Most recent answer: 10/22/2007
Q:
How will food coloring affect the growth of plants when added to their water (one or two drops), especially on cherry belle radish?
- Anonymous
Mountain pointe, Phoenix, AZ, USA
A:
Great Question! I actually did this for my fourth grade Science Fairproject. I used beans instead of radishes, but I think the answershould be pretty close.
Unfortunately the answer is that it really doesnt do much. Foodcoloring is non-toxic, so it doesnt poison the plants. If you useenough of it, you may get a little tinting of the leaves of the plantafter a while, but the plant still grows pretty much the same.
-Sara
p.s. Food colorings are often added to water for plants to alterthe appearance of the plants. I bought some nice blue flowers once, andfound that huge amounts of blue food coloring leached back into thewater in my flower vase after about a day or so. It probably doesnthelp the plant grow to have the extra food colorings present, but itdoes not hurt either. We expect the radishes not to behave anydifferently from other plants in this respect.
-- Tom
(published on 10/22/2007)
