Draft 1

Through this experiment, we aim to find how a combination treatment of mechanical damage and application of jasmonic acid, along with differing amounts of fertilizer affects herbivore preferences and plant growth. We will grow 150 tomato plants and randomly assign which plant receives a treatment. Once we have determined that, we will then assign randomly the amount of fertilizer each plant receives. Half of the treatment group plants will receive twice the amount of fertilizer as their counterparts in that group, and half of the control group will be treated the same with fertilizer. Once the plants have grown with treatment for two weeks, we will test herbivore preference. After, we will measure the number of flowers, root biomass, and shoot biomass of each plant to determine growth differences between treatments and fertilizer amounts. With this experiment, we hope to determine if a combination of both mechanical damage and application of jasmonic acid could function as an insecticide for tomato plants.