Doing the Scientific Report...

Oh jeez. This is so hard, it's not funny at all!

Because I'm in such pain right now, I just wanted to add something to my acknowledgements - this will never go on my actual scientific report.

Acknowledgement

I ACKNOWLEDGE ME AND MY AMAZINGLY HARD-WORKING BRAIN, WHO HAS HELPED ME TO SLOG THROUGH ALL THESE PAINFUL LONG HOURS AND HARD WORK. 

I also acknowledge my mum, who has helped me water my plants countless times when I forgot to. Thank you. :)

Graphs and Experimental Results

Here we go - this is an amazing amount of data here:

They're pretty self-explanatory, right? At least I think so...

Help me! This is a graph of the number of leaves grown by sweet potatoes a, b, c, d, e, f and g. It looks fine - except the bottom, because that shows all the days of my experiment, and right now they look like a line of running numbers - but if the graph is enlarged, it should look okay. BUT. The fact is that none of my sweet potatoes grew 40 leaves! None of them even grew 20! The most leaves grown were 14! So how come this graph shows values greater than 40? 

I've tried, and I can't change it because I know absolutely nothing about dodgy graphs in Excel. Usually they work for me! But not this time. Can someone help? Please?

Where the Plants were Planted:

Final Results

Okay, this isn't the final final set of results, but this is what I got from spending a couple hours outside measuring the plants that grew above ground, and digging up the plants that grew underground. :)

FYI: 
S1 = Sunflower 1 [Box 1]
S2 = Sunflower 2 [Box 1]
S3 = Sunflower 3 [Box 1]
Si = Sunflower i [Small Pot]
Sii = Sunflower ii [Small Pot] 
C = Carrots [Box 1]
SP1 = Sweet Potato 1 [Box 1]
a =  Sweet Potato A [Box 2]
b = Sweet Potato B [Box 2]
c = Sweet Potato C [Box 2]
d = Sweet Potato D [Box 2]
e = Sweet Potato E [Box 2]
f = Sweet Potato F [Box 2]
g = Sweet Potato G [Box 2]

Final Height
Plant	Height (cm)
S1	27.2
S2	20
S3	7
Si	15.7
Sii	4.3
C	23

 

Final No. of Leaves
Plant	No. of Leaves
S1	11
S2	14
S3	13
Si	13
Sii	8
SP1	6
a	9
b	14
c	2
d	4
e	5
f	2
g	5
Average of Box 2	5.8571

 

Length of Longest Leaf
Plant	Length (cm)
S1	9.2
S2	11.3
S3	3.8
Si	6
Sii	2.7
Length of Longest Root
Plant	Length (cm)
SP1	16
a	32.8
b	29.2
c	13
d	37
e	20
f	21.5
g	27.5
Average of Box 2	25.8571

~ Day 76 ~

I am late. Again. On the last post of my observations, no less. But...you know....okay. No excuses. I'm sorry.

Anyway, on to my observations! Sunflower 1 has finally flowered - and only a little at that! Hahahaha >:) The flower of Sunflower 2 is looking robust and still growing in size.The other plants - carrots and watercress - look good as well. Here's a photo: 

Okay. Now for Box 2 - which looks like it hasn't grown much since... a while. So here's a last photo:  

As for my Small Pot, the sunflowers in it have flourished - the one that wasn't crippled during the early stages of its life has flowered spectacularly. :)  Actually, all my sunflowers that have flowers are pretty!

So yeah - that's it for the practical part of my SRP. It's been 2 and a half months (30 + 31 + 15 days = 76 days exactly) and I have taken photos and observed for as much as I planned to. Overall, I am quite pleased with the outcomes of this experiment! There will be another few posts, firstly to summarise my raw experimental results, and a few more just for the heck of it! I've actually enjoyed doing this science experiment, believe it or not. 

Goodnight! :D

~ Day 74 ~

Uh, I really don't want to bother describing everything today, despite the fact that this is my second-last post on my observations.  /-\ Oh well. I suppose it's inescapable.
 
Box 1: Sunflower 1 STILL hasn't flowered!!!!! I can see the inside of a bloom in between the green spiky things, though. The rest of the plants look fine. Really.


Box 2: Uhm. Same old? I've been using that phrase wayy too much. 


Small pot: The sunflower has opened up more, and is now more pretty. :)


Goodnight! [I really want to get to sleep now...]

 

~ Day 67 - 72 ~

Only 4 more days and two more photo-taking sessions until my experiment is finished!! 8D

But first of all to the observations over the days that I have, yet again, missed. Sorry. 

