Table Indicating Seed Performance Before
and After the Holiday Period:
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||||
Before the Holidays:
|
Height of Veg. (cm)
|
No. of Veg. Leaves (Quantity)
|
No. of Veg. (Quantity)
|
|
Container 1
(Baby Carrots)
|
7,4
|
34
|
26
|
|
Container 2
(Pepper Chillies)
|
6,9
|
24
|
12
|
|
Container 2
(Pepper Chillies)
|
6,4
|
24
|
12
|
|
After the Holidays:
|
Container 1
(Baby Carrots)
|
|||
Container 2
(Pepper Chillies)
|
||||
Container 3
(Pepper Chillies)
|
||||
By Jay Sinha
Seed Selection for Window Garden:
 |
| Sachet for our baby carrots and pepper chillies! (Previous Capture) |
However, we have decided to stick to our decision of pepper chillies as we are interested to observe whether the herbs will progress any further. Perhaps, the efficiency of our watering and filtration systems will be enough.
Overall, we are confident that our baby carrots are strongly suitable for our Window Garden and are slightly concerned (and a bit excited) about our chillies.
By Jay Sinha
 |
| Water Supply #1, which is also excess - unabsorbed water, which will later be recycled into plants. |
Initially, we had thought that our watering system was going to work like an absolute charm; however, during the long-weekend, our watering system only worked with the bottom container with the pepper chillies The long weekend was an incredible opportunity to test our watering system and it allowed us to make some modifications.
We decided to create a separate water supply, with two pieces of connecting strings from the two containers that weren't receiving water. Simi constructed this perfectly and we are now confident that all of our plants will receive water over the course of the next holiday.
 |
| A photo of our fully modified Window Garden, with Water Supply #2. |
We have also slightly modified our recycling process. Instead of having an individual water supply for the bottom container, we decided to utilise the excess water, from the plants, as a supply. Unfortunately, we were unable to think about any methods in which we could transfer the excess water to the other plants, during our absence, so we decided that any excess water collected during the holiday would simply be poured in manually when we get back to school.
By Jay Sinha
Predictions:
Jay - Being an optimistic person I predict the following for our baby carrots: 21cm in height; 29 leaves;14 germinated seeds (constant). Hopefully, I've visualised appropriate predictions for what our results will be.
Euan and Simi - Being rather realistic people, we are predicting arbitrarily. We think that our pepper chillies (the middle container) will reach a height of 9 cm, gain 5 more leaves (making it 16 leaves all together) and we feel that the amount of germinated seeds shall remain constant.
Josh - I consider myself to be reaslistic; however, extremely positive. I predict our pepper chillies (bottom container) shall: reach a height of 12,7 cm; gain 8 more leaves (making it 17 overall); I am certain that the amount of germinated seeds shall remain constant throughout the holiday.
After a prolonged 20 minute chat, our group finally agreed upon the likelihood of our results:
We think that our chillies may start to form; however, not fully grown. We also think that our carrot seeds will show further development upon growth; however, they won't be fully grown yet. We also reviewed the odds and are expecting to see at least one or two plants to die.
By Josh Seymour
Modifications:
 |
| Initial Water Supply Eradicated! |
that having two would be more efficient and more safer. All the excess unabsorbed water collected will be water Supply #1 for our bottom container with the pepper chillies; after the holiday, this water will be re-distributed to all the plants; due to the more practical method, we decided that there was no more need for the big bottle of water we had previously.
We created Water Supply #2 to provide water for the top container with our baby carrots and the middle container with our pepper chillies. Apart from this, no other modifications have been made.
By Simi Mehlomakulu
Plan View of Our Plants:
Our Baby Carrots!Our Pepper Chillies! (Middle Container)
Our Pepper Chillies! (Bottom Container)
By Euan Groenewald
After the Holidays:
Table Indicating Seed Performance Before and After the Holiday Period:
| ||||
Before the Holidays:
|
Height of Veg. (cm)
|
No. of Veg. Leaves (Quantity)
|
No. of Veg. (Quantity)
| |
Container 1
(Baby Carrots)
|
7,4
|
34
|
26
| |
Container 2
(Pepper Chillies)
|
6,9
|
24
|
12
| |
Container 2
(Pepper Chillies)
|
6,4
|
24
|
12
| |
After the Holidays:
|
Container 1
(Baby Carrots)
|
-
|
-
|
-
|
Container 2
(Pepper Chillies)
|
10,7
|
31
|
12
| |
Container 3
(Pepper Chillies)
|
9,4
|
29
| 12 | |
By Euan Groenewald
Watering System Review:
We were confident about our Watering System before the holiday and are pleased to see our expectations met. Our claims can be verified by the growth of our chillies - they have grown over 3cm, about 6 leaves have grown in each sector and the number of germinated seeds have remained the same. Unfortunately, our baby carrots died over the 3 week period. We believe that the cause of this was due to the lack of water filtration. Our carrots were at the top of our Window Garden and received the most amount of water out of all our plants. Thus, the excess nutrients from our carrots were transferred to our chillies and no nutrients were re-distributed to the carrots as they were when we were at school. This is a great lesson for all of us and we could've resolved this issue be connecting a piece of rope from our baby carrots to our Water Supply #1. Despite the death of our baby carrots, we are pleased with how our watering system worked.
