Electricity and Plant Growth

Note: This is far from conclusive, nor is it an original idea. Wish I had the time and space to do a real controlled experiment, but my hope is that is where the community comes in.

I grew four seedlings (two different strains - one indica; one sativa) under identical conditions except for the addition of electricity.

One plant used a solar panel putting out about 3.5 volts and one used a 9v battery. The electrodes were placed several inches deep about 1.5" away from the stalk.

Attached are the results after several weeks.

For those wanting to try this, I strongly suggest the use of gold plated electrodes as both of my copper electrodes quickly eroded. Also my solar panel was using my grow light as a source and was quickly shadowed by the leaves. My battery slowly drained.

For these reasons, I did not continue past a few weeks. If I were to do it again, I would use some sort of variable power supply to control both current and voltage and to be able to increase the stimulation as the plant grows. My electrodes were needle shaped, so the dispersion of electricity was very narrow. I think a gold plated screen would give a much larger surface area and would have even greater effect on the roots.

And, of course, more control plants are necessary to rule out normal variation in growth.

How does this work? Not sure, but something to do with accelerating ion exchange in breaking down minerals to make them more accessable to the plant.

interesting I know lighting and storms bring out growth in plants not to sure about electricity though. if anything you are makin some hydrogen out of you water or nutes.

Not enough current to break down water into hydrogen and oxygen.

So no interest in doubling the size of one's plants?

I would love to see more experiments in this area. I am convinced that electrical flow can cause very interesting growth as evidenced in the orthopedic field where electrical stimulus is used to stimulate bone growth in cases where knitting is problematic.

I am a Ham Radio operator and have heard many anecdotal stories about the strong electrical fields around our antennas and operating positions causing apparent miracle remissions in various maladies. It only makes sense to me that an electrical flow could stimulate a plant to grow faster and I would not be surprised if we someday learn that plants have a way to use this electricity to increase the energy needed to promote cell division and growth. I have some solar cells laying around here. I may just do some experiments of my own when I get a bunch of clones sitting around not doing anything productive.

Emmie

There is another forum where a few are experimenting with this using a 120vAC to 4.5vDC and I forget what the milliamps were (350mA rings a bell maybe), but it was a cell phone charger basically modified and electrodes placed in the soil....it vegged about twice as big, twice as fast compared to the non-electrified plants. Unfortunately no-one has gotten past the veggin so far, but it certainly would appear it does increase the veggin mass and much quicker too. I'm just finishing up some stuff, but I might try this next batch...looks interesting. I have plenty of old phone chargers lying around!;)
I would really like to see what it does to a flowering plant....twice the bud in half the time??? Yea, I'm interested!:D

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Originally Posted by TANKJR

I would really like to see what it does to a flowering plant....twice the bud in half the time??? Yea, I'm interested!:D

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I can hear the names of the new strains now... ya man... I have some killer Electric Blue Diesel here... High Voltage Herer... Afgani Amperage... all guaranteed to give you a jolt! :stoned:

Emmie

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Originally Posted by emilya

I can hear the names of the new strains now... ya man... I have some killer Electric Blue Diesel here... High Voltage Herer... Afgani Amperage... all guaranteed to give you a jolt! :stoned:

Emmie

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Love it.

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Originally Posted by emilya

I can hear the names of the new strains now... ya man... I have some killer Electric Blue Diesel here... High Voltage Herer... Afgani Amperage... all guaranteed to give you a jolt! :stoned:

Emmie

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Thats some funny shit Em, im rollin here:S2:

But the most funny thing is its true. If a person would try this, id think that by wiring the inside of the pot so that when the plant is buried the current could work across the medium. And if it did work, man someone would get rich. Maybe we should get some ideas from an electrician, cuz im not sticking wires in anything im going to water. Yeah in know a 9v isn't going to blow my hair into a curl, but just someone who might help us push the limits.

Id luv to grow a seed faster:wtf:but a great idea i think:jointsmile:



:rasta:

Pretty good. Pretty good Emily.

Sounds possibly beneficial, but I would assume that milliamps would do the job....

DC current is safe at low amperage but creates heat in higher, and as resistance continues it increases the heat. Possibly that is what is occuring, as the soil drys resistance increases and warms it more like the sun? Wild guess. I do like the idea of a pair of screens on either side of the pot...gold? no way I am that spendy.

