In an experiment conducted by students attending Michigan State University, they found that plants with a larger caffeine to water ratio grew less than the ones with more water than caffeine added. They used Wisconsin Fast Plants (Brassica Rapa) and gave them different concentrations of caffeine in order to see the effects. They hypothesized that adding significant amounts of caffeine to the plants would be detrimental to the growth of the plants. In the end, not only did their hypothesis prove to be true, but they also found that the plants given caffeine had lower concentrations of proteins as compared to plants given only water. A study published in 2009 found that plants with low doses of caffeine had an increase in growth, while
