Lab #5 Tropical Ecology

Seed Germination and Productivity


Question: Can Plants germinate in the dark?
Hypotheses: Seeds can not germinate in the dark.
Treatments: Seeds germination in the light, and seeds germinate in the dark.
Control: Dark Germination.

Methods:

Get 6*6 tray
Radish seeds 
Dark soil
Add soil in the tray almost to the top
water the soil
plant for seeds of radish in each spot
Let one in the light,and other in the dark

Results

Seeds germination in the dark have a percent of 34.7% in this experiment (50/144*100=34.7%) 

Seeds germination in the light gave a percent of 38.19% (55/144*100=38.19%)

The difference between seed that germinated in the dark, and the seed that germinated in the light were the yellow color given for dark treatment, long, some of them without tip, and skinny seedlings, while the seeds in the light were green, in good shape, and ready to keep growing.

Why do the seeds germinate in the dark?

•  The seed germinates, because it is compost for an embryo which a plant produce with one leaf named monocotyledon, or two leaves named dicotyledon. The embryo have good amount of energy to make the seed open the shell, and germinate making at the same time the leaves go up looking for sun while the roots goes down reaching water, and soil nutrients. After the germination process the plant have utilized the sugar that was store in the little leaves of the embryo. It means that now the plant need to do photosynthesis to keep growing, if the plant stay in the dark it won't work the chloroplasts which have in it the chlorophyll, (the one that look green for us, or which we see green). [Tropical Ecology Shadia Duery. year 2014.]  

• The next graph shows the differences of the seedlings height, and clearly showing how much impact does the photosynthesis have in the growth of plants. At the same time this graph shows that our theory was wrong, because the seeds can germinate in the dark.

Seedlings Treatment and Height Comparison

This Graph represent the seedlings growth in comparison with treatment in the dark and light, showing that the dark treatment have the most growth.

The weight of the plants is very important when they are wet, and dry. It's a way to compared the net of a plant. The next graph shows the variation in weight for this experiment.

The seedlings weight was a little different, letting us know that seeds have the potential to germinated with light or without light, just with some differences.

• Color, the treatment in the dark was yellow, and the light treatment green.
• Size and shape, Dark treatment did have problems with tip of the seedlings or thinness, the light treatment was in good shape.