This study aimed to analyze the growth and physical responsees of Dracaena braunii in response salt accumulation in ornamental water culture and to examine the effect of activated carbon on this growth response. The experiment was conducted in a plant growth chamber and the indoor environmental conditions of the chamber were set at 23 ± 1℃ temperature, 70 ± 3% humidity, and 1,000 lux brightness. The observation of the growth response of plants in the presence of activated carbon showed that the pH with activated carbon maintained sub-acidic to neutral (6.27∼7.32) conditions and showed decreased electric conductivity in the media. As the treatment with added activated carbon showed good growth and physical responses, this indicated that absorption effect of activated carbon had a positive influence on the growth of plants. However, as the absorption effect of activated carbon may decrease over time and the use of high concentrations of activated carbon might cause nutrition shortage, various concentration of activated carbon and their absorption effects need to be investigated in the future.
In order to determine the short-term impact induced by chloride ionic, CaCl2 was used to study the chloride ionic effects of salinity on substrate and growth of Dracacena braunii grown in ornamental hydro-culture. A distilled water (control) was enriched with 10, 20, 50, 100, and 150 g・L -1 of CaCl2, respectively. Before planting, acidity and electronic conductivity values remarkably increased with increasing concentration of CaCl2. However, 4 weeks after planting, acidity values decreased to a slightly acidic pH, while there were not significant differences among electronic conductivity values obtained. Number of root, fresh weight, and total chlorophyll content were significantly decreased in response to CaCl2 concentration in comparison with control, whereas dry weight, water content, and color of stem were no significant effect of CaCl2 concentration less than 20 g・L -1 . These results showed that initial CaCl2 concentrations above 20 g・L -1 is considered to be the threshold value that will sustain the Dracacena braunii in the growth condition and above which plant growth will be retarded.