Adding air pumps to coco?

[CurtisLemay]

This is a little unorthodox but does anyone have any information in regards to adding some air lines that would hopefully give the roots in coco coir even more oxygen?

Had a hydro disaster and had some extra air pumps. I turned them on and inserted the air-lines into the coco after making a cavity with a screwdriver where the potholes are. I don't think this is going to hurt anything and is the main reason I decided to do this. Anyone have any experience with adding extra oxygen via air-pumps to coco coir?

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

This is a little unorthodox but does anyone have any information in regards to adding some air lines that would hopefully give the roots in coco coir even more oxygen?

Had a hydro disaster and had some extra air pumps. I turned them on and inserted the air-lines into the coco after making a cavity with a screwdriver where the potholes are. I don't think this is going to hurt anything and is the main reason I decided to do this. Anyone have any experience with adding extra oxygen via air-pumps to coco coir?

I think the only way an air pump is going to ad any appreciable amount of oxygen to the situation would be for the air pump to be making bubbles in a saturation of water... If you coco is that wet, you're probably over watering. You did not mention the nature of your 'disaster', and maybe that would spawn some more helpful suggestions.

mgk

 

[Work2much]

I've tried it on some larger pots. What I did was place a 2" pipe vertically just off center of the pot, fill aroud it with coco, then fill inside it with the air tube with 1/16" holes drilled in it all the way down and then fill around the rest of the pipe with perlite and pulled the pipe out carefully.

I'm not sure it made any difference in growth sadly, it was fun though.

 

[CurtisLemay]

@maynard: The disaster spawned from either a light leak or brown algae. Hydro seemed hit or miss and worked very well when no problems developed. But I had to kill 3 plants that were getting thumbsized stems and were filling up a ScrOG very nicely. So is life. Bought some 2' clones and they seem to be reacting very well to the coco. NYCD is a very vigorous plant when you give her some loving. My only question is whether a week in coco from rockwool is enough time before I start flowering.

@work: It sounds like you tried it very thoroughly, guess I'll just leave it be.

 

[MaynardG_Krebs]

@maynard: The disaster spawned from either a light leak or brown algae. Hydro seemed hit or miss and worked very well when no problems developed. But I had to kill 3 plants that were getting thumbsized stems and were filling up a ScrOG very nicely. So is life. Bought some 2' clones and they seem to be reacting very well to the coco. NYCD is a very vigorous plant when you give her some loving. My only question is whether a week in coco from rockwool is enough time before I start flowering.

My own approach (not that that means it's the right one) is to wait to see signs of vigor after the transplant before doing anything. It indicates to me that the roots are active and doing their job.. if they show that and I feel they are mature enough, I'll jam em into 12/12.. I usually aim for 8 to 10 inches tall depending on the amount of anticipated stretch..

mgk

 

[CurtisLemay]

@MGK: Well then I better get my girls to flowering then considering they're at about 2' right now.

One thing I may do instead of adding an air pump into the coco is try to dissolve oxygen in a container of cold water and then water the plant with that. Anyone have any experience with dissolving oxygen into cold water?

 

[Duckmang]

I tried it when I first started with coco. Didn't really seem to do anything. I'd suspect that this was b/c coco already has such an amazing ability to hold air to start with that the additional supply was redundant.

 

[knewbreed]

Best way to get oxygen to your roots in Coco is to use either Coco Coir cointainers or Smart pot or gro pots. These are really the only containers that should be used with Coco. Plastic does not give use the correct air exchange and leaves ur coco wet and soggy which is detrimental to roots. Also the size of the container should not be more than 3 gallons. We want a compact root base that is tight not spreadout like in soil. In coco and other hydro media 30% of overall growth is for roots 70% for top plant growth. In soil its completely opposite.

Also the best way to add oxygen to rez is to add a small water pump and have it come up out of the water to and elbow and recirculate to create a waterfall effect this will add oxygen more efficiantly to ur rez. Using an air stone, think about it, the bubbles float to top of the water and pop when they reach the top, the oxygen NEVER gets into the water in the rez it just goes into the air.

Also if your using canna as ur nutirent base a air pump with a stone will seperate your nutirents, I learned this the hard way lol.

 

[brobrobro]

Best way to get oxygen to your roots in Coco is to use either Coco Coir cointainers or Smart pot or gro pots. These are really the only containers that should be used with Coco. Plastic does not give use the correct air exchange and leaves ur coco wet and soggy which is detrimental to roots. Also the size of the container should not be more than 3 gallons. We want a compact root base that is tight not spreadout like in soil. In coco and other hydro media 30% of overall growth is for roots 70% for top plant growth. In soil its completely opposite.

Also the best way to add oxygen to rez is to add a small water pump and have it come up out of the water to and elbow and recirculate to create a waterfall effect this will add oxygen more efficiantly to ur rez. Using an air stone, think about it, the bubbles float to top of the water and pop when they reach the top, the oxygen NEVER gets into the water in the rez it just goes into the air.

Also if your using canna as ur nutirent base a air pump with a stone will seperate your nutirents, I learned this the hard way lol.

im using coco in 5 gal plastic pots, will this be a problem?

 

[OjoRojo420]

"Best way to get oxygen to your roots in Coco is to use either Coco Coir cointainers or Smart pot or gro pots. These are really the only containers that should be used with Coco. Plastic does not give use the correct air exchange and leaves ur coco wet and soggy which is detrimental to roots."

Very good advice and explains some of my mistakes in the past.

Thank!

 

[benzo]

Also if your using canna as ur nutirent base a air pump with a stone will seperate your nutirents, I learned this the hard way lol.

Hey, I have a 18 gallon Rubbermaid container with 10 gallons of mixed GH nutes.

Will my air stones separate the nutrients like you just mentioned?

 

[turbolaser4528]

Hey, I have a 18 gallon Rubbermaid container with 10 gallons of mixed GH nutes.

Will my air stones separate the nutrients like you just mentioned?

Floranova will definitely be ok with an air pump, regular gh micro/bloom should be 2.

I'm also curious about supplementing oxygen to get the most out of coco as I believe that (lower oxygen levels) is what is keeping Cococoir from being better than hydroponics.

Maybe imlementing some Freedom/Krusty bucket methodology could be of help; insert a wick into pail of coco that goes out bottom of pail into ravenously bubbling nutrient solution.


If my mind serves me right, I believe that highly oxygenated water will be drawn up the wick into the media, thus elevating the O2 levels above 30% in the root zone.


There's gotta be someone doing this already, I know this can be done.