SCIENCE INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT

THE EFFECTS OF SALT, ICE AND RICE WATER ON THE GROWTH OF BASIL PLANTS

+ = SALT WATER
A BASIL
PLANT!

+ = RICE WATER

+ = ICE WATER

DONE BY: KANG JIN-AN (11)

TAN KAI XUN ( )
CLASS: 1C

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Contents Page

Section Item Page

I Abstract ……………………………………………………………………… 3
II Introduction …………………………………………………………………. 4
III Materials and Methods ……………………………………………………… 5
IV Results and Analysis ………………………………………………………. 6
V Discussion and Conclusion …………………………………………………. 7
VI Bibliography ………………………………………………………………... 8
VII Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………… 8
VIII Appendix ……………………………………………………………………. 9-12

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Abstract

The objective of this project is to find out whether salt water, ice water or rice water affects the

growth of basil plants. This topic is not really researched on by scientists around the world, but similar

experiments have been conducted by other people. For the beginning of the experiment, four basil plant

seeds were planted in a pot and this was repeated for another three pots. Three of the pots were subjected

to the three different kinds of treatment, while the last one was used as a control. The pot sizes, the

amount of soil in each pot and the type of soil used were kept constant in all four pots. In this

experiment, the growth of the plants was compared by comparing their average heights. The plants were

measured every evening at about 6pm. The hypothesis of this experiment is that the basil plants watered

with rice water was the best, followed by the basil plants watered with ice water, the basil plants watered

with tap water and lastly the basil plants watered with salt water. For the first day, tap water was used to

water the seeds but after that, the basil plants were treated with the various treatments. There was a

buffer time of about a week for all the seeds to sprout into seedlings. When all the seeds sprouted into

seedlings, the plants watered with ice water and the plants watered with rice water were tallest.

Subsequently, the plant watered with rice water had a faster growth rate than the other plants and soon,

the difference in height between the plants watered with rice water and the ones watered with ice water

was 0.50cm. The plants watered with salt water grew at first but its height decreased after a week and

only had an average height of 0.23cm at the end of the experiment. This proved that the hypothesis of

the experiment was wrong. The other plants were still healthy, with the only difference being the height

of all the plants. Based on the results, the conclusion was that the basil plants watered with rice water

was the healthiest with an average height of 4.67cm followed by the basil plants watered with ice water

with an average height of 4.17cm, the plants watered with tap water with an average height of 3.80cm

and the unhealthiest being the basil plants watered with salt water with an average height of only 0.23cm

at the end of the experiment.

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Introduction

Factors like suitable temperature, sufficient water, light, nutrients and air are equally essential for

the growth of plants. The variation of any of these factors would inevitably affect the growth of plants.

Water is an essential need for plants. Without water, plants will definitely not survive except for a few

plants like the cactus which can live without water for a long time. Basil plants were chosen as the

control for this experiment because of their speedy growth rates that would produce results in a few

weeks.

Many people would probably have heard of the myth that rice water is good for plant growth, but

compared to ice water and salt water, is it really true? That is exactly what the main topic is all about.

The aim of this experiment was to find out whether different types of water either aided or were

detrimental to plant growth, as well as to test the hypothesis that rice water is helps plants to grow best.

Secondly, it is common knowledge that mineral salts are good for plant growth. However, the

ordinary table salt found in the kitchen is not good for plants at all. Not only so, the plant will also dry

up. This is because of the primary component of salt, sodium chloride. When absorbed by plants, it will

cause the plant to lose water through osmosis. This is parallel to the effect of saltwater on humans,

where consuming seawater to maintain hydration is counterproductive; in the long run, more water must

be expended to eliminate the seawater's salt (through excretion in urine) than the amount of water that is

gained from drinking the seawater itself. This occurs because the amount of sodium chloride in human

blood is actively regulated within a very narrow range of 9 g/L (0.9% by weight) by the kidney.

