Do Electrified Plants Grow Faster? Let's Find Out!

[Emilya Green]

Looks like I'm too late to vote on a name!

I was going to suggest, "Grilled Cheese"!

ooooh! I like that a lot! We really didn't vote yet... that was more like a second on a suggestion I put on the floor.

 

[electro gypsy]

You're electrifying things and you didn't tell me!?!

 

[Emilya Green]

You're electrifying things and you didn't tell me!?!

Glad you found it! I knew you would be all charged up about this thread!

 

[Emilya Green]

Official Naming notice!

I am going to put up a poll so that we can all vote on the two leading names presented to the thread...

So far we have:

1. ElectroGirl
2. Frankenstein's Chocolate
3. Grilled Cheese

Any other suggestions?

 

[Emilya Green]

(Flower, Day 7)

Our girl, whatever her name is going to be, is doing very well adjusting to flower. I expect budset by day 10, and right now she is stretching very impressively to compete for canopy space. I count 6 kolas rising up, and have trimmed the useless sucker growth at the bottom of the plant. This plant is going to be an interesting study in production and quality, as well as an amazing experiment in using solar power.

Here are the pictures:

 

[Kriaze]

Grilled Cheese gets my vote, love that name and it's so apt lol

 

[electro gypsy]

Glad you found it! I knew you would be all charged up about this thread!

You might say I'm EcStatic

Official Naming notice!

I am going to put up a poll so that we can all vote on the two leading names presented to the thread...

So far we have:

1. ElectroGirl
2. Frankenstein's Chocolate
3. Grilled Cheese

Any other suggestions?

Hmm, Dang. I really like Grilled Cheese, and I'm hungry.. but ElectroGirl sure took me down an interesting path using google image search and I'm hungry. Sheesh. :icon_roll I wonder if she could save me with all this rain.. :sigh:

Anyways

 

[dr.h00k]

...Jumpstarter Cheese...h00k...

 

[Emilya Green]

Wow! It looks like so far we have 3 votes for grilled cheese and 1 or less for several others that have been suggested. Great ideas everyone! Hmm... now I am hungry too!

 

[electro gypsy]

Ok. I'll compromise. Chinese food. Dian Mu.

All cravings aside lol. Fascinating thread Em'. I've done some studies in regards to fungi, but not plants. I wonder how pests would react to this. Oh the implications. I love it!

 

[Emilya Green]

Ok. I'll compromise. Chinese food. Dian Mu.

All cravings aside lol. Fascinating thread Em'. I've done some studies in regards to fungi, but not plants. I wonder how pests would react to this. Oh the implications. I love it!

AngryBird reports that voltage seems to drive away pests... I have noticed a few of the little flying pests in the tents as of late, surely as a result of bringing my cacti collection and my mint plants in for the winter. I have noticed a few spiders and a bit of an ant problem that had to be dealt with when they came in, and as an added bonus, a few flyers have appeared all over the house too. Never fear, for winter is approaching and it will be easy to use the cold to get rid of most of the bugs, but as I work on them in the warm environment of the growing room I will try to note whether they tend to shy away, accumulate or ignore the effects of the electricity all together on sparky the wonder plant.

And, as you said dear electrofied gypsy... the implications! Imagine if it were possible to repel pests this easily, outdoors!

 

[Fuzznutter]

I vote Grilled Cheese. That's hilarious and yummy!

 

[TorturedSoul]

Anyone doing this with 60 VDC, low current (10A or less)?

 

[Emilya Green]

Anyone doing this with 60 VDC, low current (10A or less)?

Lol... TS, I am convinced now that you are a mad scientist, or at least are taking the mail order course!

That is not exactly low current... the system that you just described would be drawing 600w (or less) and discharging that into the plants. One mistake with this kind of current while you are playing with water, and it could be lethal. The risk doesn't seem worth any possible benefit, especially when a lowly little 1w solar cell can do the job.

