# How much oxygen do growing plants produce?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-oxygen-do-growing-plants-produce/298562>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 9, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-oxygen-do-growing-plants-produce/298562 "2005-04-09T15:02:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WiseBream](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/848f3c/32.png) [@WiseBream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WiseBream)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2005, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-oxygen-do-growing-plants-produce/298562/1 "2005-04-09T15:02:26Z")

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Using my memory of GCE General Science 1 and 2 I worked out that a plant increasing in mass by 1 kilo would produce almost 800 grams of oxygen. That seems like an awful lot to me, some mistake surely.

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**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-oxygen-do-growing-plants-produce/298562/2 "2005-04-10T03:09:01Z")

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Since no one else has tried I’ll try a WAG that grossly oversimplies things so I’m probably wrong but this may prompt someone who paid attention in biochem to give me a dose of STFU give a correct answer.

Let’s make some wood. Inputs are H[sub]2[/sub]O, CO[sub]2[/sub] and warm sunshine. Outputs are O[sub]2[/sub] and [C[sub]6[/sub]H[sub]10[/sub]O[sub]5[/sub] (Cellulose)](http://www.tis-gdv.de/tis_e/ware/fasern/zellulos/zellulos.htm). We’ll need five water molecules and six of carbon dioxide to make one molecule of cellulose and six of oxygen. Rounding off [atmic weights](http://www.webelements.com/) to the nearest whole gives 162 for (1) cellulose and 192 for (6)oxygen molecules. AFAIK you can’t have a plant made out of **only** cellulose but it doesn’t look like your mass ratios are unreasonable.