My first error
was probably my biggest. My plants would not grow because the seeds were
overheated and then probably cooked. This was due to the position of
heat lamp (used one lamp for all three plants). The lamp was placed too
low, causing the seeds to overheat. Placing the heat lamp higher up
would have prevented this from happening. I had to re-do the experiment,
but this time I made sure the heat lamp was placed higher-at just the
right height. When I re-did my experiment, I placed my heat lamp higher,
at 30cm from the top of the pot. An hour later I went to go check on
them. The soil temperatures were still too hot (25°C- 32°C), they should
have been around 20°C-perfect temperature for growing plants. To fix
this problem, I raised the heat lamp another 10cm and then measured the
soil temperatures again. Luckily, I fixed the problem quickly before my
seeds became over heated again, then I’d have to repeat the experiment
for a third time. Another error made was with the positioning of each
plant in relation to the heat lamp. Each time I went to check on the
plants, (water them, add the carbon dioxide mixture, or measure them),
slowly the position of each plant would change, causing one plant would
be getting more heat than the others. As a result, the temperatures
inside the green roofs are slightly changed and the growth of each plant
could possibly been affected due to the different quantities of heat.
This blunder could have changed the results as to which plant is most
suitable for a greenhouse. Perhaps, when I have a chance to repeat this
experiment, I will mark the placement of each plant by tracing the pot
or marking it with an X using tape. This way when I move the plants
around, they will always be returned to the same place. Also in a normal
green roof, plants would not be surrounded by plastic. This was done to
trap the carbon dioxide to determine which plant would utilize it the
most. Seeing as all the plants were exposed to the same conditions this
should not have affected the outcome. However, to better measure green
roof conditions, I could use an actual green roof and measure CO2 levels
using a monitoring device.
