Does the Use of Biodegradable Materials Aid in Plant Growth?

by: Michelle Kirby, Laura Krugh, Jennifer Peterson, and Lauren Stiebler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

         Abstract

  Our Research Question was "Does the Use of Biodegradable Materials Aid in Plant Growth?" We believe that the answer to this question is important for water stressed countries because the results could lead to a more efficient way of watering crops. By making better use of their water supply, they could irrigate more land with the same amount of water as before. After testing five different materials: animal bedding, diaper, Soil Moist, sponge, and corn cob, we found that they have an affect on the growth of bean plants.  Each tray contained eight different percentages of a material/soil mixture, ranging from 10% material/90% soil, to 85% material/ 15% soil.  For comparisons sake, we grouped each percentage into two categories: above 50% or below 50% material. We found that by watering less frequently, the plants that had biodegradable materials performed the best as compared to a constant, which was 100% soil. After collecting data for two months, we discovered that the percentages had no effect on the growth rate, however, the materials did affect overall production and water retention. The findings of this report are relevant in that, these types of materials could be used in countries with significant drought to help grow food. With further research, biodegradable materials could become part of mainstream agriculture.

Introduction

  Does the use of biodegradable materials enhance plant growth? We believe that yes, biodegradable materials will aid in plant growth in many different ways. First, we predict they will help the soil retain water for the plants meaning that the plants would have to be watered less often. Second, there will be less runoff and wasted water because the materials will absorb and hold the water for the plant. With this research, we have proven that biodegradable materials do aid in plant growth by having to water the plants less often. This means that farmers will be able to spend less on water and still produce the same amount of food.  To see a quick overview of our experiment, see Powerpoint Presentation

Relevance

  Since our conclsuions confirmed our hypothesis, the implications this could have are huge. The foundation of our experiment is the idea that biodegradable materials can be used to aid in plant growth by reducing the amount of water necessary to grow these plants. This would by far have a huge effect on the produce industry. Agriculture is the number one consumer of water, and with our project we can perhaps reduce this unsustainable water consumption. Moreover, as the world becomes more populated, the necessity to produce food even more efficiently increases. It is estimated that by the year 2040, the world population would have grown to 10 billion, requiring food production to triple (Groot, J.J.R. 1998. Food Supply Capacity Study at Global Scale. Nutrient Cycling in Agro ecosystems: 181-189). Water stressed countries are especially facing this problem when they realize they have too many people, a fair amount of crops, but not enough water to manage either of them.

  Not all countries are as fortunate as the United States to hold large quantities of fresh water. We not only receive a fair amount of water through rain, but also house the largest fresh water aquifer, the Ogallala. The United States receives four cubic miles of rain each day, a lot of which is not put to use (http://www.co2science.rog/journal/2002/v5n3c2.htm) Furthermore, the Ogallala runs from South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico and covers a total of 800 miles north to south and 400 miles east to west(http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/gw/ogallala_1.cfm) Despite how helpful these two facts are in American farming, we are not using these resources in a sustainable manner. For instance, when we use water in our home or in an industry, 90% of the water used is eventually returned to the environment where it then replenishes water sources (http://www.christmas-tree-farm.com/dripgarden.html). However, when water is used for irrigation, only half of it is reusable because the rest is lost through evaporation, transpiration, or is lost in transit (http://www.christmas-tree-farm.com/dripgarden.html). Moreover, about 70% of freshwater resources are globally used in irrigation agriculture (Cruins, Hendrik J.a. 2000. Proactive Contingency Planning vis-ö-vis Declining Water Security in the 21st Century. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management: 81-82). Obviously we are losing a lot of water when growing produce. This is where our project could potentially step in and the ideas behind it could be implemented on a large scale and absorb a majority of the water lost in the irrigation process. Through products such as SoilMoist, to your everyday diaper and sponge, we have chosen these items based on their absorbing abilities and envrionmentally friendly creation. Diapers are made up of super absorbent polymers that retain about 30 times their own weight in liquids (http://www.consumersearch.com/www.family/diapers/fullstory.html) Polymer products have amazing liquid retention, and we wanted to take advantage of this feature. We decided to choose a second polymer-based product to test: SoilMoist, a product on the market specifically used to increase moisture in the soil and aid plant growth (JRM Chemical Inc. 1998. Soilmoist Polymers Commercial Applications. Brochure). Unfortunately, due to the nature of our project, the percentage of SoilMoist we mixed with the soils was way too high and it turned the soil into a completely inhospitable place for growth. Moreover, the price to purhcase a small jar is much higher when compared to purchasing any of the other materials we used. This price would probably discourage farmers from buying it, though in the long run it still would save them money because they would use less water. Superabsorbants have good absorbency both in water and other liquid solutions. The copolymers (like SoilMoist) enhance the water retention in soil (Raju, K.M. 2003. Synthesis of Superabsorbant Copolymers as Water Manageable Materials. Polymer International: 768-772). The other three materials, animal bedding, corn cob and natural sponges, are organic and in addition to their absorbing qualities, we can discover a new use for these now unused items.

