Potometer (Plan)

Plan

The aim of the experiment is to find out the effect of temperature on the transpiration rate of plants, and see which temperature between 15 and 35 degrees Celsius is the most efficient at producing tomato plants.

The advantages of the hydroponic techniques are mainly that it is easier to control the plant growing environment and there is a greater reliability and predictability of plant production. Also virtually anything can be grown via hydroponics.

For preliminary work I used a basic potometer to measure the uptake of water from a leafy shoot, I noticed the potometer is not easy to set up and I had to make sure no air bubbles were present and it was completely water tight, so that reasonably accurate results could be gathered. One thing that had to be done in the preliminary was use a hair dryer to dry the water from the leaves because they had been submersed in water so it was less likely to have air bubbles.

Equipment

* A variety of tomato plants

* Potometer

* Artificial light e.g. a light

* Thermostatically controlled viewing chamber

* Scalpel

* Petroleum jelly

Method - Firstly potometers were set up each of the potometers having a different variety of tomato plant in, all of a similar size. Also all of the plants were cut under water but keeping the leaved out of the water. When setting up the potometers all were checked carefully to make sure that no air bubbles were present and they were all completely water tight, and petroleum jelly was used so that water tightness could be assured. Once they were all checked I placed them into the thermostatically controlled viewing chamber which would give me much more