Heller Greenhouse260-238-4040

If a person was sealed in an air tight room with plants, these plants have enough sunlight (lamp light) and water to thrive of course. How many plants would be needed to keep one person breathing perpetually? What is the most efficient plant available for this scenario?

Sealed room survival
Terrestrial plants do not recycle inorganic CO2 fast enough. Algae are the organisms NASA uses. This should give you a very rough point of comparison to the number of plants or algae needed to supply oxygen for life support.
"A net production of 500 g to 600 g of dry algae per man per day is required for oxygen regeneration" This would be about 5 – 6 Kg wet algae. This would then need a tank and water to be grown.
http://cedb.asce.org/cgi/WWWdisplay.cgi?7000907
Air quality & treeshttp://www.coloradotrees.org/benefits.htm
"6 liters of algae water will produce… 600 liters of oxygen, and consume 720 liters of CO2" thus 6 liters of algae water per person will supply sufficient oxygen.
http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3g.html
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/publications/newsletters/lpib/lpib85/plants.html
But it takes "17.5 trees per person" to produce oxygen however 20 trees per person are needed to consume the CO2 per person according to NASA. 20 trees versus 6L of algae.
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/About/Education/SpaceSettlement/Contest/Results/96/winner/seis.html

I am pretty new to the world of gardening, and I’d love to join a group where I can learn from fellow gardeners and get together, etc…the only problem is that I haven’t a clue as to how to go about finding such a group. I live in Scranton, PA. I’ve googled it every way I could think of and have come up empty.

Any ideas for me? Thanks.

The very best gardening club is the Master Gardeners. This link below will connect you to the closest chapter. These folks are serious gardeners who want to help other learn about gardening.

My back yard has no shade and gets very hot in the summer (100+). Any suggestions on what type of flowers to plant.

Marigolds, California poppies, ice plant, and bouganvillea do well. Plant some oak trees for shade, they are very drought resistant.