Can Plants Get Electrocuted? How Plants react to electricity

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Are you decorating plants with lights? Then you must be wondering whether your plants can get electrocuted. The answer is both yes and no!

Plants cannot generally get electrocuted as the current flowing through them passes into the soil. Plants don’t get electrocuted even when electricity is passed into plants in electro-culture. Only wet plants can get electrocuted. They are rather super conductive to electricity. 

The salts and minerals in the sap are the elements that help plants conduct electricity. However, plants can be electrocuted if they come in contact with a high-voltage power line or appliance, but this doesn’t happen often.

If you have a number of plants in your home with closeby electricals and want to know if they can actually get electrocuted, I’ve got the answers for you.

Can Plants Conduct Electricity?

If there is no system to separate different minerals and salts from the water, plants will absorb the nutrient-rich water using their roots. 

These minerals in the sap conduct the ionization process of the molecules remaining in the water. The ionization process of these molecules makes plants superconductive to electricity. 

The living plants are the conductors of electricity. Non-living or dead plants can also conduct electricity. But, dead plants can only conduct electricity when they are wet. 

There is another way that plants can generate electricity. This is when the bacteria in the soil break down the organic matter discharged by plants.

In addition, the leaves of some plants can generate electricity from the wind. This process is known as contact clarification. 

A handful of researchers show that a plant leaf can generate above 150 volts of electrical power. Hence, plants are incredible species that can conduct and generate electricity. 

Can An Electric Fence Harm Plant?

People often choose electric fences over repellants to protect their plants from different infestations. But, ” Is it safe?”

Yes, it is. Electric fences can’t harm plants to a serious extent. 

Electric fences generally emit pulses of electricity having a low voltage. When plants touch the fence, this small amount of voltage simply runs down into the earth through a plant. 

If we consider a hypothetical situation where the fence discharges continuous waves and the plant is wet. Then the leaves and other parts will get burnt and gradually die off. 

In this case, the watery cells of the plant get wizened and often die, but the rest of the plant keeps growing. So, it depends on the voltage of the power and whether it can harm your plants or not. 

Can Decorative Lights Affect Plants?

Festive events happen all year. Most people use decorative lights to celebrate such events. Some people also like to beautify their rooms with various types of decorative lights. These can include fairy lights, LED lights, and neon lights.

You might be hesitant to use decorative lights in your room or on special occasions as they might harm your plants. Well, don’t worry. Not all decorative lights affect plants.

The ability of decorative lights to affect plants depends on the intensity and duration of the light. The lights decorated on plants can be left on for a maximum of 12 hours. Leaving it on for a single night will not have any bad effect on the plants. 

But if done constantly, it will hinder the plant’s overall growth. It can also impact bud development, flowering, fruit production, signaling, etc. These lights will even hinder the circadian rhythm of plants and cause over-synthesis. 

So, you can leave your decorative lights up for a period healthy for your plants and not more than that.

Furthermore, lights with high power can emit excessive heat. This heat hits the plant hard in many ways.

Excessive heat emitted by high-intensity light can cause the foliage to burn. It can also lead to yellowing and wilting of plant leaves, browning of leaf edges, and bleached plant leaves. The worst effect is that the stomata in the plant leaves can’t close to preserve water. 

Moreover, photosynthesis stops as the plant uses all its water to dissipate heat. As a result, the plant cells run out of water.

In addition, there remains a risk of short circuits when the plant is wet, and the wire is frayed.

Therefore, you should go for LED lights that are super affordable and friendly for plants.

What Is Electroculture?

Most people are unaware of the effectiveness of using electricity on plants. If electricity is used on plants in the right way, it can benefit your plants in many ways. 

There is a particular electrical treatment called Electroculture. It is a primitive horticulture method. The electric voltage is applied to plants to stimulate lush vegetation in this method. 

This high voltage works as a metabolism booster, virus and bacteria killer, and accelerator of the vaporization process. This technology mitigates the demand for fertilizer and helps produce abundant crops in a minimum time. 

In 1746, Scotland scientist Dr. Maimbray first noticed the rapid growth of plants stimulated by electricity. After that, many committees were formed with scientists to check the effectiveness of the method. 

Countries like China are producing crops in plenty using this method. The plant grows faster and healthier using electrocution. 

Can Electro-Culture Benefit Plants?

Electroculture is an effective method to boost crop production. There are many benefits of using electro culture. Here is what you should know before applying electrical stimulation to your plants: 

• Electroculture has an incredible effect on the germination of seeds. It makes the soil ions go through electro-migration. This results in a more manageable penetration of nutrients into the seed. In this way, the process speeds up the germination rate.
  
• It increases the height and thickness of plants. It also increases the length of leaves and the length and width of the cotyledon.
  
• It regulates the metabolism process which helps the plants resist pests. It also helps to protect the plant against cold temperatures, and diseases.
  
• This procedure boosts plant growth by up to 30%. It also increases plants’ uptake of calcium, potassium, and other vital nutrients.
  
• It improves the metabolism of plants. Electroculture also speeds up the transportation of naturally charged particles.
  
• Electroculture helps in the secretion of different chemicals. These chemicals defend the plant against microbial attacks. 

This process also induces electrical signaling. It is also involved in gene expression, systemic enzyme activation, and plant movement. Hence, electro culture is a method worth trying. 

The Takeaway

Plants are sensitive to electricity, but not at the same level that you and I are. Electric current is required to pass through a plant to cause damage. Because of their structure and the way they absorb energy, plants are incapable of being shocked or harmed by electricity.

However, plants can be electrocuted if they come in contact with a high-voltage power line or appliance, but this doesn’t happen often.

Low voltages don’t damage plants. Plants grow safely at low voltage electricity. High voltage power can burn out parts of the plant and cause the cells of that particular part to burst out. Due to the resilient power of plants, it does get back to normal over time. But it is still better to opt for plant-friendly options. 

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