Octopus Agave Experiment
Purpose of Experiment:
Growing octopus agave, as for any plant, can and should be optimized to grow the fastest and healthiest using the least amount of resources. Octopus agave are commonly used as landscape in areas with limited natural resources, such as desert regions, so it is important to learn which combinations of soil, water, and fertilizers promote the best growth. Growing plants may seem simple, but there are a lot of variables that have to be taken into account. Some of those variables may include hours sunlight, angle of the plant, container the plant is in, fertilizers, temperature, amount of water, how often it receives water, soil type, and many more. For my experimental design, I choose to test 5 of those variables. In a traditional experiment, scientists usually choose just one variable to change at a time, but due to the strict schedule of this experiment I had to adjust four variables at once. My goal for my experiment was to discover the best combination of light, soil, container type, temperature, and water to promote quick tissue growth.
In my experiment, I tried to create an environment for the agave similar to the environment where their species originated. Octopus agaves are native to desert regions where they will live in warm, dry climates in full sun. These desert regions experience flash floods, and are dry the rest of the time. To control temperature in my experiment, I kept my agave inside of my house. In my house the temperature range was about 55 - 75, as opposed to outside which would have been about 48 - 80 degrees. To control the sunlight my agave received, I kept it in a window of my kitchen where it would be out of direct light, but still receive energy from the sun. I also used the container to control light when I cut down the edges of the cup to be one inch above the soil level, allowing the whole plant to absorb solar energy. The container was altered to promote fast draining soil, I cut 12 holes in the bottom, each with a diameter a little smaller than a pencil. The holes were cut in a systematic pattern, with 8 evenly spaced around the edge of the cup, and 4 in a square in the middle. I used a soil designed for cactus and palm trees because based on my research, agave would naturally live in a similar climate to palm trees or cactus. The soil contained pumice, sand, sphagnum peat moss, compost, plant food and wetting agent, and was designed to drain quickly. I wanted the soil to drain quickly because the desert areas where agave would naturally grow experience flash floods, where they experience a lot of moisture which is quickly absorbed by the sandy ground. Because the goal of this experiment was to create the fastest tissue growth, I watered my agave more than it might experience in its native grounds. I gave my agave one and a half tablespoons of water each morning.
Overview Reflection:
I felt confident that my experimental design would be successful based on the fact that the soil was damp but not soaking each time I watered it. The plant remained mostly green, with a small amount of brown at the tips, but overall looked healthy. The soil drained quickly, as planned, which gave me hope that I successfully recreated the natural environment of the octopus agave. I think that my agave experiment went well because of the amount of research I did before creating my original experimental design. I did a lot of research on how agaves are grown commercially, because they also have the same goal; to grow the healthiest agaves as fast as they can, using as few resources as possible. I think that giving my agaves more water than they might receive in their natural habitat increased the tissue growth, so the plant will not go into ‘storage’ like it would in the desert.
Growing octopus agave, as for any plant, can and should be optimized to grow the fastest and healthiest using the least amount of resources. Octopus agave are commonly used as landscape in areas with limited natural resources, such as desert regions, so it is important to learn which combinations of soil, water, and fertilizers promote the best growth. Growing plants may seem simple, but there are a lot of variables that have to be taken into account. Some of those variables may include hours sunlight, angle of the plant, container the plant is in, fertilizers, temperature, amount of water, how often it receives water, soil type, and many more. For my experimental design, I choose to test 5 of those variables. In a traditional experiment, scientists usually choose just one variable to change at a time, but due to the strict schedule of this experiment I had to adjust four variables at once. My goal for my experiment was to discover the best combination of light, soil, container type, temperature, and water to promote quick tissue growth.
