Plant Structure and Function - Plant Growth and Development - Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Purpose 

In this course you have studied different cells and tissues within the plant. You analysed the structures of roots, stems and leaves. You then study about plant transpiration, mineral nutrition, phloem translocation, and plant hormones that control growth and development.

In this assessment, you are required to use the knowledge gained during this course to cultivate a plant species and write a ‘Reflective Piece’ on growing a plant species and recording its characteristics including growth habit, nutritional requirement, water uptake, etc.

In this assignment you will develop and use the following skills:

• Experimental design 

• Data collection

• Data analysis and Presentation

• Discussing results through reflection of knowledge gained during the course

Objectives

• Design an experiment, and refine it to answer specific questions

• Acquire scientific skills in plant cultivation

• Answer scientific questions through planned data collection

• Identify patterns or relationships in the dataset

• Utilise evidence collected to justify claims

• Explain your results based on scientific literature 

Experiment

1. Choose a plant species you would like to cultivate. Ideally choose species according to the current season i.e., species that can be grown in autumn/winter in Melbourne. Examples include plants from the pea family (garden pea, chickpea, beans, snowpea, etc), coriander, fenugreek, spinach. Seeds of some of this may be present in your pantry. If using seeds from pantry, sow more seeds as germination rate may be low.

2. Prepare a garden bed or fill 5 pots (10 litre) or ice cream containers or like with garden soil (soil in your backyard will do). If Bunnings is still open and you can visit, please bring fertiliser (water soluble powder or liquid concentrate) and fungicide (copper based or eco-friendly). If you cannot purchase these due to current situation, it is okay to complete the experiment without them. Note the warnings on these chemicals and use appropriately. You will only need a tiny bit for this experiment. So if you will not use later, it is not advisable to purchase.

3. Germinate the seeds ‘in the soil’ or ‘on soil surface’ according to the seed type. Germinate 2-3 seeds per pot. If cultivating on a garden bed, sow 2-3 seeds at 5 locations (at least 0.25 m apart). Record this day as ‘Day 0’.

4. Water the seeds twice a day till they emerge. Record the day of emergence. Record Germination %. You can take photos throughout the experiment to paste in your report and if growing indoors, take time lapse videos to show your friends. Three days after germination, keep one healthy plant in each pot or location and discard the remaining.

5. Watch the plant grow everyday and make weekly observations: plant height, number of leaves, number of nodes, number of internodes, length of internodes (Internode 1 is the bottom most). Make these observations for 4 weeks starting 3 days after germination. If the plant produces tillers (multiple stems or leaves like a grass, consider each stem or leaf as individual node). Fill this information in Table 1.

6. Once, the plant emerges, only water to keep the soil moist (usually alternate days). Don’t over water or else the plants will rot. Check the weather forecast before watering if growing outdoors. You may not need to water if it is going to rain heavily.

7. Record the amount of water provided to each plant. You can use a 200 or 250 ml glass or cup to water.

8. If you purchased a fertiliser, please fertilise the plants in week 2 according to recommended dose on the packet. Wear protection as per manufacturer’s instructions.

9. Record the growth habit of the plant including root type, leaf type, etc to fill out information in Table 2. Take photos to support your results.

10. In week 4, don’t water the plants for 1 week and check the effect on plant leaves. Take photos on alternate days.

QUESTIONS:

1. Which plant species did you select and why? (1 mark)

2. Is it a monocot or dicot species? (1 mark)

3. Is it annual or perineal? (1 mark)

4. What is the usual life cycle of this species? (1 mark)

5. Did you sow the seeds on top or inside the soil? (1 mark)

6. What was the germination %? Show results and calculate mean (1 mark)

7. How many days did it take for the plants to emerge? Show results and calculate median (1 mark)

8. How regularly did you water the plant on average? Why? (1 mark)

9. How much water did each plant need on average over a week? Show results and calculations. (1 mark)

10. What is the leaf type of the plant? (1 mark)

11. What is the stem type of the plant? (1 mark)

12. What is the root type of the plant? (1 mark)

13. What is the average leaf number of the plant? Present leaf numbers at the end of each week. (1 mark)

14. What is the average internode number of the plant? Present internode numbers at the end of each week. (1 mark)

15. What is the average internode length of the plant? Present internode length at the end of each week. (1 mark)

16. Which major and minor nutrients are usually required by plants? Does this plant have any special requirement (more or less of certain nutrients)?

17. What type of photosynthesis usually occurs in this plant species? Is it C3, C4 or CAM plant? (1 mark)

18. What will happen to the yield/productivity of this plant if you saturate its atmosphere with carbon dioxide? (1 mark)

19. What is the usual time to flowering of this plant? (1 mark)

20. In terms of which season this plant usually flowers, what type of plant is it? (1 mark)

21. Write a ‘Reflective Piece on your experience with cultivation of this plant and how this experiment has helped you understand various concepts within this course. If you were to complete this experiment again, how might you improve your study? (5 marks)

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