Virtual Plant Growth Laboratory
Grow a seedling to maturity by tuning sunlight, water, temperature, CO₂, humidity and soil nutrients, and watch it wilt, stunt or thrive.
Height (green) and biomass ×20 (brown), vs simulated day.
Photosynthetic rate % (orange) and water use per day in mL ×5 (blue).
About the Virtual Plant Growth Laboratory
Free virtual plant growth laboratory. Grow a seedling to maturity by tuning sunlight, water, temperature, CO₂, humidity and soil nutrients, and watch it wilt, stunt or thrive. Drag, change the sliders and see the result live. No sign-up, works on phone and computer. Built for botany, the virtual plant growth laboratory runs instantly in your browser: change a setting or drag an object and the result updates at once, so you learn by trying things out rather than only reading about them.
Grow a seedling to maturity by tuning sunlight, water, temperature, CO₂, humidity and soil nutrients, and watch it wilt, stunt or thrive. Use it to explore botany ideas at your own pace, then check what you found against the key ideas further down this page.
How to use the Virtual Plant Growth Laboratory
- Use the controls to change Sunlight, CO₂ concentration, Temperature, Watering level, Air humidity, and more. The simulation reacts instantly.
- Press "Ideal greenhouse", "Drought", "Cold & dark", "Replant seedling" to start, reset or change what is happening.
- Where you see a glowing handle, object, weight or atom, drag it with your mouse or finger. Everything responds in real time.
- Watch the readouts and graphs update as you experiment, and compare what you see with the key ideas below.
Things to try
- Run the Ideal greenhouse preset and watch the S-shaped logistic growth curve.
- Switch to Drought and see which factor the readout blames.
- Push nutrients to zero and watch the leaves turn pale.
- Try to reach 100 cm height in fewer than 30 simulated days.
Key ideas you can learn
- A plant's growth follows a logistic curve: fast in the middle of life, slowing as it nears its maximum size.
- Liebig's law of the minimum says growth is capped by whichever resource is scarcest, not by the average of all resources.
- Too little water wilts a plant; too much drowns the roots by cutting off oxygen.
- Photosynthetic rate depends on light, CO₂ and temperature together, while overall growth also needs water and nutrients.
Where this is used in the real world
Greenhouse managers, agronomists and hydroponic growers all balance exactly these six factors to maximise crop growth while minimising water and fertiliser use.
Who is this simulation for?
Students, teachers and curious learners of all ages.
For teachers: project it on the board, let students predict what will happen, then run it together. For students: change one thing at a time and write down what changes.
Frequently asked questions
What is Liebig's law of the minimum?
It states that growth is limited by the scarcest necessary resource, not by the total or average of all resources available.
Why does overwatering hurt a plant?
Waterlogged soil pushes air out of the pore spaces, so roots cannot get the oxygen they need and start to suffocate and rot.
Is the Virtual Plant Growth Laboratory free to use?
Yes. It is completely free, with no signup, no download and no ads inside the simulation. It runs in your web browser.
Does the Virtual Plant Growth Laboratory work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. It uses touch as well as the mouse, so you can drag objects with your finger. A larger screen makes the controls easier to see.