MadSci Network: Botany |
You don't have to worry about getting the "correct results." The reason we do experiments is to answer questions we don't know the answers to. I wouldn't be able to predict what your results would be. It may boil down to the differing mineral nutrient contents of the tea leaves, orange peel and coffee grounds. But that assumes your potting soil is deficient in mineral nutrients, and you didn't apply sufficient fertilizer. It would also depend on how much of the organic substances you added. If you added very little, it may have not been enough to make a difference. Your results could also depend on how long you grew the plants and how you evaluated plant growth, such as height, leaf number or weight. Height is not always a good measure of plant growth. Poorly growing plants may be taller than heavier, healthier plants. Were the orange peels ground as fine as the tea and coffee grounds? The smaller they are, the faster they might be decomposed by microbes and release their mineral nutrients. Did you use the same dry weight of each organic material per pot? Coffee grounds are used for fertilizer and websites say they contain about 4% nitrogen, 1% phosphorus and 3% potassium on a dry weight basis plus small amounts of other essential mineral nutrients. There is even a Grow Joe fertilizer that contains neutralized coffee grounds. The Grow Joe website notes that fresh coffee grounds are very acidic so may harm plants. You might want to test their pH. Tea leaves would also be a decent source of mineral nutrients because leaves contain fairly high concentrations of mineral nutrients. One website says tea leaves contain 4.5% nitrogen, 0.32% phosphorus and 0.76% potassium. It did not mention if that was before or after brewing. Some mineral nutrients, such as potassium, are water soluble so some might be partially lost in brewing. Orange peels would likely have substantially lower mineral nutrient concentrations. Other chemicals may have some effect, such as caffeine in tea and coffee. Tea also contains substantial flourine, which is often toxic to plants. However, a lot of the caffeine and flourine might be lost during brewing too. References Coffee grounds as fertilizer: http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles/nyerges44.html http://www.rebeccasgarden.com/tips/items/coffeecompost.asp Grow Joe Fertilizer: http://growjoeplantfood.com/coffee.html Tea leaf mineral composition: http://w3.trib.com/~kombu/FAQ/part01a.html#BM132t
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