Gatorade VS. Water PRoject
Description: In this project, I am experimenting on a plant over a period of six weeks. The plant is called the Dumb Cane plant. I have two of these plants and I am trying to see if one will grow better with water, or Gatorade.
Hypothesis: I think the plant that is being watered with plain water will grow better than the plant that is being watered with Gatorade. I think it will grow taller and live longer while the Gatorade watered plant will wither and die. I am assuming that by the 3rd or 4th week, effects will start to drastically take place. I also think that the plant that is watered by Gatorade will have hints of the color of the Gatorade.
Hypothesis: I think the plant that is being watered with plain water will grow better than the plant that is being watered with Gatorade. I think it will grow taller and live longer while the Gatorade watered plant will wither and die. I am assuming that by the 3rd or 4th week, effects will start to drastically take place. I also think that the plant that is watered by Gatorade will have hints of the color of the Gatorade.
Week 1
With both plants, I have watered them with 1/4 a cup. Plant 1 has been watered with water while Plant 2 had been watered with Gatorade. Plant 1 is 8 inches tall and has more leaves and stems than Plant 2. Plant 2 is 8.5 inches tall and has less leaves and less stems than Plant 1. I will be watering both plants every other day so about 3-4 times a week. I will also decrease the amount of liquid that I water the plants with down to 1/8 a cup.
WEEK 2
This week, I changed the amount of liquid added to 1/8 a cup. With the plant watered normally, there were two yellow leaves. The Gatorade watered plant had no yellow leaves. I also noticed that the soil was quite dry the day after watering so I will be upping the amount of liquid back to 1/4 a cup. There is no height growth.
Week 3
As I hypothesized, the effects taken on the plants are drastic. With the watered plant, the leaves that were once yellow are completely wilted and brown. I also saw little bugs coming out of the soil when I watered them. The soil also has white specks in them, I'm unsure about what those are. The Gatorade watered plant has a yellow leaf and a completely brown wilted leaf. It also has specks of white in the soil. No growth.
Week 4
This week, the plants still continue to wilt and brown. I still have decided to keep the amount of liquid up to 1/4 a cup, but next week I will actually put them outside instead of near my window. The watered plant has another brown wilted leaf. The specks of white are still there. The gatorade has one more brown wilted leaf. The leaf that is yellow is browner and more wilted than before. Something I found very interesting was that there was an odor coming off the plants. It had sort of a sour smell mixed with mud. I think it might have been the Gatorade plant, maybe the mixture of the Gatorade and the soil created an odor?
Week 5
This week, nothing has really changed. I did move the plants outside and the odor seemed to go away. Yet some of it is still left but not as strong. In the picture above, you can still see some of the white specks in the water plant. The yellow leaf on the Gatorade plant has turned brown but still not wilted all the way. The rest of the brown leaves on both plants are wilted completely. The bugs from the week 3 are gone as well.
WEek 6
By the end of this experiment, the water plant was much healthier than the Gatorade plant. It grew higher from 8 inches to 8 and 3/4 inches. It had a bit more brown wilted leaves than last week but much less than the Gatorade plant. The Gatorade plant actually shrunk, maybe due to all the wilting of the leaves. It shrunk from 8 inches to 7 and 3/4. It had quite a few brown wilted leaves. The odor as completely gone from both plants.
Conclusion
What I hypothesized and got right: From the beginning of this experiment, I thought the water plant would grow better than the Gatorade plant. It turns out I was right, the water plant grew 3/4 inches while the Gatorade plant shrunk because it was withering down. The watered plant had far less wilted leaves while the Gatorade plant had much more brown wilting leaves. I was also right in hypothesizing that the most dramatic obvious effects would happen in the 3rd-4th week range.
What I hypothesized and got wrong: I hypothesized that the Gatorade plant would change colors due to the colors from the Gatorade. I was wrong, I used yellow Gatorade but I'm sure the leaves only turned fully yellow because they were dying.
What I would do next time: Sometimes I forgot to water the plants, next time I would make sure to follow my experiment and water them in even time frames. I would also try a different color of gatorade like purple or red that would be alot more obvious than the color yellow. Maybe the plants would be able to pick up the color. Lastly, I would leave the plant outside form the start of the experiment as opposed to leaving it inside for the first two weeks.
What I hypothesized and got wrong: I hypothesized that the Gatorade plant would change colors due to the colors from the Gatorade. I was wrong, I used yellow Gatorade but I'm sure the leaves only turned fully yellow because they were dying.
What I would do next time: Sometimes I forgot to water the plants, next time I would make sure to follow my experiment and water them in even time frames. I would also try a different color of gatorade like purple or red that would be alot more obvious than the color yellow. Maybe the plants would be able to pick up the color. Lastly, I would leave the plant outside form the start of the experiment as opposed to leaving it inside for the first two weeks.