Benefits of Air (oxygen)

Clean air supplies oxygen which is an excellent purifier for plants and the aeroponic environment. It is required for all life including plants. For natural growth to occur the plant must have unrestricted access to air. Plants must be allowed to grow in natural manner for successful physiological development. The more confining the plant support becomes the greater incidence of increasing disease pressure of the plant and the aeroponic system.

Some researchers have used aeroponics to study the effects of root zone gas composition on plant performance. Soffer and Burger [Soffer et al., 1988] studied the effects of dissolved oxygen concentrations on the formation of adventitious roots in what they termed “aero-hydroponics.” They utilized a 3-tier hydro and aero system, in which three separate zones were formed within the root area. The ends of the roots were submerged in the nutrient reservoir, while the middle of the root section received nutrient mist and the upper portion was above the mist. Their results showed that dissolved O2 is essential to root formation, but went on to show that for the three O2 concentrations tested, the number of roots and root length were always greater in the central misted section than either the submersed section or the un-misted section. Even at the lowest concentration, the misted section rooted successfully.

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Hydroponics (water culture)

Hydroponics (water culture) uses lots of water and essential minerals to sustain plant growth. Hydroponic growing requires the roots to be submerged in water or water soaked aggregate, with air bubbled into the mix. While in-vitro (meaning under glass) tissue culture utilizes an agar media to supply the necessary essentials to sustain cell growth.Aeroponics offers something to plants that hydroponics, to a degree, can't get enough of – and that is air (Oxygen).



Oxygen in the air is what makes all plants live. Plants must have it and have lots of it. Or they become silted and die. (Case in point, a waterlogged plant dies because it suffocates due to lack of air. Even though it's leaves maybe blowing in a gentle breeze - it's roots starve for oxygen.)Aeroponics is all about air --and lots of it-- especially when air is combined with micro-droplets of water. Add a few trace minerals and macro-nutrients to the water and almost any plant can grow to maturity in air.

Aeroponic systems are favored over other methods of hydroponics because the increased aeration of nutrient solution delivers more oxygen to plant roots, stimulating growth and preventing pathogen formation.

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