EFFECTS OF SUPERPHOSPHATE ON THE GROWTH OF LAB LAB

BY

Gaofenngwe Nkane

Bw 825\

SHOSHONG SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL

August to November 2023

 THE EFFECTS OF SUPER PHOSPHATE ON THE GROWTH OF LAB LAB

BY

NKANE GAOFENNGWE

BW 825\

BGCSE

Agriculture Project Report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for Botswana General
Certificate of Secondary Education examination at Shoshong Senior Secondary School

Candidate signature: Date of submission:

CONTENT PAGE

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT…………………………………………………………………………………………………

INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Statement of problem

Related research

Importance

Objective

MATIRALS AND METHOD……………………………………………………………………………………………….

Description of site

Design of experiment
Procedure

MATERIALS OF OBSERVATION, DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS……………………………….

RESULTS……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

DISCUSSION…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

RECOMMENDATIONS……………………………………………………………………………………………….

REFERENCES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my Kgosi Koloi for helping me to measure fertiliser and for watering my plot
when I was not at school.
INTRODUCTION

Statement of problem

Stunted growth of lab lab was observed at Shoshong Senior Secondary School Garden. Lab lab plant
where thin and leaves were yellowish. This is because of lack of phosphorus in the soil. Therefore, a
study is carried out to find out if addition of super phosphate will increase the mass of lab lab plant.

Related Research1

Motsweta(2011) conducted a study on the effects of super phosphate on the growth of lab lab
plants. The results shows that lab lab plants from plots added super phosphate (treatment) had
average mass of 53g and plots not added had average mass of 40g showing that addition of super
phosphate increases the mass of lab lab plants.

Related research 2

Dibuseng(2010) conducted a study on the effects of super phosphate on the growth of lab lab.The
result shows that lab lab plants from plots added super phosphate (treatment) had average mass of
50g and plots not added super phosphate (control)had mass of 36g showing that addition of super
phosphate increases the mass of lab lab plants.

Importance

The students will find out if the use of super phosphate will increase the mass of lab lab
plant.Shoshong Senior Secondary School students of agriculture are going to benefit from this study,
because they will know if to add super phosphate or not, in order to improve production of lab lab.

Objective: To find out if addition of super phosphate will increase the mass of lab lab.
MATERIALS AND METHODS

Description of site

Experiment was done in Shoshong Senior Secondary School at the garden. The garden was 0.7
hactors.There were trees around the garden and they worked as wind breakers and this led to good
growth. The soil was too much rocky which led to poor growth as roots were not able to penetrate.
The garden was previously used for growing spinach, lab lab, maize and manure such as kraal
manure and chicken manure were used as well as fertilisers like urea Lan and super phosphate.

Design of experiment

4 plots of 1m were used to carry out the experiment.2 plots were used as treatment where super
phosphate was added and other 2 were used as control where super phosphate was not added.
Paper blushing method of randomization was used to allocate plots. I cut 4 equal pieces of paper ,2
papers were written c1 and c2 to represent control plots. The other 2 were written t1 and t2 to
represent treatment plots. They were folded and placed in a cup thoroughly shaken. Each of the
folded papers were placed per plot, they were picked 1 by 1 and unfolded to reveal the outcome and
super phosphate was added in T1 and T2 only.

Procedure

Treatment operation

Plots were allocated using paper baluching method to choose control plots and treatment plots.I
weighed 50g of super phosphate using 12kg electric Adam scale and was added in treatment plots
once using broadcasting method. In control plots super phosphate was not added.

Procation

Plots were separated by space of 1m as a probation to ensure that super phosphate is made
assemble in treatment plots only.

Pre-treatment operation

Land was allocated using 60-meter measuring tape. The land was cleared using spade to cut grass
and rake were used to rake the grass. Digging fork was used to cultivate the plots. Rake was used for
ridge making. Planting holes was measured using 60-meter measuring tape.3 seeds of lab lab was
sown per planting hole. Dry grass was used to mulch the plots after planting. The plots were watered
using a watering can fitted with a rose. After 5 days mulch was removed as the seedling have
emerged.

