What is a safe way to apply electricity to soil?

Question

My science project this year involves growing plants with an electric current. What is a safe way to apply electricity and what is a good level of voltage to use.

Answer 1

What apparently makes it 'safe' is that you use very little voltage, like a single cell battery. Too much voltage will 'fry' the plants. You use 'galvanic' voltages, which means they are very small. There are different methods that have been experimented with: One method is to put electrodes in the ground on either side of the plant and apply the voltage. Another method which uses higher voltage is to place a grid in the ground around the plants and you put one wire on the grid under ground. You place the other wire on a grid that you make that is placed just over the plants.



Although I've not heard of this as being practical, good luck.



http://books.google.com/books?id=NXypqchiJ4UC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96&dq=grow+plants+with+electricity&source=web&ots=cR1KE_DUn5&sig=Kd96fAFEpt6iyngPJhYFqDcCkhI&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result

Answer 2

Soil conducts electrical energy, and the conductivity relies upon on the soil style and moisture. oftentimes a 2m rod pushed into the floor will degree some ohms or much less between it and yet another rod someplace else. in case you have quite a few rods distant the resistance between the standards could be discovered by skill of inference. The resistance between those factors would be very low because of fact the earth has a great quantity, quite some parallel paths that shrink the cost to on the factor of 0. the comparable applies to seawater, the place the resistance for the duration of a 1cm cube could properly be 14 ohms at a undeniable temperature, yet between any 2 connections interior the sea that is fairly much negligible. the only resistance of notice is to do with the relationship itself. There are circumstances the place this would not take place, case in point if the soil is shallow and sitting on a slab of rock, so the soil is almost electrically remoted from the the remainder of the earth.