By Jay Sinha
Final Captioned Photos of Plants:
Baby Carrots
|
Pepper Chillies (Container 2)
|
Pepper Chillies (Container 3)
|
Health of Plant:
 |
Health of Plant:
 |
Health of Plant:
 |
Height of Plant:
 |
Height of Plant:
 |
Height of Plant:
 |
By Euan Groenewald
Abiotic Factors Contributing to Plant Progression:
It must be noted that our group, the BioBuddies, received much ridicule from our classmates regarding the design of our Window Garden System. Given the position we were allocated in the classroom to install our Window Garden, we thought that having a wooden support system along the back of our containers would be an excellent idea. We weren't afraid to perform this implement at all as we were aware that our plants would achieve sufficient sunlight and that our potting mix would release effective nutrients.
The oxygen levels within the classroom were of fair amounts. However, we are confident that the two main Abiotic Components that affected our plants were the sunlight and temperature levels within the room. The sunlight would have remained the same when comparing the holiday to the first Term of school, but still remains a vital resource for our plants to grow. Our chilli plants prospered in growth - for this reason, we are confident that sunlight had a major effect on our plants.
The second abiotic factor that may have had an influential impact upon our plants was temperature. the classroom, during the holiday, would have been much warmer than during the first Term. This would have been due to the lack of ventilation: during the holiday, the windows and doors would have been locked and closed for security reasons, whereas during the Term they were mostly open, which allowed for a much cooler environment - similar to that of the outdoors where plants are mainly grown. Our claims can be backed up - the leaves of our chilli plants are much thicker than before, which by plants is a characteristic of a hot, dry environment
By Simi Mehlomakulu and Josh Seymour
Biotic Factors of Window Garden System:
The three types of Biotic Factors that were may be in our Window Garden were: our plants (producers), tiny insects (consumers) and bacteria (decomposers). Our plants are able to produce their own food via inorganic substances (sunlight, water, etc.). The tiny insects, which may be in our plants, feed on autotrophs as their source of feed; in other words, they gain their energy from feeding off our plants. The bacteria, in our Window Garden, are responsible for breaking down the dead plant matter (in our garden) into simpler substances, which can be effectively used by our plants to prosper in growth - this can also be viewed as a form of recycling.
 |
| Although the picture above is of no direct relation to the exact food chain present in our Window Garden, I believe it depicts the process well. |
By Jay Sinha
Individual Contributions:
I, Jay Sinha, was in charge of the blog representation in its entirety. Before we began with our endeavours, I self-allocated myself as the group leader. I then looked at the members of my group and evaluated each of their strengths and weaknesses. I then took the responsibility of allocating everybody jobs to do with the release of each Blog Assignment, which mainly corresponded to their strengths (i.e. Simi and Euan constructed most of our Window Garden, while I was in charge of updating our progress on the blog - this strategy added to the success of our blog. I am happy to report that they all delivered and nobody was slacking in any form.
Jay - in charge of overall aesthetics and representation of blog. Also responsible for: adding and contributing info to blog; supervision of Window Garden Construction & Installation process; watering the plants regularly during open periods and after school.
Josh - in charge of contributing his part assigned, to Jay, who added it to the blog. Also responsible for: completing soil practicals; gathering and contributing information; supervision of Window Garden Construction & Installation process; watering the plants regularly during open periods and after school.
Euan - in charge of contributing his part assigned, to Jay, who added it to the blog. Also responsible for: purchasing all Window Garden essentials as well as the main construction of the finished product; gathering and contributing information information; watering the plants regularly during open periods and after school.
Simi - in charge of contributing his part assigned, to Jay, who added it to the blog. Also responsible for: choosing Window Garden Design, supervision of Window Garden Construction and Installation process and the main construction of the finished product; watering the plants regularly during open periods and after school.
We all believe that the overall success and progression of our blog; Window Garden and knowledge of food security and maintenance of Window Gardens wouldn't have been achieved without the aid of everybody in our group. We are all slightly sad to submit our final Blog Assignment, but have enjoyed the journey. This was the perfect end to the perfect chapter.
Edited by Jay Sinha
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