HydroSoil: The Future of Soil Growing

[redmud]

And half the next bunch same grow

were setting up the scrogs today

.........

 

[Dr Fish]

You're gonna have to better with the pics if you wanna show your stuff.....

 

[Coronel]

They changed the product when they realized the water chamber, the rocks and the separation pad were useless... (just taking root space): Why well when the blubber makes the small bubbles they will rise until they find a "roof" there the bubbles will coalesce into bigger ones and just pop as a big bubble.

There is DO hapenning when the bubbles are still small in the bottom but you don't need to take root space... when the big bubble breaks in the surface all the water in the pot is displaced and the DO spreads evenly on the solution.


I have set up a DYI test system but not convinced with the results.

For this i used a flowery potted plant I cloned for my wife i don't know the name but a little clone is able to drink about 50ml of water per day so it has a high water intake and tolerance to wet soil. (and looks a lot like the plants he uses for his video)

I cut the top of a 2L coke bottle.
Initially set a hydro basket on the bottom to hold the hose and the air stone.
Filled with soil.
Potted the flowery plant.
Plug aquarium air pump.

After only three days my very healthy clone became a soggy plant, the leaves droop and are soft, looks like over-watering, so some root rot might be taking place.


I took it out and discovered that the soil sedimented and filled the hydro basket in the bottom thus rendering it totally useless and reducing the amount of soil and usable space available for the plant.


So today i removed the basket just dropped the air stone on the bottom and filled with soil, worm castings and put the plant back.
I will post some picts and keep updated, but so far no good result.

I think my initial test had both too much water and too much air flow so the reaction was too violent and too fast when the bubble was big enough to break the surface so there was no effective exchange of gases in the water.

By removing the basket i got more space for the soil and the plants, actually reducing the layering in the drawing, by having more soil and less water i'm hoping to achieve better gas movement in the media.


My first impressions:



As you see in the drawing:

*Some soil will sediment and cover the airstone making a 3 layer of soil - water - soil

*No matter how good, big or wide your bubbler is, they will start small disolve O2 in the water then they will concentrate/ aggregate on the "Roof" of soil until they are big enough to overcome the weight of the water and soil on top of the bubble.

* When the above mentioned happens, the bubbles tend to find a escape way on the borders of the pot, thus depriving of gas exchange the middle of the pot which is were the actual rootball should be...

*When this happens oxygen is not dissolved on the water, but this should help stirring the water and the mix so the O2 initially dissolved
when the bubbles were small moves around and all the soil/water (mud) has no stratification of O2



That is the theory.

Some detractors claim that by going organic underwater will degrade / contaminate / make the mix foul...

No as long as there is an aerobic gas exchange in the soil, the microorganisms will survive, adapt or be replaced by aerobic organisms that will make the nutes available and as long as there is air 24/7 there should not be an anaerobic reaction.

Others say the air-stone will clog... well as long as it runs 27/7, the positive pressure of air being expelled by the holes will keep the soil out...

 

[Coronel]

pantyhose wouldnt stop roots. roots get through just about everything. they easily grow through my rubber pucks in aero set up. i think the whole idea seems good but its flawed and will give u nothing but trouble. Blocked up airstones for a start.

i don't see what prevents the soil from washing down and clogging the air input area

I'm i missing something or it would be impossible for the stones to clog as long as there is air coming out of its holes constantly ?


Physics and fluid behavior: As long as there is air being forced out by the pump it is impossible for the soil to clog anything (positive pressure)

 

[Coronel]

please delete

 

[Coronel]

ok, my test has been running for a week now, first four days the plant was wilting, i changed the setup as described above and after three days the remaining leaves are harder and pointing to the light and there is new grow on the plant.

i'm tking pictures but since adding them is a hassle i will wait more time to upload several in one go.

i don't know if lady M will love it but my test flowery plant is doing better.

next topping will launch the cuttings in this system and see...

also it ocurred to me that my aquarium plants were not growing much and i added today 13/01/17 a split hose with another stone under the gravel, will report on this too (thou i don't think it will raise much interest here hehehe)

 

[GnomeGrown420]

trying add a pic

 

[GnomeGrown420]

My go at hydrosoil

 

[GnomeGrown420]

Going into Bloom, Dont want her getting to big I have limited space

 

[Jedward]

Interesting concept. Hope someone grows using that method soon and posts with a journal.

 

[Jedward]

i don't see what prevents the soil from washing down and clogging the air input area

The water table and rock buffer prevents the soil from washing down

 

[Jedward]

On a basic level the concept seems sound but i see flaws. This IMO would only be worth doing if using pure organics, if u were to add nutes i'd just go full dwc and benefit from the faster growth rates. But even then i thing there are way more effecient ways to grow.

Water temps will be an issue, it would be hard for the water to be kept below 70f as no chiller could be used. It wouldnt take long for the res to reach room temp. then u could be looking at drenched medium with less oxygen due to the over saturation of the soil and the unability of the water to carry dissolved oxygen. Its dissolved oxygen in the water that the roots want.

once u get any sizeable plant the res would need fill daily if not more often. if u used a 5 gallon bucket with a gallon of that space as the res the roots would dry that out in no time, the roots would grow into the hydroton and u effectively end up with a dry soil as the roots would wick the liquid straight from the bottom.

I this would also keep humidity raised in the grow room, the more plants u run, the more humidity there would be and in flower high humidity causes probs.

These are just my opinions, i havent used a set up like this but im experienced in hydro and currently have a soil dwc running. Once the roots break through the soil they just sit in the res, i dont see this being any different.

The soil protects the roots from the heat just like it would outside. The water also helps keep the soil temp regulated on the cooler side