I did the project Plants in the Desert. This project required me to grow vegetables after I had devised a minimum watering system, to water them with, all while conserving as much water as possible. I then got three 5-gallon glass tanks, putting the same minimum watering system in each one. With each of the three tanks, I added a different amount of water to each. To tank A I added a small amount of water, to tank B I added an average amount of water, and to tank C I added a large amount of water. Once my experiment was over a month and a half later, I saw that the middle tank for the amount of water it was given did the best, tank B, which was given an average amount of water. Overall I learned a lot from this experiment, the first thing is that through good problem solving thought out plan the experiment can come through. I also learned that it takes great care and willingness to do a project like this and you have to enjoy it, to get it properly done, which I did.

Introduction

Before I invested my time and efforts to scientifically solve the problem posed with plants in the desert, I first researched related topics. By researching these related topics I was able to then, have a clear understanding to what I was getting into and certain considerations I had to pertain to.

Thus researching the following related topics to plants in the desert:

-Hydroponics (growing plants without the use of soil)

-the wick system and other similar hydroponics systems

-Plants of the desert

-different types

-what they need to survive

The Problem

After researching the related topics above, I then came back to the original problem posed, and from here was able to scientifically solve the problem to the best of my knowledge. The problem at hand was devising a minimum watering system for growing the plants (vegetables) in the desert, all while conserving as much water as possible. With the information I had gathered from research, I soon made the critical steps to decide how in fact I was going to solve the problem at hand. Once I decided how to solve the problem, I then had to decide how to get from step a to b to c etc. After completing both these tasks I was then able to form my hypothesis and start the project.

Hypothesis

I know formed my "hypothesis," which states the following:

If first I devise a minimum watering system, adding this system to three separate, 5- gallon glass tanks, with each the same amount of things, like soil, crushed stone and seeds etc. Thus while only adding, a different amount of water, from tank to another, substantial enough to see a difference. I then would be able to conclude which tank of pepper plants was able to sustain a good amount of growth with the amount of water given to it.This tank would be tank B, which will maintain good health and an average height between the two other tanks, given that itís had an average amount of water between the two other tanks.Tank A on the other hand will sustain good health, but the average height of the pepper plants will be noticeably shorter then that of tank B, since it has been given a lesser amount of water. Lastly tank C, which was given the most amount of water, which might be to much, will sustain good health, and the average height of the pepper plants will be slightly taller then that of tank Bís.

Materials

3/ 5 gallon glass tanks
6/ bags of 4 dry quarts of Schultz professional Cactus & Succulent potting mix
1/ container of 5 quarts of rely small crushed stone
1/ small beaker, with measurements up to 250 milliliters
6/ pairs of latex gloves
5 feet & 7 ½ inches of PVC pipe with the inner pipe measurement of ½ an inch
1/ pipe cutter
3/ 90 degree elbow pipe connectors with the inner pipe measurement of ½ an inch
1/ regular ruler
1/ pen
1/ blue examination book or observation notebook
1/ packet of pepper seeds
1/ grow light, capable of covering a length across 3/ 5 gallon glass tanks sitting side by side of each other with their longest two sides parallel to each other.
3/ small funnels capable of fitting inside the PVC pipe
1/ drill
1/ of the smallest drill bits you can find
1/ drill adjuster
1/ roll of masking tape
1/ plastic bucket capable of measuring quarts
1/ spade

Safety Considerations

-When handling the glass tanks be careful carrying them so as not to break one.

-When handling the soil try to keep our hands with coming in contact with your eyes, which will prevent eye irritation.

-When handling the pipe cutter, make sure you have a firm grasp on the PVC pipe being cut, so the pipe does not slip which could lead to injury to your hands etc.

-When handling the grow light, either to move it or adjust it, while still plugged in do not touch the bulb which could seriously burn you

-Finally after handling the dirt etc. wash your hands

Procedure

a. First gather up the 5 foot 7 ½ inch PVC pipe, the pipe cutter, the ruler and the pen.

b. Once you have all of these things, get the ruler and measure out 22 ½ inches from one end of the PVC pipe to wherever it stops, and mark where it stops

c. Once youíve done this, divide that 22 ½ inches of pipe into 3 equal measurements while marking each section, which each section should equal 7 ½ inches

d. With the rest of the pipe, divide it into 3 equal sections again while marking each section as you go along, but this time each section should measure 15 inches, making a grand total of 45 inches

e. Now with the pipe cutter, open it up, turning the screw counter clockwise, so it fits around the PVC pipe loosely. Then move it to a marked section, placing the pipe cutter over it, while holding the pipe, tighten the pipe cutter by turning the screw clockwise, so that the pipe cutter has a firm grasp on the PVC pipe.

f. While still holding the pipe firmly, rotate the pipe cutter around the pipe 360 degrees, stop, tighten the pipe cutter once more and rotate the pipe cutter until 360 degrees around. Do the two steps before this until all there are 6 sections of PVC pipe.

