Looking for suggestions for an experiment about plants and light.

[lucks_021]

   I'm not a scientist yet, but I want to be, so I'm trying to do a cool experiment at home. I want to do a plant grow up inside a box with an artificial light and a solar panel, using the sunlight to turn on a light bulb. But I think this idea has a lot of problems, for example, energetically speaking the artificial light will be weaker than sunlight, so on cloudy days, a plant doesn't will have so much light. If you guys have any suggestions for how I can make this, like the type of plant, of solar panel, of the light bulb, or anything, please tell me your idea.

   I am in this forum to learn English too, so feel free to correct me.

[StringJunky]

You just need sufficient area of solar panel to provide enough power to your bulb. You need to think about other requirements like controlling temperature, supplying air etc. The first thing you need to think of is: what is it you are testing for, or, what is the point of the experiment? What are you trying to show or find?

Edited September 30, 2018 by StringJunky

[Externet]

Plants and light has been well studied.  I would toss other innovative influences like AC, DC electrical currents in soil and on plants, radiowaves, magnetic fields, gases, chemicals, partial vacuum, acoustics, centrifuge, common/uncommon liquids as irrigation, atmospheric pressures; combinations of the above,  and document its effects.  At least there is no laws and protective entities about torturing plants... yet.

Try to invent a lawn grass that grows only to 3cm and does not need mowing... It has always been in my list...

Edited September 30, 2018 by Externet

[lucks_021]

17 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

what is it you are testing for, or, what is the point of the experiment? What are you trying to show or find?

I was thinking about finding the better species of plants(i will most try vegetables I think) to survive at a temperature of inside a box with a bulb in my bedroom (I will put a thermometer inside the box), and I will try to find which plant can survive with low insolation too. I will try to make a spreadsheet (i think that is the name) of all time that I water the plant. About what I researched, I will start to plant vegetable wich grown up inside the ground, like beet or turnip, because they need less light. (i had some difficulties typing this in English, so if you don't understand something, please ask).

[StringJunky]

4 minutes ago, lucks_021 said:

I was thinking about finding the better species of plants(i will most try vegetables I think) to survive at a temperature of inside a box with a bulb in my bedroom (I will put a thermometer inside the box), and I will try to find which plant can survive with low insolation too. I will try to make a spreadsheet (i think that is the name) of all time that I water the plant. About what I researched, I will start to plant vegetable wich grown up inside the ground, like beet or turnip, because they need less light. (i had some difficulties typing this in English, so if you don't understand something, please ask).

Your English is understandable.

[lucks_021]

 

24 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

Your English is understandable.

    I was thinking of finding the best plant species (I'll try more vegetables I guess) to survive a temperature inside a box with a lamp in my room (I'll put a thermometer inside the box), and I'll try to find out which plant can survive with low insolation as well.
    I'll also try to make a spreadsheet (I think that's the name) of all the time I run the plant.
    I did a little research on the subject, I think I'll start planting vegetables that grew inside the soil, like beets or turnips, because they need less light.

it's better now? (I used some help).

36 minutes ago, Externet said:

Plants and light has been well studied.  I would toss other innovative influences like AC, DC electrical currents in soil and on plants, radiowaves, magnetic fields, gases, chemicals, partial vacuum, acoustics, centrifuge, common/uncommon liquids as irrigation, atmospheric pressures; combinations of the above,  and document its effects.  At least there is no laws and protective entities about torturing plants... yet.

Try to invent a lawn grass that grows only to 3cm and does not need mowing... It has always been in my list...

Cool ideas, but I think I don't have the necessary equipment to do this, but I will research each of the ideas that you have listed and will see if any is feasible for me.

Edited September 30, 2018 by lucks_021

[Sensei]

4 hours ago, lucks_021 said:

   I'm not a scientist yet, but I want to be, so I'm trying to do a cool experiment at home.

Is the experiment just for you, or is it homework.. ?

Experiment just for you, you can change at any time.

e.g. use couple different LED diodes, red, green, blue and white, UV, IR. Same power of them. The same plants below them. And compare (record on timelapse!) how they grow under influence of different color light. From timelapse photo sequence you will be able to make video for YouTube (which will be able to make you money from ads for your future projects).

Do you have Arduino? That could be used for gathering data from sensors like temperature, humidity, pressure. I suggest getting Arduino-clone with built-in WiFi module (costs $11). Thanks to WiFi, it'll be possible to read sensors from smartphone in the real-time.

Put the all timelapse photos, and data from sensors in CSV database, with time of reading and their value at that time.

Edited September 30, 2018 by Sensei

[lucks_021]

19 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Is the experiment just for you, or is it homework.. ?

For me

19 minutes ago, Sensei said:

e.g. use couple different LED diodes, red, green, blue and white, UV, IR. Same power of them.

I've already thought about this, but I think using only a light frequency is a low amount of energy for the plant to make its photosynthesis. 

14 minutes ago, Sensei said:

 From timelapse photo sequence you will be able to make video for YouTube (which will be able to make you money from ads for your future projects).

That is reeeally good idea... thank you, but I need a capital which I don't have now, when I get one, for sure I will make videos...

9 minutes ago, Sensei said:

Do you have Arduino? That could be used for gathering data from sensors like temperature, humidity, pressure. I suggest getting Arduino-clone with built-in WiFi module (costs $11). Thanks to WiFi, it'll be possible to read sensors from smartphone in the real-time.

1

That is a good idea but is a big trouble for me learn programming. Or Arduino for this use is easy to program? I do not know anything about...

59 minutes ago, lucks_021 said:

common/uncommon liquids as irrigation

I was rereading your commentary and I think, that is a good idea for people that have a lot of space to make a vegetable garden, and I live in an apartment ): .but I'll try something like that, create a special liquid...