash fruit than first use tap water and by what margin.

Help received

My grandfather provided access to gardening space as well as materials.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2016 Environmental Engineering · Entry J1014

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