Can the Color of a Lightbulb affect the growth of a plant?

Question: Does a plant grow differently under different color light bulb?

Hypothesis: I believe that the color that will help grow the plants better is the white light bulb because of the fact of it being the brightest.

Procedure:

• • I bought the colors red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and normal color light bulb. I will be planting the plants by start. I purchased the basil and oregano as my experiment plants. December 22 is when I first planted the plants. There are 6 of each type (6 oregano and 6 bail)

  • I labeled each cup with their type of plant and the color that they will be growing under

  • I put tin foils under the cups so that they don't spill.

  • Each cup has equal amount of dirt of 2 3/4. Inches.

• • The type of dirt I used was natural and organic seed starting mix.

  • We planted the Basil seeds equally at 1/4 of height down. We put three seeds in each cup. We planted the seeds 1 in. Away from each other to make it equally.

• • For the oregano plants we planted them 1/8 of height down. We as well put 3 seeds in each 6 cups and made them 1 inch apart from each other

  • We watered the plants with cold water. Each cup got the same amount of water. Which was 40 ML.

  • The height in which the lamp is above the plants is 8 inches so that they equal all hit the plants at the same height. It is the height between the lamp and plants

• • The lights will be turned on 24/7 and will water them each day. They will be watered 40 ML

Abstract:

Can the color of a lightbulb affect the growth of a plant?

It’s amazing how life can be grown in your own closet. A few months ago i had a question in mind, “Can plants grow differently under different colored lightbulbs?” I chose to do this experiment because it can help answer the question, in which color can a affect how fast and how good a plant can grow. My hypothesis was that i believed the white color light bulb would be the one to be more successful because it was the brightest light.

In order to make my experiment in motion i had to buy various lamps. I wanted to test 6 certain different colors. Which were blue, orange, red, green. Yellow, and normal color light bulb. I chose these colors because of the colors of the rainbow. The material that were needed to do this experiment were 6 lamps, 6 different colored lightbulbs, basil seeds, oregano seeds, cups that are used to grow plants in, water, and soil. In total there will be 12 cups, 6 cups with basil seeds in them and 6 cups with oregano seeds in them. Under each lamp there was one basil plant and one oregano plant. When placing the lamps near each other, i had to make sure that each color hit their own plants and did not share any light. I grew my plants in my closet where room could be found, i used my closet because it had space and was a dark place where no sunlight could touch. In order to separate the plants and al amount of dirt of 2 3/4. Inches. The type of dirt I used was natural and organic seed starting mix. I as well labeled their light i used styrofoam borders and put them in between the two colors that were next to each other. To make sure the experiment was fair each cup has equ each cup with their type of plant and the color that they will be growing under. With that i wrapped the bottom of each cup with tin foil so that when i watered them, the water would not spill and go everywhere. When it came to planting the Basil Seeds, they were equally at 1/4 of height down. We put three seeds in each cup. We planted the seeds 1 in. away from each other to make it equally. For the oregano plants we planted them 1/8 of height down. We as well put 3 seeds in each 6 cups and made them 1 inch apart from each other. When first planting them we watered each plant with 40 ML of water, i used a measuring spoons to make sure each plant got the same amount of water. Once all my plants were planted i had to place them under their own light to start the whole experiment. The height in which the lamp is above the plants is 8 inches so that they equal all hit the plants at the same height. It is the height between the lamp and plants. The lamps were on 24/7 and the plants were never moves as well as the height between the plants and lamps did not change as well. I watered the plants every two days with the fact that if i watered them daily, it was too much water.

Astonishing result were shown when the plants started to grow. Over all i did not believe they would get anywhere, but to a result i was wrong. My plan was to measure the height of the plants a couple weeks after they have grown, to compare their begging height which was 0 in/ cm to whatever they have grown to. I started the experiment on December 22, 2016 and and measured the height if the plants on January 17, 2017. The results were White Basil grew an average of 2.5 cm. The Oregano under the Normal color light bulb did not grow at all and didn't seem to be so successful as other oregano plants under different colors. The Yellow Basil grew 2 out of 3 plants, in total together they grew an average of 3 cm. The yellow Oregano grew a bit, at an average of 3 cm. Green Basil and Oregano did not grow at all and no measurements can't be said. For it stayed at 0. The red Basil, 1 out of 3 seeds were born and the total average was 2.5 cm. The red Oregano grew 2 out of 3 seeds, they both grew at an average of 5 cm. The blue Basil and Oregano didn't really grow measurements can't really be made. The orange Basil: didn't grow as successful as other Basil plants and measurements can't be made. The orange Oregano was the most successful Oregano plants out of all. It grew 3/3 seeds. Plant 1: 0 to almost hitting 3 in. And 7 cm. Plant 2: 1 1/2 in and 3 cm. Plant 3: 1 1/2 in. And 4 cm.

The plants were somewhat of a success for some died on January 21 , 2017. I did learn something when doing this project as not watering plants everyday when first planted, but to water them daily when grown. As well as if wanting to grow basil plants indoor i will have to use a yellow lightbulb or normal one. When growing oregano indoors i have to use the color orange to let them grow. My hypothesis was correct because i predicted that the normal color light bulb would help the plants better. Which did work with the Basil but i was wrong with the Oregano. In all i believe that my experiment was an accurate one because i did everything possible to make everything fair. If I could improve this experiment i would try to measure the plants each week to make the experiment clearer.

Conclusion:

My data proved my hypothesis to be correct. If I could improve my experiment I would have checked the measurement of the plant to see the before and after of the plants growth. My science fair was accurate because each plant was watered the same amount of water, and all the plants were the same distance apart from each other (the lightbulb and the plant). Also my project was accurate because the light was turned on for the same amount of time.