What are some good experiments to do with plants?

Question

I want to learn more about plants by doing experiments at home with basic things from around the house. At the moment I am trying to reproduce a plant using a plant cutting. Any other ideas and/or links? Thank you!

Answer 1

Put plant seeds in a cup or plant holder. Then put water in one cup, juice in the second, and milk in the third and see if water is really the best for plants.

Answer 2

I have one that is fun and gives lots of early flowers. Buy several dozen of your favorite Paperwhite Narcissus bulbs for forcing. The problem to explore is that indoor forced bulbs often have elongated stems incapable of supporting the flower once open. To prevent this excess growth alcohol is added to the water to produce stockier stems. Rubbing alcohol, also called Isopropyl alcohol, is cheap and pure so will have so side effects like using beer or wine would have.
Plant the bulbs embedded to the bulbs widest point in gravel, small pebbles, or marbles. Add water up to just below the bottom of the bulb; any higher and the bulb will rot sitting in water.
Grow the plants in water to start the roots and allow the foliage to grow 1-2 inches. Pour the water out and replace with water or one of a series of alcohol solutions. Make the series 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10% alcohol. (The optimal dilution will reduce the stems by one-half to one-third the length of the bulb grown with water.) Continue watering with the solution until the bulbs bloom. The reason to continue one in just water is to have a control. This gives you a standard unstunted bulb to measure against.
Alcohol, well known to stunt plant growth, is thought to work by making it more difficult for the plant to absorb water. The optimal result is that the plant suffers a slight lack of water, enough to reduce leaf and stem growth, but not enough to affect flower size or flower longevity.

You could try the bulbs planted in groups to see if all bulbs responded as well as paperwhites. Crocuses or Iris reticulata require about 6 weeks to bloom while the hyacinth takes 12-15 weeks to bloom.

Answer 3

Withhold different necessities from the plant and see what changes occur. We did this experiment in biology class.

We took small plants, put one in a cold room, put one in a box with a few holes(dark), one with no water, and one with water, sun, and a comfortable temperature (control plant). Then we noted the differences after three weeks.
Which plants do you think grew, which stopped growing, and which died?

Answer 4

you could grow plants in regular soil and in soil that has been baked in the oven for 30min at 400 degrees, baking the soil will kill all bacteria in the soil, then you could monitor plant growth in both types of soil, you will need to use the same types of plants in both soils and give the the same water and light. You could try peas, they grow pretty fast.