J
J Henry
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Why would you pump CO2 into nutrient water for the roots (>dissolved Co2, DCO2)? Do plants absorb CO2 through the leaves, toots or stems?One way to tell if you are pumping co2 into your roots... You would see a drop in pH.
Ops, I meant to type roots, not toots.Why would you pump CO2 into nutrient water for the roots (>dissolved Co2, DCO2)? Do plants absorb CO2 through the leaves, toots or stems?
I seeIt doesn't matter how CO2 is absorbed in this case... What matters, is that when CO2 and water mix, a weak acid is formed and the pH drops.
The lesson to take with this one is, leave your air pump outside of a CO2 enriched room.
I don't know much about the nutrient DO water quality parameters for growing hydroponic tomatoes, lettuce and water mellons, but I like to eat them.I don't think it's worth it, I couldn't find anything that shows it to make bigger buds :cry:
Here's a lettuce DO study link, no difference in growth at different DO levels
http://www.actahort.org/books/440/440_36.htm
Here's a tomato study, no difference up to about 4x ambient O2, stunted growth at higher concentrations than 4x
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423807001203
Here's a watermelon study with no significant difference in plant/fruit biomass
http://wwwlib.teiep.gr/images/stories/acta/Acta 697/697_1.pdf
Do you practice RDWC? In your 2 part answer, let's take the oxygenation part first. 1. What DO saturation do you consider oxygenation insufficient to prevent and stop root rot? 2. What DO saturation is good sufficient oxygenation and will prevent root rot?Basic stuff: 2 ways to stop/prevent root rot and associated issues is water temp too warm and insufficient DO by using too small air pumps and stones
I agree with you that airstones are very inefficient devices to oxygenate water when air is your source gas... air is 80% Nirogen so all those bubbles are mostly just nitrogen with very little oxygen.There is a point where water will no longer absorb o2. The higher the temp the lower that point is so cooler water can hold more DO. Secondly airstones are very inefficient at introducing o2 to water. Much better off using a flume or a waterfall imo.
There would be no point In using an o2 generator because you can easily reach the maximum do potential of your water with a flume.
I have no airstones in my rdwc
Do you practice RDWC? In your 2 part answer, let's take the oxygenation part first. 1. What DO saturation do you consider oxygenation insufficient to prevent and stop root rot? 2. What DO saturation is good sufficient oxygenation and will prevent root rot?
Why is there any difference between oxygen and air? It all looks, taste and smells the same as CO2 to me.
J
Thanks a lot.Here's a lengthy article on pythium..
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=s0100-54052006000400001&script=sci_arttext
Basically it says pythium is everywhere, prevention is difficult for initial exposure even in a pretty sterile environment. The best ways to fight pythium are 1. increased DO levels, much beyond the 7-8mg/l you get from just bubbling air, 2. lower water temps, best below 68f 3.biological agents such as beneficial bacteri, probably what's in some of those additives ( I don't cause I choose to avoid the bio problem, I kill everything in the root zone and have bright white roots!)
So your initial idea of using an oxygen generator will help reduce the pythium problem, so go for it! I was only looking at plant production increases, not root problems.
There's also a link fomr the farm for one of the referenced articles from the above,
https://www.thcfarmer.com/community...-in-hydroponic-crops-current-knowledge.43017/
With all the root rot problems I hear about, the biggest problem is clearly low oxygen, seldom enough oxygen and I've never heard of anyone having any problem from too much oxygen. Do you know anyone personally that ever had a problem with too much oxygen? I personally know of none.02 is not a sanitizer. Further, too much dissolved oxygen, and you will burn your plants up no matter how little your EC is.
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