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Dirty Beans. Analysis of Soil Quality and Bean Growth . Bryan Glosik, Nick Delphia . Experiment. Original plan Four soil types: Clay, Sand, Topsoil, Metro 24 plants per soil type, half fertilized, half unfertilized - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Dirty Beans
Analysis of Soil Quality and Bean Growth
Bryan Glosik, Nick Delphia
Experiment
• Original plan• Four soil types: Clay, Sand, Topsoil, Metro• 24 plants per soil type, half fertilized, half
unfertilized• Hypothesis: the plants in the topsoil would
fair better than the other soils.• We would offer the same amount of water
to all the plants.
Predictions
• We thought the plants would have a hard time actually growing in the clay
• The sand would support the beans for a while, but that in the end the beans from the sand would not be as healthy as the beans from the other soils
• Fertilized soils would yield more successful plants than unfertilized soils.
How did we measure “success” or “health” in plants.
• Agriculturally speaking, success is determined by overall yield of the plant.
• We recorded what we felt were good indicators of a healthy and productive bean plant.
• Height, Leaf-count, stem-count, bud-count, final dry biomass (roots not included).
A Second Experiment
• Our original setup did not yield as many plants as we expected.
• The clay didn’t even yield one plant.• We started a new experiment after about
three weeks or so.• Experiment B was same as A but no
fertilizer, greenhouse watered for us, soils were metro, organic topsoil, and composted cow manure
Experiment B Hypothesis
• We thought the composted cow manure would yield more successful bean plants due to natural fertilizer qualities.
Results for Experiment A
Nothing grew in the clay
Fertilized plants had more leaves, sand yielded plants with fewer buds
Soil had no significant effect on biomass
Fertilization had no significant effect on bud-count or bio-mass.
Trends in Experiment A
And some more…
Results for Experiment B
• Nothing grew in the composted cow manure
Metro-Mix plants yielded significantly more buds and more
leaves than the organic topsoil
No significant differences in height or bio-mass
Trends for Experiment B
Conclusions
• Don’t grow beans in clay or manure• When given the choice, a farmer should
opt for topsoil over sand• Fertilizer increases the number of leaves,
but not necessarily the number of beans on the plant
• Potting soil yield the more beans than organic topsoil, but realistically, farmers can’t actually have a field full of metro-mix.