Biol-181 L
Ms. Kringel
4/7/17
Introduction Gibberellic acid is a hormone that is found in plants, that not only controls the plant’s growth and development, but also germination of seeds, lengthening of the internode of the stem, expansion of leaves, floral initiation, and the development of flowers and fruit.
It is composed of C19H22O6. Plants are known to only produce a small amount of this particular type of hormone. My colleagues and I wanted to form an experiment to find out if the concentration of gibberellic acid would affect the height of pea plants. We decided we would plant 15 pea plants, divide them up into five groups and spray them each day …show more content…
My team and I formed a hypothesis that the more gibberellic acid plants received, the taller they would grow. Methods At the beginning of the experiment, my team and I planted 15 pea plants in pots filled with soil, divided them up into groups of three, and labeled them as: 0.1x, 1x, 10x,
100x and control group. Next we watered the plants, sprayed them with the different concentrations of gibberellic acid, and placed them in our university's greenhouse, where the sprinker system could water them. For the next two weeks, my colleagues and I each took turns spraying the pea plants and observed which ones sprouted first and how tall they grew. Unfortunately, after about two weeks, our pea plants became waterlogged, from receiving too much water, so we had to replant them all over again. This time we used pots that had holes in the bottom of them that would allow excess water to drain, so the peas wouldn't drown. After the peas were replanted, we watered them, sprayed them with …show more content…
Next came 10x, then 1x, after that was 0.1x and the control group on average grew to be the shortest in height (table 1). With this experiment our hypothesis proved to be correct that the amount of gibberellic acid does affect the height of plants. Even though plants do produce a certain amount of gibberellic acid on their own, if you spray them with higher amounts of gibberellic acid, the taller they will grow. Discussion In conclusion, my colleagues did discover that spraying pea plants with different concentrations of gibberellic after planting them would affect how tall they would grow, in comparison to plants that did not receive and acid. We assumed if our plants did not become waterlogged and had more time to grow, they would grow even taller than the surving ones that we had to replant. My team and also learned that if we planted our peas in pots that have holes in the bottom, the less likely they would become water logged after being in a greenhouse that uses sprinkler systems that continually water plants. The holes