~ Day 67 ~
MY SUNFLOWER HAS BLOOMED! Yay. 8D
I feel...like a parent. :) I'm such a nurturing person... [NOT REALLY.] 
So, as said before, the sunflower in the bottom left-hand corner of Box 1 (let's call it Sunflower 2) has bloomed! And - this makes it even better - Sunflower 1 hasn't bloomed! That may mean the sweet potato has released allelochemicals! This is what I've been waiting for my entire experiment~! Okay, rant over. The sunflower in the top left-hand corner isn't anywhere near blooming, but that's because it was crippled early in its life by a malicious insect. Damn you, insect! Grrrr. 

The carrots look fine, as do the watercress. Whoever wrote those sites that stated that they were sensitive to allelochemicals - lies! :(

Box 2: Same old, same old. I'm sad to say that.

Small pot: Um. These haven't flowered yet... But they look alright. [Just flower already so I can prove (well, almost) that the allelochemicals are affecting Sunflower 1!]

~ Day 69 ~
New camera! So if you notice that these photos are suddenly so much better quality than my previous ones, you know why. :)

Box 1: The bloom of Sunflower 2 has grown wider and prettier. It's also facing a particular direction - I suppose the sun mainly comes from there. SUNFLOWER 1 STILL HASN'T BLOOMED. Oh yay. :)


Box 2: It's the same as always. :(

Small pot: I can see the beginnings of yellow petals forming! [Flower already, please???] The small sunflower (the one - if you can remember - I transplanted from Box 1 ages ago) isn't anywhere near to flowering either, but that's because it also was crippled early on in its life. Stupid insects. >:|

~ Day 72 ~
Observations of the small pot first today because [drum rolllll] THE SUNFLOWER HAS FLOWERED!!!!! And Sunflower 1 hasn't! I can now say that allelochemicals are affecting Sunflower 1 in Box 1! WHOOO! Furthermore, none of this is made up - I have photographic evidence that is completely, 100% real~! I feel so accomplished - my experiment has worked, to an extent. Lovely. 

Box 1: Sunflower 2 has begun to develop a shiny middle section of the brown part of the flower, and a furry outer part. Awesome. Sunflower 1 hasn't flowered, as stated before 8D
On the other hand, the carrots and watercress seem as unaffected as ever by the sweet potato. Awwwwwh. :( Anyhow, photo: 

Box 2: Same old, same old. Here's a photo: 

Small pot: HAS FLOWERS! yay. Nothing else to report. 

~ Day 65 ~

Okay, late again. Sorry...

BUT~! Now the sunflower in the bottom left-hand corner of Box 1 has grown a flower!! YAY!!!
I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to be happy, seeing as the allelochemicals are supposed to kill my plants (besides the sweet potatoes)... Either way, I'm proud of myself for being able to grow a plant that has actually flowered. :)


On the other hand, Sunflower 1 has not flowered - allelochemicals, maybe? More like please??


So yeah. The other plants in Box 1 look fine, as usual. But because I want to show you my new flower, here's a photo:

Now on to Box 2 - it looks the same as before! :'(


The small pot - the sunflowers haven't flowered here either, but they still look healthy. 


See you tomorrow!

~ Day 62 ~

This is one day late. I'm sorry - my posts are now consistently late! But at least I'm taking the observations when I have to, and I'm just posting them late. Anyhow, here's yesterday's observations:

Box 1: The sunflower in the bottom left-hand corner has begun to grow petals!!! I see them now, all curled up in the middle of the furry green spiky things. :) Funnily enough, it doesn't seem as if Sunflower 1 has developed the petals along with the sunflower in the bottom left-hand corner....weird. Allelochemicals, perhaps?? Yay. Uh, the sunflower in the top left-hand corner looks as if it's wilting. Maybe it's the pouring rain that has been going on for a few days now, but it doesn't look so good.... The sweet potato, carrots and watercress look fine, as usual. 

Box 2: Most of the sweet potatoes look the same as before, but I've just noticed a small leaf in the sweet potato in the top left-hand corner! It looks like it's getting bigger! However, that's basically the only sign of growth in this Box.

Small pot: The sunflowers in this pot look fine. It's an important observation, though, that they don't seem to be developing petals either. Perhaps the sunflower in the bottom left-hand corner of Box 1 is simply an "early bloomer"? Hahaha.

~ Day 60 ~

Whoooo! Two months! Just half a month to go, and then I can begin work on the evilly long science report....

