Today we started a little experiment with some Sea Kale seeds (
Crambe Maritima)
We (Mom & I) got our seeds from FedCo Seeds.
Our Sample Size for this experiment is 70 Seeds.
We put 2 seeds in each pot and clearly labelled the outside of the pots.
We have 5 pots with seeds from each category below:
- Soaked overnight, Pericarp Removed - Floated
- Soaked overnight, Pericarp Removed - Sank
- Soaked overnight, Pericarp Cracked
- Soaked overnight, Pericarp Intact (all floated)
- Not Soaked, Pericarp Removed
- Not Soaked, Pericarp Cracked
- Not Soaked, Pericarp Intact
All of the seeds were sown in soil from the same bag of potting soil that was warmed to room temperature over the course of a few days.
All of the seeds were placed about a 1/4 inch deep.
All of the containers in this experiment are 4 inch plastic pots.
They are all in the same room with the same environmental conditions where other plants are thriving.
Predictions:
We expect that the seeds with the pericarp removed will be more likely to successfully sprout. However, we do not know if the pericarp will help or hinder germination - which is why we cracked some of them (for scarification) and left some intact.
We noticed that some of the seeds with the pericarp removed floated and some sank. We chose to separate these to find out if this is an indicator of viable seeds.
Limitations:
We have never successfully germinated Sea Kale seeds before.
We are not looking at how light affects germination as all of the seeds were initially put under about a 1/4 inch of dirt. Watering may change the depth of the seeds, either exposing them, or covering them up more.
We did not look at how sowing the seeds directly outside would affect germination.
Also, I am totally inexperienced with designing Science experiments.
