EVR 1001L 0001 Fall 2018 Materials and Methods The purpose of this lab was to assess the impact of Monoammonlum Phosphate on growing sugarcane There were 6 watersheds that were in the experiment The first watershed was the control and no fertilizer was added to the soil The sugarcane then grew as time passed it was harvested then weighed For watershed 2 6 the amount of phosphate increased it was increased from 0 to 9 kg P ha 1 and then doubled each time for the rest of the watershed experiments These steps were repeated in every watershed until the sugar cane was fertilized watered harvested then weighed The crops are being weighed to measure the crop yield The cost per hectare for added kg P ha 1 was calculated by multiplying the P added by the fertilizer cost which is 8 per kg The cost to fertilize per ton of cane was calculated by dividing the cost per hectare by the sugar cane yield This information was then gathered and put in the able below Results Tables and Graphs Table 1 shows the results from the phosphorus fertilizer addition experiments on 6 watersheds P Added kg P ha 1 Watershed 1 2 3 4 5 6 Cost per hectare for added P ha 1 0 0 9 18 36 72 144 Cost to fertilize Sugarcane Yield per ton of tons cane ha 1 cane 82 0 72 144 288 576 1 152 Figure 1 shoes the Sugar Cane yield vs the amount of phosphorus added 102 110 110 111 110 0 71 1 30 2 62 5 19 10 47 Sugar Cane yield VS amount of phosphorus fertilizer added fertilizer Sugarcane yield tons per hectare 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 Phosphorus added kg P hectare Figure 2 shows the Sugar Cane yield vs Phosphorus fertilizer added to the six different watersheds Sugar cane yield VS cost to fertilize per ton sugar cane yield tons per hectare 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 2 4 6 fertilzer cost of fertilize per ton 8 10 12 Discussion and Conclusion This experiment started with the control group where no fertilizer was added to the soil and the measured crop yield of sugar cane was 82 tons The second watershed was conducted and 9 kg of fertilizer was added the the soil and the crop yield measured 102 tons of cane ha 1 The third and forth watershed both had a sugar cane yield of 110 tons cane ha 1 even though in watershed three 18 kg P ha 1 was added to the soil and in watershed four 36 kg of fertilizer was added to the soil The sugar cane yield peaked at 111 tons cane ha 1 when 72 kg P ha 1 was added to the soil In the sixth watershed 144 kg of fertilizer was added to the soil and the sugarcane yield was 110 tons cane ha 1 were harvested The sugar cane yield decreased 1 ton from watershed five to watershed six After conducting the experiment I did notice something as more and more fertilizer was added The crop yield of the sugarcane was higher when more fertilizer was added While the crop yield was higher when more fertilizer was added it only helped to a point Up until 72 kg of phosphate was added to the sugarcane had a higher yield Though when 144 kg of fertilizer was added the crop yield of the sugarcane actually decreased This shows that there is a maximum effectiveness of phosphate that can be added the soil to produce higher crop yields for sugarcane and that is 9 kg ha Once you add 18 kg ha it is not very effective to keep adding more fertilizer If I was the farmer and wanted to minimize my costs I would only 9 kg ha to get the most out of what I paid for the fertilizer The fertilizer that isn t absorbed by the sugarcane is washed away by rain and collected in bodies of water that are near Having excess fertilizer in bodies of water can cause eutrophication This phenomenon happens when there is an excess amount of nutrients in the water which then causes the plant life to over thrive The plant life takes up all of the oxygen in the water leading to a decrease of the overall oxygen in the water This then causes fish and other organisms to die A real life example of eutrophication is happening in the Gulf of Mexico The excess amount of nutrients in the water leads to dead zones where there is little oxygen for organisms to survive