Drinking seawater (which contains about 3.5% ions of dissolved sodium chloride) temporarily increases

the concentration of sodium chloride in the blood. This in turn promotes sodium excretion by the kidney,

but the sodium concentration of seawater is above the maximum concentrating ability of the human

kidney. Eventually with further seawater intake the blood concentration of sodium will rise to toxic

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levels, removing water from all cells and interfering with nerve conduction ultimately giving seizures

and heart arrhythmias which become fatal.

Aside from the above two examples, this experiment includes a novel angle to it as well. Not

many people have actually tried to find out the effects of ice water on plants, especially in a humid

climate like Singapore. Thus, this experiment also attempts to test if using ice water would speed up

plant growth.

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Materials and Methods

Basil plants were used for the experiment because they would not get damaged easily by the

wind or rain. This is important as, if the plants are weak they might get damaged or get uprooted and this

will affect the results of the experiment. On the first day of the experiment, we got four pots of the same

sizes, planted 3 basil seeds with even spacing in each pot and watered them with tap water. The seeds

were retrieved from the basil plants grown at the backyard used for cooking pasta. The pots were all

filled up with the same amount and type of soil, which in this case, is garden soil. There was 500g of

garden soil in each pot. For this experiment the variable is of course the type of solution used to water

the plants. The pots were labeled rice water, ice water, salt water and water and were placed outside the

house (Figure 1.1) where the plants were exposed to sunlight, an essential factor for the growth of the

plants. Subsequently, from the second day onwards, we started exposing the plants to the three different

treatments, and continued that, watering the plants with the same amount of liquid everyday at 6p.m.

Salt water consisted of 100ml of tap water mixed with 5g of salt and this was repeated everyday to water

the basil plants, rice water was created by washing 3kg of rice and the rice water was stored in a 2.5

litres bottle and was used to water the basil plants throughout the experiment and the ice water was

created by putting a 1 litre bottle of tap water into the refrigerator and was also used to water the basil

plants throughout the whole experiment and was refilled when empty. We measured the height of the

plant daily, right after watering the plants with a string and a ruler to produce more accurate results

(Figure 1.2). The three different treatments are: salt water, ice water and rice water. We gave 100ml of

each solution to the plants everyday. The temperature of the surroundings varied from the time and the

weather. The experiment was carried out over a period of 15 days, and recorded our data in a table form.

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Figure 1.1 Place where the plants were kept and the labels of pots

Figure 1.2 Measuring of height of the plants

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Results and Analysis

The height of each basil plant was measured using a ruler and was measured as accurately as

possible. Since there were 3 plants for each pot, a total of 12 recordings were made per day. The

experiment was conducted over a period of 15 days. By having 3 specimens for each variable, this

increased the accuracy of the experiment as it showed a consistency of the effect of the variable on the

growth of the basil plants. Concluding from the results produced, using rice water to water plants is the

best way to help the plants grow. At the end of the experiment, the average height of the basil plants

watered with rice water was the tallest with an average height of 4.67cm. The basil plants watered with

ice water had the second tallest average height of 4.17 cm, followed by the basil plants watered with tap

water which had an average height of 3.80cm. Lastly, it can be concluded that salt water was detrimental

to the basil plants’ growth, as at the end of the 15 days, they only had an average height of 0.23cm. The

basil plants watered with rice, ice, and tap water had a consistent increase while the basil plants watered

with salt water had a relatively steady increase at first before their heights decreased and would have

died if the experiment had been longer. Tables of the raw data as well as tabulated averages of the raw

data are attached at the appendix.

