TRAIN Scholar Evelyn Rivera Elias' Blog

  Microplastics are much bigger than I thought they would be. I pictured them to be the size of glitter but being able to see the size of it might be better. Yesterday a tomato plant was watered with plastic-polluted water, as you can tell from the picture above the plastic is still visible. I wasn't expecting the plastic to disintegrate into the soil but I was still shocked to see how it was just staying on top of the soil. I think it'll continue to stay on top of the soil and for sure cause stress to the plant, I feel that it would cause more stress if I dug some of the plastic deeper into the soil. I'll just have to see what happens

  Since last week was spring break, I was not able to go into the lab and water the plants consistently. I was worried about this but Josh said he would come into the lab and water them. He also said I should heavily water the plants so that they have enough water for the weekend and I did.  When I came back this week I was surprised to see that the tomato plants held up well, you wouldn't have been able to tell that they were overwatered. Unfortunately, the radishes looked like they had been. I think they would've held up better if they were a bit older like the tomatoes. I wasn't too gentle and some of the leaves/stems were falling off but I'm hoping they'll be able to regrow quickly! 

  Radishes are a more interesting vegetable than I thought. I planted them five days ago and most of them have sprouted about the same or bigger than the tomato plants! Though there was one pot that had no growth whatsoever which is making me wonder as to why it has not sprouted. I decided to plant a few more seeds to see if that will make it grow more.  I thought since the radishes grew so much, they would be ready to record. Josh thought that they might be too young to make sounds, like how human babies don't speak until a year old. I still wanted to record to test out his theory. I'm glad I did because the radish plants ended up making 55 triggers in the span of an hour. Averaging about 9.1 triggers per plant which was really exciting to see. It was different from the data that Alex had collected last semester. I'm really excited to see how they'll react once put under stress

  This week I've been getting back to normal and catching up with my coursework. As of right now, I don't have any late work so I have a lot less stress now. I also went to a study group that I found out Alex was also in which was cool. I've been seeing a lot more of other TRAIN scholars this semester like Peniella. It's nice seeing others outside of WebEx.  Last week I asked if I could plant mint to replace the brittlebush, so Josh and I looked for the mint seeds yesterday which was a lot harder than I thought it'd be. The garden club had tons of seeds in so many different boxes. While we were looking for the mint, I noticed a seed packet that said the germination time was 5-10 days, shorter than the 10-14 germination period for mint. I had no idea Radish grew so fast. They're not my favorite vegetable but I thought it'd be better to plant them since it grows faster. 

  This week I was only able to come in on Thursday because I was not feeling well. Fortunately, the tomato plants were growing well and had more leaves. Still no growth for the brittlebush. I came in to try recording the plants but I had to leave a bit early and the recorder had a low battery. Next week I'll be sure to make more time so I can record the plants for a longer period of time. As of right now, I'm trying to focus on getting better physically and trying to avoid stressing myself out over things I can complete another day.

  After 4 weeks, there hasn't been any growth from the brittlebush. I still hadn't been able to find any resources online that said how long they take to grow. I think at this point it would be best just to grow something else like mint. I have read online that mint takes 10 to 12 days to grow. Plus I think it would be interesting to grow mint because I've heard they're labeled as an invasive species. I asked Josh about it and he said he would ask around to see if there were any mint seeds, so I'm hoping I can plant some soon.