1/28 - Setting Up

Figure 5.1: January 6th - Tia Abraham writing out a label (Photo Credit: Rewa Raizada).

1-4 to 1-7 | Planning

The initial plan was to begin growing the plants this week; however, this plan was delayed since we didn't have the soil. This week, I worked on ordering the soil as well as creating all the labels for the plants. Each label gives each plant an identification number (Fig 5.1); the first number is the experimental group and the second is the trial number within that group.

Figure 5.2: January 12th - Tia Abraham holding cornflower seeds during planting.

1-12 to 1-13 | Planting

The soil arrived and I began the planting process. The process took much longer than expected and I only completed 30 pots on January 12th (Fig 5.2). I completed the other 110 on January 13th. I don't suspect that this will impact the data in any way, mainly because the labels were randomly selected and placed in the plants, so all experimental groups are impacted equally.

Figure 5.3: January 18th - Pot 0-8 on day 7 of growth.

1-14 to 1-21 | Growth

Every single day, the plants were sprayed with water and water was added to the bottom of each tray. January 18th, I decided to stop filling the bottom of the tray with water since it was creating a terrible smell in the back room, wasn't reaching all the pots adequately, and altogether was a poor watering system.

Measurable growth first occurred on January 18th, which was day 77 of growth (Fig 5.3). Data for the number of plants and the highest height in each pot was collected and recorded (Fig 5.5).

Online Lab Notebook

Figure 5.4: Online lab notebook contains observations made during experimental process.

1-12 | Lab Notebook

Upon beginning the planting process, an online lab notebook was created in order to track all observations during the process (Fig 5.4).

Data

Figure 5.5: Data collection spreadsheet contains number of plants and largest height in each pot.

1-14 | Data Collection

Upon the beginning of measurable growth, a Google Sheets was created to track data and calculations (Fig 5.5).

1-19 to 1-28 | Dried Out

Many plants are growing strongly; however, many plants have not sprouted by this time yet.

This was most likely caused by a lack of water; spraying each pot only lightly watered the surface, and did not reach the seed or the roots in many cases (Fig 5.6). Additionally, filling the trays at the beginning of the process also contributed to the lack of sprouting in many pots.

Upon returning from the weekend on January 24th, I found that many of the plants have died or are slowly dying, due to a lack of hydration (Fig 5.6). Additionally, a fuse blew in the back room where the plants are growing, leaving the plants in the dark over an unknown period of time and causing the plants to bend toward the emergency light (Fig 5.7).

To compensate for these problems, I decided to re-sow some plants in the pots that either have not sprouted or are dying. These plants will simply start the fan process a week late. This again will not impact the data for the same reason discussed in the Planting stage.

Figure 5.6: January 24th - Pot 1-31 & 1-29 dried out.

Figure 5.7: January 24th - Plants in multiple pots bending toward the emergency light in the room, indicating the original light source shut off over the weekend.

Figure 5.9: January 21st - Fan was delivered to back room and placed in this location; will stay in this location for the rest of the data collection process.

1-21 to 1-28 | The Fan

The fan was obtained January 21st. On January 24th, the first wind measurement was taken, and wind speed of 6m/s was chosen (Fig 5.9).

This biggest problem experienced in this step of the process was the fact that the wind span of the fan was heavily overestimated. Instead of being able to reach 3 20"-long poster boards, it can only span the length of one board. All this does is make the fan process longer, but there should be no other major issues caused by this.

1-31 to 2-25 | Future

Moving forward, the major plan is to begin the fan application process (Fig 5.10). In the following update, information on collected data and possible trends seen will be discussed. Data analysis will also begin.

Figure 5.10: January 31st - Plants placed in position for fan application process. Plants are snipped.

Stay Tuned!

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