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Figure 1.3 Photo of experiment set-up(from left to right: basil plants watered with ice water, basil plants

watered with rice water, basil plants watered with tap water, basil plants watered with salt water – all on

day 14)

Figure 1.4: Graph of average height of basil plants watered with the different solutions over 15

days
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Discussion and Conclusion

Inferring from the results obtained, the height of the basil plants watered with rice water, ice

water and tap water had a very steady increase from the start of the experiment while the height of the

basil plants watered with salt water increased over 9 days when they started to droop and eventually

only had an average height of 0.23 at the end of the experiment. From the results, a conclusion can be

drawn at the end of the experiment that the rice water was indeed beneficial to plant growth. Likewise, it

was concurred that salt water did indeed dehydrate the plants, as the basil plants watered with salt water

had a shocking average height of 0.23cm which was very much shorter than the control-the basil plants

watered with tap water. Thus, our initial hypothesis was proven correct. The decreasing growth of the

height of plants watered with salt water should not be coincidental as plants watered with salt water had

an average of 3.57cm less than the plants watered with tap water at the end of the experiment. The plants

watered with ice water was only a bit shorter than the plants watered with rice water while the plants

watered with tap water was about 1cm shorter than the plants watered with rice water and ice water. A

repetition of the experiment was not conducted due to a limited time span, but positive results were still

achieved at the end of the experiment.

Nevertheless, despite such positive results, there are areas that can be improved on in further

investigations. Firstly, the time span for this experiment was too short and the tallest basil plants were

only less than 5cm and they were not exactly developed yet and the plant growth could be only due

to the 4 main stimuli (air, water, warmth and nutrients) and the treatment might not have much effect on

the plants. An improvement could be made by extending the experiment over a longer period of time, or

conducting the experiment on mature basil plants instead.

Secondly the basil seeds were not exactly the same with exactly the same genes and this could

have affected the results since they might have a different growth rate. A better experiment could be

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conducted with seeds of the exact same genes to ensure a more accurate result without any variation in

growth due to difference in genes.

Thirdly, the set-ups were not given soundproof environment so the growth of it may be affected

by other stimuli like soundwaves. An improvement that could be made would be putting the set-ups in a

covered container preventing the plants from being exposed to other stimuli.

Lastly, the plants were only watered once a day and due to the hot weather, the solutions might

dry up before being absorbed by the roots of the plants and the treatment could have been useless. To

improve on this, they should be put in a shady area or alternatively water them twice a day.

Since our original hypothesis was proven correct, a future extension of research study could be

done using the results from this experiment. The aim would be to maximize plant growth, now that rice

water has proven to be the best aid. Based on this result, other environmental factors could be modified

to find further ways to enhance plant growth. For example, experiments could be conducted by testing

out different kinds of soils or fertilizers to find out what are the variables in the set-ups that will

eventually aid plant growth the most at the end of the experiment.

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Bibliography

Scientific papers

X Yan, H Liao, MC Trull, SE Beebe, JP Lynch - Plant Physiology, 2001

JDG Jones - Current Opinion in Plant Biology, 2001

DL Royer, P Wilf - International Journal of Plant Sciences, 2006

Internet Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_chloride

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seawater

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jin-An’s sister Kang Yi-Jun and his father Kang Swee Chiang for helping us

with the experiment and correcting us throughout the experiment

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Appendix

Raw data of heights of basil plants:

Basil plants watered with water

Height of basil Height of basil Height of basil Average height

plant 1 (cm) (1 plant 2 (cm) plant 3 (cm) of the 3 basil
d.p.) (1 d.p.) (1 d.p.) plants (cm) (3
d.p.)
Day 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.000
(10-02-09)
Day 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.000
(11-02-09)
Day 2 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.133
(12-02-09)
Day 3 0.3 0.3 0.267
(13-02-09) 0.2
Day 4 0.5 0.6 0.467
(14-02-09) 0.3
Day 5 0.7 0.9 0.767
(15-02-09) 0.7
Day 6 0.9 1.0 0.933
(16-02-09) 0.9
Day 7 1.2 1.2 1.3 1.233
(17-02-09)
Day 8 1.9 1.5 1.7 1.700
(18-02-09)
Day 9
(19-02-09) 2.3 1.7 1.9 1.967
Day 10
(20-02-09) 2.8 2.5 2.4 2.567
Day 11
(21-02-09) 3.2 2.9 3.0 3.033
Day 12
(22-02-09) 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.300
Day 13 3.5 3.6 3.5 3.533
(23-02-09)
Day 14 3.8 3.9 3.7 3.800
(24-02-09)

