Joseph Skiff

Abstract:

Drought resistance is important because if farmers find a way to preserve their plants during a drought then they won’t have to deal with the financial destruction that droughts bring. Previous studies have shown that adding organic fertilizers into the soil of agricultural plants could help strengthen their resistance against droughts. The objective of this study was to find the right amount of fertilizer to have the greatest impact on drought resistance. My hypothesis is, if I add a nutrient load of fertilizer to soil then it will strengthen the plant and it will survive longer in a simulated drought then a plant with just potting soil. This was researched by planting rye grass seeds in 9 different flats at the same time. Three flats acted as a control with just potting soil while the other 6 flats were fertilized. Three flats had 10-10-10 fertilizer which contains 10% nitrogen, 10% phosphate and 10% potash. The three other flats had 20-20-20 fertilizer. I watered the plants for one week then I simulated a drought by not watering one flat with each nutrient load including one of the control flats. The “drought” lasted two weeks and I recorded to see if the plant has died or is dying. My data suggest that nutrient load may have a small effect on drought resistance since the control group died slightly earlier than the fertilized groups.