Anyway, in Box 1 looks good. Sunflower 1 is still significantly smaller than the other sunflower in Box 1, I'm proud to report. Because that's just about the only thing in this experiment that proves my hypothesis that allelochemicals affect plants...Sigh. Hopefully I'll be able to unearth some other evidence of allelochemicals working.

In Box 2, everything looks good. The leaves are green and healthy-looking. It's all fine.

In the small pot, the yellowing leaves of the sunflowers are beginning to scare me. They look really unhealthy - and that's simply by itself! That is, there's nothing that I put there purposely to make it die. Oh....hopefully it'll clear up. 

Okay, that's all for now! 

~ Days 55 - 58 ~

~ Day 55 ~ 
Box 1: The leaves  of the sunflower in the bottom left hand corner are becoming so big that I can't really fit them into the photo anymore! The spiky green things are stretching upwards still, and it looks as if a flower may soon develop! Can't wait. The carrots and sweet potato look fine, but the water cress' bottom leaves are looking brownish...

Box 2: Looks fine, as usual. But there is still no further growth.

Small pot: The sunflowers look okay. Their bottom leaves look a bit water-deprived, so I will make sure to water them as per usual.

~ Day 58 ~
Box 1: It rained over the weekend. Hopefully this will help my plants to grow! The green spiky things are bigger than ever, man. They're huge. Awesome! Everything else looks fine.

Box 2: Same as before, basically.


Small pot: Pretty good.


Because I seem to be saying a lot of "it's the same as before", I'll upload some photos. Just wait and let me grow old while waiting for them to finish loading...


Here we go! 

Box 1

 Box 2

Small Pot

~ Day 53 ~

Box 1: Sunflower 1's spiky green things are getting longer and stretching upwards now~! I would upload a photo, but my internet connection's as slow as possible today. 

:| Not fun.


Anyway, the carrots are looking alright - taller, even. Sigh. Perhaps they aren't really affected by allelochemicals. The watercress looks fine as well, and the sweet potato is growing as per usual. All is well in the land of Box 1!


Box 2: Same old, same old. As said in previous posts, I believe the sweet potatoes have stopped growing. I mean, they look healthy and fine - they're not dying or anything. But they're not growing visibly, either. I've compared the photos...


Small pot: All is also well here. The sunflowers are following the same growth pattern as other sunflowers. It's good!

I really would upload photos, but I don't have time. I'm sorrrryyyyyyy!!!


Seeing as this will be my last blog post before the next marking, I'm just gonna mention a few things. 
First of all ~ I'm going to continue this experimenting & observing until about Day 75 - 2 and a half months. So I'm well on my way to finishing this!! Whoo!
Second of all ~ I have my Evolution science test tomorrow and am currently cramming as much as possible. Wish me luck!!

~ Days 46 - 51 ~

~ Day 46 ~
Sorry about the late updates. Exams are really getting to me!

Anyway, Sunflower 1 in Box 1 is beginning to sprout little green thingos that seem to be the base of the flower. You know that funny, green, almost-spider-like thing at the back of the actual petals? Hmmm...that explanation wasn't all that scientific or coherent. Sigh. Well, here's a photo - that I painstakingly uploaded. 

As you can also see in the photo, the carrot plant and watercress are doing fine. They don't seem to be affected by the sweet potato as much as the sunflowers. Oh well - it's perfectly logical that some plants are affected more than others by allelochemicals.


Box 2: the sweet potatoes don't seem to be growing at all! I swear! Strange.


Small pot: Funnily enough, no sunflowers are as big as the one in the bottom left hand corner of Box 1. The sunflowers here are doing fine - following the same structural developments as the rest of the sunflowers - but are simply smaller. Furthermore, seeing as I have never actually mentioned this, only two out of the five sunflowers I planted in this small pot have actually grown. I have no idea what has become of the rest...


~ Day 48 ~
Honestly? Not much difference in all of my boxes/pots. Honestly - I checked the photos and compared them side-by-side. So sorry, no important updates here.


~ Day 51 ~
Perhaps today will be different. I definitely hope so. Let's take a look at the photos...


Box 1: The spiky green things in both the sunflowers (spider-like, as from earlier in this post) have grown longer. I hope the actual flowers begin to grow soon! Luckily, Sunflower 1 has stayed smaller than the other one. :) Everything else looks pretty much similar to before, except that the watercress has begun to show slightly yellowed and brownish leaves nearer to the sweet potato. Let's hope it's the allelochemicals! I'm not sure at all, though, because the rest of the plant looks A.OK. 

[Did you understand that olddddd expression?]


Box 2: Nothing much. Sigh.


Small pot: The little spiky green things (refer to "Box 1" paragraph) are also growing. They look really cool and furry. Yay!

