When trying to grow plants you must take into account the different variables that may help or hurt your plants. For instance the amount of light, water and food it gets. In this lab we wanted to see the different effects certain things would have on growing plants. We did three different experiments. The first one was a light vs. dark experiment. To see if a plant would grow better in light vs. a dark area. This has to do with phototropism which is the response of a plant to light and etiolation which is when a plant is grown in a dark place and grows spindly and tall and white. My hypothesis was if we put one in a dark place and one in a light place than the one that had the light would grow. I didn't believe the plant grown in the dark would grow. The next experiment we did was testing the apical dominance of the apical bud. This is a little bud that has an auxin that causes the lateral buds to become dormant. We wanted to find out what would happen if we removed it. My hypothesis for this one was that without these apical buds the lateral buds would grow out and be bushy. The third and final experiment that we did was the effects of gibberellic acid on dwarf pea plants. This acid is used to make the length between the internodes bigger. We put this on the pea plants and my hypothesis was that they would grow taller but not by much. .
Materials and Methods .
The first experiment done was the light vs. dark. There were 8 holes put into soil in 2 different pots about a half an inch deep. The there was bean seeds placed in each hole and watered thoroughly. The pots were then labeled and one left in the green house and one left in the cabinet back in the classroom. Observations were taken for the next 3 weeks. The height, the length to the first foliage, the number of leaves, the length of internodes, and the number of shoots were all measured and recorded each week. .
The next experiment was the apical dominance and auxin effects.