Category: Grade 10

How will plants grow with rain water, sugar water and tap water?

HYPOTHESIS: If I have 9 plants and I water 3 with rain water the other 3 with tap water and the last 3 with 5% sugar water (100 ml of tap water mixed with one flat tbs of sugar) then the plants watered with rain water will grow better because some tap water has a small amount of chlorine which could not be good for the plants and the rain water is all natural with nutrients from nature (lakes, rivers etc.) and the sugar water will be second biggest because it is just tap water but with extra nutrients but could be dangerous for the plant.
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: Type of H2O

LEVELS OF INDEPENDENT VARIABLE AND NUMBER OF REPEATED TRIALS
The Independent variable is the 2 different types of water that will be used to feed the plants. The 2 levels are tap water and rain water. Each type of water will be feeding 3 different plants.

DEPENDENT VARIABLE AND HOW MEASURED
The plants are the dependent variables I will be measuring. They will be measured in Centimeters with a ruler.

CONSTANTS/CONTROLS
1. The amount of water given to each plant.
2. The amount of soil given to each plant to sit in.
3. Plant seeds
4. Sunlight received by each plant
5.) placement of plant (makes sure rain cant contact the plants from the sky)
6.) the starting height of the germanium plants and parsley plants
7.)

Materials: tap water 300 ml for each week you conduct this experiment, rain water 300 ml for every week you conduct this experiment, bucket, pot, soil, 3 bean plant seeds, 3 parsley plants, 3 geranium plats, gardening gloves, ruler, space, pencil, paper, eraser, watering pot / cup, Lab sheet, table, measuring tape, measuring cup, tea spoon, sugar, you will need 15ml or 3 teaspoons of sugar for every week you conduct this experiment.
PROCEDURE:
Step 1: place 9 flower pots on balcony or inside beside large window, it is imperative that the pots have equal sunlight the entire day so pay attention to your pot placement. Also make sure that rain water from the sky cannot reach the plants.
Step 2: fill up each pot 2/3 way up with soil
Step 3: place 6 green bean seeds in pots A1, A2 and A3
Step 4: plant same size parsley plants in plant C1,C2 and C3
Step 5: plant same size germanium plants in pot B1, B2 and B3
Step 6: water plants A1, B1, and C1 with 100 ml of regular tap water
Step 7: water plants A2, B2, and C2 with 100 ml of rain water
Step 8: water plants A3, B3, and C3 with sugar H20 (sugar H2O is 100 ml of regular tap water mixed thoroughly one flat tea spoon of regular white sugar)
After step 6 & 7 Water each plant with their designated type of H2O every week
Step 9: every week take precise measurements of height with a ruler (take measurements in centimeters). Also use your eyes to try to spot a difference in color and appearance.
Step 10: after 4 weeks take your final measurements with your ruler or measuring tape and compare the physical characteristics (color, brightness, standing tall or leaning over?) of the pairs of plants.

Keep in mind Sugar water = 100 ml of water + 1 flat teaspoon of sugar

Background Information:
I chose to use beans, germanium and parsley because one is a plant, one is a flower and one is a bushy plant.
the sugar will kill the plants if the water has too much sugar in it
According to https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/700/is-rain-water-better-than-tap-water-for-plants the rain water will be better than tap water with a clear visual difference.
According to http://urbangardenguide.com/homepage/indoor/is-tap-water-bad-for-plants/ city tap water contains fluorine and chlorine which can slow growth of plant
According to http://www.livestrong.com/article/548438-is-tap-or-rain-water-better-for-plants/ rain water is more acidic in different regions.
Rain water is more pure than tap water
There are many mixed answers about sugar water, some say it does nothing, some say it is better and some say it is actually dangerous for your plants.
According to https://www.quora.com/Does-watering-plants-with-sugar-water-help-them-grow the negative effects of sugar to plants are long term so we will see in the coming weeks.
5 ml of sugar (1tea spoon) in 100 ml of water makes it 5% concentration sugar water according to my calculator.
Rain water in BC is not toxic
Tap water in BC is clean to drink
Sources say you should have around 7% sugar in water for healthy plants
If bean plants are bent put a stick to make them up right

Bibliography:
https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/700/is-rain-water-better-than-tap-water-for-plants
http://urbangardenguide.com/homepage/indoor/is-tap-water-bad-for-plants/
https://www.gardenista.com/posts/urban-gardener-is-unfiltered-tap-water-safe-for-plants/
http://vancouversun.com/news/staff-blogs/is-tap-water-killing-your-soil-the-experts-weigh-in
http://www.livestrong.com/article/548438-is-tap-or-rain-water-better-for-plants/
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1543475/rain-water-versus-city-water-for-health-of-plants
http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/environment/air-land-water/water/water-quality/drinking-water-quality
http://www.livestrong.com/article/548438-is-tap-or-rain-water-better-for-plants/
https://www.quora.com/Does-watering-plants-with-sugar-water-help-them-grow

