Question

Can seeds germinate in sand?

Hypothesis

When basil seeds are placed in soil, sand and rock; the soil will produce the most growth, the sand will produce minimal growth, and no growth will be visible within the rocks.

Materials

4 cups of top soil

4 cups of small rocks / pebbles

4 cups of sand

3 small pots

1 packet of basil seeds

Procedure

1. The basil seeds will be soaked in a wet paper towel overnight
2. Two basil seeds will be placed into 2-inch into each type of environment.
3. The three pots will be placed on the same table, in a southern window.
4. Every two days each pot will receive one half cup of room temperature water.
5. Growth will be measured every Thursday.
6. The seeds will receive nothing beyond water and sunlight.

Variables

The controlled variables were the amount of sunlight and water the plants received. The one variable that I manipulated was the type of environment for each seed. One was soil, one was sand, and the third was rock. The responding variable was the amount of growth visible by the basil seeds. My control group was the soil. I knew that a seed would grow in this environment, so I used the soil to make sure that growth was achievable.

Results

Environment	Growth – Week One	Growth – Week Two	Growth – Week Three	Growth – Week Four
Top Soil	5 mm	2 mm	13 mm	30 mm
Rock	0 mm	0 mm	0 mm	0 mm
Sand	0 mm	0 mm	0 mm	0 mm

When the environment was manipulated, the seed showed no responding growth. The seed and rock show no apparent growth. The responding growth of the basil in the soil was no surprise. Basil is an easy plant to grow and its germination period is only five to seven days. After seven days the plant had already grown five millimeters. The nutrients from the soil gave the plant its needed nutrients and the plant was able to reach a height of 30 millimeters after only four weeks.

Analyze the data

My original hypothesis was only partially right. The soil did procedure the most growth and the rock showed no visible growth. However, I thought the sand would have a small amount of growth and there was no growth.

A possible explanation for the lack of growth could be that the seed was not receiving enough water. Sand has very few nutrients, like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, that plants need in order to survive. The seed in the sand may have had minimal growth if it had more water.

Changing the experiment

When repeating this experiment I would add two additional sets of plants. The environments and procedure would remain the same, but the water would now be a manipulated variable. One set of three pots would receive 1 cup of water. The second set would receive 2 cups of water. My question would then be, “Will a seed grow in sand, if given enough water?”