On completing this gather up the drill, drill adjuster, small drill bit, the 3/ 7 ½ inch pipe sections, the pen and the ruler.
Pickup the drill adjuster and place the drill bit either one of the 4 holes encircling the top of the drill opening. Now turn the drill bit counter clockwise making the opening of the drill larger, do this just enough to have the drill bit fit loosely.
Now pickup, the drill bit, and place it in the opening of the drill, do not though take the drill adjuster out of the hole. While putting the drill bit straight up in down, sticking a little more then half way out, make sure you put the dull side or but of the drill bit a little less then half way in the opening of the drill.
Once youíve done these things, close the drill opening by turning the drill adjuster clockwise, so that the drill bit is secure within the opening of the drill without moving.
Now get the drill, with the small drill bit, the ruler, the pen and 1/7 ½ inch pipe section. Pickup the ruler and the PVC pipe section and from one of the pipeís end, measure out 1 inch and mark it with the pen, where that inch ends.
Now do this again, doing this until you measure out 5 inches from one end of the PVC pipe to about 3 quarters of the pipe section, marking each section as you go along.
Now that youíve marked these sections, being that you should have 5 marked sections you can now drill holes. Pickup the drill once more with one hand and with the other hand put a firm grasp on the PVC pipe section you just marked. Where your hand is holding the drill you should be able to press on as soon as you squeeze it with your hand. When it is on place the turning drill bit on the first marked section and put a somewhat firm pressure on the hand holding the drill, all while holding the PVC pipe with your other hand. Once the drill starts to go through stop and see if you have a small hole, if not drill some more but donít go through the other side of the pipe.
Once youíve drilled the first PVC pipe section, move on to the next marked section etc, until each marked section has a small drilled hole in it. After finishing drilling 5 holes in the first pipe section move onto the other two and repeat the last part of step e and steps f and g, and finishing with the first part of h.

For this procedure you will need the 3 drilled 7 ½ inch pipe sections, the duck tape, the 3/ 15 inch PVC pipe sections and the 3/ pipe connectors.
First get the 3/ 7 ½ inch pipe sections, the other pipe sections and the pipe connectors. With either end of one of the 15 inch pipe sections twist on one pipe connector, until rely tight. Now get one of the drilled PVC pipe sections, and twist the pipe into the other end of the pipe connectors, the side, without a drilled hole, an inch from that end. When this is complete, get the duck tape and rip of about an inch or so of the tape. Put it over the only opening left of the small PVC pipe with the drilled holes in it. Do this until the opening is completely covered with duck tape.
On doing the last step, with the other two 4 PVC pipes and 2 connectors do steps a and b to put together two more minimal watering systems

Now that weíve put together the minimum watering system, we can move onto setting up the 3 experiments. For this you will need the 1/ spade, the 6/bags of cactus soil, the bucket, the 3/ 5 gallon glass tanks, the container with crushed stones, 3/ pairs of latex gloves, the 3/minimal watering systems and the beaker.
Now put one glass tank in front of you, and get the container with the crushed stone and the bucket. Lastly get the beaker and with this scoop up as much crushed stones as you can and dump it in the bucket. Do this until you have in your bucket 2 quarts of crushed stone and once you have this dump the contents of the bucket into the one glass tank. Once the crushed stone is in their level out the crushed stone in the tank to make it fairly even.
Now pickup 1/minimal watering system and place it on the bottom of the tank, with the longest part sticking up and the small pipe parallel with the two longest sides of the tank. Now dig under the minimal watering system with you other hand and place the system on the very bottom of the tank touching the glass. On doing this bury the system, so that the crushed stone is even in the tank and you can only see the majority of the long PVC pipe, which should stand straight op and down.
After doing the last step, do this to the other two tanks, following steps b and c.
When all the tanks are filled some, with crushed stone and have the minimal watering system inside the tank, we can move onto mixing the cactus soil with water. You will need for this, the 1/spade, the bucket, the 3/glass tanks nearby, the 3/ pair of latex gloves and the beaker.
Now get two bags of soil, the bucket, a pair of latex gloves and the beaker. Put on the gloves and open the 2 bags of soil. Dump the 2 bags of soil into the bucket. Pickup the beaker and measure out, 250 ml of water at the nearest sink, and then dump it on top of the soil. Fill up the beaker 7 more times with the same amount of water onto the soil in the bucket.
Now with the gloves on, pickup the spade and start mixing the soil with the water. Do this until all the soil is mushy and then with the spade scrape out the soil and dump the soil into one tank. Be careful though not to move the minimum watering system when doing this and once all the soil is in there even it out in the tank and after you finish this throw out the latex gloves.
On completing the last step, do the same thing to the other 2 tanks and soil, following steps f and g. After everything is done make sure to clean up.

