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Are Eco-friendly cleaners really safe for plants
Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 11:56 pm
by GVsciencefair
Our project tests environmentally safe cleaners on plants. We read on eHow that parsley is a good plant to use. We bought Italian parsley, is that the same? Also, we have searched the Internet but can't find any references for the ratio of water to cleaner we should use. We want the experiment to last a couple of weeks. Our control plant will be given bottled water. What about watering the plant? There are 6 students with a control plant and test plant at each home. The plant instructions says the plant should be water only when the top soil is dry to the touch. If each plant is watered only when the soil is dry, instead of the same intervals, is it still a valid experiment?
I just want to be sure we are doing things correctly before we start.Thanks for your help.
Re: Are Eco-friendly cleaners really safe for plants
Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2013 8:53 am
by donnahardy2
Hi GVsciencefair,
This sounds like a really excellent project idea. Your question is a good one. Plants do better if they are allowed to dry out in between watering so this should be one of your controlled parameters in your experiment. Definitely water according to the directions that came with the plants. Light, temperature, and fertilizer should be the same for each plant as well. The only difference in your experiment should be the cleaner in the water. If you use bottled water for the control, you should use bottled water with cleaner added for the other plants. It would be fine to use tap water for the control also, however. So it's fine
Do you have enough plants to include at least 3 in each group, including the control?
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... dure.shtml
Here is information from the Science Buddies website on measuring plant growth.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... 598#p40598
If your project is due on March 7, you could run your experiment for longer than two weeks. Parsley plants grow slowly, so you would see more of a difference with a longer experiment.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... 598#p40598
Please post again in this topic if you have more questions.
Donna Hardy