acid rain=decrese leaves

[akcapr]

In my experiment i have found that adding acid rain to tomato plants casues them to grow less leaves. and thoughts or ideas o nwh this may be happening? heres a graph of leaf count for various phs, over time:

[AzurePhoenix]

doesn't a disrupted ph balance hurt the growth of a lot of plants? And tomatos are especially delicate. I don't rember specifically what a shift in ph does to the plant's systems. Maybe the low ph denatures important grwth enzymes or somethin'

[akcapr]

im definately sure ph helps tomatos grow. not only is it said on various ites and stuff but i found that in my experiment. here is the growth graph:

[AzurePhoenix]

Yeah, a moderately low ph is important, but it has to be within a certain range. You can't just pump acid into a plant and not expect some kind of harm to be a result. Your graph shows the correlation.

 

There might be a totally different reason, maybe even a beneficial one. Have you found anything hinting about it?

[akcapr]

well acid in soil helps release minerals into absorbable form for plants.

[AzurePhoenix]

yeah, but at point the plant itself can absorb too much.

[hyebeh]

pH affects the uptake of mineral ions from the soil. A certain pH level may increase the uptake of a certain mineral and decrease the uptake of another. for example at a pH of 8, plants can absorb calcium but can't absorb iron.

[j_p]

What is the control?

 

Is there any change in the whorl pattern of the leaves?

 

Does the size, shape, or color of the leaves change with pH?

 

Does the diameter of the stock?

 

Is there any difference in branching?

 

Are you able to monitor the root system?

 

And are you certain the environment, particularly access to light, is the same for all groups, on the average? [You didn't line up the plants by group under the lights, with the pH 3 plants in the middle, for example?]

[akcapr]

the control were plants ttha tgot normal water. The only leaf pattern was that the control had darker, more deerper green leaves. Ph's 2 and onecuased dead patches on the leaves. Branching and stocks are the same. And i din monitor the root system. Also i am quite sure the plants got the same amount of light becasue i placed them all in front of a large window and rotated them every 3days.

[j_p]

BTW, is this for a class?

If it is, put monitoring the root system in the section on how to expand the experiment.

 

And using different reagents to adjust the pH of the water; if you are using only hydrochoric acid to adjust the pH, you could just be measuring the effect of choride, not pH.

 

Monitor the pH of the tap water, too; it can vary.

 

Record when you rotate the plants.

 

The leaf color is interesting; the controls are probably producing more or different photosynthetic pigments [i'm betting more, not different; you could test that with paper chromatography].

 

I think the dead spots are a secondary effect and not primary; the high pH is killing the plant, so the leaves are dying; that could be wrong.

 

If the control leaves are darker, that could mean the low pH plants are producing fewer leaves because they need less photosynthetic pigment and, therefore, fewer leaves. In that case, the mechanism by which fewer leaves are produced may not directly involve pH; or the greener leaves could be a red herring, and the pH could be directly effecting the development of the plants.

 

I'm not being very clear, am I?

[YT2095]

tomatos like metals, esp K and Mg metal.

 

I don`t wanna give the show away but I don`t wish to know they`re sick plants either!

[akcapr]

thx fo the reponse jp. The spots on leaves ae pretty localized and small, so it think they are just from the acid. for the acid i made accurate solution of acid rain composed of the same stuff, sulfric acid and nitric. And this is for a class btw. I really like ur (j p's) idea in ur las tparagraph.

 

and btw, yt wat do u mean in ur last sentence?

[j_p]

I am so glad you understood.

 

Nitric acid? HNO3, right? Nitrate is a fertilizer, and I think it encourages vegatative growth [rather than flower/fruit production].

 

I was thinking about this on the drive home, and came up with a bunch of questions for you to consider:

 

Is the acidity, the anion, or a synergistic [or even agonistic] interaction between the two, causing the effect?

 

Is the test solution acting on the environment [e.g. freeing up more trace metals] OR on the plant itself?

 

What is the solution doing to the environment? Freeing trace minerals? Encouraging or inhibiting the growth of micro-organisms?

 

What is the solution doing to each part of the plant? The roots, the stem, the leaves? [The really low pH solution is probably killing the roots; that's different from the effect you're measuring in the rest of the plants.]

 

Are you asking about the cellular mechanism, or do you want to know what is happening to the plant as a whole?

 

And does this count as help with homework? Because I'm pretty sure I know what's happening to your plants.