Rooting Out the Truth: Aluminum's Impact on Wisconsin Fast Plant

Littering is prevalent in New York City and we noticed how much of that litter is lined in aluminum, like soda cans, candy/gum wrappers, and chip bags. Aluminum-lined litter has taken over garden beds in parks and on our streets. Our project involves testing how aluminum dissolves in soil or plants in various pH conditions. Specifically we are testing how aluminum reacts to plants root length, stem height, leaf color, and soil pH, NPK and metal capacity in acidic conditions. Our setup involves having 4 trays labeled; “Acidic with plants,” “Acidic No plants,” "Neutral with plants,” and “Neutral No plants.” The soil mixture was put in all 36 pots, 9 pots per tray. Seeds were planted in 18 pots, 9 pots per Plant tray. We had labels on each pot- ex. for the trial 1 of Plant Acid tray we had ANA1, A201, A401; first letter was “A” or “N” for acidic or neutral, the next possible letters are “NA” stand for “no aluminum,” and the subscript number stands for the trial number. Once the plants sprouted, we added the appropriate amount of aluminum granules for all pots and we gave certain trays sulfuric acid. Understanding how plants react to varying quantities of aluminum can further and help our understanding of how to increase plant retention in low-income areas and community gardens in neutral and acidic environments.