Lab No. 5: Germination and Productivity

Introduction

SEED students discussed about wheter or not a plant can germinate in the dark, based on this, raddish seeds were used to look for answers. Two containers with 36 plots each one were exposed to the sunlight, while other two cointainers were put in a dark closet for a couple fo weeks. This report pretends to show what was the general hypothesis, and the question to solve. Also will be showed the experiment students did, the data collected, and its steps.

• Hypothesis

Seeds need light in order to germinate.

• Question

 Can seeds germinate in the dark?

Part 1. Seed Germination

DATA FOR DARK TREATMENT GROUP

Step 1. Your group will receive a tray of 36 samples (6*6). Write down:

    a. How many seedlings germinated per sample? 50
    b. Number of seeds originally planted per sample: 144

Step 2. Now you can calculate the percent germination of the seeds.

% Germination=     (Total germinated seeds / Total planted seeds)  * (100)                                    
% Germination=     (50/144) * 100
% Germination=     34.7 ~ 35%

Part 2. Write this a s a blog entry. Please type a few sentences to answer each of these questions and turn them in.


    1. What was our CONTROL for this experiment?

Seedligns that growed on the light (because it is known that seeds can germinate on the light)

    2. What is the percent germination for the LIGHT TREATMENT? For the DARK TREATMENT?

        % Germination on Dark treatment:  34.7 ~ 35%
        % Germination on Light treatment:  47.9 ~ 48%

The data for the Germination of the light treatment was courtesy of Lilian Xitumul and the integrants of her team.

% GERMINATION GRAPH 

AVERAGE WEGHT GRAPH

AVERAGE HEIGHT GRAPH

Part 2. GPP and NPP

a. Record the weigth (mass) in grams of all the seedlings from your group.

8.9 grams

b. Place all your sprouts on a piece of aluminum foil so they are laying side by side (not mounded up in a pile). These group of plants were dry out for 5 minutes at a temperature of 400º F. After that, the weight was:

1.9 grams

GPP for the Dark treatment 

GPP before drying out the seedlings                      GPP after drying out the seedlings.

GPP = NPP + R                                                               GPP = NPP + R

GPP= 8.9 + 8.9                                                                GPP= 1.9 + 1.9

GPP = 17.8 grams                                                             GPP = 3.8 grams

                                                       GPP for the Dark treatment 

GPP before drying out the seedlings                      GPP after drying out the seedlings.

GPP = NPP + R                                                               GPP = NPP + R

GPP= 11.4+ 11.4                                                                GPP= 2.0 + 2.0

GPP = 22.8 grams                                                             GPP = 4.0 grams

1. Compare the difference in appaerance in the dark treatment and the light treatment plants. If there is a difference in appereance, explain the difference.

The Light treatment seedligns appear to be stand uo very straight, and green, they looking in very good conditions while the seedlings from the Dark treatment weren't able to stand up, they had a yelowwish color and a very fragil structure, but they spread their stems longer than the light treatment and therefore had a large height.

1. If there was growth in the dark treatment plants, explain why that growth may have taken place even though light was not reaching the plants.

Because the seeds collected or had enough energy or nutrotion so they were able to break their shell and sprout and start looking for light.