After resetting the last Pea plant set I got 28/30 seeds that germinated but the reason why they didn't germinate was because one of them had mold on it and the other was just rotten. The picture to the left shows the the two different reasons. The bottom was the one with the mold and it looked really weird because of the fact that it was like spider webs with little tiny black spots on it. The optimal temperature for the pea plants to germinate in is between 20-25 degrees Celsius. Another factor that I tested out was if light had a difference in the germination rate of the plants, but I came to find that it doesn't have any kind of significant changes to the rate of germination.
     About a Week has gone by since I put my fresh set of test tubes and as you can see there is some visible growth which is a good sign so far. Based on the tubes that have some growth in it are the ones that had Sodium Phosphate added to the tubes in addition to the normal solution. Next week I will be getting some samples from the test tubes to identify the different species of algae that are present in my set. While I look at the samples I will be setting the same experiment up so that I have more data to look at and compare it to the first.

Today I also helped josh with a small little task that involved the garden. I had to create a rectangle that is 33in x 36in out of PVC pipes so that one of the classes is able to plant seed in a grid system. I made one so far but now I must wait for more supplies to finish 2 more and glue all the pieces together.  

Well it's good to be back even though I have to hit the ground running because of all the stuff I have to do ranging from my main project, and my small project to organizing things, and helping set up for labs. It has been a hectic start for the semester so far because of the difficulty of my classes.  I also applied to the ASU student conference that is on March 4th and I got an email yesterday saying that I got accepted to participate in it. During this past week I have set up a new set of algae eutrophication which takes about two week for it to develop enough for it to be visible with the naked eye. I also had to redo one of the sets of my pea plant experiment which is set at 25 degrees Celsius and the light cycle is at 12 hours light and 12 hours dark this set should run for about 1 week this allows them to germinate. The purpose of this experiment is to determine what the optimal conditions are for the best germination rate.

The current setup that I have for my project is a bit confusing because I have 6 different treatments.
Materials:

• 40-15ml test tubes
• 6- test tube racks
• Papago park pond water and RO water
• 5-125ml Erlenmeyer flask
• Green pipette, and micro pipette
• Incubator set at 32 degrees Celsius with a light cycle of 16 hours light and 8 hours dark     

Nutrients: Sodium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrite, Ammonium Chloride, and Sodium phosphate.

Treatments: Sodium Nitrate, Sodium Nitrite, Ammonium Chloride, Sodium Nitrate + Sodium Phosphate, Sodium Nitrite + Sodium Phosphate, Ammonium Chloride + Sodium Phosphate.