Does the acidity of water affect the growth of tomatoes?

If I water the tomatos with water with a pH of 6, then it will grow faster than the one with the water with a pH of 4 and pH of 8.

• Nine tomato seeds

• Nine pots

• 4 pounds of potting soil

• 1/2 bottle of vinager

• 3 ounces of baking soda

• 5 bottles of tap water

• Spray bottles

• pH stick

1. Gather materials

2. Add ½ bottle of vinegar to one of the bottles

3. Put pH stick in water to measure the pH

4. Take out pH stick

5. Add baking soda to a different water bottle than the one with vinegar

6. Put pH stick in water to measure the pH

7. Pour each of the waters in to the spray bottles

8. Put potting soil in each of the nine pots

9. Plant the tomato seeds

10. Water one of the plants with the regular tap water spray bottle

11. Water a different plant with the acidic water spray bottle

12. Water one of the other plants with the alkaline water spray bott

13. Record the data every other day.

14. Continue each day watering the plants for as long as you need to

15. Repeat all steps for a total of 3 trials

Independent Variable: The pHs of the waters

Dependent Variable:The growth of the tomatoes

Constants: The pots, the plants, the amount of water, the sunlight, the soil.

Does the acidity of water affect the growth of tomatoes? My hypothesis was if I water the tomatoes with a pH of 6, then it will grow faster than the one with the pH of 4 and 8. This was my hypothesis because since it is the safest water and also the best water for humans then it would be the best for the tomatoes. The results I got were different from what I thought they would be because it indicated that the best pH for plants is 8 when I thought it would be a seven. If I ever did this experiment again, I would want to do it with a different plant to see if it was wrong because of the type of plant I used or if alkaline water is better for plants all together.

Does the pH of water affect the growth of tomatoes? This was my experiment because it takes a very long time to grow plants so I wanted to see if the pH of the water that you use could affect the growth of the plant. I thought that the water with a pH of seven would grow better because that's the pH of water that is better to drink so I thought if it was perfect for drinking it would also be the best liquid to water the plants. In the end, the type of pH that makes your plants grow faster was the water with the pH of 8. I think this was because since it is more alkaline and more of a base it is better for the plant because it already gets a lot of nutrients from the soil and fertilizer so it would be better to water it with more of a base.

To make the water have a different pH I put half a bottle of vinegar into one of the waters and then added 3 ounces of baking soda to the other one. To water them I got a plastic spoon and put in each water and put it over each plant. After watering the plants with one of the pHs I cleaned off the spoon and put it in the next water. The next day I would repeat the process and measure the leaves and height to see how much they had grown. I only measured them every other day because I didn’t think the plant would grow that much in just one day.

What I found out from this project was if you want your plants to grow faster you should tamper just a little bit the water so that they will grow faster. This is probably because it is more of a base. I was surprised by the results because I had read an article saying that tomatoes grow best with acidic water. I could improve the results of this by making the experiment go longer to see if anything would change last minute or I could try to make the water with a pH of 8 more alkaline so that way it isn’t as close to a seven.

I think you could use this experiment in real life because now I know that the best water to give tomatoes is pH 8. Since I know that I could speed up the process of the tomatoes growth much more easily and what water to give them when you need them to grow really fast. I can also apply this to real life when I get impatient from waiting a whole month for the tomatoes to grow so I won't have to wait as much.

Lobo ,Brandon. “When, How Often, and much is needed” Dengarden, July 9,2020 https://dengarden.com/gardening/How-to-water-Tomato-plants-the-right-way

Mcrane ,Shelly. “Does the type of water affect plant growth” Hunker

https://www.hunker.com/13404834/does-the-type-of-water-affect-plant-growth

“Three ways to test pH levels in water” Technology.org January 4, 2019

https://www.technology.org/2019/01/04/three-ways-to-test-ph-levels-in-water

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS