Does heat destroy bitou?

Bitou is sometimes controlled by burning. This kills the adult plants but what about the seeds in the soil? Burning would produce high temperatures. Would this stop the seeds from germinating?

Your task is to design an experiment and choose the equipment you will need to investigate if bitou seeds are destroyed by heat (180°C). A good start is to use an oven to heat the seed to 180°C for half an hour.

As in any investigation you should decide on your dependent and independent variables and the variables that you will need to control. This will help you to design the experiment. Your independent variable will be heat treating the seeds. You should have an equal amount of seeds that have not been heated to act as the control. The dependent variable will be the number of seeds that germinate. All other variables must be equal. This includes the pot and soil that you use, heat and light and the amount of water (controlled variables).

Bitou seeds

 

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© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training, 2009 Print