Vanshika M's Senior Project Blog

Project Title:  How the application of water stress on a mature plant can affect the success rate of propagation through leaves of Aloe barbadensis miller (Aloe Vera).
BASIS Advisor: Ms. Ainslie
Internship Location: Remote
Onsite Mentor: N/A



Project Abstract

When examining an organism from an ecological standpoint, it is common to look at its fitness, the ability of the organism to survive and reproduce, and how it is affected by its environment. Most research on Aloe vera focuses on the two traits of fitness separately. I tested its ability to survive through stress factors that plants commonly undergo and its ability to reproduce through propagation. Aloe vera has CAM, Crassulacean acid metabolism, which allows them to have a higher tolerance to a lack of water. CAM allows plants to close the minuscule openings in their leaves so that any water that the leaves manage to get doesn't evaporate. Therefore, I focused on stress factors pertaining to water, such as drowning and underwatering. I used propagation through leaves, where you slice off a leaf and grow roots from the cut. Aloe vera has various medicinal properties, such as being able to heal burns, acne, and cuts. Knowledge of how Aloe vera responds to these stress factors could reduce its cost by allowing more people to grow it themselves, thus making it more readily accessible for medicinal use.

    My Posts:

  • Conclusion and Future Researh

    This is my 12th blog post. My presentation will be May 12th at school. Last blog post I found that there were statistical differences between the plants with different conditions. Therefore, the plants with less water had the most growth and Aloe vera has the most fitness in conditions with less water. For future work... Read More

  • Statistical Analysis

    This is my 11th blog post, and I will be talking about the statistical analysis of my data. As I have talked about previously, I’m using SEM bars as a visual representation of my data and chi square as a more numerical representation of my data. I will explain why I used the numbers I... Read More

  • Results and Root Growth

    This is the 10th blog post. The data collection phase is now done. One of the Control plants had no growth. The other two did, one with one root of 0.3 cm and the other had 0.5 cm of growth. The Less water plants all had growth, one with 0.6 cm of growth, another with... Read More

  • Second Week of Propagation Growth

    This is the ninth blog post and the last post during the data collection phase. This Saturday I’ll be taking the cuttings out of their pots and taking all of my measurements. I’ll have to be very careful to make sure I don't wash off any of the actual roots while I’m actually washing off... Read More

  • First week of Propagation Growth

    The propagated leaves have been growing for a week now. There is no sign of rot. Since it’s only been a week, it’s too early to see actual signs of roots forming. I’ll be watering every Saturday, so data collection should be done May 29th. I’ll calculate whether or not there's any statistical difference on... Read More

  • Propagation!

    I have finished propagation by this point. I cut the leaves of the aloe vera, and left a little bit of stem tissue with each cut. Then I dipped each one in the IBA before putting them into the same type of soil.(The concentration of the IBA is the recommended one from previous papers). They... Read More

  • Sixth Update

    This Saturday will be the last day of watering. Last blog I talked about what I will be measuring and what the next steps of the methodology are. Of course there are some errors in my methodology, such as the fact that I’m only using three plants for each group. Triplicates can be enough to... Read More

  • Last Week of Watering

    I have one more week of watering. Afterwards, I can start the propagation protocol. I have decided I will be using the chi-square method and adjusting the p-value using the false discovery rate method. I’ll still use bar graphs as a visual representation of my data so it's easier to see differences. There haven’t been... Read More

  • Plants and Analysis

    The under-watered plants are finally showing actual signs of being underwater. The tips of their leaves are turning slightly brown or yellow. Overall, however, they still seem to be fine. There are two and a half more weeks of watering. At this point, the only major thing that has happened is the fact that all... Read More

  • Update on the Aloe vera

    In 4 weeks, watering will be finished. There are now no more leaves on any of the overwatering plants. The under watered plants and control plants look almost identically healthy. The temperature and amount of light they’ve been getting has been somewhat constant. I’m going to start doing the math for the overwatered plants now,... Read More

  • Methodology

    To answer the question of how the application of water stress on a mature plant affects the success rate of propagation through leaves of Aloe barbadensis miller (Aloe Vera), I am combining protocols-testing the limits of a plant and propagating a plant. I have nine Aloe vera plants, three for each condition. The three were... Read More

  • Stress and Progeny

    Hello, my name is Vanshika Mohapatra. I'm researching how does the application of water stress on Aloe Barabadensis Miller (Aloe Vera) affect the propagation success through leaf cuttings When I was looking at recent research of plants, Aloe vera specifically, I found that most research was done on how to optimize propagation or how resistant... Read More