Introduction:

 

Plants also known as green plants, are multicellular eukaryotes organisms of the kingdom plantae. Green plants have structures very important to their survival. They contain cell walls with cellulose responsible for obtaining most of their energy from sunlight via photosynthesis by primary chloroplasts, derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria. Another important feature of plants is their chlorophyll the pigment which gives the plant its green color. Not only does it provide color to the plant but it also is responsible for capturing light energy, which fuels the manufacture of food, sugar, starch and other carbohydrates. Another important feature of plants is their root hair cells located in the plants roots. The function of these structures is to absorb water and other certain minerals through their roots to survive. The root hair cells special features are the extended cell structure to increase the surface area for absorption. Also the xylem vessels is location inside the vascular bundle. Its function is to transport water and mineral ions from roots to leaves. The lignin spiral provides strength for the stem and also makes the vessels waterproof. Its unique specialized features are as follows. Many cells are arranged end to end and they lose their end walls to form a long vessel which becomes lignified. The cells that make up the vessel (xylem) lack organelles such as cytoplasm and nucleus. This is beneficial for its function because the presence of cell contents like cytoplasm would hinder the transport of water and mineral ions, making the process slower and inefficient.

 

Transport in plants occurs on three levels; the uptake and release of water and solutes by individual cells absorption of water and other minerals, short-distance transport of substances from cell to cell loading of sucrose from photosynthetic cells into the sieve tube cells of the phloem, And finally long-distance transport of sap within the xylem and phloem this is a whole plant transport of photosynthetic from leaf to root.

 

Plants require large quantities of macronutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The essential nutrition elements are needed in large quantities are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sulfur. Micronutrients - iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, molybdenum, and chlorine are also needed but in very small amounts. Macronutrients are nutrients that provide calories or energy to a plant essential for successful growth. Meanwhile, a lack of these important nutrients is known a nutrient deficiency which is responsible for the interference with the ability for a plant to continue to grow and live as normal. Growth deficiency, can also ultimately cause the plant to derive from its natural growing habits.

 

In unit two "from Proks to Plants" we invested hydroponic growth & nutrient deficiencies in tomato plants. Hydroponic growth is a subdivision of hydroculture, which is the growing of plants in a soil less medium, or an aquatic based environment. Hydroponic growing uses mineral nutrient solutions to feed the plants in water, without soil. (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S) of these macronutrients, only the deficiency symptoms  of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium symptoms can be visually detected on plants grown under an artificially controlled culture system. However, not every deficiency has visible symptoms.

 

Although the plants will still be able grow and survive but no as successfully as plants grown in soil the water quality can be a problem in hydroponic systems. For instance water with excessive alkalinity or salt content can result in a nutrient imbalance and poor plant growth. Softened water may contain harmful amounts of sodium. In this experiment we hypothesized that the plant mass, length, number of shoots and roots will increase but not efficiently and that the standard chlorophyll content would be different than those of the complete solution (complete nutrient included).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Materials: 

 

• 9 tomato Plant

• 3 600 ml beakers

• Aluminum foil

• Nonabsorbent cottons balls

• Distilled water

• 3 foam boards (cover top of beaker)

• Negative control 

• Complete solution (within volumetric flask)

• Nitrogen solution (within volumetric flask)

• Cotton ball

 

 

Element for Nitrogen solution:

 

• 5 ml KCL

• 2 ml MgSO4

• 1 ml KH2PO4

• 1 ml FeNaEDTA

• 1 ml microelement

• 5 ml CaCl2

 

 

 

Methods

 

In order to begin our experiment in Hydroponic Growth & Nutrient Deficiencies in Tomato Plants a few items was collected in order to make the nitrogen solution and the complete solutions. 2 volumetric flask was gathered each containing 200 ml of distilled water, after the 200 ml of distilled water was put into both of the volumetric flask the nitrogen solutions stated in the materials was placed in one volumetric flask and the complete solutions also stated in the materials was placed in the other flask. At this point we had one flask containing 200 ml of distilled water and the nitrogen solution and the other flask containing 200ml of distilled water and the complete solution. Then both volumetric flask was fill up to the 1000 ml line located on the flask, finishing up the two solutions that are required to fulfill our purpose for this experiment. 

