Australian International Academy

Kellyville Campus

Title: The impact of household cleaning products on the growth of

plants.
Name: Arisha Zafreen

Year Level: 10 Subject: Science

Due Date: 24/02/2021 Word Count: 938

Assessment Task Cover Sheet

Background Information:
For my experiment, I have researched about the type of plant seed i am going
to use to carry out my experiment. From the research, I have gathered that
these types of plants are the best when it comes to experimenting with
growth. The plants include:
 Cress: can sprout overnight, does not require
soil to grow and requires little or no care.
 Herbs: can sprout quickly, saves money.
 Beans: equivalent to Cress, can be utilized to
show growth in various conditions.
 Grass: grows very quickly
With all the options given, I have decided to go with
beans and use them as my experiment. The reason I
have chosen beans is that they sprout very quickly
and that’s important, noting the amount of time I have to  carry out the
experiment and they are relatively cheap to buy. 
The household products I will be using to carry out the experiment is window
cleaner, dish soap, stain remover and water. 
Window Cleaner consists of ammonia that is toxic. Such alkaline ammonia
vapours are toxic to the throats and respiratory systems of humans. Ammonia
is a colourless gas with a distinctive pungent odour that dissolves in water to
give a solution that is strongly alkaline. 
Plants often have a covering of wax which is contaminated by the soap. The
plant will not dies immediately. However, disintegration of the outermost layer
of the leaf may result the in the loss of the plant’s water and dehydration.

Aim:
To investigate the impact of household cleaning products on the growth of
plants.

Hypothesis:
I hypothesize that the window cleaner will have an impact on the growth of
plants and whereas on the other hand stain remover will have little to no effect
on the growth of plants.
 VARIABLES:

Independent Variable: different household products and the increasing of the

concentrations of cleaning products.

Dependent variable: rate of seed growth 

Controlled variables: the amount of the substances used for the plant, the soil,
the seeds, the temperature and the location.

Materials:
 4 pots
 8 bean seeds
 Soil
 Water
 Window Cleaner
 Stain remover
 Dish soap

Risk Assessment:

Risk Safety

Getting any insect bites, skin irritants etc. Wearing gardening gloves.

Blisters, calluses, and muscle pain being Before gardening, find the right
caused when not using the right gardening tool that suits best for the
equipment’s. hand.

Method:
1. Label each pot with the name of the substances.
2. Fill the pots with soil, halfway and being careful not to fill it to the top.
3. Place 2 beans in each pot, not too close to each other.
4. Spray 10 ml of each substances everyday until the end of the
experiment.
5. Observe and write down the results.
 Results:
Window Cleaner

Day 1:

From Day 1 till Day 5, there weren’t any progress.

Day 6: It sprouted Day 8:

Day 9: Day 10:

Day 11:
 Window cleaner affects on the plants

30
25
20
Length (cm)

15
10
5
0
1 2 3 4 4 6 7 8 9 10 11
Time Period (Days)

Water
Day 1 :

From Day 1 till Day 5, there wasn’t progress.

Day 6: It sprouted

From Day 6 till Day 11, there wasn’t progress. The ‘water’ plant hasn’t grown at
all.
 Water affects on plants
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
Length (cm)

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Time Period (Days)

Stain Remover
Day 1:

From Day 1 till Day 7 there wasn’t any progress.

Day 8: It Sprouted

From Day 8 till Day 11 there wasn’t any progress. The ‘Stain remover’ plant
hasn’t grown at all.
 Stain remover affects on plants
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
Length (cm)

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Time Period (Days)

Dish soap
Day 1

From Day 1 till Day 7, there wasn’t any progress.

Day 8 It sprouted Day 11
 Dish Soap Impact on plants
7

5
Length (cm)

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Time Period (Days)

Comparison of the all the substances impact on the plants

Comparison of all the substances impact on the plants

Wcleaner Water Sremover Dishsoap
30

25

20
Length (cm)

15

10

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Time Period (Days)

Discussion:
For the experiment, the ‘window cleaner’ plant has grown to a total of 26 cm
at the end of the experiment. The ‘dish soap’ plant has grown to a total of 6 cm
at the end of the experiment. As for the ‘water’ and ‘stain remover’ plant, they
only sprouted. Contrary to the hypothesis,’ window cleaner’ affected the
growth of the plants and ‘stain remover’ had little to none affect. This results
are important since they tell us that the household cleaning products did have
an impact on the plants. The window cleaner made the plants grow faster than
most of the other products.
The only problem that I have faced during the experiment was the fact it has
been raining for some days. This impacted the growth of the plants since
another substance has been added instead of the household products. I
consider this as an unfair experiment since all the plants got rain instead of
their assigned product.
If I were to do this experiment again, I would have chosen an area to put the
plants under shaded are, but the plants still gets sunlight.

Conclusion
In conclusion, though window cleaner impacted the growth of the plants by
growing faster this is an unfair experiment considering the fact that is has been
raining for some days during the experiment.

Abstract
For this experiment, I have investigated the impacts of household cleaning
products on the growth of plants. The reason why I am doing this experiment
is that I want to know whether they are harmful to the plants and should the
gardeners be wary when bringing the products anywhere near their plants. The
products I have used are window cleaner, water, dish soap and stain remover.
The way the experiment was done was by taking 4 pots, filling them soil,
placing the seeds, and putting the required amount of substances. The results
were surprising since the window cleaner impacted the plants by growing
faster than the rest.