 If our project works out, it would help all the third world countries that lack the technology to utilize what little water is available for them. The extended periods of drought that occur in Africa make farming a difficult and tedious process. Not only that but countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have minimal experience in planting and preparing for drought; only Botswana and South Africa have made efforts to develop drought response (Wilhite, D.A.A. 2000. Drought Preparedness and Response in the Context of Sub-Saharan Africa. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management: 63-72). Another example of a third world country that needs improvement in their water management is irrigation is India. Their booming population demands a large crop output, which was successfully fulfilled to some extent with the green revolution (Duffy, D. V. 2003. Composition and Method of Enhancing Moisture Content of Plants. Naturally Safe Technologies, Inc: 12-16). However, since they increased their productivity, they also increased their water usage. Thus, good water methods are vital to their ever-expanding population. It then goes without saying that our experiment would aid India in conserving every bit of their vital water and increase the plant productivity even more. Because vegetables are 80 to 95 percent water, their yield and quality suffer very quickly from drought (Sanders, D.C. 1993. Vegetable Crop Irrigation. Department of Horticultural Science at UNC: 1-3).

 There exist a huge variety of irrigation methods available today, many of which would utilize water much more effectively. Unfortunately, history has proven that old habits die-hard. Despite the new, more water efficient methods of irrigation available, many farmers still insist on sticking to the older methods. The most effective form out there now is the drip method, yet it is also one of the least used forms of watering. With this method, a system of nozzles is planted near the roots of the produce. Thus, when these nozzles release their water, it is assured to go directly to the source(http://www/water_mgmt.com/en/technologies8htm) This not only means that more water will be absorbed by the roots than with the conventional spray method, but that plants will need to be watered less often because they will actually be receiving most of the water let out. With our research combined with this drip method of irrigation, the water not absorbed by the plants right away would be held in the soil by our absorbent biodegradable materials. Hence when the plant then needs water again, the soil surrounding their root systems will not be depleted of water. Moreover, without our materials, the water not immediately absorbed would just seep lower and lower into the earth. This gradual infiltration not only dries out the soil, but also brings the soil nutrients down with it (Hagan, R.M. 1952. Effect of Porous Soil Amendments on Water Retention Characteristics of Soils. USGA Journal and Turf Management: 29-31). This is why cropland has to be rotated so often, because soil nutrients are depleted not only by the crops, but also by the unused water dragging them down farther into the earth.
As you can see, our research findings could potentially have a huge impact on agriculture and the world in general. To be able to conserve fresh water better in a time when it is becoming less and less abundant is going to prove very vital in the near future. Furthermore, it has the ability to make farming more sustainable in areas where not much water is present in the first place, such as Africa, and the Midwest. This means not as much water would have to be transported unnecessarily from areas of high water content. It is now apparent that the addition of biodegradable materials to soil can be very beneficial in the produce industry.

