How Sunlight Affects the Plant Growth of Mungbean for Six Consecutive Days

This is "An Experiment Conducted to Test How Sunlight Affects the Plant Growth of Mungbean for Six Consecutive Days".

Introduction

The sun plays a vital role in our everyday life, for it provides us nutrients and boost our energy. To plants, sunlight is essential for the process of photosynthesis to occur. Since plants are considered as autotrophs or primary producers, they can produce their own food through the chemical process called photosynthesis. In photosynthesis, plants use the energy it absorb from the sun to break down water molecules and carbon dioxide and make sugar called glucose and produce oxygen.

Objectives

1. Observe how sunlight can affect the plant growth and development of mungbean

2. Distinguish the different results of mungbean being exposed to sunlight and the other being excluded.

Results

The result shows that there is a big difference with the length and color of mungbean.The measurement of mungbean leaf from can A is 1.2cm x 0.7cm and has green-colored leaves while in can B, 0.15cm x 0.5cm and has yellowish-colored leaves. The measurement of mungbean stem from can A is 4.5cm x 0.1cm while in can B, 7.2cm x 0.1cm. The color of mungbean stem from can A is reddish at the bottom and green at the middle up to top while in can A were transparent white.

Discussion

Vigna radiate also known as mungbean was originated in India which is cultivated for it is edible and is consumed as sprouts or dry beans. Mungbeans are warm-season, deep-rooted plants whose specific hardiness and day-length requirements varies by cultivar (Ryczkowski, 2018). Its agronomic characteristics consist of an upright and vine types of growth habit occur in it, with plants varying from one to five feet in length. It is slightly hairy with a well-developed root system. Wild types tend to be prostrate while cultivated types are more erect. The stems are many-branched, sometimes twining at the tips. The leaves are alternate, trifoliolate with elliptical to ovate leaflets, 5-18 cm long x 3-15 cm broad. The flowers (4-30) are papillonaceous, pale yellow or greenish in colour. The pods are long, cylindrical, hairy and pending. They contain 7 to 20 small, ellipsoid or cube-shaped seeds. The seeds are variable in colour: they are usually green, but can also be yellow, olive, brown, purplish brown or black, mottled and/or ridged. Seed colours and presence or absence of a rough layer are used to distinguish different types of mungbean (Heuzé V et al., 2015; Lebas F., 2015). Mungbean performs best in fertile, well-drained sandy loam soil with a pH between 6.2 and 7.2. It requires 1 to 2 inches deep in moist soil, one seed every 3 inches in rows 18 to 24 inches apart provides an adequate yield. The ideal prinkling water over the sprouts every four to six hours for the first four days, then increasing intervals between watering to eight hours (Ryczkowski, 2018).

Since mungbean requires a warm temperature for it to grow healthy, it was perfect for this experiment. It was easy to observe how sunlight can affect the plants and distinguish the different results of mungbean being exposed to sunlight and the other being excluded.

The experiment started last September 9, 2020. There were two cans with holes at the bottom that were labeled as can A and can B. Each can was planted with ten mungbean seeds and watered in the morning and afternoon. It was placed with the same environment where it can absorb enough sunlight for three consecutive days.

On the third day, the seeds started to germinate. Can B was isolated, place inside a box. It was sealed with a tape and made sure that it has no holes.

On the fifth day, the difference in size and color of mungbeans can be observed. The mungbeans from can A on the left began to bloom and developed green leaves. While mungbeans from can B on the right has an abnormal length of stem and the leaves were yellow in color. On the sixth day, the results were shown in figure 1 wherein the mungbeans that were exposed to sun developed larger leaves while the munbeans that was placed inside a box did not develop and grew taller.

Conclusion

The results of the experiment shows that the importance of sunlight to plants can be fully understand through the growing process. The germination occurred in both sets of mungbeans wherein this process started when the seeds were provided with soil and constant water supply. Since can B was placed inside a box, it cannot absorb enough sunlight, the process of photosynthesis slows down and tried to reach for the sunlight by stretching their stems. The etiolation process can be observed through the growing process of mungbeans in can B which it is the weakening stage of a plant and grows spindly and lose strength.

Therefore the importance of sunlight to plants was fully understand in this experiment. If plants gets inadequate supply of sunlight it would probably lose its color and die. The lack of sunlight stops the photosynthesis process, thus it was not able to produce chlorophyll needed by plants to create green color of leaves. That is the reason why the leaves of mungbeans from can B is yellow. And therefore, the objectives of this experiment was definitely achieved.

References

Ryczkowsk, A. (2018). The Best Conditions for Mung Bean Growth. Retrieved from: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/conditions-mung-bean-growth-28008.html

Heuzé, V., Tran, G., Bastianelli, D., Lebas, F. (2015). Mung bean (Vigna radiata). Retrieved from: https://www.feedipedia.org/node/235

Vidyasagar, A. (2018). What is Photosynthesis? Retrieved from: https://www.livescience.com/51720-photosynthesis.html

Allman, M. (2020). When Plants Don’t Get Enough Light, Why Do They Grow Tall and Spindly? Retrieved from: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/plants-dont-enough-light-grow-tall-spindly-71340.html

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