Testing The Effects of Cleaning Products on Assortment of

Plant Species
Alex Olmore

BACKGROUND MATERIALS AND METHODS RESULTS

Over the course of this year, it is apparent that the use of cleaning products has been
exponentially increased due to the world-wide pandemic of COVID-19. This got me Materials Below is a table of my data results
thinking about the effects this would have on our environment. In my experiment not 1. Clorox wipes
enough plants survived to test with high and low concentration so I decided to only test 2. Lysol wipes Turnip
the remaining plants for low concentration. I did this because it is the most realistic Chemical or Initial Height Initial Health After 4 days of After 4 days of
3. Radish seeds
scenario that would occur in our real world today. Even with this unfortunate Control Chemical Chemical
4. Turnip seeds treatment height treatment health
occurrence, I still got really good results which were exactly the ones I wanted
5. Spinach seeds
Clorox 4.2 cm Good Can’t stand up very bad/dead

EXPIREMENTAL DESIGN
6. Containers for plants
Lysol 3.9 cm Good Can’t stand up very bad/dead

Control 3.4 cm Good 3.5 cm Good

In my experiment, I tested a variety of plants and how they held up to
common chemicals. Below are listed the different parts of my Method(s)
experiment. 1. Purchase all materials
Spinach
2. Fill 18 plant containers from step 1 with potting soil
Chemical or Initial Height Initial Health After 4 days of After 4 days of
Hypothesis- If I try and mimic the effects of the mass use of cleaning 3. Put 1 seed species in 6 containers and the same for each plant species so that there are 6 seeds of each plant distributed Control Chemical Chemical
treatment height treatment health
products, then my results should be able to predict what changes will equally among 1/3 of the 18 containers. There will be two control plants for each plant species because each chemical has
Clorox 3.8 cm Good dead/gone/ dead.
take place on the environment in the long term. its own control. nothing left
Lysol 3.1 cm Good dead/gone/ Worst so far.
4. Once all seeds have been placed so that each plant has its own container, designate three plants of each species to Clorox, nothing left nothing left
Engineering Goal- The engineering goal was to make a simulated then three more for Lysol. Control 3.0 cm Good 2.9 cm good
environment with a variety of common plants and play out the effects 5. Next mix concentrations with low concentration being ½ tsp of chemicals in 1 tbs of water and 1 tsp of chemicals in 1 tbs
of cleaning products on the plants. water for high concentration. Radish

6. Measure all plants and take diagnostic on plants before chemical addition for results. Chemical or Initial Height Initial Health After 4 days of After 4 days of
Variables- My variables were the plants used, the chemicals used, and Control Chemical Chemical
7. Add chemical solution to designated plants once a day for four days. treatment height treatment health
the concentrations of the chemicals. 8. After four days of adding chemical solutions measure plants height and health. Clorox 4.3 cm Good Can’t stand up dead.
Lysol 6.9 cm Really Good Can’t stand up Bad- drooped but
Control- My controls were the same plants rather they didn’t receive possibly savable.
Experimental Set Up Control 6.4 cm Really Good 7.0 cm Good. New sprouts
any chemicals added to them.

REFERENCES
Brennan, J. (2020, September 03). What Chemicals Can Affect the Growth of Plants? Retrieved October 21, 2020,
from https://www.gardenguides.com/12557436-what-chemicals-can-affect-the-growth-of- Digital diagram
plants.html
Greentumble. (2019, September 02). Effect of Pollution on Plants. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from
https://greentumble.com/effect-of-pollution-on-plants/
Harmful Effects of Lawn & Garden Chemicals. (2018, December 27). Retrieved October 21, 2020, from
https://www.planetnatural.com/garden-chemicals/

How Do Household Chemicals Affect Plants? (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2020, from
https://www.hunker.com/12003385/how-do-household-chemicals-affect-plants
This set of plants were my radishes, and they display my data the best. The
The Effects of Detergent on Plant Growth. (n.d.). Retrieved October 21, 2020, from control is on the left and next to it on the right is the Lysol plant and on the far right
https://www.hunker.com/13428000/the-effects-of-detergent-on-plant-growth is the Clorox plant. These pictures were taken 1 day after chemical addition. I
Water Pollution. (2018). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1; http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxygsu-
knew the cleaner wouldn’t be good for the plants, but it killed them after 1 day.
scob.galileo.usg.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=597c44a4-8144-4230-8ea2- That is ½ teaspoon of cleaner that did what is above.
33e5c4ae3da6%40sessionmgr101&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN
=wa017800&db=funk

CONCLUSIONS
This is the real life set up for my experiment.
Overall, My data and experiment showed that even small dose of these
common chemicals killed the plants completely within 24 hrs. This should
be an indicator that instead of using harmful chemicals to clean surface, we
should use natural elements that don’t cause harm to plants.