Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello, I'm new to this site and this is more of a general concept question then a science project yet, so sorry if this is the wrong board to post this, but I had some question about potato, lemon, and any other type of plant batteries.

I understand the basics about them. I know they convert chemical energy to electrical energy, and I know they usually only last a few days then start to rot. But my question is what happens if you try to make one in a living plant, like if the potato was still rooted into the ground and maintained. I'v tried to find any sources mentioning this but I couldn't find any.

Would the metals hurt the plant and kill it? I'm going to try this eventually but I wanted to get an expert opinion if this is something that has been tried before.

Also I'll be trying this with different plants, galvanized nails, multi-meter, and different years of pennies. Is there anything else I need or should try?

Again sorry if this is the wrong place to post this or I explained things badly. And thank you in advance.

HushedDragon - Your question is interesting. As you said, many fruits, vegetables etc can be the basis of a chemical battery. The key chemical reaction is created using two electrically dissimilar electrodes and the fruit/vegetable, whatever, is the electrolyte contributing to an acidic or basic chemical reaction. There will be electro migration of the metal electrodes into the host. I believe you could do this with a living potato, but you are contaminating the potato with metal, so I wouldn't want to eat it.

Rick Marz