The Effectiveness of Synthetic and Natural Fertilizers on the Height of Basil

Following the Green Revolution, the use of synthetic fertilizers became widespread, but their environmental impacts are immense. Consequently, compost became an increasingly popular substitute. Many scientists sought to analyze the effects of synthetic fertilizers versus natural fertilizers. However, no such study adequately addressed the effect these fertilizers had on overall plant height; thus, my research aims to answer the following question: Does compost improve overall plant height compared to chemical fertilizers? This was investigated by observing the effect of both compost and chemical fertilizers on the height of basil seeds to determine which, if any, have a positive effect on plant height.

To gather this data, 90 basil seeds were randomly divided into 3 groups of equal size: seeds grown via soil and compost, seeds grown via soil and synthetic fertilizer, and seeds grown solely via soil. The plants grew over the course of a couple weeks, and at the end of their growing time they were extracted and their heights as well as the average plant height in each cup were recorded (in cm) to run two distinct analyses.

Both analyses concluded that there was no significant difference in plant height between the group aided by compost and the control group. However, the analyses both concluded that there was a significance in plant height of the group aided by fertilizer compared to the other two groups, with fertilizer being significantly less effective. Additionally, the study concluded that there was no significance between the compost-aided group and the control group.