 

Then three 600ml beakers was placed on the counter containing separately the nitrogen solution, the complete solution and the negative control (solution that was provided by instructor). Within each of the beakers of solutions 3 tomato plants was placed within a four whole foam board that was located on top of the beakers for support. Surrounding the plants was nonabsorbent cotton balls for balance and aluminum foil surrounding the beakers. 

 

This experiment was carried out for 4 weeks recording the results of each tomato plant; Treatment 1- Plain Water (negative control), Treatment 2- Complete Fertilizer (positive control), Treatment 3-Lacking Nitrogen. Measuring the mass, shoots, stem, roots, leaves and chloroplast pigmentation. Every week we water our plants so they won't die by dehydration.  

 

Results

 

Over the course of this experiment , tomato plants are used to studied and observed the characteristics and abnormal symptoms of tomato plants in three different plant deficiencies; the first lacking nitrogen, the second being a complete fertilizer (positive control), and the third distilled water (negative control).

 

As predicted Nitrogen deficiency caused the plants to grow slowly and thinly. The tomato plant leaves turn from their normal deep green color to a pale green shade in the early stages of nitrogen deficiency. Then, the leaves gradually turn yellow. As this happens, the veins in the leaves remained green for a while before turning completely yellow. The undersides of the leaves on some plants get a reddish purple color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion

 

In lab we did an experiment on mineral deficiency. We compared how different solutions would affect the plant’s growth. We had three different solutions a complete solution, negative concertation, and nitrogen solution. We took four readings to see the changes in the plants. Each time we measured, weighed, and counted the leaves of each plant.

 

We decided to do our experiment with the nitrogen solution. The first reading was before the plants were put in any of the solutions. We removed the plants from the soil and wash their roots with distilled water to remove particles. We made our solutions, and then placed the plants in the solutions with a lid on top. 

 

The second reading was after they had been in the solutions for a week. All the plants had more leaves and grow in length. It was not a big difference in the plants.

 

After two weeks we took our third reading, and were able to see the plants had color loss. The plants in the nitrogen solution were limb, had color lost and were hard on the edges of the leaves. The stems were thin and the bottoms of the leaves were pale green with dark purple veins.

 

In our last reading, we were able to observe that the plants’ stem length increase but their root length decreased. Our plants in the nitrogen solution also had dead leaves and all their veins were dark purple. Some of the leaves also were yellowish in color at the bottom.

 

After the final reading we were able to see that a plant growing under conditions of mineral deficiency, their physical appearance various signs of the deficiency sickness. The plants in the complete solution grow bigger in size and were bright green in color, whereas the plants in the nitrogen solution had lost their color. While the plants in the negative concentration died because they didn’t have any nutrition. 

 

Conclusion

 

In conclusion, our hydroponic plant experiment was to determine either or not our tomato plants would grow as if they were in soil taller, stiffer, and greener. However, removing a key hydroponic nutrient nitrogen we noticed various negative changes in our plants such as, poor discoloration, limpness. Our hypothesis was correct that out tomatoes plants lacking nitrogen would grow but not efficiently. Nitrogen is a macronutrient that has many functions in plants. And by removing this highly important nutrient the chloroplast in the tomato plants visibly decreased compared to the tomato plants complete solution. One of the major changes was that the leaves increased slightly but the color of the leaves decreased almost like a trickle effect. After a few weeks we also noticed a key change without nitrogen our plants did not grow as much they stay around the same range. If we had to do this experiment differently we would rather have tomato seeds. Having seeds instead of seedling we think the seeds could have a better chance adapting to life without nitrogen. Rather than have seeding already have experienced growing with nitrogen.

 

 

 

 

Work cited

 

Agrawal, Sachin. "All About Growing Tomatoes.”: Nitrogen Deficiency in Tomato Plants. N.p., 26 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 Nov. 2015.

 

http://freeexamacademy.com/igcse-subjects/igsce-biology/levels-of-organisation/relate-the-structure-of-ciliated-cells-root-hair-cells-xylem-vessels-muscle-cells-and-red-blood-cells-to-their-function/

 

http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/vista/html_pubs/hydro/require.html

 

http://www.growthtechnology.com/growtorial/what-is-hydroponic-growing/

 

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/plants/plantae.html

 

http://www.uic.edu/classes/bios/bios100/lecturesf04am/lect19.htm

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan