Expert: Walter Hintz - 5/25/2011

Question
QUESTION: my project is comparative study on the effect of cigarette and firewood residue in soil on the growth of plants.the procedure i used is taking 3 potted plants of the same kind and adding equal amount of cigarette residue and wood residue into the soil of 2 of the plants everyday.all the three plants are provided with same amount of water and sunlight.1 week has passed.the plant having cigarette residue is as healthy as the one which is in normal soil but my hypothesis is that cigarette residue effects the plant.should there be a change in the procedure or do i have to wait longer to get better results?i am not able to find info in any of the search engines.

ANSWER: Hello Akhila
It seems to me that you carried out your study very well and your hypothesis proved false. There is nothing wrong that as long as the method was followed through. I assume that by residue you are talking about ashes. Wood ashes lime the soil due to the presence of CaCO3 and cigarette ashes can raise the pH.
I would suggest repeating the experiment increasing the amount of ash

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QUESTION: i have repeated the experiment but i have changed the plant.the plant in the soil containing wood ash takes longer time to absorb water than the other 2.the leaves of plant in the normal soil is bright green,the plant in cigarette ash and wood ash is darker green.after around 1 week the plant in wood ash died and the plant in the cigarette ash continues to live, though it has a stunted growth when compared to the plant in normal soil.how is this possible.i am not getting any info in the google to support this result .if you come to know of any sites that tells more on this project would you please mention it.thank you for reading.

Answer
First of all I think that you done a good job with this project Sheila. You will probably not find information on the Internet because it has not been studied. If your hypothesis has been satisfied then the study was successful. Draw your conclusion and report your results.

walter