The mystery of the non-sprouting papaya seeds

By VALRICK WELCH
Special to the Saipan Tribune

The scientific method always works; however, the experiments do not always provide the expected results. The SVES Young Farmers Club’s experiments with the nine different varieties of papaya did not produce the expected results, with many not growing as expected, and many not even sprouting.

The steps of the experiment are as follows:

1. Ask a question: Which variety of papaya will grow best in the green house?

2. Do background research: The Red Lady variety does well on Saipan.

3. Construct hypothesis: The Red Lady variety will do well in the green house and other varieties may do as well or better.

4. Test with an experiment: Reduce the variables to one. Use the same soil, fertilizer, water, seeds, growing area, and planting methods. The only variable is the variety of papaya.

5. Analyze results, draw conclusion: Something is wrong, none of the varieties did well and many of the seeds did not come up. Maybe the seeds are no good.

Step 3 again: Construct a new hypothesis: The papaya seeds are not growing because something is wrong with the seeds

4. Test with an experiment: Richard Gramlich and Pedro Arriola took seeds home to plant.

5. Analyze results-draw conclusion: Over 90 percent of the papayas sprouted and grew, so the seeds are not the problem. Maybe the problem is the way the students planted the seeds, or the amount of water the students put on their plants, or something in the environment at San Vicente Elementary School.

Step 3 again: Construct a new hypothesis: The rainwater catchment tank had a lot of ironwood needles in the bottom. We notice that grass and plants grow under the flame trees, but not under the ironwood trees. Maybe the ironwood needles in the rainwater catchment tank are causing the papaya seeds not to grow.

4. Test with an experiment: Clean the ironwood biomass out of the rainwater catchment tank and water the papayas with water that has not been mixed with the ironwood needles.

5. This part of the experiment is currently ongoing.

Richard Gramlich, the hydroponics manager, enjoys working with the SVES Young Farmers Club, and works hard to make the activities meaningful science learning experiences.

Manetti the maintenance worker, and Gramlich have been constructing the temporary green house with a pump, sprinkler system, and rainwater catchment. The system needed to be cleaned so that dirt or leaves would not get into the sprinkler system and jam the misters.

Around 5:30am on Sunday morning, Gramlich decided that since he couldn’t sleep he might as well get started cleaning the tank. When he climbed inside the tank, he was surprised to find the accumulated biomass on the bottom of the tank came almost to his knees. His immediate thought was, “The students have been watering their plants with ironwood tea, no wonder they are not growing.”

Now Gramlich and Magnetti are working on a rainwater catchment system that will catch the rainwater and filter out the unwanted particles. One design on the Internet uses three 50-gallon drums stacked into a single cylinder, as a standpipe, to catch the water and then overflow into the catchment tank. The 50-gallon drums act as a solids trap with only the freshwater being stored. They decided against this idea because many of the particles float for awhile before they become waterlogged and sink. Any floating debris would go to the catchment tank. The design they are working on now is to put a screen on the roof outlet, a trap, similar to a sink drain trap, between the roof and the tank, another screen on the inflow pipe, and finally another screen inside the tank on the water outlet.

The San Vicente Aquaculture Science & Self-Reliance project expects to provide all the water requirements for the hydroponics and green houses from the rainwater catchment. By next school year the project proposes to use rainwater combined with the deepwell pump, for backup, to supply all the water needs of San Vicente Elementary School.