For the next procedure you will need the packet of pepper seeds the ruler and the last 3/ pairs of latex gloves.
Put on the gloves, and with the ruler in hand, go to one of the tanks and stick the ruler into the soil. When doing this stick the ruler 1cm in the soil above the underground watering system, right in front of the big tube sticking out. Then with the end of the ruler a cm in the soil, drag it about the entire length of the underground watering system, more or less a rough estimate on its length. When doing this try not to go any deeper then 1cm. Once the first tank is done follow the same procedure to make an opening for where the seeds will go.
Now open the packet of seeds into your hand. Split up the seeds into 3 even piles, and if there is an extra put it into one group but make sure you now which group or groups has an extra seed. Now distribute one pile each of pepper seeds into each tank, spreading them along your little canal. Once this has been done to all of the tanks, cover up the seeds in each tank by putting the soil pushed aside when making the seed canal on top of the seeds set in place.
Take of your gloves now and throw them away. Put the tanks next to each other so that the longer sides of the glass tanks are against the other two tanks one of the two longer sides. Leave the 3 tanks exactly like this without adding any water for a few days.

5. Once the few days have passed, you will put the sunlamp on top of the tanks in away that all the tanks 2 longest sides are parallel to each other. You will put the sunlamp on for at least 9hrs a day and no more then 10hrs each day. Also when the 2 days are up put a funnel in each opening of the minimum watering system and leave them there for as long as you run the experiment. Water the 3 tanks once a day, after the two days. Before doing this label one tank a, one b and one c. In tank a, each day you will put 75ml of water, in tank b, each day you will put 150ml and in tank c, each day you will put 200ml of water. Every three days you will write down in your journal, the growth of the plants in each tank, the range in height between the smallest plant in the tank to the tallest. You will also put down the date of these observations and how many plants you have in each tank. Doing the following things every day or every 3 for some procedures until you terminate your project, after having enough evidence to support your theory.