Observations:
At week 0 the parsley plants are all 13 cm (all 3 plants)
At week 0 all 3 germanium plants are at 17 cm tall

Bean plant watered with sugar H2O is the first one to sprout

The beans watered with sugar water is 6 cm while the other plants are just sprouting at both around 3 cm
The bean plant watered with sugar H2O already has some leaves while the other 2 plants both have much smaller leaves
The bean watered with rain water has larger leaves than the bean watered with tap water
The plant watered with rain H2O water seems to be catching up to the plant watered with sugar H2O in vertical height wise.
The plant watered with tap water is taller than the plant watered with rain water
The sugar water plant had the most seeds sprout.
The germanium and parsley plants take long to grow so there is little difference in height.
Rain water was better for all the plants besides the bean plant (Vertical height growth wise).
The flower on the geranium with tap after looks fuller and healthier than both the other geraniums.
The sugar h2o plants seem to be the tallest
The tap water plants are taller than the rain water plants
The sugar and rain water geranium flowers look very dry
The water seems to be dissolving the soil in all pots
The sugar water bean plant seems to be making a bean in week 4
All the parsley plants look the same in the end

Results:

week 0: A1, A2, A3 = 0 cm, B1, B2, B3 = 17 cm, C1, C2, C3 = 13 cm.

Conclusion
This experiment investigated what is the best type of water to water your plants with: tap water, rain water or sugar water (100 ml of tap water mixed with 1 tea spoon of sugar)? To investigate this experiment there were 3 Geranium plants, 3 Bean plants (6 bean seeds in each pot) and 3 parsley plants. One of each type of plant will receive 100 ml of rain, Sugar, or tap water twice a week. Every week record height and physical appearance of each plant, Do this for 4 or more weeks. After 4 weeks the heights were recorded to see which water made which plant grow the tallest. Results showed that for the bean plant the bean watered with the sugar water grew the tallest at 42.5 cm but it was also the very first to sprout and the first to grow leaves. The second tallest bean was watered with regular tap water at 35 cm and the shortest bean plant was watered with rain water at 29 cm which really surprised me because rain water is supposedly the best water to water plants with. For the Geraniums the tallest plant was watered with sugar water as well at 28.25 cm. Second place was really close with only 1.25 cm difference, the flower watered with rain water at 26.5 cm and regular tap water at 25.25 was last place. Something really surprising with the Geraniums was that the plant watered with tap water had the fullest and most healthy looking flower while the other two looked the same but very noticeably let healthy than the tap water one. The tallest parsley plant was watered with tap water at 27.5 cm, second was with sugar water at 25.5 cm and last was rain water at 22 cm. All of the parsley plants have the same appearance and shade of green throughout the whole experiment. The performance of the rain water was surprisingly not good compared to the other plants; it was even beat by tap water so maybe pollution could be affecting the water that comes from the sky. Sugar water seems to be the best for growing plants quickly but sources say that sugar water is not good for plants long term and the experiment was only conducted for 4 weeks. I was surprised that the tap water could beat the rain water in some areas because sources say that tap water contains chlorine which isn’t good for plants but maybe BC just has some really good tap water. My hypothesis was: If I have 9 plants and I water 3 with rain water the other 3 with tap water and the last 3 with 5% sugar water then the plants watered with rain water will grow the best because some tap water has a small amount of chlorine which could not be good for the plants and the rain water is all natural with nutrients from nature (lakes, rivers etc.) and the sugar water will be second biggest because it is just tap water but with some extra nutrients but could be dangerous for the plant. My hypothesis was mostly negated because I said that the rain water will be the best but none of the rain water plants were the tallest and they were the shortest in the parsley and bean plant. I said that the sugar water was going to be the second best but it was actually THE best height wise in watering the plants because it had the tallest bean and Geranium plants. I said tap water was going to be the worst but it was actually second best. I was surprised at how negated my hypothesis was. Finally if I had the chance to repeat this experiment these are some things I would change. I think it would be a lot simpler to just use 9 bean plants and we would get more accurate results but just for the bean plant. Second I would make the experiment go on longer because sources say that the sugar water is bad for the plants long term but the experiment was not long term as it was only 4 weeks long. Something else I considered doing was testing what is the best percentage of sugar water for watering plants and I think that is a great alternative experiment related to this one.