First Place at Salt Lake Valley Science and Engineering Fair

This study was conducted to investigate whether growth promoting rhizobacteria, found to stimulate plant growth in legumes, could also be beneficial in early growth of non-legume plants. The experiments were conducted on peas as a model of legumes and corn as a model of non-legumes. The addition of rhizobia increased the germination rate, percent germination, average length of roots and shoots, and average mass of shoots for both legumes and non-legumes. Understanding factors that affect early plant growth is important because increasing early growth of legumes and non-legumes may allow farmers to potentially produce more and healthier crops.