                             Specific Research Design    

The experimental design for this lab was to test the ability of five biodegradable materials and determine their effect on the growth of a bean plant. To test the ability of the materials to enhance plant growth, we began with separating the respective materials of corn cob pellets, Pampers diapers absorbency material, natural sponge bits, animal bedding, and SoilMoist pellets, into 5 different trays, one for each material, with each tray containing eight sections each, and each section having a different percentage of the respective material. We maintained a constant section on a separate tray and placed it under the same watering and growing conditions as every other plant grown in the five different materials. Each tray again contained eight sections; one section will contain 10% of the ground up material with the other 90% of the mixture being soil. The next contained 15% material and 85% soil. We continued changing the proportions of the mixture with the other percentages of material in each section being 25%, 35%, 50%, 65%, 75%, and lastly 85% of the mixture. Our decision to mix the materials together was to gain a more favorable distribution of the substances within the soil and to achieve a balance that will hopefully help boost plant development. This method allowed us to simultaneously test which percentage enhances plant growth most effectively. By measuring the height of each plant in centimeters and making observations of the plant's health through its number of new leaves, biomass, and number of beans, we measured the growth of the plant through numerical measurements (cm). These observations effectively measured if any or all of the materials successfully enhanced plant growth. To get an idea of how absorbent each of our materials are, we used a cup of each material and continued pouring water on our material until the material stopped absorbing. We kept track of how much water was being poured. The cups being used had holes in the bottom, this way it was evident when the material could not absorb any more because there was wasted water. We watered the plants once a week on Thursday mornings between the time of 9:45 and 10:00 to imitate a more stressful situation on the plant than in a normal greenhouse environment. Our attempt at causing a stressful situation on the plant is in no way to mimic the rain patterns of a third world country, but since our experiment produced a favorable result, the use of these materials could be introduced as a source of aid in the agricultural industry. No interviews, surveys, or any other such methods of data collection were needed to be used in this experiment and are therefore not present in this section of the proposal.

 Some important materials that were included in this experiment are: SoilMoist, an acrylic copolymer product sold on the market to assist commercial growers, nurseries, and exterior landscapes; Corn Cob that is not only organic, but a low-cost alternative to enhancing plant growth; Diaper material, which has great absorption properties for obvious reasons; and natural sponges as our final substance. We had five separate trays divided into eight sections each into which each tray will hold a separate material. Each section had a different percent of the material mixed into the soil: 10%, 15%, 25%, 35%, 50%, 60%, 75%, and 85%. By having various percents included we found out that the old saying holds true: You can never have too much of a good thing does not hold true because percentages overall were not significant. We involved the class by playing a quick powerpoint with an overview of our project and then going on a meaningful frolic to the greenhouse to observe our new home. We then concluded with a few absorbancy tests conducted by our peers.

 

 

 

Results

 Our plants were planted on October 16, 2003. The first signs of growth were detected on October 21, 2003. After we had taken all our results, we harvested our beans on Decemer 4.  The short duration of this project probably hindered some of the slower growning plants, such as corn cob.  We believe with more time the corn cob plants would have been the best because they had the strongest stems and best leaf color throughout the project.  However, our results still support our hypothesis in that the plants that were grown in soil containing biodegradable materials did do better overall.    See data tables

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion

 After 6 weeks of observing our plants, we have come to the conclusion that biodegradable materials do aid in plant growth.  However, we came to the conclusion that the individual percentages of each material does not effect plant growth.  We came to this conclusion based on the statistics graphs depicting the percentage without regards to the material versus either height, beans, or leaves.  None of these graphs were statisticallly significant.  Nevertheless, we do believe that with more test samples and time the differences between the percentages would make themselves evident

.  See Timeline of Plants

Moreover, we did find that certain materials regardless of percentage do help plants grow more than others. Animal Bedding was the most effective material. These plants not only had the largest biomass, but  grew the tallest at <50% and produced the most beans at over 50%. Maybe, the closer the leaves are to the ground, the less area water has to travel to give nutrients to the plant. This shorter traveling distance might higher amounts of bean growth. It's interesting that even though animal bedding did not do the best in our absorbancy test, it turned out to be the best material. A reason for this is animal bedding is a happy medium between absorbing all water and leaving some for the plant. The highest abosrber, corn cob, may have actually been competing with the plant to absorb water instead of just keeping the water in the soil so the plant could draw on it when necessary. Additionally, corn cob expands to twice its size when it gets wet, so even though when it was dry the mixture was either less than 50% corn cob or more than 50%, when we began watering it may have doubled and pushed out almost all the soil. Thus, the plants grown in animal bedding thrived because the material held the water in the soil in such a way that the plant could draw on it when it needed to.

