The effects of various nutrients on shoot growth of Triticum aestivum seedlings Abstract: An abstract is a one-paragraph summary of your report. It should include (in this order) the background of the study (1-3 sentences), mentioning of the study system/species/object (1 sentence), the question investigated (1 sentence), the general methods used (1 sentence), the principle results (1 sentence) and the conclusions/significance (1 sentence). The reader should be able to determine the major points of your report without having to read further. The language should be concise, no citations or references and no statistical parameters should be included in the abstract. The abstract is located at the beginning of your report, however it is usually written once you have finished writing your paper. Keywords: Fertilizer, triticum aestivum, winter wheat, shoot length, macronutrients, positive control media, negative control, wheat Introduction [Page limit-1 page] 1. Triticum aestivum , commonly known as Winter Wheat is a member of the grass family and is grown during the spring and winter time. Farmers use this crop in the winter as a reduced amount of tillage is needed and many soil nutrients are able to be preserved (Weill 1990). 2.why is trivium used for this experiment? Include a study. 3. In this experiment we will investigate the effects of six different nutrients on the shoot length of triticum aestivum. The question arises, on what effects will each nutrient treatment have on the triticum aestivum seedlings, in particular, which nutrient treatment will demonstrate the greatest shoot growth? 4. We assume that each treatment with different nutrients will portray different shoot lengths. 5.The six treatments conducted in this lab include: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron. We have also included a positive control media which contains all the essential nutrients and a negative control that

contains dechlorinated water only, these conditions are included to be compared to the six treatment groups. The seedlings are kept in the treatments for 14 days and are watered daily. On the 14th day we measure the shoot length of each treatment in millimeters and compare each treatment to the negative and positive control. This determines whether the different treatments affect the growth of Triticum aestivum. 6.It is believed that if seedlings of Triticum aestivum are placed in six different treatments containing different essential nutrients then we expect there to be a large difference in shoot length. We will then be able to reject the null hypothesis stating that the six treatments have no effect on the growth of seedlings of Triticum aestivum and the shoot lengths from each treatment should be relatively the same. Plants require various nutrients for growth, the three main nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium along with many other macro and micro nutrients (Morris et al. 2019). The intake of different types and amount of nutrients can affect the growth of the plant, Materials and Methods Prior to initiating the experiment, I cleaned all the materials and equipment, including planting container, paper towel and cotton and kept in a clean environment until further use to avoid any contamination. I then wiped the graduated cylinders using 70% ethanol and sorted the seeds to remove broken or discolored ones. I obtained all the materials for the experiment which are: wheat seeds, treatment solution, graduated cylinders, planing container, tape, marker, paper towel, scissors and cotton (Keir et al., 2021). Using a marker and tape I labeled 100 water containers. There were 8 experimental treatments, the first was the negative control containing dechlorinated water only and the second was the positive control media, containing a full nutrient complement. The other six treatments contained only; nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron respectively (Keir et al., 2021). Next, I created a stock solution for each of the treatments by measuring and adding each nutrient to 1L of dechlorinated water. Then I thoroughly mixed each stock solution and then placed each into an amber bottle. I diluted each stock solution by mixing 100 ml of the stock solution to 400 ml of water for each treatment and then placed them into squirt bottles. Next, I cut a paper towel in half then folded it in half and placed it at the bottom of the planting container. On top of the paper towel I placed a layer of cut cotton and then got the other half of the paper towel folded in half then placed it on top of the cotton. I put 30ml of the specific treatments into the paper towel/cotton layer, then measured out 10mL of wheat seeds using a graduated cylinder and spread the seeds evenly on top of the paper towel. Another

Figure one displays the mean shoot lengths and standard deviation of Triticum aestivum seedlings in the eight treatments. The eight treatments were the negative control, positive control media, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron respectively. The average shoot lengths of each treatment and standard deviations were inputted into Excel in order to create the bar graph with standard deviation error bars. Table 1: Table below displays the shoot length of triticium aesvitum t-tests results for each treatment. In the first six columns the following nutrients: potassium, calcium, nitrogen, phosphorus, magnesium and iron are compared to the negative control. In the next six columns the nutrients are compared to the positive control media. The final column compares the positive control media and negative control. Wate r/ K Water /Ca Wate r/ N Wate r/ P Water / Mg Water / Fe CM/ K CM/ Ca CM/ N CM/ P CM/ Mg CM/ Fe CM/ Water n 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 critical t - value 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 2.024 calculate d t -value 10.40 86 1.858 6 9.690 0 11.11 52 5.7948 3.9202 5.2942 12.53 79 3.3923 4.8283 9.7494 16.5223 13.0383 df 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 38 actual p- value p<0.0 001 (p < 0.05) p=0.0 708 (p >0.05) p<0.0 001 (p < 0.05) p<0.0 001 (p < 0.05) p<0.00 01 (p < 0.05) p=0.00 04 (p < 0.05) p<0.00 01 (p < 0.05) p<0.0 001 (p < 0.05) p=0.00 16 (p < 0.05) p<0.000 1 (p < 0.05) p<0.000 1 (p < 0.05) p<0.000 1 (p < 0.05) p<0.0001 (p < 0.05) conclusio n Reject null Fail to reject null Rejec t null Reject null Reject null Reject Null Reject null Reject null Reject null Reject null Reject null Reject Null Reject null

Figure 1: Graph above displays the average shoot length and standard deviation error bars for the eight treatments which include: the negative control, positive control media, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron respectively. Discussion [Page limit - 1 page] The discussion section is where you report on the interpretation, conclusion, and significance of your results. This is your opportunity to demonstrate your ability to analyze, evaluate, interpret and reason effectively. The discussion should relate your findings to your original question, hypothesis (or hypotheses if you had more than one), and predictions, which means that you evaluate your results in terms of your original question/hypothesis/predictions and point out the biological relevance of your findings. Avoid redundancy between the ‘Results’ and ‘Discussion’ sections. In addition, you should generalize the importance of your findings, discuss ambiguous data, and relate your results to other published studies (i.e., results published in primary scientific literature). Is your work in agreement or in contrast with previously published work? You should also discuss any sources of experimental error or limitations and recommend ‘specific’ areas of further research based on your results and the findings of other published studies. You should end your discussion by summarizing the main points that you want the reader to remember; you should provide closure for the report and by extension, the reader.