Plant Experient 2

Question: What is the effect of food coloring inside a Wisconsion fast plant?

Rationale: We think that the food coloring inside the dirt will go inside the flower so the flower would be a
different color than its actual color. We don’t think that the Wisconsion fast plant will grow faster or slower
than the regular time which would be 10- 15 days.

What we know from our research:

• We know that food coloring has propylene, propylparaben, glycol, water, and sodium benzoate
inside the liquid.
• We know that plants grow with water and sunlight to grow.
• We know that the plant we chose will grow fast.
• We know that plants grow in soil or sometimes water to get their nutrients.
• We know that plants absorb liquid through there stems and roots.
• We know that all plants need water.
• We know that the water in the ground goes up the plants stem.
• We know food coloring can’t evaporate. Since food coloring can’t evaporate, it can’t leave the
plant. This does not kill the plant but colors the plant.
• We know that

Sites we used for research:

https://homeguides.sfgate.com/effects-food-dye-flowers-roots-101292.html

https://www.ehow.com/how-does_5164204_food-coloring-change-color-plants.html

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bring-science-home-capillary-action-plant/

https://www.hunker.com/12003511/what-happens-when-you-put-food-coloring-in-a-plants-water

Our Hypothesis:

SP- I think the plants will change color a little bit on day seven and change completely on day 10 because
the plant will need lots of time and when the plant gets food coloring it travels with the water and then
dissolves into the plant which makes it the color.

MW- I think that the Wisconsin fast plant will change color inside the roots and the flower color will change
because the coloring will flow inside the Wisconsin fast plant. The flower is yellow so maybe the red food
coloring could make the plant orange and the blue food coloring could make the Wisconsin fast plant
green.

Materials

• Red, blue, and green food coloring.

• Wisconsin fast plant.
• Black Gold Seedling mix.
• Three cups.
• Tap water.

Steps of our experiment:

1. Find a place where there is sunlight like a windowsill.

2. Get 6 three and a half inch tall cups not touching the inside of the cup.
3. Fill up three of the cups with 40 ml water and add four drops of red, blue, and green food coloring
in the cups.
 4. Add ½ a cup of Black Gold Seedling mixes to the other three cups.
5. Add 35 ml of the colored water and mix it in.
6. Make a small hole and put the seed in the hole.
7. Wait 5 days and then add 10 ml of the colored water in.
8. Wait another 5 days.
9. Look and see what the color of the plants are now.
10. Write down the results of the food coloring on the fast plants.

Day 1
Day 3
The plants haven’t

Grown yet because

we just planted them.
Now we wait till next
science class which is
in two days. The
green color looked
like a yellow- green
color instead of a dark
green.
Nothing has
changed from
the first day. The only slightest thing that
changed is that there is no more color in
the dirt. It is brown dirt color.

Day 6

We watered the plants at about 12:05. We

saw a big difference than last time. The
plants had sprouts. Still no color difference
because the flower buds didn’t grow yet.
The stems were white at the bottom and a
little bit pink at the top of the stem. The soil
had a tint of the color that we put in.

Last day Day 8

The red plant: very
small and the leaves
were darker than the
rest and had a tint of
red.
The plants grew more. Still the pink color
on the stem for all of them. The color on
the leaves haven’t changed, except that
the red plant is more red.

The blue plant: Was

the second tallest
with bright green
leaves
 The green plant: Was
the tallest and had
light green leaves.

All: We took the stem

out and washed it.
Then we cut the plant
stem and smashed it
a lot so that when we
put it under the
microscope we can
see if the color made
it in the stem. Sadly,
none of them had any
color except in the
leaves.

Last Day

Names
of experts we contacted:

Randy Hollinger- Lower school science teacher at Open Window School

Conclusion

Looking at our results, our original hypothesis was the red food coloring would make the red plant orange
and the blue plant would make the plant green and the green plant would make it a lime green. One way
we know it is wrong is that none of them changes except a little with a tint. We think this happened
because we didn’t have enough time, so the plants didn’t get flowers. Another interesting that that
happened was that the red plant grew the least and the green plant grew the most. I think this was
because the plants didn’t sprout flowers or buds. In conclusion, it turns out that the red plant changed the
most. If I were to do this again, two things I would change would be let the plants grow longer