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Basil plants watered with rice water

Height of basil Height of basil Height of basil Average height of

plant 1 (cm) (1 plant 2 (cm) plant 3 (cm) the 3 basil plants
d.p.) (1 d.p.) (1 d.p.) (cm) (3 d.p.)
Day 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.000
(10-02-09)
Day 1 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.167
(11-02-09)
Day 2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.400
(12-02-09)
Day 3 0.6 0.8 0.7 0.700
(13-02-09)
Day 4 1.0 1.2 0.9 1.033
(14-02-09)
Day 5 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.367
(15-02-09)
Day 6 1.7 1.5 1.4 1.533
(16-02-09)
Day 7 2.1 2.2 1.6 1.967
(17-02-09)
Day 8 2.5 2.5 1.9 2.300
(18-02-09)
Day 9 3.0 2.8 2.2 2.667
(19-02-09)
Day 10 3.5 3.4 2.8 3.233
(20-02-09)
Day 11 3.6 3.7 3.3 3.533
(21-02-09)
Day 12 3.8 4.0 3.8 3.867
(22-02-09)
Day 13 4.2 4.4 4.4 4.333
(23-02-09)
Day 14 4.5 4.7 4.8 4.667
(24-02-09)

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Basil plants watered with ice water

Height of basil Height of basil Height of basil Average height of

plant 1 (cm) (1 plant 2 (cm) plant 3 (cm) the 3 basil plants
d.p.) (1 d.p.) (1 d.p.) (cm) (3 d.p.)
Day 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.000
(10-02-09)
Day 1 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.067
(11-02-09)
Day 2 0.3 0.5 0.4 0.400
(12-02-09)
Day 3 0.5 0.7 0.6 0.600
(13-02-09)
Day 4 0.7 0.9 0.7 0.767
(14-02-09)
Day 5 0.9 1.3 1.0 1.067
(15-02-09)
Day 6 1.0 1.4 1.2 1.200
(16-02-09)
Day 7 1.5 1.9 1.4 1.600
(17-02-09)
Day 8 2.1 2.2 1.9 2.067
(18-02-09)
Day 9 2.4 2.6 2.1 2.367
(19-02-09)
Day 10 3.0 3.3 2.9 3.067
(20-02-09)
Day 11 3.2 3.5 3.3 3.333
(21-02-09)
Day 12 3.4 3.8 3.6 3.600
(22-02-09)
Day 13 3.7 4.0 3.8 3.833
(23-02-09)
Day 14 4.1 4.2 4.2 4.167
(24-02-09)

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Basil plants watered with salt water

Height of basil Height of basil Height of basil Average height

plant 1 (cm) (1 plant 2 (cm) plant 3 (cm) of the 3 basil
d.p.) (1 d.p.) (1 d.p.) plants (cm) (3
d.p.)
Day 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.000
(10-02-09)
Day 1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.000
(11-02-09)
Day 2 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.067
(12-02-09)
Day 3 0.1 0.0 0.4 0.167
(13-02-09)
Day 4 0.3 0.0 0.7 0.333
(14-02-09)
Day 5 0.5 0.0 0.8 0.433
(15-02-09)
Day 6 0.5 0.0 1.0 0.500
(16-02-09)
Day 7 0.9 0.0 1.3 0.733
(17-02-09)
Day 8 1.1 0.0 1.6 0.900
(18-02-09)
Day 9 1.2 0.2 1.8 1.067
(19-02-09)
Day 10 1.0 0.5 1.4 0.967
(20-02-09)
Day 11 0.8 0.7 1.2 0.900
(21-02-09)
Day 12 0.5 0.9 1.0 0.800
(22-02-09)
Day 13 0.2 0.4 0.8 0.467
(23-02-09)
Day 14 0.0 0.2 0.5 0.233
(24-02-09)

The End

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