3 Plants Research

Watermelon, Corn, and Asparagus

WATERMELON

1.

            I would like to plant a watermelon because it is my all time favorite fruit. I eat watermelon whenever I can find them in the store, so if I could grow some watermelon, then I wouldn’t have to wait to find them in the store, which would be amazing.  I also don’t think that watermelon has ever been successfully grown at our school garden before, so I think it would be neat to start a watermelon vine.

2.

            a.  Vegetable and fruit

            b.  Plant in the warm season. Plant as a seed (usually takes 5-10 days to geminate). Also plant first, individually in pots, then transfer after germination.

            c.  Usually seedless watermelon take 80-85 days until they are ready to harvest. This works for the semester because it is just under three months until they will be ready and the semester is longer than that.

            d.  You need quite a lot of space to start out, but that is if you want to grow quite a few watermelon. If we just plant 2 or 3 seeds that germinated, then we would need about 9 by 9 feet. They should be planted 2-3 feet apart from each other.

            e.  The soil should be warm and it is best if it is loamy soil (equal sand, clay, and silt particles).

            f.  You don’t need to water watermelons very often, unless the weather becomes really dry. Drip irrigation in cooler areas.

            g.  Potatoes and corn(which is one of my other veggies I want to plant).

3.

If you plant seedless watermelon, you need to plant them next to regular watermelon (with seeds) because seedless watermelon can’t pollinate.

SWEET CORN

1.

            I want to grow sweet corn because I love corn on the cob and my family never eats it, we always get canned corn, so it would be cool to be able to row it myself so I can have some. I also have heard that when homegrown corn is way better than store bought corn, so it should be some really great corn. I also think its neat that corn and watermelon are companion plants and I want to grow both, so it works out kind of perfectly.

2.

a.     Grass

b.     Soil should be at 60-65 degrees. Want a lot of sunlight. Plant from a seed. Takes 3-4 days to germinate.

c.      About 60-70 days. Makes sense.

d.     Plant seeds 6-8 inches apart, 1 inch deep. Then thin to 10-12 inches apart when the corn is 4-5 inches tall.

e.     Turn soil well in advance so it can set and warm up to 60-65 degrees.  If you pant super sweet corn add 2 pounds of 10-10-10 fertilizer. Add nitrogen to the soil if needed later (if not using a lot of compost).

f.      Needs a lot of water. (2 or 3 times a week in hot spells.

g.     Amaranth (provides shade for the corn) and watermelon.

3.

            The stock that sprouts from the bottom of the plant, called the suckers, can sometimes grow an extra ear of corn.

ASPARAGUS

1.

            I want to grow asparagus because my family loves it and eats it all the time. I just think it would be neat to know what goes in to growing something my family eats on a regular basis. It would also be a great plant to have in the school garden because it would last for a long time, so each class could pass it down to the next and see how long it keeps producing.

2.

            a.  Vegetable/shoot

            b.  Spring. Can be from a seed, but better if from a crown.

            c.  Do not harvest during the planting period, wait until after, so that they will continue to grow again the next year. Spears will show up after about 7-10 days.

            d.  Requires 5 feet by 6 feet. Should be 1.5 feet apart and 5 feet from rows.

            e.  Requires a soil with pH of about 7.0. At 6 inches add a 10-20-10 fertilizer (20 pounds per 1000 sq. feet).

            f.  Doesn’t need t be watered very often, unless very dry.

            g.  Tomatoes…they deter the pests from the asparagus and visa versa.

3.

            The first crown you plant will continue to produce about ½ pound of spears every year for 15 years. 

Definitions and Sentences

1.  Herbicide – Weed killer and control -----The gardeners used herbicides to get rid of the weeds in their garden.

2.  Compost – A fertilizer of decaying substances ---- We put compost in the soil of our newly planted flowers.

3.  Wildlife – Undomesticated animals living in the wild ---- When we go camping, we see a lot of wildlife.

4.  High nitrogen fertilizer – Fertilizer with a high, high nitrogen concentration ---- For that plant, we needed a high nitrogen fertilizer.

5.  Horticultural – The science/art of cultivating plants ---- The horticultural society had many plants.

6.  Hyphae – One of the threadlike elements of the mycelium (mass of hyphae that form the vegetative part of a fungus) ---- Hyphae sometimes branches more in some plants than others.

7.  Aphid – Tiny, soft-bodied insect that sucks the sap from stems and leaves of some plants ---- The farmer wanted to kill all the aphids at his farm.

8.  Pesticides – Chemicals that kill plants/fungus/animal pests ---- They used pesticides to get rid of pests at their garden.

9.  Insecticides – A substance used to kill insects ---- There were too many insects in his garden so he used insecticides to kill them.

