Pressure oscillations in a chemical garden.

When soluble metal salts are placed in a silicate solution, chemical gardens grow. These gardens are treelike structures formed of long thin hollow tubes. The growth is driven by the increase in internal pressure from osmosis. One particular case is examined here, calcium chloride in a solution of sodium trisilicate. We directly measure the internal pressure of a silicate garden as it grows via a series of relaxation oscillations. From these observations we deduce the stresses in the membrane and discuss how they influence the growth of tubes. Also we estimate the critical stress and the average Young's modulus for the silicate garden's membrane.