Written by Daniel Weierman
Different Methods of Growing Plants
Introduction: In order to have a successful garden you must have seeds, water, a place for the seeds to germinate such as soil or a piece of paper towel, and a warm environment. In this experiment we are trying to determine which of the following methods work better when growing plants, the paper towel bag method or the jiffy greenhouse. Paper Towel Bag Method: In this method you take a piece of paper towel and wet it then carefully pat it dry. After it is dry put 1 to 6 seeds on one side of the paper towel, after that fold the other side on to the seeds. Then you put the paper towel and seeds into a Ziploc bag and store it on a window sill in a warm place. Jiffy Greenhouse Method: The Jiffy Greenhouse is a product that is made of a plastic tray with pods of soil in the bottom. It also comes with a clear lid that helps to keeps the moisture in the greenhouse. In this method you follow the instructions in the box, planting seeds in the pods after the pods have absorbed water. In this experiment we used two different sizes of greenhouse, a twelve pod and a seventy two pod greenhouse. Hypothesis: Based on the results from a video about the paper towel bag method that I watched, I hypothesized that the paper towel bag method would be better than the jiffy greenhouse method. Method: Using the two different methods, we planted the following types of seeds: corn, green beans, jalapenos, squash, lettuce, tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, zucchini, and radishes. All seeds were planted on April 24, 2014. All measurements were taken on the fifth day and the eighth day.
Paper Towel Bag Method
Jiffy Greenhouse Method
Results: Measuring of the paper towel bag method included measuring the radical and the jiffy greenhouse method involved measuring the stem. Also on the eighth day the paper towel bag method seedlings were transplanted. The results are as follows and are measured in centimeters.
Day 5
Seeds
Day 8
Jiffy
P-T
Jiffy
P-T
corn
3.0
4.5
8.0
5.0
green beans
7.0
3.0
12.0
5.0
jalapenos
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
squash
5.0
4.5
14.0
5.0
lettuce
1.4
N/A
2.0
N/A
tomatoes
2.0
0.0
6.0
0.0
peas
1.0
N/A
4.0
N/A
cucumbers
3.0
2.0
8.0
3.0
zucchini
1.0
4.0
1.0
7.5
radishes
0.0
2.5
0.0
3.5
We noticed that there was 100% germination for squash, green beans, and cucumber using the paper towel bag method. Conclusion: what I learned about this experiment was that the large jiffy greenhouse worked better than anything else. In my opinion do not to buy the small jiffy greenhouse but that is just my opinion. I also might use the paper towel bag method again because the squash, beans, and the cucumber did better with this method.