What triggers plant growth?

Question

Okay well I am doing science fair. I have six cosmo plants. I'm going to test which of them grows the tallest. The liquids I will use to grow the plants are Coke, Diet Coke, Vault, Red Bull, & Water. What do you think in the ingredients of these will grow it the tallest?

Answer 1

Plants do not need additional sugar, they make enough for their needs through photosynthesis. If you used sugar heavy soda there will eventually be a problem of root dehydration as the sugar builds up faster than the soil bacteria can consume it. Small amounts at low concentrations would not do any harm or small concentrated amounts applied very rarely. Roots can take sugar up through their roots if the concentration is very low but at high levels the cells of the root will lose water. This means they will lose turgor pressure and no longer supply the plant with needed water. The plants will likely wilt rather abruptly if this happens. Sugar will attract flies or other pests.
Look to the carbohydrate level on each of your liquids. Only the diet soda and water contain no sugar to dessicate the plants. To do a better experimental design make your own series of sugar solutions to show at what point the sugar concentration is detrimental to the plants. A generic soda is about 120 grams of sugar per liter so you could try 25, 50, 100, 150 and 200 grams of sugar per liter so you would span the carbohydrate content of all your liquids and eliminate other variables that might impact the experiment.

If you want to determine caffeine's effects do not use sugar rich sodas as well. Even coffee has many other solutes that add variability to the results. Coffee contains nutrients such as potassium or phosphorus to improve plant growth. You would need a pure source to make a concentration series.

Answer 2

There was a movie with Luke Wilson called Idiocracy. It was a comedy about the dumbing down of America. Not to suggest your experiment is dumb in any way, in fact it is sounds very interesting. Anyways, a large corporation that made a similar product to Power Ade convinced the people of the world to water there crops with Power Ade. In the movie the crops died. Not to suggest that this will happen with your experiment.

There are many man made ingredients in the liquids you're using which could have an ill effect on the plants as they do on humans. Most of those liquids also have lots of sugar; not good for the plant. The plant will most likely wilt away if the sugar content gets too high.

I do know that in order for a plant to grow healthy they need water, sun (photosynthesis), and nitrates such as potassium nitrate, sodium nitrate, etc... Nitrates are found in fertilizer which is what will make the plants grow the best. The liquid with the most appropriate nitrates and least sugar will most likely be the best for plant growth.

Not sure if this answers your question but hopefully gives you some helpful info.

Answer 3

Depends on what part of the growth you are talking about.

From a seedling water is the key ingredient for growth. This has been proven by growing seeds in the dark (they still become plants that fruit/develop).

However if you are talking about the seasons, the duration of sunlight triggers plants to either slow their growth or increase their growth based on how much sun they recieve in 1 day.

When the days get shorter the plants pull in their chlorophyll and it makes the leaves turn brownish orange. And growth stops until they sense the correct amount of daylight again.

Answer 4

This forces latent buds(buds below cut which havent emerged) to start growing We do this to encourage plant to become bushy Main thing is not to do it late in autumn as resulting soft growth will get hammered by cold weather. Early autumn or earlier is ok as new growth will have time to harden off before winter hits. The timing also depends on your local climate in late autumn/winter

Answer 5

Try Spring water & some plant food.Maby different kind's of Plant food.

Answer 6

Water.


The coke, dietcoke, and vault will just kill the plant, the red bull will give it wings.

Answer 7

Sunlight, water, fertilizer, nutrients in the soil. All of these will kill it because there is chemicals. Maybe you should use those things instead.

Answer 8

lol red bull. actually i think water is the best cuz its the naturalest out of all of them, which all have artificial stuff, and what not.

Answer 9

Water because Coke is caffine and it will hurt the plant


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