Project title: To reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer required on farms

Team: 5 Leaf Clover

St. Muredach’s College   Ballina   Ireland   4 Student’s age: 14-15 years old, 16-17 years old

Does incorporating white clover in pasture naturally increase the nitrogen levels in the soil and as a result reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed?

Apparatus
grass seed
white clover
Nitrogen test strips
2 pots for planting
We will use a sward with only grass seed as a control for the experiment.
The experiment will be fair because the swards will share the same environment so that the temperature is the same throughout the experiment so that the result is accurate.
4 trowels
4 pairs of gloves
Bag of soil
Rake

Method
Fill the pots up with soil so that there is enough for grass seed and clover to grow.
Rake the soil to loosen it.
Calculate the amount of grass seed and clover seed we needed for the experiment to be accurate.
Label both pots (A & B )
Sow the recommended amount of grass seed in pot A (Control)
Sow clover & grass seed in pot B, putting in 30% clover seed and 70% grass seed.
Place the pots out in an area that got viable sunlight and rainfall
Monitor the growth regularly
Collect a sample from pot A & pot B
Dip the test strip into the solution for 2-3 seconds
Shake off any excess liquid
Wait 60 seconds, then compare the test strip to the colour chat
Record the Nitrogen level in both samples

Variables:
Independent Variable
The amount of clover in each pot
Pot A – 0%
Pot B – 30%
Dependant Variable
Nitrogen level in the soil
Controlled Variable
Grass seed

We were limited in our investigation by the scale at which we could conduct it, as ideally would plant in a larger area for more accurate results but we are still happy with our results and are confident they would not change on a larger scale investigation.
One limitation was the length of time we had to complete this investigation, ideally this is something we would like to investigate over a 2 year period. However even in the shorter time frame we had, it is clear that the nitrogen levels were increased with the incorporation of white clover. In addition, We found it difficult to source white clover, showing us that white clover may not be readily available to farmers.

We will continue to monitor these pots over a period of time to investigate further the increase in nitrogen levels to further support our idea of showing farmers these results, hoping they implement them on their farms.
Our research question was answered and our hypothesis was proven to be correct.

From this investigation we learned that land where legumes such as white clover is planted will increase the nitrogen content compared to land where there is solely grass and reduce the need for nitrogen fertilizer. If we can reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer needed then we can cut back on the amount of plastic waste as a result of bagged fertilizer. Since using Nitrogen fertilizer not only releases gases such as ammonia or nitrous oxide, the reduction of these strongly improves the state of our climate. It is also important to mention the emissions which are produced from the bagged fertilizer getting transported to farms. In order to help with this problem we plan to engage with local farmers over the coming weeks to increase awareness around the effect plastic and nitrogen fertilizer has on our climate. We are in the process of designing a flyer to distribute.

Download project poster PDF

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