Growing Green: Testing Sustainable Carbon-Based Fertilizers in Maize Growth Experiments
- Beschreibung
Healthy soil is the foundation of agriculture. But how can we improve soil fertility in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way?
You will test whether carbon-based fertilizers (made from chemical process residues) are a promising alternative to conventional fertilizers. They can improve soil quality, recycle nutrients, and reduce environmental impact. However, not all carbon-based fertilizers perform the same way, and their effects on plant growth need to be tested. In this project, you will work with maize plants grown in pots under controlled greenhouse conditions. Over a 40-day experimental period, you will help test various carbon-based fertilizers and observe their effects on plant growth.
This is a hands-on experimental project in which you will actively take care of plants, collect data, and follow their development day by day. By the end, you will better understand how sustainable fertilizers work, and how science projects are carried out in real life.
- Projektzeitraum
- Sommersemester 2026
- Bewerbungszeitraum
- 07. bis 20.04.2026
- Durchführung
- semesterbegleitend
- Details zu Projektzeitraum und Durchführung
Preparing the experiment – What are we testing? You will prepare 4 different carbon-based fertilizers, prepare soil, pots and the cultivation set-up.
Daily plant care and monitoring – How do plants grow? Adjust soil moisture daily (watering the plants carefully), measure and record the weight of the pots, take pictures to track plant development over time and observe differences between treatments.
Evaluating results – Can these fertilizers outperform conventional fertilizers? You will compare plant growth across different fertilizers, organize and analyze the collected data, create graphs, and discuss which fertilizers performed best.
- Studienfach
- offen für alle Studienfächer
- Betreuende
- Gabriel De Freitas Batista, Prof. Dr. Andrea Kruse, Dr. Gero Becker
- Institut
- Institut für Agrartechnik (440) (Conversion Technologies of Biobased Resources)
- Sprache
- deutsch/englisch
- Teilnehmendenanzahl
- min. 1, max. 2
- Arbeitsaufwand
-
ca. 180 Stunden pro Teilnehmende:r
| 6
ECTS-Punkte
Arbeitsaufwand (Stunden und ggf. ECTS) sind ungefähre Angaben. Die tatsächlich vergebenen ECTS-Punkte ergeben sich aus der tatsächlich geleisteten Arbeit.
- Für dieses Projekt ist kein Motivationsschreiben des Studierenden erforderlich
- Projektart
- experimentell
- Lernziele
-
Die Teilnehmende lernen in diesem Projekt:
In this project, the participants will learn to:
- Understand plant growth experiments and soil processes
- Work with greenhouse experiments
- Perform accurate scientific measurements
- Collect and organize experimental data
- Observe and document plant development
- Think critically about results
- Present results using images and graphs
- Anmerkungen für Studierende
- Schlagworte
- maize, Carbon fertilizers, Greenhouse experiment, Plant growth, sustainable agriculture