Post conduct

Digging fork was used to cultivate after fertilizer application. I watered with a watering can fitted
with a rose. Then I used hand to remove weeds which is known as weeding.12 kg electric Adam scale
with a degree of accuracy of -+2g was used to measure fertilizer. After weighing lab lab I handed it
back to agriculture department for re-allocation for coming students.
METHODS OF OBSERVATION, DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

I measured mass of lab lab 3 months from seedling emergence using electric Adam scale with a
degree of accuracy of -+2g.Sampling was done because plots were few and plants were manageable.
Fully charged electric Adam scale was placed on a flat tabletop. It was set on. I placed an empty box
on a scale then I chopped lab lab plants from treatment plot1 into smaller pieces which can fit inside
the box. Mass was read from the scale and measuring was repeated once to get accurate results.
The same procedure for weighing was followed for treatment2, control1 and control2.The following
formular was used to analyse the results.

Average mass of lab lab =Total mass of lab lab plants

Total mass of lablab weighed.

Average masses of lab lab plants were presented in a form of a table.

RESULTS

The table below shows average mass of lablab plants from plots added super phosphate fertilizer
(treatment) and from plots not added super phosphate fertilizer(control)

Table below shows average mass in grams of lab lab plants from added super phosphate fertilizer
(treatment)and from plots added super phosphate(control)

Experimental trial Average mass of lab lab in

grams
Super phosphate 49.88
added(treatment)
Super phosphate not 35.25
added(control)
DISSCUSION

The intension of the study was to find out if the addition of super phosphate will increase the mass
of lab lab.According to the results ;addition of super phosphate increases the mass of lab lab.Plots
added super phosphate had
CONCLUSION

Addition of super phosphate increases mass of lab lab.

RECOMMENDATION

Shoshong Senior Students of agriculture should add super phosphate as it improve production of lab
lab.A similar study may be carried out on the effects of super phosphate on the mass of beans to
check weather the same result will be optand.
REFERENCE 1

Dibuseng,t.(2010).Effects of super phosphate on the growth of lab lab.Unpublished BGCSE

Agriculture Project. Department of Agriculture.Shoshong Senior Secondary School,21 pages.

REFERENCE 2

Motsweta, g.(2011).Effects of super phosphate on the growth of lab lab.Unplished BGCSE

Agricultural Project Department of Agriculture Shoshong Senior Secondary School,22pages.
APPENDIX

The table below shows mass of lab lab plants from plots with super phosphate fertilizer added
(treatment) and plots with no super phosphate added (control) collected after 3 months after
seedling emergence within 2 hours on the last day of experiment.

Experimental trial Mass of lab lab \grams Number of lab lab plants
Addition of super 454 8
phosphate(treatment1)
Addition of super 344 8
phosphate(treatment2)
No addition of supper 270 8
phosphate (control1)
No addition of super 294 8
phosphate(control2)

Area of each plot =Length x width

= 1m x 1m

=1m

Total mass of lab lab plants from treatment plots

Total mass of lab lab plants from treatment plots =Mass of lab lab plants from treatment 1 +Mass of
lab lab plants from treatment 2.

=454 +344= 798g

Total number of plants=Number of lab lab plants from treatment 1 +Number of lab lab plants from
treatment 2.

=8 plants + 8 plants

=16plants

Average mass of lab lab plants =Total mass of lab lab plants from treatment plots
Total number of lablab plants weighed.
=798g
16plants

=49.875g
=49.88g

Control plots

Total mass of lab lab plants from control plots

Total mass of lab lab plants from control plots

=Mass of lab lab plants from control 1 + Mass of lab lab plants from control 2

=270g + 294g

=564g
Total number of plants=Number of lab lab plants from control 1 + number of lab lab plants from
control 2

=8 plants + 8 plants

=16 plants

Average mass of lab lab plants =Total mass of lab lab from control plots

Total number of lab lab plants weighed.

=564g

16 plants

= 35.25g