~ Day 44 ~

So! Day 44, huh? It's been ages since I started this experiment...I just realised how long. But that's good, right? I mean, I'm freaking posting 3 times a week. Dedication! Whoo!

Anyway, to today's observations. I think the sunflower in the bottom left hand corner of Box 1 will flower soon!!!! Whoa - I dunno why, but I never really thought about the sunflowers actually flowering. But now, in the middle of the plant's leaves, there's a little furry grey bit which looks like pollen. Wow. The sweet potato in Box 1 seems to be matching the sunflower's growth - they're both really tall now, with verdant green leaves. Yay. The sunflower in the top right hand corner of Box 1 is still recovering from our "pruning", with leaves beginning to grow from the stem. The watercress looks unaffected by the sweet potato, though. Aw. I thought there would be more plant death afoot. Oh well.

Sunflower 1 is still small, though. THAT IS GREAT.

The sweet potatoes in Box 2 - all of them - appear not to be growing taller. That's worrying...perhaps the allelochemicals they release actually do affect those of the same species?? Maybe they don't begin to kill the other sweet potatoes outright, but simply stunt their growth when they grow closer to each other? Because their leaves don't appear to be dying - they're healthy-looking and green. So maybe only their growth is affected.

The sunflowers in the small pot are also beginning to flower!!! The one that's always been in the small pot has also developed a small grey furry patch in the middle of its leaves. The smaller one (the one that was transplanted from Box 1 ages ago) doesn't seem to have reached that stage yet, but may be well on its way. 


The end :)

[P.S: My new template has allowed me to add "reactions" to my posts - tick what you think of them down the bottom! You know - the words like funny, awesome, boring, etc. - tick the boxes next to those words! I'd love to get feedback because lots of people tell me they've read my blog, but no one ever comments. So I thought I'd add this more convenient thingo...]

~ Days 37 - 41 ~

~ Day 37 ~
Today the plants looked pretty much the same as in the last post - in Box 1, the sunflower in the bottom left-hand corner is still a whole lot bigger than Sunflower 1. The carrots and watercress look about the same as before - still green, no significant leaf loss or anything like that.
In Box 2, the sweet potatoes look like they have grown. :)


In the smaller pot, the sunflowers look fine, too. The one that was transplanted from Box 1 (ages ago) has grown another set of leaves, like the rest. It looks much healthier than before.


~ Day 39 ~ 
The plants look the same today, again. I'm sorry that I can't describe it more, but there seems to have been not much visible change...


~ Day 41 ~ 
The sweet potato in Box 1 has grown taller! The sunflower in the bottom left-hand corner is now positively gigantic, as well! Sunflower 1 looks tiny, in proportion. The sunflower in the top left-hand corner has begun to grow small leaves - it's beginning to recover from the "pruning" we gave it, I suppose. 


The sweet potatoes in Box 2 look fine as well. 


The sunflowers in the smaller pot are beginning to grow longer leaves. :)

~ Day 34 ~

Sorry that this is a day late - I took the photos on the right day, I just forgot to post them.

In Box 1, the sunflower in the bottom right hand corner has undergone a growth spurt or something! It's been two days, and yet the leaves seem to have grown almost explosively. It's freaky. Why can't I grow like that?? 

Furthermore, the sweet potato in Box 1 looks as if it has grown a taller, too. The carrots look like they're slowly regaining their leaves, and the watercress looks pretty much the same as it did two days ago. Sunflower 1 looks about the same as well, which is worrying compared to the "growth spurt" the other sunflowers have gone through. I mean, the sunflowers in the smaller pot also seem to have grown explosively - but Sunflower 1 has not. YAY!!!! Sunflower 1's growth is being inhibited by allelochemicals! I will never get tired of exclaiming that. At least while the SRP is on. 

Lastly, the sweet potatoes in Box 2 look fine.

~ Day 32 ~

Okay! Today I looked at the sunflowers in Box 1 again, and the one on the bottom left hand corner is amazingly big now! It seems to have sprouted yet another set of leaves - bringing the total to more than 4 sets of leaves. Whoa. I never knew sunflowers grew this many leaves...

Anyway, Sunflower 1 (nearest to the sweet potato) is also at the same stage in growth as the other sunflowers, except overall it's just smaller. Yay! The allelochemicals are still effective :)
Ah - the other sunflower, that had toppled over due to insects eating its stem, (in the top right hand corner) has lost all it's leaves because I "pruned" it - the leaves from before were obviously dying and I cut them off. They weren't going to do anything but hinder the regrowth of the plant. So yeah. The carrots look like they're regaining their leaves (yay!) and the watercress looks pretty similar to when it did during my last post. 