LOL! Emmie, if it works I'm gonna call it AK470Volt ( I got zapped by 480 volts once and it made quite an impression, and a hole in my finger and a new world record high resting heart rate!) or maybe AK47amped...;)

I've been diggin around and came up with 5 old phone chargers...tryin to decide on what to use for probes now, and gold is outta the question! This is just what I need...use more electricity on a grow! :wtf: I have some 15% silver solder sticks, but they're not very thick, so I'm not sure how long they would last...I could solder up like two multi pronged fork things with this stuff pretty easy. I'm not an electrician, but I can play one on the internet. I work on lots of electrical equipment and have a nice digital multi-meter and know how to use it. My big worry is how I'm going to fuse it, so if something goes wrong, it shuts down, but I'll figure that out as I go. I'm thinking inline fuse starting out at maybe .5amp to begin with on the low voltage side and just a surge strip with breaker for the high side...anybody else wanna chime in with ideas or input, I'm listening...:)

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Originally Posted by TANKJR

My big worry is how I'm going to fuse it, so if something goes wrong, it shuts down, but I'll figure that out as I go. I'm thinking inline fuse starting out at maybe .5amp to begin with on the low voltage side and just a surge strip with breaker for the high side...anybody else wanna chime in with ideas or input, I'm listening...:)

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Surely it can't take much electrical potential to get a few electrons moving and cause an effect here if there is one to be seen. It's not like we are trying to electrocute the plants or cause them to swing north or anything. Solar cells might be the perfect way to go. Use up some of that great light around the outer rim of the container and ground it on the other side. It would be free energy use and safe for the waterer. Then of course the question would be, does the plant need the jump start in the light period of the cycle or in the dark. So many questions, but with the right experiments, answers could be found.

You know what my new friends? I am really starting to dig this new hobby I have found here! :D

Emmie

Why not take this idea to the next level? Use electricity with water. :eek:

Have a cathode in one end of the reservoir an anode in the other and your wires hooked up to these. This is a basic hydrogen generator.
With the right voltage you would bubble the reservoir enough that no air pump would be needed.

Am I just really stoned, or does this sound like a brilliant idea? :S5: .....

.....but we would need to do something with that flammable gas we just created...:o

No, I'm not gonna electrocute them...we're talking very small amounts of electricity....the cell phone chargers put out milliamps...very small amounts of DC electricity...I'm looking at one now that has an input rating of 100 to 240volts AC...this is the end you plug into 120v here in the US, or the power strip and it's rated at 0.2 amps (very small amount)....the output is 5volts DC 550mAmps....dunno yet if this will be big or small to a plant!?! The next one is 120 v AC input and 12 volt output at 500mA. These are all 120 volt input, so I'm gonna skip that...the next one is 5v DC output and 800mA. I have a bunch more from old R/C toys the kid used to play with, and old cell phones in voltages of 3.5, 5, 7.5, 9 and 12 volts with several different milliamp ratings! I hit the jackpot in his room. :D Didn't look like he ever threw away a charger! May have to play around to figure out what works best. Emmie, and others, if you want a relatively safe way to do this, flash light batteries put out about the same amount as these chargers and are DC voltage. A D, C, A, AA, or AAA battery are all rated at about 1.5 volts DC, and produce various milliamps per hour. I dunno what the 9 volts make for mA/h. Have ya ever stuck a 9 volt to your tongue to see if it had any charge left? It doesn't shock you much at all, neither should these chargers. I have some rechargeable AA's rated at 2200mA/h...the only problem with using batteries is they may discharge pretty quick in wet or damp soil, but they would be safer if you don't understand AC electricity. Looks like I may be snowed in tomorrow, so I'll play around with some amp measurements in wet soil and see what I can invent for probes. I may just use big nails. Yes, we will have to have several plants at various voltages and mA's to see what works best and a few as controls with no voltage at all going to them. Wish we had a real scientist doing this....I'll probably kill a few, and to me, that's a few too many:(...I better go cut more clones.

no resuults? how does this work in flower? I am thiking reproducing the storm in the ground is almost impossible with what we have available, but I am very interested.