The purpose of this experiment was to see if plants could thrive by being watered with desalinated water. In order to do this experiment, a greenhouse, to keep the plants, beans andmarigolds, in, was built. After the greenhouse was built, sea water was desalinated. A flask was filled with sea water and placed on a boiler. The heat made the sea water evaporate through a rubber hose, and into a beaker, placed in ice water. The desalinated water was then let to cool. This step was repeated until there was enough desalinated water. When there was enough desalinated water, four containers were labeled Fresh, 90% Fresh 10% Salt, Salt, and Desalinated, and the containers were filled according to their labels. Then the beans and marigolds were planted in four different sections so that both plants will be watered with the four different types of water. But, first, the beans and marigolds were watered until they reached a certain height. Since marigolds are naturally smaller than beans, the height was different for both plants. For the beans, the height was 5.08 cm, and for the marigolds, the height was 1 cm.
After completing the experiment, it was concluded that desalinating the water did not actually work. The beans in Fresh water grew 59.69 cm, beans in 90% Fresh water and 10% Salt water grew 40.64 cm, beans in Salt water grew
12.7 cm, and beans in Desalinated water grew 38.08 cm. The beans growing in the mixture on Fresh and Salt water, which, of course, has salt in it, grew better than the beans growing in,supposedly, desalinated water.
The marigolds in Fresh water grew 5.08 cm, marigolds in 90% Fresh water and 10% Salt water grew 2.54 cm, marigolds in salt water grew 1.27-0 cm, and marigolds in Desalinated water grew 2.54 cm.