Hello all! I am planning to make a research paper about the effect of a new fertilizer to a growing plant. I am a high school student so I am really not very familiar with the steps I should take before planting the seed and applying the fertilizer, and the tools I could use to monitor the soil etc. Please suggest something that could help me obtain an accurate result. Thank you all! 😁
@ Freedom, it is not always necessary. If possible before planing the seed be sure that your seed is free from diseases and your soil is having sufficient moisture to germinate the seed. To see the effect of fertilizer you must be having similar condition for without fertilizer treatment (control) so that you may compare your effect of fertilizer. Please apply recommended doses of fertilizer as excess fertilizer alters the soil by creating too high of a salt concentration, and this can hurt beneficial soil microorganisms.
Replication of samples, rotation of pots to avoid microclimate bias, null hypothesis, controls, etc. These are all factors to consider :)
Freedom Mendoza
Seems that your research paper is about *the effect of a new fertilizer to a growing plant.*
1. So, you need to decide what 'new' fertilizer and what plant you want to involve in your experiment. Since you are a High School students, you probably need to the result in a short time. So, a fast growing (short life-cycle) plant species can be considered.
2. Where should you grow these plants? In the field or in an greenhouse. I suggest you grow them in a pot or trays in a climate-controlled greenhouse or growth chamber. So, you don't worry about the weather (too hot, too much water from rain....) in the field, which might kill your plants.
3. You need to do some homework, in terms of what concentration of the new fertilizer you should use. If too little, it might not have effect; if too much, it might 'burn' your plants to death. (so, in your experiment, you should use several concentrations to do the experiment).
4. You should consider how often you should add fertilizer solution to your plants? every day? every 3 days? every week? Nobody will know the answer, until you do an experiment yourself.
< and the tools I could use to monitor the soil etc. >
pH strips (for soil pH value), moisture meter (for soil moisture)...
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