REFLECTIVE LEARNING

A journey of growing plant.

By: Adila Erwin

Date: 25 January 2021

  This is my first time experience to actually growing a plant. Through this journey, a lot of new information I have gained since I indulge in this plant project. What I have learned in theory class is different from the practical. This project have teach me such as the soil types, the used of rice husk, and the types of fertilizers used is depend on which stages we would like it to grow into. In addition, I also learnt some plants can be very sensitive but some can be very resistant.  This project also teach me to be more patience and find a way to solve it. During 10 or 11 weeks of growing, my plants have not yet undergo flowering stages. A single bud is still not visible. To solve this problem, I have learnt things such as providing suitable fertilizer that encourage for the flowering stages to occur.  

    Along the journey, I have faced several obstacles which prevent my plant from growing healthily, in which the attractions against pest. I have tried a natural-based pesticide composed of turmeric based on my mother advice. However, the pest still kept coming and damaging the leaves. The pest have eaten the leaves instead being disturbed by the presence of the turmeric. One thing that I have been questioning myself  a  lot is that, what makes the leaves become one of attraction towards pest and what chemical expression released by the leaves to make the pest attracted to the leaves. Other than that, I have observed on how quick a leaves could be grown out from branch in just a week. The number of leaves kept increasing and this left me to think is that how quick a cell proliferation could occur in human body. Lastly, one thing that I observed on my plant is that when the night comes, the leaves would be in like-wilting conditions. This conditions maybe one of way for the plant to retain the transpiration or respiration in and out of plant.    

     From the knowledge obtained through the class, I relate a few things during the growing project. For example, at the germination stages, the seedlings started to release its cotyledon, which is not the true leaves. I can observe the different of cotyledon from the true leaves such as the physical appearance in which true leaf is much thinner and softer while cotyledon is dense and a bit of thick. Other than that, I could determine in which stages the plants undergo. Also, I have learnt the basic necessities needed by the plant growing where it needs nutrient and hormone expression to live just like human. Since in classes we have learnt on the gene involved in plant stages, I could also expose myself to know more genes that being used by plants. The relevance of this project is also on how we relate the genes from journal and include into our plants growing

      What I have not learned from this project is the time management in taking care the plant. Since this project is a new thing to me, it was quite difficult for me to make it as a routine to visit the plant. The time spend on the plant is not in a fixed day or a fixed session. This could be a problem for the treatment on plant since they need basic essential daily. If I got a chance into managing another plant growing, I would put my effort to learn the details, descriptions, information which may be useful in taking care of my plant. Other than that, if I got a chance to repeat again, I would choose my favourite food as my plant growing so that my effort would not be wasted and be able to harvest the fruits. I would like to also improve in my way of taking care of plant by arranging a schedule or make it as a routine, to not left out the plant growing by itself.