Does Microwaved Water Kill Plants? Part Five (week two and week three photos)

On March 24, I began an experiment to see if plant seeds started with unfiltered tap water, microwaved water, and stove-boiled water would show any difference in growth. Here's the link to that first post:

This is the fifth installment in my studies.

On Day 15, I transplanted the sunflower seeds from the bread pan into an outdoor pot, as they were continuing to grow at an accelerated rate.
I have close-ups of each of the groupings below.
As you have followed, Group A and B successfully began three plants, while Group C had a "dud" and only fruitfully gave me two plants.

Group A sunflower plants

Group B sunflower plants

Group C sunflower plants (one is the tallest and one is the shortest)

I also took the spinach plants in their pots and placed them outside at this point.
One week later, on Day 22, here are my results:

Spinach groups A, B, and C

 I have determined that the spinach plants did not enjoy being transferred. They have been in these pots and have slowly been withering since Day 9. Regardless of water type, all have been unhappy.
Beginning on Day 15, I ran out of water and began feeding all the plants my control water: unfiltered tap water.
Here are the sunflowers on Day 22:

Group A: microwaved water for two weeks, then unfiltered tap water for an additional week

Group B: stove-boiled water for two weeks, then unfiltered tap water for an additional week

The very tall and very short plants against the tag are the Group C control water plants.
In the foreground is a thriving Group A microwaved-water plant.

I will post follow-ups with sunflower plant photographs, but I have very little hope of survival for the spinach plants.
My advice? Don't try to do spinach seed starters. Sunflowers seem to be okay.

Does Microwaved Water Kill Plants? Part Four

I hope you have enjoyed following the progress of these plants. In the above photograph, I have circled in pink one "dud" in each group. Link to first post is here:
In Group A, I had a spinach dud.
In Group B, I had a spinach dud.
In Group C, I had a sunflower dud.

The roots of the sunflowers poked through the egg carton and onto the cookie sheet!

These photographs are all on the 9th day of the experiment. The sunflowers definitely needed to be transplanted.

Group C Spinach (the only group without spinach duds)

I transplanted each group into a separate container.

Group B spinach (one seed was a "dud")

Group A Spinach

Group A Spinach (one seed was a "dud")

The long white roots are visible on several of these sunflower plants!

Group A, B, and C Sunflower plants

So, I continued to water these spinach plants in their new containers with the original water.
The Sunflower plants I transplanted first into a bread pan, but far apart and used the dropper for watering. Groups A and B were all successful, but Group C had a "dud".


I feel by using the dropper, the water soaked directly into the plant and did not cross-contaminate.
There will always be those who disagree with me.
Tune in to my next post...part five!

Does Microwaved Water Kill Plants? Part Three

If you're reading this post, this photo is from Day 6

 This is part three of my experiment. Does microwaved water kill plants? I began with three jars of water, and only I know the identity of the jars. One contains water hot from the tap, one hot from the microwave (boiled), and one hot from the stove (tried to get to boiling)
Here is a link to part one and part two of my experiment.

After seven days of watering, I still have about half my water left

Day seven and almost all the seeds sprouted. There was one dud in each water group.

Day 8 Group A...I was beginning to feel sorry for these sunflowers (left side)

 

Day 8 Group B...these sunflowers seemed to do a little better getting through the soil

Day 8 Group C...again, the sunflowers struggling to break through, the spinach is having no trouble!

On Day 8, I "helped" the struggling sunflowers through their dirt clods in all three groups.
If you look closely, you can see a dud in
Group A spinach, Group B spinach, and Group C sunflower

So, after one week, the plants are thriving. I am not noticing a large difference in growth between any of the groups, so at this point, I am unsure there is a true difference.
My next step will be to put these plants in more soil, as they are growing too tall to be supported by the egg carton. Some of the roots have already burst through the carton, so I will simply cut apart the carton and plant them already contained.

Does Microwaved Water Kill Plants? Part Two

If you missed it, here's a link to Part One.

The first two days, I consistently added one dropper of water to each well in the morning and in the evening. On day three, I only watered them once. When the sun did break through, I would hastily place the tray in the sunlight indoors. On day four, I watered them in the morning and evening.

On day 5, (this project was during our Spring Break) my daughters wanted to help, so one daughter watered Group A, one daughter watered Group B, and I watered Group C. We had a very toasty fire in our woodstove that night.

Watering Group A

Watering Group B

 We went out of town on day six and I watered them before we left. At this point, all I was seeing was dirt.
To my great surprise and joy, our warm woodstove and the water we'd been giving them, they finally sprouted through the soil!

See that green plant in the upper right hand corner?!

This is Group A

This is Group B

This is Group C

 

These sunflowers actually were pushing the entire clod of dirt upward with their heads instead of bursting through!

