The Effect of Pesticide on Plant Development and Growth
Abstract:
Bibliography/Citations:
Bibliography: (MLA)
Jan, Sadaf, et al. “Plant Growth Regulators: A Sustainable Approach to Combat Pesticide Toxicity - 3 Biotech.” SpringerLink, Springer International Publishing, 8 Oct. 2020, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13205-020-02454-4.
“Selective Effect of Pesticides on Plant-A Review.” Taylor & Francis, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10408398.2013.787969.
IowaFarmBureau. “Why Do Farmers Use Pesticides?” Iowafarmbureau.com, 6 Dec. 2019, https://www.iowafarmbureau.com/Article/Why-do-farmers-use-pesticides.
Sterling, Tracy. “Cellular Absorption of Herbicides.” Plant and Soil Sciences Elibrary:: Print Lesson, http://passel-test.unl.edu/beta/pages/printinformationmodule.php?idinformationmodule=1130447094.
“Glyphosate.” EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/glyphosate.
Additional Project Information
Research Plan:
Question or Problem being addressed: the effect of pesticides on plant growth and development
Rationale: I want to investigate how pesticides affect the development and growth of plants. I have a garden at my house, and we like to experiment with growing different fruit and vegetables for example tomatoes or peppers however we don’t use pesticides on our crop, so sometimes we will find that all of our tomatoes or other crop was taken out by other weeds and plant pests, so I want to see if using pesticide is a solution to this problem that won't harm out crop, this information could also be used by farmers and other people growing plants, this could give them information about whether using pesticide is a better alternative, or is it more harmful to their crop, a lot of farmer use pesticide to reduce the amount of crop they lose because of pest, especially with the growing population farmers want to be able to produce as much crop as they can, however I want to investigate to see if using a pesticide will give them this result or if it will end up reducing the amount of crop they produce even more.
Goals/Expected Outcomes/Hypotheses: I believe that the seeds without pesticides sprayed on them will end up growing and maturing fast then the seeds that were exposed to pesticides, the pesticide is a chemical with a lot of toxins in it that could possibly mess up the DNA of the cell or any other important organelles, this would affect the growth of the plant because in order for a plant to grow it needs to undergo the process of mitosis. And in the process of mitosis, one of the first steps in the interphase is to double to DNA of the cell in the nucleus in order to make the chromosomes and and if they were any complications that the pesticide caused the cell and the plant would not be able to undergo mitosis therefore the plant would not be able to grow, leading me to believe that the plant that was not sprayed with pesticide would grow taller and much faster, and pesticide will be more harmful to the peas.
Description in detail of method or procedures:
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Gather all materials.
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Take out 70 plant pot containers and separate them into groups of ten (this should leave you with 7 groups with ten containers in each group).
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Label each group with a sharpie based on the group number, and the number they are in the group, TG1#1 (test group 1 spray #1), TG2#2, TG3#3, etc. until you have all the pots labeled.
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Take out your plastic trays and label them on the side with tape; take out a piece of tape and place it on the side of the tray.
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Label one of the trays “control group”
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Label the next tray “test group 1 spray”, the next “test group 2 spray”, and after that “test group 3 spray.” Continue until “test group 6 spray”
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Next, take all containers outside and fill each with around 3 inches of soil (do not press soil down, lightly scoop it into each).
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Place all your pots down on the ground with each group in a single row (it should end up being a 10x7 reangle of pots)
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Next, take out your hose and set it to “shower.”
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Turn the hose on and sprinkle the water on the pots from about 4 feet away, move the hose swiftly and quickly over the pots not stay in the same spot for too long.
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Your pots should have water draining from the holes at the bottom and should be very saturated with water, once you achieve this turn the hose off and let the pots drain for 1 minute.
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Because of the watering, some of your pots have lost soil, or the soil has compressed down, so survey your pots and top you pots off with soil for any that need it so all your pot still have 3 inches of soil in them
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Once you have topped off your pots, repeat step 10.
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Repeat step 10-12 until all pots look uniform and have the same amount of soil.
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After you have watered your pots leave them to sit for 30 minutes .
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Once 30 minutes has passed, sort all your pots into their trays (all the control pots, labeled C#1, C#2, etc. Go in the control group tray, and all the pots labeled TG1 #, go in the tray labeled “test group one spray”
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Once all of the pots have been sorted into their trays, take the control tray and set it aside.
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With the 6 trays you are left with, spread them out so they are about one foot away from each other
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Next, put on gloves, (for safety reasons, this is important because you are going to be handling chemicals, and make sure you are outside for this part)
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Transfer your “RoundUP” solution into your spray bottle, and shake rapidly for 5 seconds.
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Then you can start to spray your pots, each of the pots in each tray will get the amount that you have written on the label (example: “test group 3 sprays” will receive 3 sprays of Roundup, about 9 mls. (each spray should be approx. 3 ml).
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Once you have sprayed all of your pots with pesticide, leave them to sit outside for 30 minutes.
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When 30 minutes have passed take all your trays (including your control) inside and place them near a window, in the same room, without direct sunlight on any of them, and set your thermostat to 60 degrees Fahrenheit)
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Leave the pots to sit for 24 hours. Remove gloves and throw away.
