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Does the colour of light affect the

growth of plants?

Fatima Atif - 8A
April 5th , 2019
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Table of Contents

Title page …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 1

Table of contents ….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 2

Aim ……................................................................................................................... 3

Hypothesis ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Independent variable …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Dependent variable ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Controlled variables ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Materials ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

Set up ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4

Procedure ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4

Risk assessment ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

Quantitative Data ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

Qualitative Observations ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 6

Results & data ……..…………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7

Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7

Time line …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7

Experimental Errors ……………..…………………............................................................... 8

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AIM: To determine whether the colour of light affects the growth of a plant

HYPOTHESIS:
I think that the plant with orange light will grow the tallest because the orange colour is close
to the colour of the sun and because it’s also a warm colour. I also think that the plant with the
purple light will be the shortest because the colour of the purple is dark, and so the plant might
not get enough light.

BACKGROUND RESEARCH:
Whether the colour is red or purple the plant will absorb the same amount of energy from the
lights it’s receiving. Sometimes different colour of light will be helpful in different ways for the
plant. For example a blue light will help encourage vegetative leaf growth and red light
combined with blue allows the plant to flower. Cool fluorescent light is great for growth of
plants indoors.

Visible light is often seen as white, natural light consists of multiple colors. Imagine light passing
through a glass window and creating a rainbow of color. Each color may play a unique role in
the growth process of plants.

Colored light will have a huge effect on plant growth because light affects plant growth. Yellow
light will have the best results. Research indicates that light can affect plant growth. Sunlight
is made up of different colors and each color has a different wavelength. For plant growth, red
and blue light will be the most effective

Shining different colored lights on plants stresses them out. In response to that stress, their
bodies produce greater amounts of these phenols, anthocyanins, and beta-carotenes. They may
look pretty and nourish, but their main purpose is to protect plant tissue from stress from light
and other damaging environmental effects.

The tallest the Virginia stock can reach is 30cm. The flower needs to have part, or full sun and
moist soil. Takes 6-8 weeks to grow and grows best during late summer and autumn.

INDEPENDENT VARIABLE: DEPENDENT VARIALBE: CONTROLLED VARIABLES:

 Colour of light  Speed of plant  Type of plant
growth/height  Type of soil
 Amount of water
 Amount of light
 Environment
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MATERIALS:
 3 flower pots
 Soil
 Coloured cellophane sheets; orange purple, green
 Virginian stock seeds
 Watering can
 Ruler

SET UP:

PROCEDURE:
1. Add soil to a flower pot.
2. Plant in the seeds and place the coloured cellophane ‘tents’ on top of the plant.
3. Water the plants with ¼ cup water daily
4. Measure and record the height of the plants each day

[PLANTED THE PLANT ON 16TH FEB]

RISK ASSESSMENT:
Risk How will the risk be minimised
Bad weather (an abundance of rain, hail or By making sure I check on the weather and
windy) make sure that I keep my plants under the
shade when I am going out.
Getting a skin allergy from the soil because of By making sure I wear gloves while working
sensitive skin. with my plant
The coloured cellophane ‘tents’ flying away By adding some weights at the bottom of the
because of the wind tent so it doesn’t fly away.
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22/2/19 some changes started to happen to the purple and green light and so from that day
forward, I started to record the growth of my plants. No changes had happened to the orange
light so it is not included.

QUANTITATIVE DATA:

Measuring tool: Height in Centimeters

Ruler
Purple light Green light
Day 1 (23rd Feb) 0.4 0.2
Day 2 (24th Feb) 0.7 0.5
Day 3 (25th Feb) 1 0.7
Day 4 (26th Feb) 1.2 0.7
Day 5 (27th Feb) 1.5 1.1
Day 6 (28th Feb) 1.8 1.3
Day 7 (29th Feb) 2 1.4

Growth of plants over 7 days

2.5

1.5
Purple light
Green light
1

0.5

0
Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7
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QUALITATIVE OBSERVATIONS:

Plant: Observation:
Green light Looks healthy but not the fastest growing
plant. Does not have as many stems growing
out as the purple light.

Purple light Looks the healthiest and it is pure green. A lot

of stems and the fastest growing plant.

Orange light A very slow growing plant with little stems

sticking out of the soil. The stem that is slowly
growing out looks healthy and green so far.
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RESULTS & DATA:

The tallest plant was the purple light. The second one is the green light and the shortest is the
orange light.

Purple light Orange light Green light

4.6 cm 2.3 cm 3.5 cm

Final growth of plants in cm

5
4.5
4
3.5
3
Purple light
2.5
Orange light
2
Green light
1.5
1
0.5
0
Final growth

CONCLUSION:
The purpose of this experiment was to determine if the colour of light affects the growth of a
plant. The hypothesis was that the purple lighted plant would be the slowest growing and the
orange lighted plant would be the fastest. The hypothesis was not supported. The plant under
the orange light actually grew the slowest. The plant that grew the fastest was the plant under
the purple light.

TIMELINE:

Feb 14th Feb 19th Feb 22nd Feb 25th to March 4th March 11th April 1st April 5th

SRP handed out Planted plants, First checkpoint Check up on Second Write report SRP
watered and plants and checkpoint due
taken care of update log
until first book
checkpoint.
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EXPERIMENTAL ERRORS:
Some errors were that two of the lights were a few centimeters closer to the plant. The closer
plants were the orange and the green light. This could have caused some error that possibly
led to the faster growth of these plants. Another error was that after I forgot to take pictures
when I was measuring the final height of the plants. When I remembered, the plants had
already been destroyed by the hail that took place on the 14th of March.