This group of sunflowers was bursting more than the previous group

And this group of sunflowers was also moving the entire clod (plants on the left)

So, based on my progress so far, all the seed groups received enough life from the water to sprout...
this adventure is to be continued.
Here's a link to part three.

Does Microwaved Water Kill Plants? Part One

I have read many forwarded claims that microwave ovens are dangerous. That microwaved water will kill your houseplant, and non-microwaved water will make your plant thrive.

As I frequently heat my cup of tea utilizing the two minute microwave method, I was curious to see if the heat for my tea is neutralizing my antioxidants I'm so happily consuming.

I wanted to make this as scientific as possible, so I chose to use three different waters. One hot from the tap, one heated in the microwave, and one heated on the stove. I also used containers as consistently as possible for my heating. I own a corningware percolator, which was designed to be used on the stovetop. I used its counterpart (in which we reheat soup) to heat water in the microwave.

I poured equal water (2 cups) from the tap for this experiment for each.

I also wanted to use more than one "plant", as not all plants have the same growth rate.

I took soil from our garden (which has borne us good food in the past few summers) and filled an egg carton. I planted in each grouping 3 sunflower seeds and 3 spinach seeds.

This is a blind study for my family, as they do not know the identity of the three waters, but I fully know which is which.

We have group A, B, and C. Each is given the same amount of water, all other controllable factors are the same.

At the end of this experiment, I am curious to see if there is indeed a difference between heating water before giving it to your plants vs not heating it, and if the two heating methods make any difference.



Step One:
Heat the water using the stovetop, microwave, and taking "hot" water straight from the tap.

After 4 minutes in the microwave, bubbles were visible.

Though I heated the "pot" on medium heat for a similar amount of time, perhaps a little longer, I never saw any visible bubbling.
(I didn't know how high the heat could go without putting the pot at risk of breaking)

Only I know the true identity of the water in these three jars...

The day I began this experiment was March 24, 2014. It was a beautiful sunny day! We were encountering a bit of a false spring, and it was so tempting to plant something that I began this experiment. The next day we had sleet, snow, rain, and hail. Day one was the only day so far that I've been able to give the plants some outdoor sun.

Day one, groups A, B, C
(rows are vertical. Row one is sunflowers, row two is spinach, that ends group A.
Group B is row three sunflower, row four spinach,
and Group C is row five sunflower, row six spinach.)

Here is a link to part two

Easy Manger Food Craft

My husband and I were discussing how much we like to create "something out of nothing". 
Meaning, I would rather have an idea and try it than googling and copying something another person has already done. I like to brave new waters, to go where others may not have traveled. (In all other aspects of life I am actually on the cautious side and don't enjoy unpredictable outcomes)

http://www.creativitypost.com/images/made/images/uploads/business/innovations_610_300_s_c1_center_center.jpg

When my daughter's first grade teacher asked me if I'd like to do the food craft for our upcoming Christmas party, I gladly said yes.

I then thought, what about making an edible manger and filling it with something similar to the shredded wheat "nest" material? We could use graham crackers for the structure and as long as the "hay" was sticky, it should all hold together!

I then thought, but what about the baby in the manger? All the first ideas I had were easily perishable and required refrigeration (wrap the baby in a soft cheese slice like mozzerella, or a slice of meat with an olive for the head). I asked my husband, what about a "baby" carrot? That was good for a chuckle, but still I was on the search.

While at the grocery store, I spotted a bag full of perfect candidates!

As I chose ingredients, I tried to limit the sugar content and knew that paying a little more for better quality was okay. The cereal? 0g sugar. The graham cracker? 3.5g per cracker. The peanut butter? 1g per serving. And the roll-ups? 10g per roll-up, but you need only 1/8 of a roll.

 To assemble these, I also tried to plan for a classroom setting. Each student will need 5 to 6 wheat "bites", one graham cracker separated into four whole pieces, then break one of those in half for the ends.

Add 2 Tbsp peanut butter (I used Adams Natural which has 1g natural sugar per serving).
Place the wheat and peanut butter in a sandwich bag for easy mashing. 

Once mashed together (wheat is soft and easily broken by hand), turn bag inside out and dump it onto your first piece of graham cracker. (You may decide to add some honey to make this mix a little sweeter and even stickier)

You then take the side pieces and place them around the "hay" so they all form a box.

For the "swaddling cloth", I took the fruit roll-up and cut it while still rolled into 8 strips. 

 I only needed one strip to cover my little peanut.

And, there you have it! A totally edible food craft for Christmas time that is humble in appearance, mildly sweet, and has some protein to prevent a total crash. Not to mention? Very little prep time required.

For those with peanut allergies, I would recommend purchasing "butterscotch" chips and melting them, mixing in the shredded wheat, and then using the orange candy "circus peanuts" which are not nut-based at all, and wrapping them. This will be a lot sweeter, but still a fun craft.

Remember, anything worth doing is worth trying.
~Tammy