White Icicle Radish Seeds Scifair Projects

Radish Germination

Radish germaintion is impacted by several factors. The main factors are soil pH, moisture level and ground temperature.

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Objectives/Goals

Discover effect that microwave radiation and heat from a conventional oven has on the germination of White Icicle radish seeds.

"If I place 10 White Icicle radish seeds into a microwave for 10 seconds, and 10 other white icicle radish seeds into a conventional oven at 250 degrees F for 10 minutes, which group of seeds will germinate over the course of 6 days?"

Methods/Materials

White Icicle Radish Seeds, oven, microwave, napkins, marker, tape, clear Zip-lock bags, water and a dropper, sunny window, microwave safe dish, cookie sheet, timer, and hot mit.

Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees F. 2nd, with marker label 1 each of bags Control, Microwave 10 seconds and Oven 10 Minutes. Add 8 drops of water to each napkin in bag. Next set up Control group. Use 10 white icicle radish seeds and place on control bag napkin. For microwave group a small microwave dish and ten white icicle radish seeds. Place 10 white icicle radish seeds into microwave dish. Place dish in microwave and cook for 10 seconds. Before starting Oven group, place 10 white icicle radish seeds into tray put tray onto cookie sheet. Place seeds in a horizontal line on one side of napkin in bag labeled Oven 10 Minutes. Seal all bags closed, tape to sunny window. Leave bags taped to window 6 days. After the 6 day period note number of sprouted and un-sprouted seeds on the bag. Finally, document results in graphic form.

Results

In the 3 trials conducted in this experiment the control group had no seeds germinate on the 1st day. On the 2nd day this group had a total of 4 seeds germinate over the 3 trials. On 3rd day a total of 24 seeds germinated and by 4th day all 30 seeds had germinated in group. The microwave oven group had no seeds germinate on 1st day of any trials. On the 2nd day this group had a total of 2 seeds germinate, and on 3rd day it had 27 seeds germinate. On 4th day all 30 seeds had germinated. The conventional oven group had no seeds germinate at all in any of the trials on any of the days.

Conclusions/Discussion

It was noted in 1/2 the time that it took to finish each trial for each group that the conventional oven seeds would not germinate. All other seeds from other trials did not even need 6 days for seeds to germinate. So, my hypothesis was proven valid. Microwave oven seeds will germinate more than conventional oven seeds. They not only germinated, but conventional oven seeds did not germinate at all. 3rd party contributor