The sweet potatoes in Box 2 are fine, as usual. But today they looked taller than before - some visible growth! So now I know they are still growing healthily.

The sunflowers in the small pot are also growing along with the sunflowers in Box 1. 

~ Day 30 ~

Whoo! One month since I started this whole project. Well, it's also today that I planted my 3rd type of test plant (besides the sweet potato) in Box 1. I know it seems extremely late and stupid and unfair on the last plant's part as it has had the least time to grow around the sweet potato, but the plant I got had been growing for at least a month before I planted it - look at the photos! If they show up, that is. I really need to get to Ms Zhang about that.

Anyway, as stated before, I planted my third test plant. It was going to be cauliflower (remember from previous posts?), but the Flower Power shop didn't have any already-grown plants and so I gave up on that. Interesting fact: The last cauliflower plant was apparently bought merely hours  before I came in to the plant shop, and the plant had apparently been a tall, healthy, yummy-looking cauliflower. Damn. 

Seems like the world is working against me, huh? So I decided to plant some watercress because they're also sensitive to allelochemicals, if I mentioned in posts from last month or so. But on to the planting part - the watercress I used was a herb of the "culinary" style...that's what it said on the tag. I'm not sure of the significance of that, but what the hey. Now you know. :)

I planted it on the right side of the sweet potato - the empty space from before, you know?
And here's a photo, because this time I actually uploaded it and it took way long. =="

Okay. Then I sprayed the sunflowers and carrots in Box 1 and in the smaller pot - because those are the ones that have been eaten by insects - with "Sharp Shooter Natural Pyrethrum Insect Spray". It's the insecticide that the man in Flower Power recommended to me. So yeah. The insect spray is an extract from the pyrethrum daisy, so I suppose it shouldn't affect the plants too badly. I'm supposed to spray the plants once a week until it appears that the insects aren't eating the plants any more.

Oh yeah - I also discovered that the sunflower in the left-hand top corner had been "pushed over" by an insect eating at its stem. The insect ate almost half-way through the stem, and the flower subsequently fell over. Stupid insects. So that's why I sprayed the insecticide on it.

The sweet potatoes in Box 2 look fine - here's an uploaded photo of it:

 

There haven't been any major developments in their growth lately, though.

The sunflowers in the small pot are also fine - as you can see here:

~ Day 27 ~

Everything's going well in Box 2, as usual. No photos, because as far as I have seen, the photos aren't turning up in my posts. I will ask Ms Zhang about that as soon as possible. Which won't be long, because school's starting up again soon. :'(

But in Box 1, disturbing things are happening to my sunflowers. One of them (not Sunflower 1, these are further away from the sweet potato) looks like it has been pushed over - and physically, which means not by some sort of aggro allelochemical. So I am, naturally, worried. I'm not sure if my sunflower will recover...but I definitely hope so. Sunflower 1 is still really quite small compared to the other sunflowers, which is good. The carrots don't appear to have been eaten further - I hope they will recover from that too. 

But in the small pot, the extra sunflower - its lower set of leaves have begun to yellow. Just like Sunflower 1. I wonder what this means - that the allelochemicals don't make leaves turn yellow (in particular), but it's just the weather or something? Because the other sunflower in Box 1 (that isn't Sunflower 1, and also isn't physically pushed over) has perfectly green lower leaves. So this is more than slightly strange.

~ Day 25 ~

Ah. First of all, my climate graph:

Okay. Now on to observations.

In Box 2, all the sweet potatoes are growing quite well. I suppose that it is reasonable to conclude that, by now, maybe sweet potatoes are immune to their own allelochemicals? It would make a lot of sense. 


In the smaller pot, the sunflowers have continued growing.


But in Box 1, Sunflower 1 is beginning to turn yellow! Yayyyyyy!!!!! The lower leaves of the plant are turning noticeably yellow - I suppose the allelochemicals are finally doing their work in a very visible way. :) If you can see the photo, it is of the yellowing bottom leaves.

 

If you can see it. All my photos are being dodgy!


Also, the carrot plant has stopped being eaten so badly - it looks like it's recovering. Perhaps there will be no need for insecticide. However, the bottom leaves are also turning slightly yellow - well, paling in comparison to the leaves and upper parts of the plant. Yay!!

~ Day 23 ~

It's Monday again. :(

Anyway, everything's going fine in Box 2 and the small pot. But in Box 1, it appears that something has been eating my carrot plant! That's why it appeared "more sparse" than before - the leaves are being eaten away!

