wrote in message
oups.com...
I have heard that plants can take up dissolved CO2 in water (carbonic
acid) by means of their roots. In other words if you water your plants
with sparkling water it should accelerate growing. Can somebody verify
that statement and maybe tell me which plants are especially suitable
for this? I'm especially interested in trees having this feature. How
much can the growing be accelerated?

I can't imagine it would produce any significant differences. in growth
rates, in using carbonated water vs. municipal water.

The dissolved carbon dioxide in the water quickly bubbles out of the
solution, this is accelerated when smaller bubbles can form on a rough
surface, such as an ice cube, salt crystals or soil. So pouring carbonated
water on the ground would cause it to quickly foam up, and escape. The
small amount of CO2 and carbonic acid that remains dissolved in the water,
is so insignificant, it wouldn't matter.

Fortunately a hypothesis of "does carbonated water accelerate plant growth?"
is easy to test. Take 3 small pots, fill them with soil and 2 sweet peas.
Mark the pots as "seltzer", "flat" and "tap", then water all 3 of them with
equal amounts of seltzer water, flat seltzer water and tap water. After a
month you should have enough evidence to suggest if there is a difference or
not.

Let us know what the results of this experiment is.

-S