Each year, 3.86 million hectares of canola are planted across Canada, mainly in the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. However, each year, these crops are plagued with diseases. The two most common of these are blackleg disease and stemrot disease.
For this experiment, we chose to test with stemrot disease. It occurs in a plant when fungi in the soil send spores up. These spores attack the canola stem with Oxalic acid, which works to lower the pH of the stem and remove calcium from cell walls. This makes the cell wall very weak, and enzymes can break down pectin in the wall. Mycelium from the fungus can now grow into the plant and use it as a food source. Once myceliums enter the stem, the leaves of the plant can no longer receive nutrients, and die off. The entire plant is thus rendered useless.
While it is known that some varieties of canola have resistance to stemrot on the stems, nothing is known about the resistance of the leaves. We chose this area for our experiment.
Before we could start experimenting on the canola plants, it was necessary to begin with a basic experiment on carrots to understand the effects of stemrot. This led us into two more experiments, as well as the original one we had planned: Testing the normal pH of carrots, and testing whether carrot pieces uninfected visibly are infected invisibly.
For the first experiment, we wondered what would happen to pH levels if carrots were infected with stemrot disease. We believed that when carrots were given stemrot disease, the pH level of the carrot would decrease.
In the second experiment, we wondered if the leaves of different varieties of canola were resistant to stemrot. We predicted that when canola leaves were infected with stemrot disease, one variety would resist the disease.
In the third experiment, we simply wanted to know what normal pH levels of carrots were. We predicted that carrots would maintain a pH of approximately 6.
For the fourth experiment, we wished to know how much stemrot infects parts of a carrot mycelium has not yet reached. We predicted that when pieces were cut from an infected carrot, mycelium would be able to grow.
Grade Grouping 7-9
Team Size 2
Subject Area Biology
Project Type Experimental
Project Level Standard
Project Format Traditional
Software Tools Microsoft Frontpage
Microsoft Word
Paint
Game_Maker
WS_FTP LE 6.0
Hardware Tool Desktop Computer, Digital Camera
Source of Idea Personal interest
Special Skills Used Microsoft Frontpage