Researched by Aaron E.
2002-03

• PURPOSE 
• HYPOTHESIS 
• EXPERIMENT DESIGN 
• MATERIALS 
• PROCEDURES 
• RESULTS 
• CONCLUSION 

• RESEARCH REPORT 
• BIBLIOGRAPHY 
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

• ABOUT THE RESEARCHER

Agriculture is something that the whole world needs. In the Yakima Valley one of our major industries is agriculture. Agriculture provides money to the workers and food to many people around the world. Without agriculture many people would have a hard time earning money, and we would have a hard time obtaining enough food.

Plants have many necessities. They need certain nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus, hydrogen, and oxygen. Most of these can be supplied by the world around them, but some need to be brought to the plant by means of elements in the fertilizer.

The elements that humans provide to a plant most often are nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. People provide it by way of fertilizer either in a chemical or organic form.

Nitrogen can be supplied to a plant by any animal manure like steer or chicken manure, concentrated nitrogen, and ammonia.  It can also be supplied in the form of urea, and nitrates. The nitrogen that plants take in is changed into protein through a process called nitrogen fixation. This element is so important to a plant because it helps the plant defend itself from diseases, and drought. In most cases a plant can find its own nitrogen but in some cases the plant needs nitrogen brought to it. 

Daniel Ruthford first recognized this element as an element in 1772. Atoine Laurent Lavoisier then recognized it as a gas in 1776.

Potassium can be supplied to a plant through potassium nitrate, and potassium sulfate. Potassium is necessary for a plant because it helps in the process of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process in which a plant makes its food. Potassium also helps a plant fight diseases and withstand drought. Usually a plant can find the potassium it needs but it helps to provide a plant with it. Humphry David first discovered potassium as an element in 1807.

Phosphorus was first discovered as an element in 1669 Hennig Brand. There are three types of phosphorus red, white, and black. It is usually found in a mineral form mixed with other minerals. It can also be found in burned bones.

Phosphorus helps a plant use water efficiently, and helps develop the roots of a plant. It also helps ripen a plant.

There are two groups of plants in the world: flowering and non-flowering. Every plant in the world fits under one of these two categories.

In our world there are over 300,000 different species of plants. Out of all these plants there are at least 250,000 species of flowering plants that are known. This fact shows the vast diversity of the group of flowering plants.  These plants are also the most widespread around our world. 

Flowering plants grow limbs off of their main structure. These limbs are sometimes used like a solar panel to collect sun. The sun that they collect is used for the process called photosynthesis. This process makes the food that it lives off of (6 H20 + 6 CO2 = C6H12O6 + 6 O2).

There are fewer non-flowering plants than flowering. Most of these plants include mosses, and fungi. These types of plants like to grow in dark damp places. Usually they would find these places in a forest under a rock or low on the trunk of a tree. 

These plants do not grow limbs or petals off of their body. The most common you would see have is a cap like a mushroom, or are limp and stringy like the mosses in a forest. 

There a lot of different flower arrangements. Some of them are regular flowers, spire flowers, irregular flowers, umbel flowers, and composite flowers. Regular flowers are flowers set-up in a circular arrangement. Spire flowers are in a sequence of some kind. Irregular flowers are symmetrical but set their selves up in a different way. Umbel flowers are small flowers that grow in groups, and composite flowers have petals around the outside called ray florets and seeds in the middle called disk florets.

The process of photosynthesis is a process in which a plant makes their food. This food is a type of sugar called glucose in which is formed through this process. The plant brings in light through its chloroplast, which starts the process of combining carbon dioxide with water to make the sugar and oxygen. All plants live off of this energy, which it makes.

 Radishes are a vegetable that grows underground. They can be colored red, white or yellow. The time of the year in which you grow a radish can determine the way it grows. If you grow it in the spring a radish will grow to be a small round radish. While if you grow it in the summer it will grow skinny and long. Radishes usually grow best if they are kept in an environment below 26º Celsius or 80º Fahrenheit. The scientific name of a radish is Raphonus. The common garden radish is Raphonus Sativus. 

Fertilizer is a mixture of things that can aid a plant in its growth. Fertilizer can be made in many different forms. The two biggest categories that fertilizer breaks down from to are organic and inorganic. Organic fertilizers are fertilizers that were made by the environment. Inorganic fertilizers are fertilizers that are made chemicals, and substances, which were not made but the environment. The most common nutrients supplied in a fertilizer are nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus.

On a bag of fertilizer there are three numbers (n-n-n). The first number indicates the percent of nitrogen in the bag of fertilizer. The second number indicates the percent of phosphorus in the bag of fertilizer, and the last number indicates the percent of potassium in the bag.

Organic fertilizers are fertilizers in which with will not hurt the environment. These will not hurt the environment because they are made natural substances in the environment. Some substances are like any kind of manure, and dead plants or animals. Although these fertilizers may be good for the environment they sometimes don’t work as effectively as an inorganic fertilizer.

Inorganic fertilizers are fertilizers in which either over a short or long period of time the chemicals in the fertilizer will start breaking down the soil and hurting the environment. Although they may do this these types of fertilizers are very effective. They are usually made of a synthetic substance, or a highly concentrated combination of the most needed nutrients. 

Without agriculture our world wouldn’t be where it is now. Money would be hard to earn, and supplying the food needed for the world would be even harder. Agriculture is a very important part of our society. 

Baker, Jerry. Backyard Problem Solver. MS: American Master Products Inc 2002. P. 25, 196, 309

"Fertilizer." Encarta Encyclopedia 2001 CD-ROM

"Fertilizer: Fuel for Growing Plants." Fertilizer. October 25, 2002 <http://www.tfi.org/aboutfertilizer/fuelforgrowingplants.asp 

Knapp, Brian. Elements: Nitrogen and Phosphorus. Danbury, CT: Groiler Educational, Sherman Turnpike 1997. P. 4, 20, 44

Knapp, Brian. Elements: Sodium and Potassium. Danbury, CT: Groiler Educational, Sherman Turnpike 1997. P 40, 41

Mitchell, Sophia. Plants. New, York: New, York, 1989. P. 6-9, 14-18, 20-21

Munson, Edwin S. "Nitrogen." The World Book Encyclopedia. 2002. V. 14

"Nitrogen." Encarta Encyclopedia 1998 CD-ROM

"Phosphorus." Encarta Encyclopedia 1998 CD-ROM

 "Potassium." Encarta Encyclopedia 1998 CD-ROM 

"Radishes." Encarta Encyclopedia 2001 CD-ROM