Fast Plant Reflection

Throughout this project, it was an extremely complicated process ensuring that patience was key. It was extremely frustrating because the F2 generation actually didn’t look at all how we predicted. My group and I had tons of complications with the growth of our plants. The parent generation actually grew so I’d have to say that they grew much quicker than the F2. As previously mentioned the F2 generation had trouble growing so it did not grow at all. I believe the biggest issue to allowing our plants' ability to thrive is the amount of light as well as the amount of water that was being given to the plants. Often times during class periods we’d forget to check on our plants, as well as forgetting to water them. Your genes carry the instructions for the growth and development of your body. However, your phenotype is influenced during embryonic development and throughout your life by environmental factors. Environmental factors are many and varied and include diet, climate, illness, and stress. Something that stood out to me was the fact that the growth of our plants was never successful. I believe our plants were being affected and unable to grow due to the inadequate amount of light they were receiving while on the mat. Often times our group continuously found our plants in other areas that had no lighting. Even with the replanting effect, it still was an unsuccessful replant. With the continuous dryness of the plants, causing them to continuously die, the little growth that actually did happen was interesting to see. In an article titled, “Plant Growth Factors”, it states, “There are four primary factors that affect plant growth: light, water, temperature and nutrients. These four elements affect the plant's growth hormones, making the plant grow more quickly or more slowly.” This quote alone supports that the stimulating effects stopping the growth of our plants most likely had to do with the amount of light and water that they were receiving. Before the replanting of the plants, the plants actually had some growth. Although it was still groups with higher growth, we still had so many complications so it was interesting to see this little bit of growth. “With the continuous dryness of the plants, causing them to continuously die, the growth was interesting to see.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/environmental-influences-on-gene-expression-536.