This is really bad. I want to get some insecticide, but maybe it will affect my experiment! Too much to consider...but truthfully, insecticide is formulated to not affect the plant, right? And to only affect the insects? Because the leaves are getting eaten away pretty aggressively. Almost half the leaves are gone already, and there's basically no remnants of the leaves left on top of the soil. Although the insecticide may affect the experiment, at this rate there will be no more carrot plant (above soil...who knows, maybe even under the soil too!) to observe. 

Oh well. Nothing I can do right now. 

Method

Okay, this is my method that we need for the next blog marking.

Materials and Equipment:
~ Two styrofoam boxes - approximately the same size: 
~ One smaller pot (size doesn't matter, but it has to be large enough to fit a few extra sunflowers)
~ Sunflower seeds
~ Carrots (the ones I used were already growing in their own potting mix; ready-to-plant)
~ Cauliflower seeds
~ One sack of potting mix
~ At least one sweet potato that is already growing tubers - you will need at least 8 tubers
~ Camera
~ Labels


Method:
1. Cut eight tubers off the sweet potato, leaving a small area of potato skin around the tuber. 
2. Label one of the styrofoam boxes: "Box 1" and the other: "Box 2".
3. Fill the two styrofoam boxes and the smaller pot with potting mix. 
4. Plant one potato tuber in the centre of Box 1.
5. Plant the rest of the tubers in Box 2, making sure that they are evenly spaced away from each other.
6. Plant three sunflowers in Box 1 - two in the left-most corners of the Box, and one just beneath the sweet potato tuber.
7. Plant the carrots in Box 1 - above the sweet potato tuber.
8. Plant three cauliflowers in Box 1 - two in the right-most corners of the Box, and one to the right of the sweet potato tuber.
9. Plant a few extra sunflowers, cauliflowers and carrots in the remaining small pot - as many as you can fit. 
10. Place the Boxes and the small pot in a place where they will receive equal sunlight.
11. Take a photo of each Box and the smaller pot.
12. Make observations and take photos of each Box and the smaller pot every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for two and a half months.
13. Record your observations in the Results section.
14. Pack up any equipment - extra plant seeds, camera, labels, etc.


So there we go! :)


Yes, I am aware that I still don't have any cauliflowers. =="
I'M SORRY. I'm planting them today as part of my "plant a new plant every 10 days" - eg: I planted the carrots at Day 10, and today's Day 20. I realise that this is really bad organisation, but I have to plant the cauliflowers someday and this is the earliest I could. Sigh.


Also, the pictures I try to post aren't showing. Why???

~ Days 13 - 20 ~

~ Day 13 ~
The plants look pretty much the same today as they did on Day 11. In Box 1, the carrots still look fine, and the new sunflower plant hasn't grown much yet.

In Box 2, the sweet potatoes are still growing fine as well.

In the round pot, the extra sunflowers are doing fine. The smaller sunflower (that I removed from Box 1 on Day 11) - i.e: the one that was eaten by a bug - hasn't started to grow any more leaves, though.

~ Day 16 ~
In Box 1, the carrots still look relatively unchanged - however, something is happening with the sunflowers that is extremely beneficial to my experiment! This particular thing is: the sunflowers further away from the sweet potato have grown considerably larger than the sunflower closer to the sweet potato! 


BUT. But. The transplanted sunflower from Box 1 (the one that was eaten by a bug) that is now in the round pot, has not shown any signs of growth either. So maybe both are still regrowing their roots and have thus not visibly grown. Oh well...time will tell if the allelochemicals are doing their work!

In Box 2, the sweet potatoes are still looking healthy. Furthermore, one sweet potato (the one in the centre at the bottom) has begun growing leaves! This is significant because it's begun to grow leaves much later than the others.


As said before: in the round pot, the transplanted sunflower (the one that was eaten by a bug) has still not shown any signs of growth.


~ Day 18 ~
BREAKING NEWS!!! In Box 1, the sunflower transplanted from the round pot (the one not eaten by a bug) has visibly grown - but not much at all!

HOWEVER, the plant in the round pot (the one that was eaten by a bug) HAS grown! That means that the allelochemicals must be working, because all the other sunflower plants are now significantly bigger than the sunflower closest to the sweet potato in Box 1!! WHOO!!! In addition, the carrots are looking healthy - if a little sparser than before.


