Poster: Vegetative development

Abs # 315: Effect of Cucumber, Potato, Carrot, and Tomato Juices on the Development and Growth of Shoots and Roots of Garlic Cloves

Presenter:	Zhang, Crystal, Siyu , cryszhang@yahoo.com
Authors	Zhang, Crystal, Siyu  (A)   Zhang, Xinbo  (B)   Armstrong-Hall, J. Gail  (A)   Tang, Naimei  (C)
Affiliations:	(A): Larson Middle School (B): William Beaumont Hospital (C): Wayne State University

To determine the potential effect of different vegetable juices on the development and growth of shoots and roots of garlic cloves, we have selected fresh cucumber, potato, carrot, and tomato as a source of vegetable juice and randomly divided 80 garlic cloves per experiment into 5 groups. Each group contains 16 cloves and grows in a disposal bowl either with 40 mL water (control) or 40 mL one of 4 different squeezed fresh vegetable juices that are changed once a day for two weeks. After 14 days, total weight, shoot weight, shoot length, and root weight of each clove are measured, and the mean of each group compares with that of control group. The following are summarized from our results. 1) Total clove weight of control group significantly increases after 14 day growth, when compared to four juice groups, and only total clove weight of control group significantly increases, when compared to its beginning weight of total cloves. 2) Total shoot weight and shoot length of all four-juice groups significantly decreases after 14-day growth, when compared to the control group. 3) Total root weight of all juice groups except tomato group significantly decreases after 14-day growth, when compared to the control group. These results demonstrate that some components in vegetable juices used in this experiment can inhibit the development and growth of both shoots and roots of garlic cloves. Further investigations are required to determine which components inhibit, and what mechanisms are involved in the development and growth of shoots and roots of garlic cloves.