Also, when we water, we essentially suspend a column of water in our container, held in place by the soil. This column of water with minerals floating around in it is a superb conductor, and we have to assume that the solar cell essentially "shorts out" during a good portion of the wet/dry cycle. What happens then, is the only place the electricity is a factor is at the very bottom of the container, or in the portion below the water table. It is here where the magic happens, and the extra electrons are allowing more nutrients to attach to the organics in the saturated column of water. Above the water table line, the electricity has to be non existent, since the 10:1 rule tells us that all of the solar cell's energy will flow along the path of least resistance.

Now this works just fine when we are talking about 1w of power. Extra electrons are extra electrons... and it seems to have an effect that we can see in the growth of the plant. But... what happens when we up the power to several hundred watts? In the low resistance environment below the water table, the direct short across this power supply would cause the supply to instantly put out its maximum current. If the supply was able to handle this without blowing a fuse, from the moment you watered, 600w of power would be applied to the electrodes. That power has to go somewhere... it has to do some sort of work. Very quickly I would expect all of the water to blow apart into its individual atoms, producing large amounts of hydrogen and oxygen in the soil. As the water level fell and this 600w of power was spread across a smaller and smaller band of wet organic material, it would heat up, possibly to the point that it could ignite the hydrogen/oxygen discharge. I fully expect that sometime during the first night of your hooking up to the power, your containers will very dramatically blow up. That's my guess anyway. Crispy critters is my prediction. You should try it though... let us know what happens. The world is curious.

 

[TorturedSoul]

You should try it though... let us know what happens. The world is curious.

I thought about it - I have a "power supply" that can output 6 to 60 VDC @ 1 to 10 amps - but I am (severely) limited in electrical capacity :sad: . I am not sure whether or not it is still capable of its full output, as it might be around 61 years old... But a few years ago, it was capable of pooching a large 36 VDC fan meant for cooling industrial electronics, lol, and back in the late '70s it could manage to charge five (12-volt) automotive batteries

Lol... TS, I am convinced now that you are a mad scientist

I am semi-retired .

That is not exactly low current... the system that you just described would be drawing 600w (or less)

It would be "drawing" 120 VAC - so... much less, lol?

One mistake with this kind of current while you are playing with water, and it could be lethal.

Hey, if you can't get killed at least three different ways before lunch time, it's a pretty boring day. But, yes, I know that electricity can bite - and DC doesn't let go like AC does, lol. Seems like I recall that one doesn't have to turn part of a lawn mower very fast at all for the current to be... sticky.

The risk doesn't seem worth any possible benefit, especially when a lowly little 1w solar cell can do the job.

Can it? What is the calculated maximum benefit, and just exactly how closely does that setup approach it? Also, that thing stops functioning about a picosecond after lights off, doesn't it? Would there be any benefit in continuing the current in the dark? In the light, the plant is already receiving energy.

Also, when we water, we essentially suspend a column of water in our container, held in place by the soil. This column of water with minerals floating around in it is a superb conductor, and we have to assume that the solar cell essentially "shorts out" during a good portion of the wet/dry cycle. What happens then, is the only place the electricity is a factor is at the very bottom of the container, or in the portion below the water table. It is here where the magic happens, and the extra electrons are allowing more nutrients to attach to the organics in the saturated column of water.

I was also wondering if there would be any difference between the method currently being used in this thread and attaching one electrode to the top of the plant & the other to the lower part of the trunk (or some portion of the roots).

Above the water table line, the electricity has to be non existent, since the 10:1 rule tells us that all of the solar cell's energy will flow along the path of least resistance.

I'm somewhat interested in leaving the soil out of it. (I generally prefer to leave it out of growing cannabis . ) That is one of the reasons I'm wondering about possible benefits to juicing the plant instead of the soil.

In the low resistance environment below the water table, the direct short across this power supply would cause the supply to instantly put out its maximum current. If the supply was able to handle this without blowing a fuse, from the moment you watered, 600w of power would be applied to the electrodes.

I could turn the output down to as little as 1A @ 6VDC.

I confess that I have no idea of the type/rating of the fuse (or even if it has one). To the best of my knowledge, Dad never opened it, and I have not. It was manufactured at a time when it would have been reasonable to expect that any fuse would have been behind an easy-to-open hatch that was labeled "Fuse," but there is no such hatch. Might be some tubes in it, lol.

