Design

What we plan to do with this project is provide information about how Co2 effects the life and growth of different species of carnivorous plants, good or bad? We want to study the different effects of different amounts of Co2 levels inside our groups custom terrarium. We will be building our own terrarium to house our 3 different types of carnivorous plants, Venus fly traps, pitcher plants, and sundew plants.

The general timeline of this project is mostly likely 2-4 months :I

We plan on drilling holes in the top of the tank and mounting 2 spray bottles to water the plants with distilled water to create the most likely environment scenario.

Our hypothesis is, different levels of Co2 will help a plant grow better then if in just a regular air filled environment. (no previous experience)

Variables: Temperature, Levels of Co2. Thermometer, Co2 meter.

Most likely be excited or extremely disappointed(if they don't grow or die) we will write our results on this blog and (i will post it on Reddit).

We will be building a terrarium of our own design that can contain Co2 and release small amounts of Co2. Then buying 3 different types of carnivorous plants(listed above). Using basic potting soil and a grow light with tubing around the inside of the terrarium in which we will pour water through for irrigation. We will be measuring the height of growth per day and the levels of Co2 once every week and keeping a constant temperature of 60-80 degrees. Watering every other day, with 1-2 cups of water(not sure yet).

Background

Our project is researching the effects of massive amounts of Co2 on different types of carnivorous plants, we plan on making a very customized terrarium to meet our needs. The terrarium will be filled with surplus amounts of Co2 with the carnivorous plants growing inside, we are studying and questioning whether or not Co2 effects carnivorous plant growth or if it just kills them but hopefully they become man eating carnivorous plants.

When carnivorous plants are just beginning to grow they don't require insects to survive they also use photosynthesis, which also answer the question "Do carnivorous plants perform photosynthesis?" Yes, they Do preform photosynthesis.

This site.. >>http://www.flytrapcare.com/<<

Carnivorous plants usually grow in swampy areas where soil nutrients are scarce. To make up for the gap in nutrition the plants consume insects and absorb the extra nutrients.

At the moment we don't have anyone helping us with our project except members of our group, the internet, and the teachers.

Has anyone one else preformed this experiment? No, no one that we know of has ever done this exact test.

We will see if carnivorous plants grow in an almost %100 Co2 environment, will they even grow a little bit? Do the large amounts of Co2 effect the plants at all?

Honestly we all just thought it was cool?! Also it's never been done before.

Well, with the supposed "global warming" and the rise in Co2 levels we want to know if its hazardous or good for certain plants?

Before we preform our big project we will be conducting a small scale of our small scale experiment. This idea came from Mr. Weiseth we will be growing Wisconsin fast plants in side little plastic tubs and putting a small cylinder with Calcium Carbonate powder mixed with Hydrocloric acid creating small doses of Co2 inside the tub which is sealed and has 2 probes protruding into the tub (one o2 meter and one Co2 meter) the average level of Co2 in the atmosphere is 391ppm the reading we got inside our tub was 10,100 parts per million. This test is to see wether we are just going to kill the plants or actually get results.

With the main source of Co2 coming from, cars, burning coal, and humans global warming has been a big controversy among people and has a lot of people worried. Global warming is basically the idea of the world being a giant green house and the rise in Co2 levels around the world kinda help the warming of the planet and with some Arctic glaciers melting what do people do? blame global warming.

Well we don't exactly have a problem we're trying to solve we're just examining/studying a hypothesis.

Materials

1.       4, 1X2ft panels of plexi glass(got)

2.       2, 1X1ft panels of plexi glass(got)

3.       Super glue (holding the glass together)(got)

4.       Cocking glue and gun for an air tight seal(got)

5.       Plexi glass cutter(got)

6.       Co2 canisters(the cheap airsoft ones)(got)

7.       Co2 12gram quick change adaptor(got)

8.        http://www.ebay.com/itm/PAINTBALL-QUICK-CHANGE-12-GRAM-12G-CO2-ADAPTER-/281006901116?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item416d51077c

9.       Potting soil(got)

10.   River rocks(don’t need to buy)(NEED)
12. Metal aluminum framing(got)

13.   Carnivorous plant seeds(got)

14.   http://www.amazon.com/Venus-Flytrap-Dionaea-muscipula-carnivorous/dp/B004QKQ5ZY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1351095532&sr=8-1&keywords=carnivorous+plant+seeds

15.   Grow light(there is one at petco with the fixture, it’s around $50)(got)

16.   Small crickets from petco(NEED)
17. Small water bottle sprayers(NEED)

18.   Co2 meter(got)

19.   Thermometer (Fahrenheit)(got)

Carnivorous Plants

 We finished our plant terrarium(minus the lid) and everything was going great till they didn't get watered for 3 days. They became... brown to say the least and we lost one Sundew plant.

LISTED BELOW ARE THE FOLLOWING:
Baby Sundew plants that we just planted.
Baby Pitcher Plants (trimmed)
Baby Venus Fly Traps
Baby Drosera Sundew

Small scale experiment.

Today we started a small scale test experiment, using Wisconsin fast growing seeds, using a florescent light, we're growing them in Styrofoam containers with water wicks for constant watering of the plants they are being contained in plastic tubs one is the control and the other is the test subject it has 2 probes one O2 probe and one Co2.

 This is the setup with the light sitting above the Styrofoam plants and the Calcium Carbonate and Hydrochloric acid mixture that's making Co2.

Here you can see the mixture.(left)

We finished up our small scale test this week after we received some of our materials(finally). We're still working on building the terrarium in the green house. So for now our plants are over in a white bucket and being water daily and have almost 24 hours of sunlight.

Week 2 of small scale experiment

Its week 2 day 4 we've just taken the measurements of the root lengths in both plants and the height (in cm) of the plants themselves.
Below we have the stats of the plants.

Control Plants
1. 1.4cm    2. 3.8cm
3. 4.1cm    4. 2.6cm
Average height= 2.975cm
Control Plants root length= 17.5cm

Co2 Plants
1. 3.8cm    2. 3.2cm
3. 2.7cm    4. 4.1cm
Average height= 3.45cm
Co2 Plants root length= 8.2cm

Its week 2 day 3 and we've been checking the growth of the plants daily and today we got quite a surprise when we removed both Styrofoam blocks from the water we noticed that the Co2 plants are looking healthier and taller then the control plants but the control plants have much longer roots like a difference of about 5 inches.

                                Co2 roots                                                           O2 roots
Its week 2 of the small scale experiment the plants have grow about 1 inch out of their container but we noticed a tiny change in the color between the control plants and the Co2 plants. The control plants are a light healthy looking green when the Co2 plants are a darker green but still healthy and the same size.

A New Start

So today we started a brand new project, we have changed the focus of the project due to the fact that the carnivorous plants were a bad plant to test.(they died). Our plan with the new test is to keep the plants alive this time and also more accurately measure the changes in Co2 and the overall healthiness of the plants in both tanks. We hope to find results that prove to us that massive amounts of Co2 can be good for plants and speed their growth without killing them and having the same quality and a normal plant grown under no special conditions.

Mr. Weiseth gave us the option to grow "rapid radishes" and he had some left over tanks that we converted into sealed terrariums using some plexi glass and gluing the cut pieces onto the top of the tank

Pictured(right) is the finished and sealed Co2 tank with the plants growing healthy inside and the drip system still working. Below is the Control tank that is exactly the same only no hole has been drilled for the Co2 adapter, since it doesn't need it.

This Environmental chamber is being used to help grow all the plants with the settings changed to the correct temperature and the lighting is artificial sunlight on a timer set to turn of as the sun goes down just like a normal day.