Peace lilies affect air quality?

[deleted-133937]

How large should i make a container for a peace lily so
that it does suffocate.
Thank you for your response

Julius

[deleted-71625]

Hello Julius,
Thank you for your question! What science fair project are you doing? Do you have a hypothesis yet? I'm not sure what stage of your project you are in. Also, you said:

How large should i make a container for a peace lily so
that it does suffocate.

. Did you mean, "does NOT suffocate?"

It kind of depends on the current size of your plant. I attached some articles that can help you figure out what size pot you need. I do some gardening and repotting at home and I like to use the rule of thumb that the edges of the plant (the root system, not the top leaves) should have about 2-3 inches space from it and the side of the pot, so that it has room to grow. Plants take in water and nutrients from their soil, so if the plant is too close to the edge of the pot it is in, the roots won't have enough room to suck up the nutrients in the soil and the plant roots cannot expand and grow properly.

Also, make sure that you are using a nutrient rich soil--if when you water the plant the water soaks into the soil, that means you have good soil. If the water sits at the top of the soil, that means you need to repot with new soil, because the plant wont get the proper water it needs. Plants grow from their roots, not the top of the plant, but the leaves of the plant are indicators as to how the plant is doing . You should use a pot with adequate drainage (i.e. needs to have a hole at the bottom). I put rocks in the bottom of my pots, so the soil doesn't leak out of the hole.

http://www.proplants.com/guide/peace-lily-care-guide
http://www.ehow.com/how_2330181_repot-peace-lily.html

Does this help? Please post here again if you need more help.

[deleted-133937]

Thank you

[deleted-133937]

I'd like to start a project on the effect of peace lilies on air quality that similar to that of the average home.
If you give me information on what I would need to do or use for the project I would very much appreciate it.
Thank you for your help.

Julius

[donnahardy2]

Hi Julius,

Great idea! This is an original idea for a science project. You will need to identify a question to ask that you can answer with a controlled experiment. And, ideally you will need results that you can measure quantitatively.

What problem do you want to solve? Plants can remove carbon dioxide and pollutants, and they can produce oxygen, so there are a variety of subjects that you could investigate.

I recommend that you do some background reading on this topic and look for an interesting problem to solve. Here are some possibilities

Here is a project from this website, which explores the cooling effect of plants on rooftops.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p026.shtml''

Here's a project idea on pesticide breakdown.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p019.shtml

You could measure the effect of the plants on common pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, or particulates, but you would need a procedure for measuring the analyte that you are interested in.

You can get more ideas by looking for literature references. I recommend that you go to Google Scholar and search of terms that might be of interest to you. You will find mostly abstracts, but you should be able to find a few articles that you have access to that have the detailed material and methods section.

Can you confirm when you project is due? Plant projects usually take some time, so the deadline may be an important consideration for this project.

Please post again in this topic if you have any questions. Once you have identified a purpose for your project, you will need to design the experiment.

Donna Hardy

[deleted-133937]

Thank you I was hoping to conduct the experiment to measure how well the plant removes volatile organic compounds but I'm not sure witch of them I want to see be effected by the plant.

[deleted-71625]

No problem. How is your project coming along?