fairfolio
Saved Projects

The Germination of Corn, Radish, and Marigolds in Reduced Gravity Environments

CSEF · 2003 Plant Biology

Michael C. de Lyon · Sequoia Middle School, Newbury Park

Overview

Objectives/Goals My experiment was designed to test the germination and growth of corn, radish, and marigolds as the experiment's variable, gravity, was changed. Methods/Materials I examined gravity levels of 0g, 0.25g, 0.5g, 0.75g, and normal gravity. I took 10 seeds of each type and spun them around in a clinostat to simulate different gravity levels. After a period of 30 days, I removed the germinated seeds and analyzed the results, which included germination percentage, root/stem length, and root/stem shape. Results I found that plants grew very well under normal gravity, while plants rotated to simulate reduced gravity often grew poorly, with withered stems and roots pointing in random directions. In addition, the percentage germination of the plants in lower gravities was always less than or equal to the percentage germination of plants at normal gravity (with no rotation). Conclusions/Discussion The results of my experiment suggest that growth of food crops in reduced gravity environments like space may prove to be difficult.

Summary statement

I germinated corn, radish, and marigold seeds in different gravities and recorded germination percentages, length, and shape.

Help received

Father helped build the clinostats.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2003 Plant Biology · Entry J1608

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