4. Discussion

4.1 Key findings & Analysis of results

We couldn’t observe a trend as there were a lot of abnormalities. However, It was found that the plant in set-up 2 and set-up 5, of 1.5V and 6.0V respectively, grew better than the other setups, in the 8 days of growth in both our batches. In the first badge, set-up 2 grew to an average height of 22.3cm, and set-up 5 to grew 23.4cm. We found that batch 1 generally grew better as we only started exposing electricity to them when they were baby plants instead of the second batch that was exposed to electricity when they were seeds. 

This shows that the growth of seeds was affected by electricity negatively, but electricity helps enhance the growth of already grown plants, at 1.5V or 6.0V.

Batch 1 the plant in set-up 4 grew shorter from day 7 to 8 this is an abnormality as it is in theory not possible, but the reason for this is that the plant’s stem was harmed, and the top of the plant wilted. With this abnormality solved, we can conclude that the higher the voltage across the mung beans, the faster they grow. 

Batch 2 set up 6: the nutrient water seems to have aged and have bacteria living in them, hence the solution was of darker colouration although having put the same proportions of the nutrient. 

4.2 Explanation of key findings  

In the research, It was stated that electricity enhances plant growth. The introduction of electricity accelerates the transportation of some naturally charged particles such as calcium ions and bicarbonates, which boost the metabolism process of the plant. (UNIMELB, 2019). In this experiment, we found that our results were inconsistent but we noticed that generally the higher the voltage across the plants, the faster the rate of growth. Thus, we can conclude that optimal voltage to grow plants is 1.5V and 6.0V.  

4.3 Evaluation of Hypothesis

Initially, it was thought that our hypothesis is that the higher the voltage across the mung plants, the faster it will grow, until a point in which the speed of the growth of the plant will drastically decrease, but as we did not test for higher voltages, we cannot observe this in our experiment. However, we did find that the higher the voltage the better the growth. In our 1st badge, the set-up with the highest electricity, 6.0V, grew the best, it also grew quite well in our 2nd badge. But, our set-up with the 7.5V failed and unfortunately, we had only done it 1 time so we could not tell whether this voltage is optimal for plant growth. 

4.4 Limitations and Areas for improvement 

1. We did not expose our plants to electricity for a longer period of time, hence there was not a significant difference in growth between the results. 
2. Our results were inconsistent as some of the plants did not grow like it was expected. This may be because the sponge is dry. We can improve by making sure it is wet before planting the seeds.
3. We could have created more set-ups to test for higher voltages to compare and see which voltage will deteriorate the plant’s growth. 
4. We could have increased the number of plants in each set-up to have a more reliable average within each set-up and also in case if the plants got harmed.