Can Dry Ice Provide (CO2) for Plants?

Dry ice is frozen carbon dioxide. At room temperature, it rapidly sublimates, going straight from solid to gas phase without melting. Although plants require carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, dry ice isn't an effective way to provide them with the CO2 they need.

Features

• According to the Environmental Protection Agency, carbon dioxide levels in Earth's atmosphere are about 380 parts per million as of 2006. Plants can obtain the carbon dioxide they need from the atmosphere. Dry ice sublimates rapidly and thus can temporarily increase CO2 concentrations, although these increased concentrations will rapidly dissipate through diffusion.

Function

• Dry ice can indeed provide carbon dioxide by turning into vapor. In solid form, however, it is useless to the plant since plants take in gaseous CO2 through their leaves. Since dry ice does not melt, it can't be added to the plant in liquid form either.

Considerations

• Placing a plant in a container with dry ice inside would increase the CO2 concentrations, but since dry ice sublimates rapidly, the pressure inside the container would increase, which might cause it to burst. Moreover, plant growth is usually limited by lack of other nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, not by lack of CO2.