10.  Fungicides – A substance used to kill fungi ---- The fungicides got rid of his fungi problem on hi plants.

11.  Pest – An unwanted organism or thing ---- The dog had a pest that was hurting him.

12.  Silvilculture – The cultivation of forest trees ---- He was a silvilculture master and had created many forests.

13.  Viniculture – The science or study of making wines ---- He was a wine connoisseur, so he became a viniculturist.

14.  Agriculture – The production of crops, livestock, or poultry ---- The farmer used his knowledge of agriculture to make a living.

15.  Rototilling – Breaking up soil with a tool called a rototill ---- We were rototilling the soil before we planted.

16.  NPK –Nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium ---- The NPK percentages in his fertilizer was high.

17.  Cation – Positively charged ion ---- There were many cation interactions in alkali metals.

18.  Anion – A negatively charged ion ---- The anion was attracted to the anode.

19.  Kingdoms – Category of the highest rank, grouping together all life forms that have similar characteristics ---- Tigers are in the kingdom animalia.

20.  Archaebacteria – Microorganisms that have RNA sequences, enzymes, and a cell wall composition that are different from all other organisms ---- Archaebacteria are a small group of outsiders.

21.  Eubacteria – Spherical/rod shaped bacteria, characterized by cells with rigid walls ---- We looked at the eubacteria under microscopes and saw rod shaped organisms.

22.  Animals – A living organism (animale) ---- The animals come out at night.

23.  Plants – An herb or other small vegetable growth (not a tree or shrub) (plantae) ---- The plants grew quickly.

24.  Fungi – Eukaryotic single-celled organisms that live by decomposing/absorbing the material in which they grow ---- The fungi grew on the bread and we had to throw it out.

25.  Protists – (Protista) A group of eukaryotic organisms that unicellular and sometimes colonial or less often multicellular ---- We saw protists at the tide pools.

26.  Micrometer – Various devices for measuring minute distances/angles, etc (telescope/microscope) ---- We measured how many micrometers the cell was.

27.  Flora – The plants of a particular region or period, listed by species and considered as a whole ---- The flora of a rainforest is very green.

28.  Fauna – The animals of a particular regions/time, considered as a whole ---- The fauna of the desert is very different from the fauna of the sea.

29.  Nematodes – Any unsegmented worm of the phylum nematode, with an elongated, cylindrical body; roundworm ---- Under the microscopic, nematodes look just like worms.

30.  Food web – Series of organisms related by predator-prey (food chain) ---- In a sea food web, Orcas are the strongest predator.

31.  Microarthropods – An invertebrate animal with an exoskeleton , segmented body, and jointed appendages.

32.  Photosynthesis – Plants absorb CO2 and create H2O, using light as energy ---- If it wasn’t for photosynthesis in plants, we couldn’t breathe.

33.  Exudates – To send out slowly ---- Sweat exudes from his body as he runs.

34.  Rhizoshpere – The soil that surrounds the roots of a plant ---- The rhizosphere stuck to the stem when I pulled out the plant.

35.  Amoeba – Freshwater, marine, or parasitic one celled protozoa characterized by a granular nucleus surrounded by cytoplasm ---- There were many ameba in the lake, but we couldn’t see them.

36.  Paramecium – Ciliated freshwater protest with an oval body and a long, deep oral groove ---- The paramecium had lots of small hair all over it.

37.  Flagellates – A protist with one or more flagella ---- The flagellates used their many flagella to move quickly.

38.  Ciliates – A protist  with cilia on part or all of the surface ---- Ciliates have many hairs (cilia).

39.  Microbes – A microorganism, esp. a pathogenic bacterium ---- Microbes can be a fungus or a bacteria.

40.  Chemosynthesis – Organic compounds created in a n organism, created by a chemical reaction as energy ---- The bacteria used chemosynthesis to make a compound.

41.  Wax and wane – From a high (one) side of a spectrum to the low (other) side ---- The moon’s wax and wane is a constant cycle.

42.  Fertilizer – A substance that when added to soil/water increases productivity/growth ---- We add natural fertilizers to our plants to allow them to grow faster and healthier.

43.  Arthropods – Larger microarthropods

44.  Aggregates – Formed by the conjugation or combination of particles into a whole mass of sum; total; combined ---- We aggregated all the fauna in our garden.

45.  Fodder – Coarse food for livestock ----- We gave our cows fodder to eat.

46.  Pathogen – A disease producing agent ---- The pathogen smallpox infected many people.

47.   Mycorrhiza – A symbiotic relationship of mycelium with the roots of a plant, in which the hyphae form a closely woven mass around the rootlets or penetrate the cells of a root.

48.  Inhibitory – To restrain or hinder (to decrease rate of action) ---- Pests are inhibitory to growth.

49.  Streptomycin – Antibiotic produced by soil and used in medicine for TB

50.  Ammonium – Ion that plays the part of a metal in the salt formed when ammonia reacts with acid ---- Ammonium is in some fertilizers.

51.  Ecosystem – System formed by the interaction of a community of organisms within their environment ---- Keep your ecosystem clean to allow it to last longer.