In Box 2, the sweet potatoes are still looking fine. BUT now another sweet potato has started to grow leaves - the last sweet potato plant to do so. So all sweet potatoes are now growing well. :)


In the next bit of breaking news, the transplanted sunflower from Box 1 (the one eaten by a bug) has now grown a new set of leaves above the old ones that were eaten away! All the sunflowers have, by now, sprouted a new set of leaves, and the transplanted sunflower [I will call it that from now on - the other transplanted one, now in Box 1, will the Sunflower 1 now.] has followed this development.


~ Day 20 ~
Finally, to today's observations.

In Box 1, the sunflowers further away from the sweet potato (not Sunflower 1) have grown considerably. The leaves are now larger - mostly longer rather than wider. But Sunflower 1, on the other hand, has grown significantly less. It has still sprouted a new set of leaves, but they are smaller and, more importantly, shorter than the leaves of the rest. YAY! :D 
The carrots are definitely sparser than before...and I'm not quite sure how they can be, but you can see a whole lot more dirt between the stalks of the plant than you could before...

The sweet potatoes are just fine in Box 2. No new developments.

In the round pot, the untouched sunflower (not the transplanted one) has grown just like the rest of them, and is now about the same size as the ones further away from the sweet potato in Box 1. The transplanted sunflower has grown slightly as well. :)

WAIT.

I am still aware that I am late again in my posts.

SORRY! It's just that I've been on holiday for the weekend, and am going on another holiday tomorrow.

So no time to write up my observations, although I have been taking them at appropriate times.

Expect a catch-up post, including all photos and etc., to come out in approximately two days.

Goodnight!

~ Day 11 ~

Yes, I am aware that I am a day late in writing up these observations. Sorry.

Yesterday, I looked at my plants in Box A, and the sunflower nearest the sweet potato was totally destroyed - but perhaps, probably, by a bug. There were holes in the leaves - which allelochemicals probably did not cause - and it looked really dead.

However, it was also shorter in height and the stem was narrower in width than the other sunflowers - this was probably caused by the allelochemicals. :)

But seeing as the plant was almost dead, and maybe not totally by the allelochemicals' doing, I uprooted the sunflower and replaced it with one of my extra sunflowers that I grew in the small round pot. The new sunflower is smaller than the other sunflowers in Box A, which is strange because Box A contains a sweet potato, whereas the small round pot only contains sunflowers. But anyway, it is the sunflowers in the pot that have not been affected by allelochemicals yet, so I will just have to use one of them to keep my experiment fair.

Furthermore, I planted my carrots! As you will see in the following photos, the carrots are about the same distance from the sweet potato as the "new" sunflower [from previous paragraph] is. Yay!

Now I just need some cauliflower...

Anyway. Uhm, the photos are not showing up properly. So I'll just wait and get some advice on that. THERE WILL EVENTUALLY BE PHOTOS!


And I won't be here tomorrow - Friday - because I'm going camping. So I'll just take photos & observations today.


See you next Monday!

My final decision on what plants to plant in Part A ~ !

Okay, I know it has been a while since I first planted by sweet potatoes & sunflowers - and this will affect my experiment badly seeing as the sunflowers & sweet potatoes have now had 10 whole days head start in growing.

But I will have to continue with my experiment anyway, so I just have to plough on.

So - I have further researched non-vascular plants, and have come to the conclusion that it will be really quite hard to grow them myself. So I have settled on planting my carrots - as they are largely based underground and will thus be affected if the allelochemicals are released into the ground, whereas the sunflowers will be affected more if the allelochemicals were released into the air.

PLUS - the carrots I bought were already growing. So the sunflowers' and sweet potatoes' head start in growth should be cancelled out. Yay! :)

And for my last plant, I have decided to plant  cauliflower - it has a high sensitivity to allelochemicals and also is easier to grow than watercress. In addition, they only need to grow for about 2 and a half months, according to:

http://www.readersdigest.com.au/handyman/how-to-grow-cauliflower/article125633.html


I will plant the carrots tomorrow, and get the cauliflower seeds ASAP.


Finally, my problem's solved. :)

~ Day 9 ~

Observations!

ALL MY PLANTS ARE GROWING. IS THIS GOOD OR NOT? 

I'm disturbed now. THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DYING!!!!!

The sweet potatoes in Box 2 are growing well - leaves have sprouted and are looking healthy. Furthermore, it's a reasonable assumption that sweet potatoes are not affected by their own allelochemicals.

BUT in Box 1 the sunflowers are growing alright as well! Well, actually not all of them are growing well. The ones further from the sweet potato are actually larger than the one nearer to the sweet potato! So the allelochemicals may actually be working! YAY!

And the extra sunflowers in the little pot are growing fine as well - but there's nothing really against their growth in the little pot.

