| Experimental Design |
1. The Bottle Growing System was assembled, with top inverted like a funnel. The bottle cap with water wick was seated in the bottle reservoir that held the water and nutrients.
2. The bottle funnel was filled with root media. Five heaping tablespoons of Vermiculite or Perlite was then added.
3. Osmocote pellets were added; 6 pellets in the low nutrient treatment (1 pellet per plant), and 24 pellets in high nutrients (4 pellets per plant). The pellets were spread evenly across surface. Control (2 pellets per plant)
4. Then, 4 heaping tablespoons of slightly moistened 50:50 mixture of Vermiculite "seedling starter" mix were added.
5. Six fast plant seeds were evenly spread out over the soil surface in a circular fashion.
7. The seed was covered with two tablespoons of Vermiculite, and smoothed over the surface of the rim of the bottle funnel.
8. The plants were labeled high fertilizer, low fertilizer, and control.
9. The bottles were labeled Blue, standing for Blue Team (Team 13).
10. The entire root medium was soaked well with water until it began to drip from the base of the wick. A little sediment will drip from the funnel at this first soaking. It poured it off and filled the reservoir with sufficient water to reach the bottle cap on the growing funnel.
11. Caution was used when picking up and handling the bottle growth system. The base area was firmly grasped and not at the top of the reservoir near the growing funnel. The reservoir was grasped near the top, collapse in hand, which drove the funnel with the plants out and into the air.
12. The bottle growing systems were placed in the plant light box on a foil with light on 24 hours per day. |
