Question about dish soap and water wetters..

..read something awhile ago about the surface tetion (of water) being essential to the plant's ability to move it up the stem.


is this the case?, and ifso, are water wetters a bad idea for soil and hydro (non-foliar water)?

I put a small dot of Dawn liquid detergent in every gallon of water my plants get. Even when I put nutes in the water I use the Dawn.
It actually does make water wetter. It does it by breaking each water drop into smaller drops. Smaller molecules of water are better to
penetrate the soil. I would not use any type of detergent in a hydro set-up. But in soil a drop of dawn lets the water spread faster and
more evenly. Also, adding a detergent introduces more oxygen to the growing media. Both are a good thing.

Good luck, BigSteve.

Mmm..right said:

..read something awhile ago about the surface tetion (of water) being essential to the plant's ability to move it up the stem.


is this the case?, and ifso, are water wetters a bad idea for soil and hydro (non-foliar water)?

Click to expand...

Yes, plants uptake water via capillary action, which requires surface tension.

Empirically, wetting agents aren't necessary for plant growth. Obviously, plants do fine without them.

On the other hand, I don't think wetting agents really hurt anything though. They help the water penetrate and distribute evenly inside the soil which might be an advantage in certain circumstances, but I suspect the wetting agents themselves are left behind by the plant when the water is absorbed through the roots.