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Once 24 hours have passed, come back with a pencil sharpie and pea seeds and measuring tape. Take the Sharpie and use the measuring tape to mark the pencil at 1 inch.
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Put on your second pair of gloves.
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Take the pencil and push it into the soil of your control until you meet the line in the middle of the pot, and wiggle it around so it is big and off to fit the seed.
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Place the seed in the pothole.
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Use one of your gloved fingers to push the soil over the hole so you can no longer see the seed, and then press firmly down with one of your gloved fingers so the seed makes contact with the soil.
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Repeat step 29 for all the pots and move from the lowest concentration of pot to the highest.
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Leave to sit near the window for 24 hours
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Check back the next day and record any observations you have.
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Repeat step 32 until day 4
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At day 4, at the 24 hour mark, take a new clean spray bottle filled with water and spray all the pots with one full spray of water (around 3mls). Continue to record any observations.
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Every other day thereafter, take the spray bottle filled with water and spray all the pots with one full spray of water (around 3mls)
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When the 24 hour mark of day 8 has come, move all potted plants outside and lay out a drop cloth or tarp.
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Put on a pair of gloves.
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Starting with the control group, removing the seeds/plants from each of the pots by dumping out the soil one by one.
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After you have removed the seed/plant, measure the plant from seed to the top of the stem (make sure you are not measuring the root, and your plant’s stem is straight and not bent)
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Repeat steps 38 and 39 for each group of plants and record the data into table.
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Once you have measured all the plants properly, dispose of all the pots, soil, tarps and gloves into the trash bag.
- Data Analysis: Once you have left the seeds to grow and germinate for 8 days, start to dig up all your plants and measure from the start of the stem growing from the seed, all the way to the tip of the stem. Record all data into a data table. This should tell me he effects of pesticide on pea plant growth and development
Questions and Answers
1. What was the major objective of your project and what was your plan to achieve it?
a. Was that goal the result of any specific situation, experience, or problem you encountered?
My goal was the result of a specific situation, an experience and a problem I had previously encountered. We have a garden at home and find that our plants are sometimes overgrown by weeds or ruined by pests. I wanted to figure out a way to see if there was a way to prevent this using pesticides.
b. Were you trying to solve a problem, answer a question, or test a hypothesis?
I was trying to do all three of these things. I had a question that I wanted to answer: "How does pesticide affect the growth and development of plant?" There were two main problems that I was curious to solve. The first one was related to me and my garden at home, and I was interested in finding a way to better protect our crop without harming them. The second problem was to determine the effects of pesticide on the environment, specifically as it relates to plants in the ecosystem.
2. What were the major tasks you had to perform in order to complete your project?
The major tasks I had to preform in order to compete this project was filling and labeling all the pots, then spraying them. After that the next big step was to actually plants the seeds. Finally, I had to measure all 70 seeds to collect my data
a. For teams, describe what each member worked on.
N/A
3. What is new or novel about your project?
a. Is there some aspect of your project's objective, or how you achieved it that you haven't done before?
I read a lot of information about the effects of pesticide on plants growth. However, finding ones that were related to RoundUp and pea plants I could not find. This was the first time I have ever personally done an experiment on plants and I learned a lot about their growth.
b. Is your project's objective, or the way you implemented it, different from anything you have seen?
I really focused on the effects of pesticide on plant growth especially relating to mitosis and this was something new I had not seen before. I also experimented specifically with RoundUp which is still classified as a pesticide but that was new.
c. If you believe your work to be unique in some way, what research have you done to confirm that it is?
While trying to find other experiments and analysis of the effects of pesticide on plants growth and development, I found many that were related to tomatoes, and the effects of pesticides controlling bugs. However, I found it was new to be specifically experimenting on pea plants and pesticides.
4. What was the most challenging part of completing your project?
a. What problems did you encounter, and how did you overcome them?
My biggest struggle with the experiment was my plants' growth. It was not until day 6 of of the experiment that I noticed any growth above the surface of the soil. I needed to start writing my analysis and collecting my data and the longer I let the plants grow, the less time I had. However, I was able to successfully gather data and my plants did grow in time to make observations and submit my findings
b. What did you learn from overcoming these problems?
I learned a lot about plants through this whole experiment. In particular, I learned about how plants grow under the soil, in the darkness. Also, once my plants started to grow above the soil, they grew fast because they finally had access to sunlight and could photosynthesize.
5. If you were going to do this project again, are there any things you would you do differently the next time?
If I were to conduct this project again, the main thing I would change is how I measured my plants. As part of my procedure, I decided I was only going to measure the stem of the plants and not measure the root. However, if I were to do this same experiment again, I would change my procedure and would also measure the root of the plant because I think that provide even more information about the plants' growth.
6. Did working on this project give you any ideas for other projects?
I am now more curious about pesticide effects on plants. For example, I am interested to see if other pesticides have the same effect as RoundUP did. I am also interested to see how long the soil containing the RoundUp would stay contaminated if left to sit and how long it would it continue to stunt other plants' growth.
7. How did COVID-19 affect the completion of your project?
COVID-19 did not effect the completion of my project because I was experimenting on plants and I was conduction this experiment at my house.