This is the beginning of my experiment on using the growth hormone Gibberellic acid on miracle fruit seeds. In a previous experiment, I did a simple test on the effect on watermelon seeds and they grew twice as tall, but germinated half as often. (However, this was a very small sample size and be within the deviation of error. With miracle fruit, it seems the idea is it has an unknown effect on growth but causes high seed germination. I've devised a low scale experiment to get some data on how true this is.
I received sixteen seeds from Ethan Bradley of the forum 0n July 29th, 2009. I cut the smallest one open just to quickly check that they were fresh, and the inside was green. This means I'll have seven to be treated with gibberellic acid and eight as a control.
The basic goal is to log the percentage of seeds that germinate, both with no treatment and being treated with gibberellic acid. After waiting a month after the first seed germinates, I will see how many have died and how tall they are, gibberellic and control. I'll see if there is a difference in height, foliage, and overall health. If three seeds or more germinate out of the control, I will select one to be spritzed bi-weekly with a 500 parts per million concentration of gibberellic acid. This is because I need to see whether overall growth is effected because of the initial soaking or the later spraying. If three or more germinate out of the giberellic side, I'll select one to be left alone.
The rest of the gibberellic side will be spritzed with gibberellic acid bi-weekly. The reason I am taking one out of the control and gibberellic acid side, is because there are four scenarios:
1: Left untreated
2: Initially soaked and later sprayed
3: Initially soaked and not sprayed
4: not soaked but later sprayed.
Because I have a limited supply of seeds, I am mainly testing the first two, but testing all four may lead to some interesting data.
If the seeds soaked in gibberellic acid and spritzed regularly germinate more often, but only grow as much as the ones just soaked, it means there is no point to using up your supply and spraying the plant.
If the seed germinates more often and grows faster, it means it's worthwhile.
If the seeds soaked in gibberellic acid grow faster than the control, it would be worthwhile to do so even if you have an abundance of seeds.
And if there is no change whatsoever, there is no point to buying the gibberellic acid.
Personally, I think that it will have an effect on germination rates, because my first growing attempt had twelve seeds and all of them germinated with gibberellic acid, however, I didn't have a control. I don't know whether all but three of them dying was because of the acid, or it just works that way.
The seeds were already cleaned so I started by soaking all fifteen in warm water for half an hour. I then put them in ten percent bleach and water to sterilize them, and soaked seven in a 1000 parts per million form of gibberellic acid for 30 minutes.
I mixed up a batch of 60-40 peat moss and perlite, with a few shakes of slow release miracle grow fertilizer, and a fourth cup of lemon juice mixed into two quarts of water which I initially watered with to lower the PH. In the end I had the fifteen cups of mixture I needed, as I was using translucent larger cups to possibly see the vertical roots. I filled all the cups with the saturated mixture and cut a small hole in the bottom. On seven I colored a portion of the cup green and cut a notch in the top to know that those were the gibberellic acid ones. I put in the control seeds first to avoid contamination, just barely under the soil. I did the same for the soaked seeds, and then dripped the solution over each one. I transferred all of them to a tray where they will be kept humid with a cup taped over each one.
I will monitor the results as well as I can. Now we wait. Suggestions, comments, and questions are all welcome.
