Does Miracle-Grow Really Affect the Growth of the Sunflower Plant During Germination and the Early Stages of Growth of the Plant After?

Intro-

People have been planting many different plants for many years. People have always been trying to grow plants to the best of their ability. Many have tried everything and anything to do so. Even today people go to fairs and others contests to show off their plants they were growing over a certain amount of time. In 1868, the Scotts company opened. It originally was a lawn and grass seed company. In 1995, the Scotts company merged with Miracle-Grow, to create what is known to be the Scotts Miracle-Grow company. The Miracle grow for plants can be used for many different types of plants, such as sunflowers. Sunflowers do take a while to grow, about 2 to 4 months and grow up to a couple feet tall. The giant sunflower can even reach 20 feet tall.

Germination process for the plant is around 7 to 14 days. The plan is to do a research project to decide whether or not does Miracle grow really affect the growth of plants in the early stages.The choice of plant to be used is a sunflower. I predict that within the 23 day period that the miracle grow will affect the plants growth enough that the average plant growth between all 24 plants/seeds that use miracle grow will be a greater height than the average plant growth between all 24 plants/seeds that use no miracle grow.

Step 1: Variables

Independent Variables-
1.The water used during the experiment.
2.The pots/containers used to plant the sunflower seeds in.
3.The dirt used to plant the seeds in.
4.The marker used to mark the pots/containers the plants were in.
5.Where the seeds were placed and where they ended.(Stayed in the same place where they started)
6.The Miracle-Grow used in the experiment.(The Same Miracle-Grow used throughout the 23 day time period)
Dependent Variables-
1.The Sunflower seeds are dependent on the water used and maybe the Miracle-Grow.
2.The germination process of the seed is dependent on the water.
3.The growth of the plant to adulthood is dependent on the sunlight, the water, maybe the Miracle-Grow, the weather that day, and the nutrients from the soil.
4.How much water and Miracle-Grow is given to the plants is dependent on me giving them water.
Controlled Variables-
1.The location of the plants have to stay constant. The spot they are put in first is where they stay the whole time the while the lab is going on. It could affect the growth of the plant.
2.The amount of water given to the plants. It has to stay constant the whole time especially during the germination process because it needs water the most.To much or too little amount of water from the last time you gave the plant water could effect the growth of the plant over time.
3.The amount of Miracle-Grow given to the plants. This could affect the growth of the plants during the experiment that are given the Miracle-Grow during the lab.
4.The time the plants are given water/Miracle-Grow. This could also affect the growth of the plant. The time the plants are given Miracle-Grow one day should be the same the next day.
5.The amount of seeds used during the experiment for each set of data must be controlled during the lab. The amount of seeds that do not use Miracle-Grow has to be the same as the amount of seeds that use Miracle-Grow.
6.The dirt has to be the same dirt used during both sets of lab data, Miracle-Grow using plants and non-Miracle-Grow using plants. Just about all different types of dirt have different minerals or materials inside the dirt that could affect the lab results, so the use of the same dirt throughout the experiment is important.
7.The type of water used during the experiment. If one was using water from a water bottle then they should use that same water throughout the whole lab experiment.
8.The Miracle-Grow used in the experiment. The Miracle-Grow used in the beginning of the experiment must be same same Miracle-Grow used at the end of the experiment.

Step 2: Materials Used

Materials used in this Lab experiment-
1.Water
2.Sunflower Seeds-48 seeds/24 for each set of data
3.Some form of Miracle-Grow/ Best choice of Miracle-Grow would probably be Scott’s Miracle-Grow. One can purchase this at a Home Depot or Lowe’s Hardware store.
4.Something to plant the sunflowers in/Some sort of pot would be good to plant the seeds in. Look at the back of the package the seeds came in and follow the instructions those seeds call for. All seeds have certain instructions and they are all different, so it is very important to read them.
5.A place to leave the plants for the whole lab experiment
6.Something to keep track of your plants growth
7.Some sort of measuring device to measure the plants like a ruler or tape measurer. The measuring device needs to have a metric system on it(CM or MM) because CM is the unit used in this lab experiment to measure the plants each time they are measured.
8.Something to mark the flower pots to keep track of what plant is what
9.Could use but do not have to-
-a watering can to water the plants
-a silver sharpie to mark the flower pots

Step 3: How to Do It and How I Did It

Throughout this lab the question is, Does Miracle-Grow really affect the early stages of growth for plants? Well in this lab that question is going to be tested. First one needs to gather the materials listed in the above text. Next ,one needs to set out the pots/containers that the seeds will be placed in and label 24 of them for the plants using no Miracle-Grow than label the other 24 of them using Miracle-Grow. Each set should be marked 1-24 to keep track of what plant is which. Next one will need to fill each pot/container with the dirt one is using for the experiment. The dirt must be the same in each pot/container for the experiment. Next one needs to plant the sunflowers in each correct spot. One needs to follow the directions on the package the sunflower seeds came in in order to plant the seeds correctly for best results. Now that the seeds are planted in their correct spots and all directions are followed then one needs to find a place to set the plants so they can grow correctly. The best place to put them is somewhere outside where they will get sun when they need it and where they do not get affected by the weather conditions like rain, wind,ex,such as an indoor patio. This is very important because this could affect the growth of the plants during the experiment. Make sure each day each plant gets the same amount of water throughout the experiment. Also make sure for the plants that need Miracle-Grow get their daily amount of Miracle-Grow when needed. After the first ten days one needs to collect the data for each plants growth. Collect the data in CM and use your measuring device. Measure from ground up to the tallest part of the plant. Make sure one keeps their data organized and legible for later use. For plants that do not have a height than put a zero in place for your data.One will do this a second time on the 23rd day. Now that one has the data organized one can make a graph if needed using their averages of the growth his/her plants. Look at the results one gets. Does Miracle-Grow actually work during the growth of the plant within the first 23 days or does it not? One can have fun by just planting the plants somewhere else and let them grow to adulthood after the lab. Just enjoy the beauty of the Sunflower and maybe plant some more in the future with the seeds from those sunflowers.

The results are shown in the graph.

Conclusion-
As stated earlier I predicted during the lab that with the help of the Miracle-Grow that the plants using it would have a higher average growth compared to the sunflowers not using the Miracle-Grow. Apparently my data says otherwise for days 1-10 and for the days 11-23. The overall average growth was higher for the plants not using the Miracle-Grow compared to the ones using Miracle-Grow. The plants also not using Miracle-Grow had a more success of grown to not grown ratio with a 17:24 ratio or 71% compared to the plants using Miracle-Grow at 5:24 ratio or 21%. That is a major difference in comparison. My hypothesis was way off for this lab. From this lab it proves within the process of germination for a sunflower(7-14) and the growth of the plant for the rest of the 23 days that Miracle-Grow does not affect the plant. This leads me to believe if I continued the experiment for a longer period of time that maybe the Miracle-Grow might affect the plants using Miracle-Grow. That is a whole different experiment and is not relevant to this data. The experiment could have gone better if…
-the water was measured more accurately.
-the sets of the plants using Miracle-Grow were planted at the same time as the plants not using Miracle-Grow. This would have made the data more accurate and could have given better if not totally different sets of data.
-the sunflower seed brand was the same for both sets of data.(They were the same seeds though)

In the future, if I wanted to do this same experiment again I would follow the text above and maybe get better results than the first time I did the experiment.