 

Box 1 - See how the one just under the sweet potato is smaller and more dead-looking than the ones on the far left? YAY!

 

Box 2 - The sweet potatoes are looking healthy and robust. Darn - no dying. :(

 

Extra sunflowers. They look fine as well.

Finally a decision: THE OTHER PLANT IN PART A

I've realised that, what with my major modification to my experiment and all, that I haven't defined how I'm going to classify the plants in Part A of my experiment. Part B is quite simple - just sweet potatoes in the same box.


However, for Part A, I'd been going through some difficulties choosing how to classify the plants - at first it was non-vascular and vascular, with plants that reproduced in different ways as the classification criteria for Part B. But since Part B has been scrapped, I will now simply use the vascular and non-vascular plants for Part A.


Because, truthfully, the way the plants reproduce has practically no effect on if they are affected by allelochemicals, right? So vascular and non-vascular plants it is.


Ummm...but now that I think of it, I don't think you can actually grow non-vascular plants. Apparently, it's very easy to find them near water bodies, but they won't actually grow in my back garden. Sigh. 


Okay, I will think about this tomorrow. 


It freaking is tomorrow. Sigh.

~ Day 6 ~

Ah - before I get onto observations, I wanted to point out some things:

1. I've decided to observe the plants every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I know that the "Day 1" post is  actually on a Sunday, but from now on my observations will be taken on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

2. I've also realised that the title of the last post: "~ Day 2 ~" is inaccurate - that was actually Day 4. SORRY! I will change it shortly, but just wanted to mention it here. Furthermore, it is because of this that this post is called "Day 6" and not Day 3.

Okays. Now on to observations.

THE PLANTS HAVE SHOWN SIGNS OF LIFE/GROWING!!!!! YAYYYYYY!!!!

As you will see in the photos that follow (I have discovered that all you need to do is cut & paste them into the blog post writer/thingy), the sunflowers have sprouted and are actually growing!!! So are the sweet potatoes - they are growing leaves on the tubers!!! HOORAY!!! Okay. That's basically all - except for the fact that none have begun to die yet. I suppose it's still early in the experiment.

OH YEAH - I will be planting further plants next to the sweet potato in Box 1 soon. I know it's been a full week.....but I haven't had time to go to Flower Power again! Sigh.

Okay. Photos:




Box 1 - as you can see, the potato in the centre has begun to grow leaves!


Box 1 - another photo.


Box 2 - the sweet potato tubers here have also begun to grow leaves!







Extra Sunflower pot - two of the 5 dwarf sunflowers have germinated!

~ Day 4 ~

Today I went and observed the plants again. There wasn't much change, except for the fact that the tuber in Box 1 is starting to stick straight up from the soil - to get more sun, I suppose.

That's a good thing - it shows that it's growing!!! YEAH!!!! :D

The potatoes in Box 2 are not showing much difference, though. Some of the tubers are still lying horizontal across the soil. Not because they're dying. The tubers just point that way....

Anyway, the sunflower seeds are not showing any difference - but that's because they need 7 - 10 days to germinate (sprout or begin to grow). So everything's going according to plan!


For now. 


OH - also, I have to mention that I'm watering both boxes with the same amount of water each day: 1 cup. I have a measuring beaker-type-thingo that tells me. :)

The Experiment - Day 1

Today I planted my sweet potatoes for both Part A and Part B - I took photos, but I'm not sure how to present them on this blog. I've already tried to upload them, but I couldn't even upload one without dying of boredom! It's so slow it's not funny.


First of all, I obtained two styrofoam boxes from various places - one from a supermarket, and one from the fish markets. I cleaned them out, then filled them with Debco "Green Wizard" Premium Potting Mix. I cut the tubers (the green sprouting growths) from the top of the sweet potato. For Part A of my experiment, I planted one tuber in the middle of Box 1, covering it with a little soil (as the man from Flower Power said to) and watering it. I planted another 5 in the same fashion in Box 2 for Part B of my experiment.


Then I planted three sunflowers in the right side of Box 1 - the "Sunflower: Dwarf Sensation" from Yates - and I will point them out on the photo when I find a way to post them on this blog. Lastly, I planted four extra sunflowers (in case the ones that I want to use die) in a round pot separate from the rest of the experiment. I also kept some extra tubers in the fridge in case I need to grow a few more sweet potatoes. 

At present, the sweet potato tubers simply look like green stems sticking out of the dirt. The sunflowers, on the other hand, are not visible because they are covered with 1cm of dirt. Again, I will post pictures of them as soon as I find a feasible way to get them on this blog!