What will grow faster, a strawberry seed or a slice of a strawberry?
8-1527
8th grade
Nativity Catholic School
Archdiocese of San Francisco
2024 San Mateo County Office of Education STEM Fair
Abstract
My purpose statement was that I wanted to find more effective ways to grow strawberries whether you need them for survival or just for casual consumption. The conclusion that I had come up with was that the slices of strawberries would grow quicker because they had already been grown before “technically” and that there were plenty of thriving seeds on them. There were also many variables such as Weather, Sunlight, and Wind. But the rest of the variables were controlled like how much water was given, what kind of humid environment they live in, and exposure to the outside. I controlled these variables by using a measuring cup for the amounts of water and using seran wrap to contain the heat in the plants. From all of the data that I could gather it seemed like the potted plants with seeds had grown the most and weren't being corrupted by mold from the inside slowly. In conclusion, there are many ways to improve this project and possibly avoid disasters, keeping a stable environment with your plants is quite important as it's the main variable to success with your plants. Make sure that you are being very careful with water measurements too because you wouldn't want to flood your plants, keeping an eye on the forecast comes in handy since I would know when to move them inside to my garage.
Purpose Statement
I wanted to do this project because I wanted to find the easiest and most efficient way to grow strawberries. Food and Fruit are fundamental in survival because we need them to live and to gain energy. So finding out what way allows us to grow strawberries the fastest could come in handy and help in worse-case- scenarios. Strawberries also contain low levels of calories and can prevent heart disease.
Hypothesis
I hypothesize that the strawberry slice will grow faster than the regular packet seed. I think this because the strawberry seed has already been grown once before and the strawberry is already used to its certain environment. The strawberry seeds from the packet are brand new and haven't grown yet, they also still have to adapt to their environment and thrive in it.
Experimental Procedures and
Materials
1 Get your 8 pots, 4 for each experiment and 1 seed each for 4 pots, 1 strawberry slice each for 4 pots
2 Put seran wrap over your pot for humidity
3 One cup of water for 16 days consistently
4 Graph results every day with ruler (height)
5 Compare your results between the seeds and slices
Experimental Procedures and
Materials
Materials :
Ruler, 1 Packet of strawberry seeds, 1 Fresh strawberry, seran wrap
Measuring cup
8 pots
Experimental Results
With my project, I waited and tested for 16 days consecutively although the experiment had failed due to its harsh conditions outside that did not stop me. So I decided that I would test again to see if I could do anything different! Even with its proper care, I should take more responsibility by covering up the strawberries as mold started to take over 4 of the pots which would contain the slice. Although the picture may be blurry you can still observe the mold on the left side which contains the strawberry slices
Experimental Results
Here are some more photos throughout the process of growing the strawberries
Day 2 (first experiment)
Day 7 (second experiment)
Analysis of Experimental
Results
Overall after collecting all of my photos, I couldn't quite gather anything because of the conditions that messed up the potted plants. But From the photos I've shown mold started to grow on them, I would assume this is from the open exposure that the plants had to the outside.
Conclusions
My original hypothesis was that “that the strawberry slice will grow faster than the regular packet seed. I think this because the strawberry seed has already been grown once before and the strawberry is already used to its certain environment.”Now I'm not able to compare any of my data to this original hypothesis but I can show what I could done to improve my project.
-The plants could've used a more enforced environment meaning that it stays in its humid environment and won't be interfered with.
-I also should done this experiment in the earlier months because of strawberry season and maybe they just weren't able to thrive with this weather
- It would been more beneficial for me to move the plants into my garage before it started to rain to protect them
Acknowledgements
I would like to give thanks to my family who helped support me in buying the supplies needed to test my project.
Bibliography and
Sources
Meghan, H (2023, August 15) How to grow strawberries from seed. Bhg. https://www.bhg.com/grow-strawberries-from-seeds-6829282
Rob, C (2023, December 4) Growing fruit plants from seed. Pennstate.
https://extension.psu.edu./growing-fruit-plants-from-seedd
Laura, M (2023, August 3) How to plant fruit seeds. Gardeningknowhow.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/fruits/fegen/planting-seeds-from-fruit.htm