 The second best material after animal bedding was diaper. Although comparable to corn cob in absorbancy, we believe that the absorbancy test was skewed slightly because the diaper material was compacted, thus making it denser than it actually was in our plant experiment. Also, diaper does not expand when it gets wet, so the ratio between soil and material originally measured out remained constant. Diaper was the second best bean producer in the over 50% category and also was second best in the >50% height category. However, it had the most leaves in the less that 50% area. As discussed earlier, we have come to the conclusion that the percentage of each material does not actually matter and the information stated earlier on diaper only further supports this.  Yet, the actual diaper material did very well. It had the second highest biomass.

Next on the list of best biodegradable materials was corn cob. Although third on the list, we believe that if more time was allotted, it would be the best. Part of this assumption comes from our observation that it was the strongest and had the best leaf color throughout the couple weeks. Though these characteristics were observed, they did not fit into our data tables due to their subjective nature. However, we also take into consideration that corn cob is being used by farmers today to aid in the crop growth. Moreover, the corn cob started growing later than all the rest, so while the constant had already gone through its full cycle of life and thus had a similar biomass to corn cob, the corn cob was still at the beginning of its development and thus would not have much to show for itself as for biomass. In all of our tests corn cob showed up as being the third, the third best biomass, the third tallest, and the third leafiest. The absorbancy test did show that corn cob was the highest absorber. This may have contributed to its slow growth and lack of productivity. The first time we watered the corn cob trays, the soil expanded (because corn cob expands to twice its size), and this may have made it difficult for the seeds to grow because they had to push through all that material and distance.

Sponge, unfortunately, was the worst at aiding in plant growth. We believe this happened becuase of the extremely porous nature of sponge. Although this is a good thing for holding water, there were so many holes and we think it was not dense enough to hold in enough water. Our absorbancy test supports this. While conducting this test we got to see first hand how the water flowed right though and was hardly absorbed at all. Therefore, the stressful water conditions and the sponges lack of absorbancy, caused the sponge plants to come in last in all of our statistics. Moreover, this product would not be conceivably sold because it comes from coral reefs and it is no good to help the environment in one way and then destroy it in another. Moreover, sponge is not a renewable material and thus would not be a long term fix to the agriculture problem.

Surprisingly, constant was not the worst in all categories. It actually had comparable biomass to corn cob and more than sponge. We believe this occurred because the constant was the first to sprout and thus had more time to complete the growing proccess than any of our material plants. By completing the growing process to the best of its abilites under the drought stimulated conditions, constant produced more biomass. Additionally, the fact that the constant died before the end of the experiment while some of the plants growing in the soils mixed with biodegradable materials were still thriving supports our hypothesis. The soil of the constant could not retain enough water to support the plant whereas the soils with the materials had the materials help in water retention. Thus, if farmers were to implement biodegradable materials in their soils, they would not have to water as often as they do and could then not only help the environment but save money and thus have higher profit.

 Soil Moist did not perform as we had expected it would.  This product is actually marketed for exactly our purposes, to aid in plant growth by retaining water for the plant to use.  However, due to our own research design, the ratio of Soil Moist to the amount of soil was too high.  When the beans in the Soil Moist did not grow, we were curious as to why.  About four weeks into the project, it was discovered that the beans in the trays containing Soil Moist were gone.  This could be due to the fact that the chemicals present in Soil Moist actually decomposed our beans.  Therefore, we were not able to collect any data on how Soil Moist aids in plant growth.  If this project were conducted again, more attention would be paid to directions of use for this specific product. 

In conclusion, biodegradable materials did aid in plant growth. Although our experiment found that the percentage of a particular material did not affect production significantly, it did prove that the materials held in water so that plants could survive in water stress situations. Since our experiment was conducted with third world countries in mind, these results give hope that they too can produce as much as the water abundant countries. Moreover, third world countries cannot afford to have their water imported or expensive irrigation systems, thus the use of biodegradable  materials would be a simple solution to this problem while not having an adverse effect on the environment. Hence, poor, water depleted countries could plant more produce using the same amount of water they use now if they mixed biodegradable materials into their soil.

 

 

 

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