In my experiment, I tried to create an environment for the agave similar to the environment where their species originated. Octopus agaves are native to desert regions where they will live in warm, dry climates in full sun. These desert regions experience flash floods, and are dry the rest of the time. To control temperature in my experiment, I kept my agave inside of my house. In my house the temperature range was about 55 - 75, as opposed to outside which would have been about 48 - 80 degrees. To control the sunlight my agave received, I kept it in a window of my kitchen where it would be out of direct light, but still receive energy from the sun. I also used the container to control light when I cut down the edges of the cup to be one inch above the soil level, allowing the whole plant to absorb solar energy. The container was altered to promote fast draining soil, I cut 12 holes in the bottom, each with a diameter a little smaller than a pencil. The holes were cut in a systematic pattern, with 8 evenly spaced around the edge of the cup, and 4 in a square in the middle. I used a soil designed for cactus and palm trees because based on my research, agave would naturally live in a similar climate to palm trees or cactus. The soil contained pumice, sand, sphagnum peat moss, compost, plant food and wetting agent, and was designed to drain quickly. I wanted the soil to drain quickly because the desert areas where agave would naturally grow experience flash floods, where they experience a lot of moisture which is quickly absorbed by the sandy ground. Because the goal of this experiment was to create the fastest tissue growth, I watered my agave more than it might experience in its native grounds. I gave my agave one and a half tablespoons of water each morning.
Overview Reflection:
I felt confident that my experimental design would be successful based on the fact that the soil was damp but not soaking each time I watered it. The plant remained mostly green, with a small amount of brown at the tips, but overall looked healthy. The soil drained quickly, as planned, which gave me hope that I successfully recreated the natural environment of the octopus agave. I think that my agave experiment went well because of the amount of research I did before creating my original experimental design. I did a lot of research on how agaves are grown commercially, because they also have the same goal; to grow the healthiest agaves as fast as they can, using as few resources as possible. I think that giving my agaves more water than they might receive in their natural habitat increased the tissue growth, so the plant will not go into ‘storage’ like it would in the desert.
Results (Control Blue):
Originally I was very disappointed to find that my control agave had lost 0.25 grams, but then I calculated the standard deviation and discovered that my control agave was only 0.16 standard deviations away from the mean. This data shows that my control agave did not lose much more weight than the average control agave. I think the fact that 73.6%1 of the control agaves experienced a decrease in total mass shows that our combination of variables was not correct. I believe that most of the agaves lost weight because they lost water weight, due to the fact that they were only watered 10 ml twice per week. I think that keeping them under the UV light for most of the day also dried out the soil, stunting root growth. We could have found a proper balance between hours of UV exposure and water by monitoring how long it took for the soil to completely drain.
Results (Experimental Red):
When I first removed my experimental agave I was excited to discover that three large branching roots had emerged. I also noticed that my experimental agave was a much richer green color than my control agave. Once I weighed my agave, my feelings were confirmed. My experimental agave gained 1.84 grams, which is a percent increase of 59.93% (see above tables). I believe my experimental agave had such a dramatic increase in mass because it absorbed water daily. This probably helped the plant be able to use a lot of the water, as opposed to storing it. I think that keeping my experimental agave out of the direct sunlight, but in a window where it can receive plenty of indirect UV rays helped the soil to stay moist and kept the plant from drying out. Keeping the soil most all of the time probably helped the roots keep growing, because the roots are the first thing to stop growing in a drought. This then probably lead to the agave being able to effectively use the water and indirect UV rays to create rapid tissue growth.
Results (part 2):
As you can see by the graphs above, my experimental (red) plant gained 1.84 grams over the one month experiment. The average experimental (red) lost 0.46 grams. My control (blue) plant lost 0.25 grams, and the average of the controls lost 0.467 grams. I can conclude that my experimental design was successful, because my plant gained 59.93 % of its original mass, while the average control gained only 5.45 % of its original mass. As you can see by the charts below, both the experimental and the control resulted in a traditional bell curve. This is to be expected, but it is surprising to have such a wide range of data in the control group.
Originally I was very disappointed to find that my control agave had lost 0.25 grams, but then I calculated the standard deviation and discovered that my control agave was only 0.16 standard deviations away from the mean. This data shows that my control agave did not lose much more weight than the average control agave. I think the fact that 73.6%1 of the control agaves experienced a decrease in total mass shows that our combination of variables was not correct. I believe that most of the agaves lost weight because they lost water weight, due to the fact that they were only watered 10 ml twice per week. I think that keeping them under the UV light for most of the day also dried out the soil, stunting root growth. We could have found a proper balance between hours of UV exposure and water by monitoring how long it took for the soil to completely drain.