Results

Date and side notes	Lab A results	Lab B results	Lab C results
10/22/99	Set up lab, added 2 liters of water	Same	Same
10/25/99 Put on sun lamp for first time	No change, + 75 ml of h2o	No change, +150 ml of h2o	No change, +200ml of h20
10/26/99	No change, +75 ml of h2o	No change, +150 ml of h2o	No change, +200ml of h2o
10/28/99	No growth or change, +75 ml of h2o	No growth or change, +150 ml of h2o	No growth or change, +200 ml of h2o
10/29/99 + more water due to upcoming weekend	No growth or change, +150 ml of h2o	No growth or change, +300 ml of h2o	No growth or change, +400 ml of h2o
11/1/99	Growth- 3/ buds about ½ a cm in Height, +75 ml of h2o	Growth- 8/ buds an avrg of 1cm in height, +150 ml of h2o	Growth- 18/ buds an avrg of ¼ a cm in height, +200 ml of h2o
11/3/99	Growth- 10/ ltl pepper plnts, avrg height of ½ cm, +75 ml/ h2o	Growth- 16/ ltl pep. plnts , same avrg height as before, +150 ml/h20	Growth- 30/ ltl pep. plnts, same avrg height as bef. ,+200 ml/h20
11/5/99 added 2 times amnt of h2o because of weekend	G- 14/ pep plnts, avrg height of ½ cm, +150 ml/h20	G- 21/ pep plnts, avrg height of 1cm, +300 ml/h2o	G- 38/ pep plnts, avrg height of ½ cm, +400 ml/h2o
11/9/99 1^st day I took pictures	G- 16/ pep plnts, height range from 2-5cm, +75 ml/h20	G- 21/ pep plnts, height rng from 3 ½-8cm, +150 ml/h2o	G- 41/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 1 ½-7 cm, +200 ml/h2o
11/12/99 The day I found out that there were marigolds in Lab C!	G- 18/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 4-8cm, +75 ml/h2o	G- 22/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 4-9 ½ cm, +150 ml/h2o	G- 17/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 3-7 ½ cm, +200 ml/h2o
11/15/99	G- 20/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 1 ½-8 ½ cm, +75 ml/h2o	G- 25/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 2 ½-9½ cm, +150 ml/h2o	G- 18/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 3 ½-8 ½ cm, +200 ml/h20
11/19/99	G- 20/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 3-9 cm, +75 ml/h2o	G- 26/ pep plnts, hgt rng from ½-11cm, +150 ml/h2o	G- 19/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 3 ½-10 cm, +200 ml/h2o
11/23/99 found aphids on plant in all tanks	G- 20/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 4 ½-9 ½ cm, +75 ml/h2o	G- 26/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 2 ½-12 cm, +150 ml/h2o	G- 20/ pep plnts, hgt rng from 5-10 ½ cm, +200 ml/h2o
11/30/99 Got rid of aphids on all plants	G- same as before, hgt rng from 6-10 ½ cm, +75 ml/h2o	G- same as bef, hgt rng from 4-13 cm, +150 ml/h2o	G- same as bef, hgt rng from 6 ½-11 ½ cm, +200 ml/h2o
12/3/99 3 times the amnt of water because of weekend	G- same as bef, hgt rng from 6 ½-11 ½ cm, +225 ml/h2o	G- same as bef, hgt rng from 5 ½-13 ½ cm, +450 ml/h2o	G- same as bef, hgt rng from 8 ½-13 cm, +600 ml/h2o
12/8/99 terminated project today	G- same as bef, hgt rng from 8-12 ½ cm	G- same as bef, hgt rng from 7-14 ½ cm	G- same as bef, hgt rng from 10-14 cm

Picture Gallery

MVC-001F.JPG - photo 1(11/09/99) Picture shows labs A and B

MVC-002F.JPG - photo 2 (11/09/99) Picture shows labs B and C

MVC-004F.JPG - photo 3 (11/23/99) Picture shows lab C

MVC-006F.JPG - photo 4 (11/23/99) Picture shows lab C

Picture above shows tank B in the foreground and tank C in the background, taken on (11/23/99)

Things that could happen!

-There could be other seeds mixed in with your seeds, if you think this is the case make sure you check that they are indeed different before ripping them out. When this happens make sure you state when you found them different and put the date.

-Your plants could also attract aphids or other insects that suck out the nutrients of your plants. If you see any insects that are endangering your plantís nutrition, get a pesticide to kill them one that wonít harm you or your plant. When using anything like this make sure you donít touch your eyes after or during the use of pesticides, and make sure after use you wash your hands. Lastly, mark the date and the circumstances when find these insects if the problem occurs.

Conclusion!

The conclusion to my project is that it came out exactly how I hypothesized it would, my hypothesis was: If first I devise a minimum watering system, adding this system to three separate, 5- gallon glass tanks, with each the same amount of things, like soil, crushed stone and seeds etc. Thus while only adding, a different amount of water, from tank to another, substantial enough to see a difference. I then would be able to conclude which tank of pepper plants was able to sustain a good amount of growth with the amount of water given to it.This tank would be tank B, which will maintain good health and an average height between the two other tanks, given that itís had an average amount of water between the two other tanks.Tank A on the other hand will sustain good health, but the average height of the pepper plants will be noticeably shorter then that of tank B, since it has been given a lesser amount of water. Lastly tank C, which was given the most amount of water, which might be to much, will sustain good health, and the average height of the pepper plants will be slightly taller then that of tank Bís.Thus the accuracy of my experiment is proved with my results of my three experiments and the results clearly show which tank was given a good amount of water so that was able to sustain healthy plant growth along with numerous plants. This of course was Lab B, which had average plant growth between the two and had a good number of pepper plants.