Aerating Water For Plants

Do you know if aerating water for your plants is necessary? Well, definitely yes! Have you ever wondered how plants can sit a long time in a hydroponic system without drowning? The trick is the air supplied. If you don’t provide your hydroponic plants with adequate oxygen, they will drown or suffocate.

The root of plants must be supplied with air for optimal growth so aerating water for plants is important. So, plants require oxygen to breathe or respire.

In this post, we will be talking about how to aerate your plants, the importance of aerating your plants, and more. So, read on to learn about this.

How To Aerate Water For Plants

When you aerate your water for hydroponic plants, you’re introducing dissolved oxygen (DO) to the system. The dissolved oxygen is usually ready to be assimilated by the plant roots. So, we can aerate our hydroponic system in the following ways:

1.    Airstone With Air Pump

One of the easiest ways of aerating water for plants is by using air stone connected to an air pump. They are very affordable and easily accessible. Air stones also come in different sizes and shapes, thus you will always find one that is suitable for your hydroponic system.

So, air stone provides oxygenation by pushing the air pump through the stones. Because the air stone is quite porous, the air is split into a large bunch of bubbles. However, this large bubble may not be so efficient. This is because large bubbles tend to rise rapidly and they may end up not reaching plant roots.

The good news is that the air stones we find in the market now generate smaller bubbles. Thus, this makes their job done more efficiently.

2.    Automatic Siphon System

The automatic siphon mechanism provides air to the plants by exposing the plant root system. This process is common in the ebb and flow system whereby the grow bed is drained and the plant root system is exposed to air.

The automatic siphon system comes in various forms. They include loop, bell, and U shape and all of these mechanisms work on the same principle.

The mechanism of action works this way: when the water level in the grow bed moves up and rises, it gets to a point it begins to go down. The water levels go down a tube called the standpipe. As the standpipe fills up, there is a suction created with a vacuum that pulls the water away from the grow bed.

So the plant root is exposed to air for a while and the water goes up again and the process repeats on and on.

Auto-Siphon Mini with 6 Feet of Tubing and Clamp

3.    Air Diffuser

Using an air diffuser is another method of supplying aerated water to your plant root. Air diffusers comprise bendable tubes with holes in them that help emit air into water. Even though air stones are capable of distributing air evenly, air diffusers will supply smaller bubbles. Thus, most of these smaller bubbles usually get to the plant roots.

This is the biggest advantage of air diffusers over air stones (bubbles size). However, various brands are now manufacturing sir stones with smaller bubbles because of the growing interest in hydroponics.

4.    Oxygen Gap

Some hydroponics system like Kratky method and NFT offers oxygen through an air gap. The nutrient solution should be placed in the grow bed. Allow the plant root to touch the nutrient solution and leave a gap for the rest of the plant body. There will always be enough air between the air gap created and the nutrient solution that will ensure the plant receives oxygen.

5.    Root Hanging

The last method we will be looking at for aerating water for plants is root hanging. Vertical and Aeroponic system often makes use of root hanging. Rather than allowing the root to sit in a nutrient solution, the nutrient solution can simply be splashed or pumped across the system and comes back to the reservoir. Vertical hydroponics makes use of pumping nutrients. On the other hand, the Aeroponic system makes use of spraying their nutrient solution.

Importance Of Aerating Water For Plants

Aerating your water for plants is very crucial when it comes to hydroponic gardening. So, let’s look at the importance of aerating the water in your plants for their optimal growth:

• Nutrient Uptake: aerating your water for plants is important so that nutrients can be adequately absorbed by the plants’ roots. Thus, when your plants can absorb adequate nutrients, they will grow healthier and result in abundant yield.

• Bacteria Build-up Is Reduced: with optimal dissolved oxygen, the roots are able to respire and there will be a drastic decrease in bacteria build-up. However, if the dissolved oxygen drops, it will cause anaerobic bacteria and fungi to build up. These bacteria build-up affects the plant root and restricts the roots from absorbing important nutrients. So, we definitely want to avoid such.

• Respiration: just as animals and human beings respire, plants also respire. Oxygen is assimilated through the roots of the plants. This same oxygen is also absorbed through the plants’ stomata as well as their stem pores.

Aerating Plants In The Soil

Plants in the soil aren’t left out from dissolved oxygen (DO). They also assimilate important nutrients in the soil through oxygenation. Of course, the air present in the atmosphere provides these soil plants oxygen. Plants can also receive oxygen through air pockets in the soil.

They can also obtain dissolved oxygen from nature through rainwater. Rainwater assimilates dissolved oxygen from the atmosphere before reaching the earth or soil.

However, over-watering your plants can prevent the soil plant from accessing these air pockets thereby reducing dissolved oxygen. This will in turn cause your plant to drown or suffocate. So, ensure you don’t overwater your soil plants.

FAQ’s

Aerating Water For Plants Final Thoughts

There are lots of benefits to aerating water for your plants growing needs. Ensure you provide optimal air to your plants’ roots so they can flourish and give you abundant yields.