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Does Salt-Water or Sugar-Water Have an Effect on the Growth of Radishes?



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    One of the easiest plants to grow year-round are radishes. Although they are, like all plants, meant to be grown outside, it is possible to grow radishes inside with similar results. Radishes tend to grow quickly, granted that they are planted and cared for correctly. The number one step in growing any plant is watering. Plants should be watered frequently, depending on the plants growing habits and needs. It is always best to learn how much water a plant needs before beginning to care for it.

    In the case of radishes, they should be watered plenty when the seeds are first being buried and then watered everyday while they are growing (“Growing Radishes”). Another essential part of growing a plant is giving the plant the sunlight it needs. Some plants are normally grown and harvested in winter, while others in the sunny months of summer. Depending on their normal growing times, plants prefer certain amounts of sunlight. For instance, radishes are usually grown in cool weather when the sun isn’t out as much. In this case, a gently shaded place with some sunlight would be best for radishes. “Growing Radishes”) The last part in growing successful radishes is to keep them in good containers. Plant containers can range from tiny flower pots to huge pots intended for trees. Radishes can grow alone in their own pot or with other radishes. The only recommendation is to leave plenty of room for them to grow if planning to grow multiple radishes in one container (“Growing Radishes”). Since watering is so important to growing plants, changing the water that is given to plants can have an effect on a plants growth.

    In general, watering with different liquids has been bad for plants and has damaged their growth. For instance, adding salt or sugar to plants can change the growth of a plant. In general, salt usually hurts a plant. According to djrice69, a poster on Flowerhorn USA, an online forum, there is already a concentration of salt in the soil. When more salt is added, it kills plant cells and occasionally the plant. Some plants can fare better with salt water, because their cells already have a high concentration of salt.

    As well as killing cells, salt deprives the plant from the water it needs, causing it to become brown and die (djrice69). Like salt, sugar will usually harm plants as well. Sugar blocks the water in the soils’s path to get to the plant and the plant has to go without water, a task that is impossible for any plant. The plant’s roots are used to normal, rain or tap water, not water infected with sugar and the roots can’t adapt quickly enough to the sugar water. Sugar water will generally harm plants as well (Hershey).

    There have been several experiments done over the years concerning different types of water and a plant’s growth. They all contain different plants being tested, but most come out with similar findings. LeeAnne F, a 13 year old girl, is an example of this experiment. LeeAnne found that plain water has the most successful growth. She also found that the plant she watered with sugar-water grew healthily until the end of the experiment when it started going downhill. The salt-water plants started off as sickly seeds and had difficulties. This could have been from bad seeds or the salt-water (LeeAnne F. . To do her experiment, LeeAnne used radishes. She used two radishes per test group and one radish per container. Her control group was plain water. LeeAnne watered all three of her test groups with plain water while the radishes were sprouting. Once sprouted, however, LeeAnne watered the plants with added salt or sugar, depending on the radish group. After nine days of growing, LeeAnne ended the experiment and recorded her findings and conclusion (LeeAnne F. ). Another experiment done on the subject was by Mary M. Karcher for a science fair.

    Her results were different than LeeAnne’s, partly due to the fact that Karcher only tested sugar-water unlike LeeAnne who incorporated sugar-water and salt-water into her experiment. Karcher’s findings were that the plant that was watered with 50 grams of sugar grew to be the largest and healthiest (Karcher). Karcher’s experiment had four test groups. She planted bean plants and watered each with different amounts of sugar: none, 25 grams per liter of water, 50 grams per liter of water, and 75 grams per liter of water. The plants grew under 24 hours of artificial light for 28 days.

    Each plant was watered with 22. 18 milliliters of water every day (Karcher). A third experiment of the same nature was conducted by Naomi L. , a sixth grader. Her results were that, like LeeAnne’s plants, plain water grew the best. Sugar water worked well too but not as well as plain water. The seeds watered with salt-water never sprouted. Naomi’s purpose of the experiment was to see if salt should be used in winter on icy roads and sidewalks, and her conclusion was that salt should not be used because it can run off the pavement and hurt plant growth (Naomi L. . Naomi tried a different plant than the other two experiments, she decided to use alfalfa seeds. Her planting process was a bit different and instead of growing plants in a pot with soil the seeds grew while wrapped in a paper towel, the paper towel resting in a glass full of water. The water had added salt or sugar, save for the final glass that plain water for the control group. After a week Naomi removed the seeds and sprouts and weighed them to see which seeds grew the best (Naomi L. ). It is very possible to draw conclusions from these experiments.

    From LeeAnne’s and Naomi’s experiments, one can infer that in general plain water will work best and usually salt-water will produce no sprouts and turn out the worst. After Mary Karcher’s experiment, one can see that in the case of beans sometimes a bit of sugar is good for the plants to grow, but not a ton of sugar. According to Naomi, salt should not be used on roads and sidewalks for the welfare of nearby plants. After all three experiments, one can see that the affect salt and sugar have on plants can differ depending on various plants.

    Does Salt-Water or Sugar-Water Have an Effect on the Growth of Radishes?. (2018, Mar 08). Retrieved from

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