Current experiment being done...

I'm growing two plants in one 4x4 tent right now, and put them each into a 10 gal tote. In the bottom of the totes are two 4 inch cylindrical air stones, spaced evenly apart and mostly in the middle(ish) part of the tote. I then just about covered those (and the bottom) with about 2 inches of Hydroton in the bottom. After this, I mixed up 1/3 Sunshine Advanced Mix #4 (Peat Moss, Coco, Perlite) with 2/3 Coco+additional Perlite.

This is something HushPuppy and I have been talking about for a couple months, and seems like it should be a HIT with anything, not just Hydro.

:)

are you going to run the air pump 24/7?

only thought that comes to (my) mind is that air flow might dry out your "soil" faster than normal

good luck

Yea, I'm going to run it 24/7. I also am going to water everyday I'm guessing. I watered my 3gal coco pots everyday my other runs, so I expect that with this one. I may even make up a large tote and use drip lines into the totes with a timer. Not 100% sure about that yet.

right on.

I just started growing 5 weeks ago so I don't know JACK, just throwing out thoughts.

can't wait to get past the learning stage, I'm always trying to think outside the norm but @ this point I still need to learn what the "norm" IS . LOL

what is your Hypothesis?

Well HushPuppy and I speak quite a lot.... and during one of our convo's, I had mentioned that I was going to run just two plants this round in my 4x4 and make them as wide as possible. Well he and I really love Hydro, and if I had the right setup to run just 2 and make them big in Hydro, I would've... instead, I had lots of Sunshine / Coco / Perlite.

Hypothesis: If you take a lot of medium, in my case 10 gal totes with coco etc, and aerate the roots, it should help plant grow vigorously and keep an aerated medium.

Basically, I was going to drill holes in the bottom area of the totes, line with 2" of Hydroton with the 4" cylindrical air stones, then put the medium over the top of all of that. In theory, I should have wonderful drainage properties, and more aeration that that of a Smart Pot. Considering there's not TOO much aeration you can have with a plastic tote, this should certainly help. I feed my medium everyday in coco either way, so this just solidifies the need to feed it every day. I shouldn't have much left over moisture when I go to water.

I'm not sure as if this has been tried much, but I'm giving it a proper go! :)

I wish I got pics for you all, but this all happened within a 10 hour work day on the room. I wasn't about to go down and snag the camera in the middle of it, but I should've had it ready.

Will keep you all posted and reply to any questions.

well dr green i might be able to help u with this one there is a system that does what your tying to do you dont have to make you own.its called air injection technology . it might just help u out. here the link
http://modularhydro.com/ProductReviews/A...Technology.html

Good link Sin.

Instead of using air stones, why not try drilling small holes in some tubing and coil the tubing in your soil-less medium? Might work better?

It just may have worked better PCDuck.. good call.

So far, so good on my air stones though. Not sure how it's all working out, but we'll see :)

Hey Fellas; I read about this "soil aeration" in an article and it seemed intriguing to me. The whole purpose of root aeration is obvious to experienced growers. The difference here is that while the smart pots allow aeration throughout the sides, into the soil, and hydro systems aerate the water that constantly passes around the roots, in a bigger pot of medium that doesn't have the same properties as the smart pots, there is a great propensity for a lack of aeration in the center and deeper parts of the pot which only gets aeration from the top as the moisture drops. I don't think this idea would work real good in organic soil as it is much more dense (unless greatly mixed with highly porous materials), but for soilless mixes that have superior drainage properties, this aeration will both aerate the soil and oxygenate the moisture within it which can only be beneficial to the plants. :-)

PC; I think the hose coil with air holes coiled down through the pot to the bottom would be ideal. Good idea indeed. I think some variations will certainly arise from this if it works as well as I believe it will. When enough smart people see something like this and put it to thought, some really good ideas have to come out of it. :-)

you make a good point hush . they have what what you and pc are talking about check it out. its from the link

Oh hey Sin, you're right! Those spider things are quite awesome looking!

like 4u said, id bet ur pump will most likely burn out. my guess why would be that regardless what ur placing above the air stones/diffusers, anytime you water its gonna drag down particulate as well as microbes etc, and wit all that fresh O2 my thinking is it'll be like a party down there and end up getting gunked up in the air stones thus causin ur pump to work harder burning it out.
I just know that even when I brew up teas, my air stones will get gunked up and the bubbles will be less diffused, then I pull out the airstones formt he brew and rub/rinse them off and its back to normal all nice tiny diffused bubles.
but PCducks idea I too think would be a better approach at what ur tryin to do.
good luck whatever u do tho. itd be interestin to see how it works. never know unless u try I guess.

Indeed, I understand where you're all coming from. One thing to take note of, is I did 2 inches of Hydroton in the bottom and surrounded the 4 inch cylindrical stones with this. Sure, the top has soil on it, but I'm not sure if it'd get clogged considering all the hydroton around it.

I sure don't want to burn up this pump or cause issues. Considering bailing out :(

I don't think it will be a problem as the medium is different from the more dense "soil", and there is less of any kind of "mud" being created that will go to the bottom and clog the bubblers. Also the constant air pushing out should keep the particulate matter pushed away enough, unlike in water where the water is constantly on the stones where super tiny particulate material can be deposited. I suspect they will get clogged some over the length of the grow but not enough to create an issue.

The dirt is absolutely going to filter down and fill all the spaces between the hydrotron. I am just not seeing where this is going to be of any real benefit. If you start with a good soil with good drainage capabilities, this shouldn't be necessary or really be in any way beneficial?????

Sorry to be a downer DGF, but i use a pencil inserted about 4 times in my pots... does the trick. Interesting idea though.

Fang ,I think you should give it a try. How are you gonna know if it works unless you try it

Oh, I'm doing it as we type over this. I see it aerating and having potential of not clogging, but certainly everyone that's chimed in have had quality thoughts and points.

I will take a hose off each day and blow through to check and see if there's any clogging.

take a hose off? maybe I misread ya. aren't you using the air stones attached to end of the hoses? if not. what botu doing something along the lines of wat duck stated. but just plug the end of ur hose and poke some holes in the end length of hose that's under the medium.
FYI just make sure ur air pump is setting up higher than the exit end of ur hose. that way if u do get any moisture in the line/hose it wont flow down via gravity into ur innards of ur pump. most air pumps actually state this in the manuals that come with them, and tahts in just water , too so...

I still do not understand why?

What is the additional air suppose to do? Air prune all the roots? Plants need some roots.

If your soil is compacting, found out why, could be many things, from not enough perlite ,to too much Mg.

IMO there will be no gain. Just a lot of watering with a high possibility of over-fertilization,due to the soil drying out constantly.
I would save the money and move forward towards adding CO2. I think there has been quite of few growers try this in soil and they did not see any gains just wasted money

@Zip: Take the hose off the end that is attached to the air pump :)

@PCDuck: Yeah, I don't know, just an experiment really. My Soilless isn't compacting... and there's nothing that made me say "hey I have to do this or else" ...It's more of an experiment really. Something HushPuppy and I had discussed.