New Grower The Subterranean Air Pocket method

[Kalianepic]

So after taking what I knew about the benefits of highly oxygenated water, and meditating on FDs notes about increasing yield in small containers, especially the parts about increasing o2 content in the soil, I began to come up with an idea...

Highly oxygenated water seeps down into the soil releasing its wonderful o2 molecules into all of the small gaps and pockets in the soil as it goes, here the oxygen waits until it is absorbed by the root system, but the roots love o2 and the supply in the soil will be depleted quickly.
Trying to supply an unlimited amount of oxygen to the roots through oxygenated water would quickly lead to over watering problems, but there has got to be a way to supply the roots of a soil plant with amount of oxygen available to the roots in a hydro system. Most of us amend our soils with lots of different sized particles to create these small air gaps but what if we took it a step farther...

So here is what I'm going to be experimenting with, I have three five gallon buckets, all will contain my standard soil mix, all will grow identical phenos of the same strain, and all will receive identical water, compost tea, and nutes. The only difference between them will be that one is solid soil, one will have four, eight oz air pockets spaced equally within the bucket and the third will have a single 1 ltr air pocket located in the center on the bucket. If necessary I could install thin breather tubes between individual pockets and the outside providing even more ventilation to the roots, but that will just have to wait.

Anyway, I just wanted to toss this out there and see what kind of response came back, I'd love to have a few other people test this method out and see what happens, I feel like this could be a big deal for auto yields if it could be fine tuned.

 

[AndyBotwin]

Definitely need more explanation of the air pockets. Seems like you'd need something rigid to keep it from collapsing, but it would obviously need to be permeable to the roots.

Sounds like an interesting experiment. :thumbs:

 

[SmashedbyHashish]

Being a welder by trade I've tossed a many of o2 bottles, I've thought of useing 1/4" air line & sprialing it in a bucket of soil w/ pin holes. Then hook that to an o2 bottle & regulatorallowing it to constantly but gradully bleed o2. Ain't got there yet tho.

 

[blackout]

Does anybody add hydrogen peroxide to their water? it will degrade into oxygen and also kill some nasties, maybe would kill some beneficial stuff too though.

In mushroom cultivation H2O2 is known to kill spores, but not living tissue/mould.

 

[Kalianepic]

Oh, sorry guys, I forgot that I was the only one who knew exactly what I was talking about, its kinda stoney in here.

For the small pockets I'm using eight oz plastic cups that have had about four slits, each about an eighth of an inch wide, cut in the bottom. The cups sit "upside down" with the slits up and then are back filled around. The pockets in the multiple bucket are situated in a spiral from about three inches below the surface all the way down to about five inches from the bottom. My thinking here being that this would allow the roots to discover and invade new air pockets as they develop. For the single centralized air pocket I used a 1 ltr soda bottle and drilled about twenty eighth inch holes in the bottom, and then I cut off about two inches from the top of the bottle to open it up and placed it upside down in the bucket as well. My thinking here being that it would give the roots a long dangle and expose lots of root tissue to the air.

In a later expiriment if I chose to use breather tubes, I would simpily connect the air pockets to the air outside the bucket using quarter inch plastic hose. Capillary action would then pull air through the lines, or if you wanted to you could suck some fresh air in there manually. lol.

I do expect some soil to wash into the air pockets as water forces it to settle, but they defiantly shouldn't fill up completely, and it wont be very long before the roots of the plant will stop any more soil from washing in. I suppose if you wanted to remedy this, you could cut the bottom of the cup off completely and stick the whole thing inside of an old sock, the roots would grow right through the fabric, but you would lose some of the structural integrity of the cup which is important because it does have to support a fair amount of weight inside the bucket.

 

[stoneyhomer]

liking the idea thinking i will give it a go as for air gaps im thinking airflow golf balls got a few ready to pot up so im in

 

[Northern Grower]

sounds interesting! I look froward to your results.

 

[riz]

What about air pruning? Won't that have an effect? I like the idea of the 1 pocket but have a straw or something to allow fresh air in. Or stick an air pump on a timer and have it push air through once and hour or so

 

[Kalianepic]

The problem with an air pump would be that too much dry air is inhospitible to the roots and that might cause dead spots within the root system. I would like to supply most or all of the air in the pockets with the gas off that takes place when the o2'ed water trickles down through the soil. Hopefully this will ensure that even though the roots have got a gnarly open air dangle, its still at or close to 100% humidity.

 

[hitman_64]

Like the idea..need to cipher on it a bit. I'm sure if I try hard enough my old stubborn arse will figure out some reason not to like it. serious enough though it sounds plausible.