Tiffany James 27 November 2011 Radish Data Deduction Assignment Introduction: This paper will document the growth

and development of radish seeds over a six-week period. Radishes are cool season vegetables that mature fast and are easy to grow. Garden radishes can be grown wherever there is moist, fertile soil. Some verities can be grown during early spring when it is cool outside and harvested during the summer. For example French breakfast radishes are the best type of radish to grow in the summer if watered regularly. Winter radishes are the best radishes; they are planted during midsummer to late summer and are slower to grow than spring radishes. However, they end up being larger than spring radishes, remain fresh longer, and last longer. There are lots of different types of radishes that grow in different climates. For example, burpee white, champion, cherry belle, cherry queen hybrid, early scarlet globe, ester egg, fuego, plum purple, and snow belle are all spring radishes. While French breakfast and icicle are summer radishes and China rose, Chinese white, round black Spanish, and tama hybrid are winter radishes. There are also many different colors, shapes, and sizes that radishes can come in. They can come in many different colors including: white, red, bright red, deep red, reddish purple, purple, lavender, pink, rose, scarlet, deep magenta, and black. They can be small, large or inbetween and are round, oval, globe-shaped, oblong, square-shouldered, and slim. Also, they are smooth, rough, slow to become pithy, have small tap roots, resistant to fusarium, tolerant to black root/black scurf, and blunt tipped. Spring radishes and summer radishes have about the same life span, 20 to 30 days. For example, early scarlet globe (a spring radish) and French breakfast (a summer radish) both have a life span of 23 days. Another example is burpee, Easter egg, fuego, purple plum, which are spring radishes, and icicle, which is a summer radish, all have a life span of 25 days. While winter radishes have life spans ranging from 52 days to 70 days. Methods: Fifty seeds were planted on October 4, 2011 in room 108 in the Moye Science Building at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. The plants were grown in a Thermo Scientific Plant Growth Chamber with 12 hours of artificial light and 12 hours of darkness each day. The plants were measured for their height in centimeters on October 18, October 24, November 1 and November 15 of 2011. The number of leaves, flower buds, flowers, and fruits were counted on each occasion when they appeared on each plant. The initial biomass of the seeds and final aboveground biomass of the dried plants was weighed using an electronic balance to the nearest 0.1 gram.

Results: The initial biomass of the fifty radish seeds before they were planted on October 4, 2011 was 1/10 of a gram. Over the course of one month the radish seedlings ended up with a final biomass of 24.4 grams. Forty-five of the fifty seedlings germinated equaling out to a 90 percent germination rate. The average height of all of the radishes on October 18 was 3.7 inches and the average number of leaves on the 18th was 2.9 leaves per plant. The average height of all of the radishes on October 24 was 5.6 inches and the average number of leaves on the 24th was 4.4 leaves per plant. On November 1 the average height of all of the radishes was 14.9 inches and the average number of leaves was 6.6 leaves per plant. On the last day, November 15, the average height of all of the radishes was 34.5 inches and the average number of leaves was 11.9 leaves per plant. Over the course of one month the radish 37 plants were measured all four times and the radish plants increased in height from 1.5 inches tall to 13.6 inches tall. On October 24 the average number of flower buds was 2.4 buds per plant out of the seventeen plants that had buds. And on November 1 the average number of flower buds was 8.6 buds per plant out of the twenty-one plants that had buds. There were no plants with flower buds on the first sample date, October 18 and all of the flowers had bloomed on the last sample date, November 15. On the third sample date, November 1, the average number of flowers per plant was 3.2 out of the seventeen plants that had flowers. And on the last sample date, November 15, the average number of flowers per plant was 5.0 out of the twenty plants that had flowers. There were no plants with flowers on the first and second sample dates. The last day of the experiment, which was on November 15, had plants with leaves, flowers and fruits. The last day was the only time that the presence of fruit on any of the plants was recorded out of the four sample days. There were 13.0 fruits per plant out of the eleven plants that had fruit. Discussion: The data recorded during the radish experiment is supported by other studies because it has been found that the average radish has a life span of 22 days to 60 days depending on the type of radish. And during this time radishes will grow to be about 3 inches before it starts to become woody. Improvements that can be made with this experiment are: having each student plant their own radish and then label it. Have the students check the radishes they planted and make sure that the students are measuring the radishes correctly. doing all of these thing will help to provide more accurate information.