Hydroponics Project (Gracia Lee, Evangel Teo, Kimberly Kiong, Tabitha Chiam)

Set-up:
4 tiny pots
5 chilli, 5 cucumber, 5 spinach and 5 Kangkong seeds
1 styrofoam box containing 9 litres of tap water mixed with nutrients

Results of project:
Chilli padi- only 2 seeds germinated out of the 5 planted but did not continue to grow after that and no chilli padi was harvested at all.
Japanese Cucumber- all the seeds germinated but it grew very slowly and only after one month, did 2 flowers appear and then slowly developed into cucumbers after weeks.
Spinach- all seeds germinated in about a week and grew fast. It was harvested after a month.
KangKong- all seeds germinated in 5 days and grew very fast. it was harvested after 3 and a half weeks.

Chilli padi:
The group felt that the other seeds did not germinate because they were spoilt or were eaten up by birds that flew past the shed. Therefore, only the 2 other lucky ones germinated. In the project, we could still tell that it grew the slowest beacuse the 2 that germinated grew really slowly and after the project ended, there were still no flowers that could potentially develop into chilli padis. Also, the height of the seedling remained at about 3 cm throughout the entire few months.

Japanese cucumber:
The plant grew tall fast but took a long time to flower. Later, as the project was coming to an end, we saw 2 cucumbers and 1 yellow flower developing after not checking on our plant for a long time.

Spinach:
It grew fast since it was planted and could be harvested after a month which was faster than the cucumber but slower than the kangkong. It was probably faster because there was no fruit and could be directly harvested as a whole plant.

Kangkong:
It grew the fastest as compared to the rest of the other plant types and was harvested after 3 and a half weeks. It was about the same as the spinach in terms of height and looks.

Reflections:
We learnt how simple it was to grow vegetables using the hydroponics kit and learnt how it could be implemented in the growth of crops in Singapore. Though everything grew in just one styrofoam box, it grew fast, without maintenance.