Hydroponics Experiment

Data

Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Unfortunately for the experiment (and for the tomatoes!), two months before the plants were scheduled to bear fruit, all the plants, with the exception of the plant grown naturally indoors (Plant 2), died. The plants in the hydroponics system weren’t getting a sufficient amount of water. The fertilizer had collected in the bottom of the pot. It did not reach the root system of the seedlings. The pot was too deep.

Both plants outside (Plants 1 and 3) wilted and died because of the hot weather and lack of water. The plants that died had only just begun to grow true leaves.

The plants grown in soil indoors thrived. They had adequate water because they were in sight and remembering to water was easier. Also, they were protected from the outdoor heat.

A second attempt at the experiment was conducted. Unfortunately, the hydroponic seedlings never appeared healthy, and ultimately withered and died. Further research indicated that the fertilizer in the tank needed to be changed every two days. The fertilizer in the hydroponics tank was never changed.

The seedlings for the outdoor plants (1 and 3) were replanted. They grew taller, and with thicker stalks than the hydroponic seedlings. Pests did not appear to damage the outdoor seedlings, as was hypothesized, so no pesticides were actually used on plant 1.

This experiment was expected to show that hydroponics is a superior method of growing crops as compared to other more traditional horticultures. It was expected that the hydroponics method would create a greater, healthier yield in tomato plants than that of traditional methods of agriculture. Unfortunately, the death of the plants made it impossible to prove or disprove the hypotheses.

What I Might Have Done Differently

If I could do this project over again, I would consult an expert in hydroponics. I should have changed the liquid fertilizer daily from the very beginning. I shouldn't have grown so many plants at once, it was very hard for me to tend to all of them. I should have compared only one plant in hydroponics and another in soil.

If I had used the correctly sized pot for the hydroponics system, it might have solved most of my problems with the experiment. Generally, if I had done more research on how to build a hydroponics system, and if I made my project simpler, my experiment would have been more successful.