Very quickly I would expect all of the water to blow apart into its individual atoms, producing large amounts of hydrogen and oxygen in the soil.

I haven't done the water electrolysis thing since junior high school. Seemed like it took a while, even after adding a catalyst. <SCRATCHES HEAD> But I do not remember what size power supply we used; the class was right after lunch and, well... you know... the weather being what it was and all, lunch time was always a pretty foggy event. But I remember the bit about fire pretty well. Seems like there was some shouting involved during the "burning splint, glowing splint" part. IDK why...

As the water level fell and this 600w of power was spread across a smaller and smaller band of wet organic material, it would heat up, possibly to the point that it could ignite the hydrogen/oxygen discharge.

Eh... Wouldn't both gases escape almost as fast as they were being generated?

I fully expect that sometime during the first night of your hooking up to the power, your containers will very dramatically blow up.

At any rate, they wouldn't be likely to blow up. Catch on fire, maybe (but I am somewhat skeptical), but not blow up.

Crispy critters is my prediction.

That, OtOH, seems possible. I sure wish I hadn't lost the use of the lab at a (semi-)local wastewater treatment plant. They had all kinds of electrical capacity, including 480V IIRC - and as far as UPS goes, lol, there were several generators powered by Detroit diesel engines that might have been equally at home under the hoods of class D ("semi") trucks. And we even found a place that would have made an awesome grow room if one didn't mind lugging supplies down 112 steps (multiple staircases) and two ladders, then crawling through a 3'x3' access hole. My buddy only discovered it because he somehow mangled the directions to where some kind of pump was, then it took him half the night to get the hatch covering the access hole off so he could crawl in - and found a room about 20' square. He later asked his boss what it was for and was told, "Nothing, at least for a long time. I don't even know what's down past the first ladder, no one has been down there since I started working here. But I've only been here for 37 years." So I guess it would have been a safe grow spot. And no carbon filter required. But then my buddy managed to get himself terminated (that's kind of a funny story, especially if you knew the things that he managed to not get fired over).

There I go rambling again.

To be honest, I'm more interested in an AC version of this sort of experiment than a DC one. But IDK how to safely set such a thing up without spending any money. So that's another thing that I'm hoping someone else will pursue one day....

EDIT: BtW, I just noticed the (search) link in your .SIG. I'll have to bookmark that one for later. +REPs.

 

[Emilya Green]

Here are six shots of our Grilled Cheese. She has found the top of the canopy with her two leading kolas and is just a day or two away from bud set. I suspect that I am going to get over an ounce out of her already, and in just a 3 gallon container too! Tonight she is getting her first flowering compost tea that has been brewing for two days.

 

[Fuzznutter]

Whooo that is a jungle!

 

[Emilya Green]

Whooo that is a jungle!

It is sort of surprising me... what these 4 plants, 5 now with the Grilled Cheese, have done to fill up this 4x4 tent. There appears to be something to this running a lot of light thing.

I am extremely happy to see the end of stretch however... it has gotten too close in a couple of spots though and the lights are as high as they will go without emergency engineering, and as the buds take on weight this is going to get interesting. I have a large number of bamboo plant stakes ready, as well as my twine and binder clips... I suspect that we are going to need some reinforcement all around the tent, very soon.

 

[Fuzznutter]

It is sort of surprising me... what these 4 plants, 5 now with the Grilled Cheese, have done to fill up this 4x4 tent. There appears to be something to this running a lot of light thing.

I am extremely happy to see the end of stretch however... it has gotten too close in a couple of spots though and the lights are as high as they will go without emergency engineering, and as the buds take on weight this is going to get interesting. I have a large number of bamboo plant stakes ready, as well as my twine and binder clips... I suspect that we are going to need some reinforcement all around the tent, very soon.

You may need so many stakes and twine your tent is gonna look a special kind of string art.

High priced art. I'd buy it.

 

[electro gypsy]

You may need so many stakes and twine your tent is gonna look a special kind of string art.

High priced art. I'd buy it.

Electro-Dream Catcher by Emilya Let's start the bidding at $20,000

Wrong choice for wake & bake today. Carry on