Experiment Template

Question: Which effects the rotting of tomatoes most; water, dirt, of air?

Rationale: I think this is important because it could help tomato eaters keep their tomatoes last longer.

What we know: Gabby’s facts: In air, tomatoes decompose in 4-5 days. The symptoms of rotting are a
watery light tan spot on the side or blossom end of the tomato. The spot will get bigger and darker and
will get a leathery texture. Normally, spots are dry but may become soft if secondary bacteria and fungi
invade the tomato. Rotting on the blossom end is due to unbalanced calcium in the plant. Blossom-end
rot often occurs when soil moisture shifts. The blossom end of a tomato is the end it was connected to.

Sites we used: Google, our brains, Rotten Tomatoes- Ask an Expert

Our Hypothesis: Meilene’s hypothesis is that it will rot fastest in water because if you put bread in water
it will rot. Gabby’s hypothesis is that it will rot fastest in air because in air they rot in 4-5 days.

Materials:

1. 3 Plastic cups
2. 3 Roma Tomatoes
3. Water
4. Dirt
5. Air
6. Camera app on our computers
7. Patience

Steps of our experiment: (Numbered steps)

1.Fill a plastic cup with tap water.

2.Fill a plastic cup with seedling mix from Black Gold.

3.Set out a plastic cup.

4.Add a Roma tomato to each cup.

5. Wait 7 days

6. Feel, smell or look which one is rottener. If you do not know how to check for rotting, you just look
at which one is more black or brown.

Results:(pictures and graphs)

Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7

Air: Nothing Air: Don’t Air: Not Air: Don’t Air: Air: Don’t Air:11 mole
know squishy, 10 know squishy,10 know spots,
mole spots mole spots Not squishy

H2o: H2o: Don’t H2o: Don’t H2o: H2o: Don’t H2o:13

Nothing know H2o: Squish know squishy, 12 know mole spots,
12 mole mole spots squishy
Dirt: Nothing spots
 Dirt: Don’t Dirt: 9 mole Dirt: Don’t Dirt: not Dirt: Don’t Dirt: 11
know spots, not know Squishy 10 know mole spots,
squishy mole spots not squishy

This is day 1

This is day 3

This is day 5
These are the final day pictures and the day 7
This is the Dirt one

This is the H20 one

This is the air one

Conclusion: Looking at our results, it is clear that Meilene’s original hypothesis was right, while Gabby’s
was wrong. One way we know Gabby’s is wrong is because the air tomato was in second place. We think
this happened because Meilene said that a piece of bread will get moldy in a cup of water. Another
interesting that that happened was that the dirt. I think this was because the water sucked the juice out of
it. In conclusion, it turns out that water rotted fastest, air was second fastest, and dirt was slowest. If I
were to do this again, two things I would change would be the dampness of the dirt and the type of
tomato.