Results (Experimental Red):
When I first removed my experimental agave I was excited to discover that three large branching roots had emerged. I also noticed that my experimental agave was a much richer green color than my control agave. Once I weighed my agave, my feelings were confirmed. My experimental agave gained 1.84 grams, which is a percent increase of 59.93% (see above tables). I believe my experimental agave had such a dramatic increase in mass because it absorbed water daily. This probably helped the plant be able to use a lot of the water, as opposed to storing it. I think that keeping my experimental agave out of the direct sunlight, but in a window where it can receive plenty of indirect UV rays helped the soil to stay moist and kept the plant from drying out. Keeping the soil most all of the time probably helped the roots keep growing, because the roots are the first thing to stop growing in a drought. This then probably lead to the agave being able to effectively use the water and indirect UV rays to create rapid tissue growth.
Results (part 2):
As you can see by the graphs above, my experimental (red) plant gained 1.84 grams over the one month experiment. The average experimental (red) lost 0.46 grams. My control (blue) plant lost 0.25 grams, and the average of the controls lost 0.467 grams. I can conclude that my experimental design was successful, because my plant gained 59.93 % of its original mass, while the average control gained only 5.45 % of its original mass. As you can see by the charts below, both the experimental and the control resulted in a traditional bell curve. This is to be expected, but it is surprising to have such a wide range of data in the control group.
Recommendations:
Because of the nature of this experiment, I was only able to test one agave. This is not ideal for a scientific experiment because technically, in order to prove a theory, one must prove that which variable produced which/how much change. In my experiment, I adjusted 5 variables (water, sunlight, container type, drainage, and soil type) hence, I can conclude that altering one, or all, of these variables leads to an increase in tissue growth for octopus agave, but I can not technically conclude that any one of those variables will independently alter the growth of the plant. Many of my calculations were based off of the work of my peers data, which had some unusual outliers (such as a control (blue) that apparently had a 94.16 % increase in mass, while the average increase in mass for control was only -5.94 %). It should also be taken into consideration that some aspects of the control group (light) were not completely controlled. Also, a study of only one subject is very inaccurate, many more subjects would need to be tested (and from different agave mother plants) in order to prove that my experimental design was successful.
Based on my conclusions from this set of data2, I would advise people wishing to quickly grow octopus agave to follow my experimental design. I would advise that octopus agaves be planted in shallow, well draining pots, with the edge of the pot no greater than one inch above the soil level. The soil should be a mix of pumice, sand, sphagnum peat moss, compost, plant food and wetting agent, because my agave showed substantial growth with this combination. The octopus agaves should be kept out of direct sunlight, but receive about 10 hours of indirect sunlight per day. I would advise watering each agave individually, pouring the water onto the leaves so that it can be transported down to the root base. Each agave should receive one and a half tablespoons of water in the morning.
1) 39 had a negative change, out of 54. Not including agaves that had no change in mass.
2) All incomplete data sets were removed.
Because of the nature of this experiment, I was only able to test one agave. This is not ideal for a scientific experiment because technically, in order to prove a theory, one must prove that which variable produced which/how much change. In my experiment, I adjusted 5 variables (water, sunlight, container type, drainage, and soil type) hence, I can conclude that altering one, or all, of these variables leads to an increase in tissue growth for octopus agave, but I can not technically conclude that any one of those variables will independently alter the growth of the plant. Many of my calculations were based off of the work of my peers data, which had some unusual outliers (such as a control (blue) that apparently had a 94.16 % increase in mass, while the average increase in mass for control was only -5.94 %). It should also be taken into consideration that some aspects of the control group (light) were not completely controlled. Also, a study of only one subject is very inaccurate, many more subjects would need to be tested (and from different agave mother plants) in order to prove that my experimental design was successful.
Based on my conclusions from this set of data2, I would advise people wishing to quickly grow octopus agave to follow my experimental design. I would advise that octopus agaves be planted in shallow, well draining pots, with the edge of the pot no greater than one inch above the soil level. The soil should be a mix of pumice, sand, sphagnum peat moss, compost, plant food and wetting agent, because my agave showed substantial growth with this combination. The octopus agaves should be kept out of direct sunlight, but receive about 10 hours of indirect sunlight per day. I would advise watering each agave individually, pouring the water onto the leaves so that it can be transported down to the root base. Each agave should receive one and a half tablespoons of water in the morning.
1) 39 had a negative change, out of 54. Not including agaves that had no change in mass.
2) All incomplete data sets were removed.