San Vicente scores high at PSS Islandwide Science Fair

Three SVES Canaries took home honors at the PSS Islandwide Science Fair. I earned first place in the 4th and 5th Grade Life Science. Gayatri Nandwani’s Hydroponics project got the second place ribbon in the 6th and 7th Grade Life Science category and Kay Sandra Cepeda took home the third place honors for 2nd and 3rd Grade Physical Science category.

The name of my project was “Attack of the Killer Vine!” I decided to do my project one day when we were driving home from the beach. I told my dad that a tree on the side of the road looked like a monster. He told me that the tree was covered with a terrible vine that was taking over the island. He said it will kill the trees because the vine blocks the sun.

“Why don’t they kill it?” I asked. He said that it is hard to kill. He heard that scientists released a caterpillar that eats the vine, but a typhoon wiped out the caterpillars. I asked if they could cut it down but he said it grows back stronger. “Can we spray it?” I asked. He told me weed killer is expensive and they would have to spray from airplanes. “Isn’t there something we can do to save our trees?” I asked. So I thought we could spray it near the ground. Maybe something cheap will kill it. We could all cut it down around our house or land, let it start to grow back and spray it with stuff from our house. So that’s how my project started.

The problem I was trying to find an answer to was this: What common household liquids, when sprayed on Ivy Gourd Vine, will harm it the most? But first I had to find out more about this terrible vine.

From my research, I learned that Ivy Gourd (Coccina grandis) is an aggressive vine in the same family as cucumbers. It is eaten in Southeast Asia and probably came from there. It is believed a farmer brought it to Saipan in the late 1980s. By 1997 it had spread to all areas on Saipan. It kills whole forests by completely covering the trees like a giant blanket so they get no sunlight for photosynthesis. The trees and the plants under the trees die. We will lose many valuable medicinal plants that grow in the jungles. Then the trees rot until they fall down. This vine is killing our forests, destroying animals’ habitats, and ruining our scenic views.

So with the help of the SVES Aquaculture Project I designed an experiment. Here’s how it worked:

1. Find a suitable sample area to test. This site should include a group of vines that are all growing out of the same soil and receiving the same amount of sun and rain. The vines should all be healthy and within spraying reach.

2. Tape off one area for each spray treatment plus one for plain drinking water, the control.

3. Prepare they sprays. Put each liquid in a labeled spray bottle if it is not already. (See materials for the sprays I used)

4. Spray the samples on the correct vines. Make sure to use the same amount of each sample. Leaves should be wet on both sides. Do not overspray. If vines are rained on, repeat the next day.

5. Record observations daily using a camera and notebook. Look for wilting, changes in color, spots, dying leaves etc.

1. Suitable Vines

2. Camera

3. Labels

4. Treatment Liquids

Treatment 1. Drinking water. This is the control so we know that the leaves get sick from the spray, not just getting wet. We do not expect anything to happen to these vines, but if they get sick, then there must be something else affecting the vines, such as no water or something hurting the roots.

Treatment 2. Commercial Weed Killer (Roundup – Premixed Solution). This is sort of a second control. We expect it to kill the vine. It is expensive though, so if another, cheaper spray kills the vine, we can compare costs.

Treatment 3. Vinegar. Use undiluted from the bottle. The active ingredient in vinegar is 5 percent acetic acid.

Treatment 4. Salt Water. I made a saturated sodium chloride solution by mixing salt in water until the salt wouldn’t dissolve anymore.

Treatment 5. 100 percent Lime Juice. Lime or lemon juice is sour because it is 5 percent citric acid.

Treatment 6. Bleach. Bleach whitens clothes because it is 5.25 percent sodium hypochlorite—a strong basic solution. Bases are the opposite of acids.

Treatment 7. 70 percent Isopropyl Alcohol. This is rubbing alcohol, used to kill germs, not the alcohol that makes you drunk.

Treatment 8. Polyurethane Wood Finish. This is what woodworkers spray on jewelry boxes and things to make them shiny. Maybe it will clog up the leaves.

Treatment 9. Urine. You know what this is. My brother was kind enough to supply this. It has uric acid in it.

Treatment 10. Gasoline. I used regular gas.

CONCLUSION: I found out that bleach and salt water will harm Ivy Gourd Vine the most. They do as good a job of killing leaves as the expensive Commercial Weed Killer. Most of the leaves that were sprayed were dead in a week.

ANALYSIS: I was excited to see that bleach or salt water will kill the leaves. Should we all go out and spray vines with bleach and/or salt water? I don’t think so. Bleach and salt are probably not very good for the soil. I am glad that I found everyday things that can hurt the Ivy Gourd vine. I think there should be more research done to try to stop this terrible vine. I just hope that I helped raise awareness in the community about this “killer vine.” Our new science equipment should help us learn more about this vine, and maybe one of our or a group of us will be part of the solution to this problem.