Using the concept of
hydroponics, what rooting medium will produce the greatest plant growth? Hydroponics is a planting strategy
that involves using rooting medium other than soil to grow plants. The rooting
mediums that will be tested for this experiment include Cocopeat Growcoir, Rockwool. I believe that the greatest plant growth will result on average from the plants grown in the the Rockwool medium. Rockwool is made of igneous rock and is said to be one of the best growing mediums available for
hydroponics. I feel that the the Cocopeat and Rockwool will produce the best growth because they are professionally produced mediums The other mediums should produce respectable growth, but I believe that they won't compare to that of the the Cocopeat and Rockwool. The Cocopeat is made from the short fibers (2mm or less). As for the Rockwood, it is a medium made from basalt rock and chalk and is melted at 1600 C into lava. From there it is placed in a chamber, which turns it into a cotton candy style material. Rockwool is effective because it is has near-zero absorption capacity for water allowing the plant to receive the majority of the water. I determined that I wanted to test a variety of mediums to determine which is most effective for growth. I researched specialized hydroponics sites for the best mediums and found professionally produced products and decided to test their growth claims. The plant I selected to test the mediums on is the tulip. I chose the tulip because we needed a single stem plant that generally produces a taller flower, so that I can easily measure it on a weekly basis. I decided to test the growth of the tulip because soil plays a large role in the size and health of a tulip due to the important nutrients. Farmers experience a broad range of problems from flooding, drought, depleted soil and insects, and hydroponics may be a solution for these types of issues. My experiment will consist of the analysis of 3 different rooting mediums and their effect on tulip growth. Each rooting medium will have 3different testing pots, for a total of 9 testing pots. Each will contain the rooting medium and one seed. I will water each of the plants with a mixture of water and a special nutrient solution that will supply the plant with the vitamins and minerals that are normally found in soil. The plants will be watered twice a day because the plants need to be in a moist environment in order to promote growth. I will water the plants during the mid morning hours (10-12 am) and at mid afternoon (4-6 pm). This lab will last for a total of 28 days and I will record the height of the plant every 4 days so that we have 7 measurements for each plant. We will keep a weekly tab on the height of the plants and record them in our data table. My results concluding the plant growth of Rockwool, Cocopeat and Growcoir proved my hypothesis to be true. Indeed Rockwool was able to grow more than Cocopeat and Growcoir. I was able to observe that Rockwool is able to grow faster and more fertile than Growcoir but also Cocopeat. Cocopeat came in second by being able to grow more than Growcoir. At the end Growcoir had the least amount of growth throughout the four weeks. My hypothesis proved true because Rockwool was able to grow more in hydroponics and survived being in this new environment more than the plants Growcoir and Cocopeat.