Studies on Management and Color Preference of Indoor Potted Flowers

Inert air condition for the indoor environment usually causes negative impact on human health, especially for people with sedentary jobs in office and home. Placing indoor ornamentals can purify the air in the room but also offer people a good mood and evaluate the life quality. Plants can effectively absorb carbon dioxide (CO2), and its absorption efficiency is affected by environmental factors like light and water conditions. In order to elevate the purifying capacity of CO2 and the ornamental level of plants, this research studies the reaction of anthurium (Anthurium andraeanum Linden ‘Pink Champion’), begonia ( Begonia elatior hybrids) and sinningia( Sinningia speciosa Benth) under different cultivation conditions, which mainly in four aspects: water, potassium, light quality and elevated CO2 concentration. In addition to understand the pubic preference on indoor ornamentals color in different space, this research also conducted a survey on indoor ornamentals color matching. For the water management aspect, we conducted four irrigation test with different treatments: 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% field capacity (FC) on the three plants mentioned above and investigated their morphology, photosynthesis, vegetation index and then determined their ability of CO2 absorption by taking a fumigation test. The result shows that anthurium, begonia and sinningia all have highest CO2 absorption under 60% FC treatment. Anthurium has highest ornamental level when irrigated at 40%-60% FC. Begonia and sinningia both have highest ornamental level when irrigated at 60%-80% FC. In the potassium management test, we conducted five potassium concentration treatments: 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 mM on the three plants mentioned above and investigated their morphology, photosynthesis, vegetation index and then determined their ability of CO2 absorption by taking a fumigation test. The result shows that anthurium, begonia and sinningia all have highest CO2 absorption under 8 mM treatment. Anthurium has highest ornamental level under all potassium treatments. Begonia has highest ornamental level under 0~4 mM treatments. Sinningia has highest ornamental level under 6~8 mM treatments. In the light quality management test, we conducted two LED (light-emitting diode) treatments: white and R7B2 (red/blue=7/2) on the three plants mentioned above and investigated their morphology, photosynthesis, vegetation index and then determined their ability of CO2 absorption by taking a fumigation test in order to find the best condition for maximizing CO2 absorption and ornamental level. The result shows that anthurium, begonia and sinningia all have highest CO2 absorption and ornamental level under white treatment. In the elevated CO2 concentration test, we conducted four CO2 concentration treatments: 500 ppm, 1200 ppm, 2400 ppm and 4800 ppm on anthurium and sinningia and determined their ability of CO2 absorption in short term by taking a fumigation test. The result shows that they both have highest CO2 absorption under 2400 ppm treatment, then 4800 ppm, 1200 ppm and 500 ppm. Besides the lab experiments mentioned above, we also conducted a survey on indoor ornamentals color matching. We use pictures with 6 different colored begonia (yellow, orange, red, pink, blue and white) combined with 4 different indoor environments (living room, dinning room, bedroom and bathroom) to conduct a public preference survey. The statistics shows color preference order in living room is yellow, red, white, pink, orange, blue. Preference order in dining room is yellow, white, orange, pink, red, blue. And in bedroom: yellow, white, blue, pink, orange and red; in bathroom the order reverses: blue, white pink, yellow, red and then orange. In terms of color perception, the highest rank is termed as “Soft and Calm”, then “Lilting”. “Gorgeous” or “Dazzling” kind environments are the least preferred. To sum up, we recommend the irrigation treatment for indoor plants as 60% field capacity. The irrigation frequency for high photosynthesis rate plants is one per 4 days, one per 7 days for low photosynthesis rate plants. This condition balances the best between water conservation and elevating CO2 absorption. The potassium managements are quite dependent on plant characteristics. High potassium is recommended for high photosynthesis rate plants in order to maintain stomatal conductance and photosynthesis rate. However high potassium concentration may accelerate metabolism for low photosynthesis plants and shorten the lifetime for ornamentation. In our study we find pure white light would be better for indoor plant growing, and CO2 absorption reaches the bottleneck when the CO2 concentration exceeds 2400ppm. Thus air exchange is needed when the concentration is higher than 3000ppm. Public survey shows yellow colored plants preference in living room, dining room and bedroom, and blue preference in bathroom.