Using Air Stones With Soil

elkukupanda

Active Member
Hey brother, are you still around? how did it go? This sounds like a great idea to deal with fungus gnats for soil growers... Keep up the good work!
 

cordlesskettle

Active Member
have not considerer a air dome wich are made for soil ???
[video=youtube;9v34PDauF9Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v34PDauF9Q[/video]
air dome.png
 

jimbaker

Member
have not considerer a air dome wich are made for soil ???
[video=youtube;9v34PDauF9Q]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v34PDauF9Q[/video]
View attachment 2480330

saw the video and totally agree. 130% faster growth rate. all you need is an airstone at the bottome of the pot. no reason to buy it unless you dont already have all the material to make one. i saw great results with the one plant i tried it on and keep getting worried about root rot since the roots are always moist and never flushed. but i see nothing yet, besides a really fast growing plant. i would love to hear more from people using something like this and their results as my plant is not even in flowering yet.
 

cordlesskettle

Active Member
saw the video and totally agree. 130% faster growth rate. all you need is an airstone at the bottome of the pot. no reason to buy it unless you dont already have all the material to make one. i saw great results with the one plant i tried it on and keep getting worried about root rot since the roots are always moist and never flushed. but i see nothing yet, besides a really fast growing plant. i would love to hear more from people using something like this and their results as my plant is not even in flowering yet.
been asking people on here for a while if they have used one of these and still aint found anyone yet would like to hear of some results myself and see pics
 

EvlMunkee

Well-Known Member
I've been using the airdomes for a couple years in autopots. They work well with a light fluffy mix like coco and perlite. The yield is a little better by about 15%. Before the airdomes I used airstones in a net pot. They work too but the airdomes are easier to reuse. They are made for a bottom feeding system. I don't know if it would be worth the effort if you water from the top.
netcup.jpg
 

B166ER420

Well-Known Member
I have an og kush/Ny diesel 4weeks veg in a 5 gallon self watering bucket w/airstone.There is about a gallon of water in the bottom at all times with the airstone going......this is the first time trying the airstone.......so far so good:eyesmoke:..................pic l8r:)
 

dbdweller

Active Member
The curl that phyzix is referring to:
View attachment 1439901

Given that the plant is a few weeks into 12/12, flowers are forming, and the overall look of the plant is an extremely dark green... I would have to agree with the Hummingbird on this one.

Despite having a Nitrogen imbalance or not, this is naturally the time to begin reducing N levels and increasing PK levels. So even if the diagnosis is wrong the advice is still sound.

Personally, after having seen nitrogen excess myself, I am going to agree with the diagnosis. Nothing severe yet, but if the ratios are not altered there will be problems with flower development as you continue into budding.
I have to agree that you need to tone down the N now anyways.
They take a lot of water you said.
How much of that is evaporation you are adding? Seems to me that; That system requires more then most. I think you might have been right on the edge.. thats why it was darker green( to me, maybe )
This was taken fromhttps://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/488004-guide-nutrient-deficiency-toxicity.html
Nitrogen: This element is everywhere, your breathing it in right now! For your
plants, its key in the vegetative growth. It stimulates and powers the formation of leaves, strengthens the stems, and helps the chlorophyll production.

An abundance of this is rare during vegetative, but it happens with new growers that think more ferts = more plant (and your right, but to a limit!). To tell if you have an abundance of nitrogen, simply look at the plant. You want green leaves, but not a dark green -> black color.

She still looks great and i believe ....you will have a big smileon your face when you taste her:joint::joint::joint:
 

jimbaker

Member
I have an og kush/Ny diesel 4weeks veg in a 5 gallon self watering bucket w/airstone.There is about a gallon of water in the bottom at all times with the airstone going......this is the first time trying the airstone.......so far so good:eyesmoke:..................pic l8r:)

im about to use a 5 gallon bucket for a plant to try it out. have you considered getting it a little more dry, almost to the point where the plant starts to limp? since there is soil in it, takes much longer to dry out. i do it with mine and it seems to be at its peek growth right before re-saturating it. another thing i noticed, is that you can grow a MUCH bigger plant in the same size container. i got a two foot tall bush in 1/2 gallon of soil. with a 5 gallon bucket, i imagine you might be able to grow a 6-8 ft plant. and like someone mentioned a few posts after, you dont need as much nutrients. so the main benefits i found is; smaller containers for bigger plants, 100+% growth, less nutrients, less water (since its in a container that doesnt allow runoff.), no cleaning like there is with hydro but same rapid growth, very hard to over water the plant (if even possible), no pumps needed for watering (just add a few cups of water every 4 days or so)

this is truly a technique i am experimenting with MUCH more.
 

MrX2017

Well-Known Member
Hey this is crazy but I bet it helps right?? My soil drainage was poor an air atone during flower really helped. Thanks for the idea.

6 year old thread but a good one!
I first heard about this 10 years ago, using an air stone, in a closed pot, your favorite soil mix, and then always keep the water level in the pot to sufficiently allow the air stones to produce enough bubbles/pressure to push thru the soil to aerate the roots with fresh oxygen.

Maybe this is a thing today idk. I’ve been out of the industry for like 6 years, and man have things flipped!
 

Apical Bud

Well-Known Member
Hey, I'm a new grower, and I'm currently in the middle of my first grow. Half a week into flowering, I placed an air stone powered by a 20gal rated pump into the bottom of my girl and she responded quite nicely to it. I then went out and purchased another 6in airstone and a 100gal rated pump. I can add amounts of water to my plant that might make others cringe, but the plant seems to love the air stones. I'm curious, has anyone else tried this? If you want more pics, there are some in my grow thread.
View attachment 1430997
Yes I have tried this and it worked very well.

I used a ring that had air stone nozzles embedded and connected air stones to it. I put that in the bottom of a big red vines jug (clear plastic, about 2 gallons?). I used a sterilized mixture of coco, home depot compost, and worm castings, which I then inoculated with compost starter, and seasoned with a sprinkling of dolomite lime to taste. It was a weird half hydro half soil thing because I didn't drill holes in the pot, so whatever I watered just stayed in the pot for a few days until I watered again. The plant actually grew like a beast, getting to 12 inches in 3-4 weeks with great bushing. It just all around grew very healthily.

However, because I was using organic nutes I ran into fungus gnats. So I got some mosquito bits and threw a few into the soup every few days. It was really fun to do, but the problem I ran into was eventually a slime built up on the air stones and they stopped producing bubbles, and in order to get them out and clean them I had to disrupt and damage the roots. If I had been using chemical nutes that might not have been a problem.
 

jasco420

New Member
Hey, I'm a new grower, and I'm currently in the middle of my first grow. Half a week into flowering, I placed an air stone powered by a 20gal rated pump into the bottom of my girl and she responded quite nicely to it. I then went out and purchased another 6in airstone and a 100gal rated pump. I can add amounts of water to my plant that might make others cringe, but the plant seems to love the air stones. I'm curious, has anyone else tried this? If you want more pics, there are some in my grow thread.
View attachment 1430997
I use 80 percent perlite to 10 percent high nute soil and 10 percent vermiculite add an air stone to my homemade gravity drip tank and can water 4 plant continuously without over watering plants love it i think its considered a form of passive hydroponics or something similar its a pretty new and common thing
 

FlowerPower88

Well-Known Member
Looks good, I think like someone else said there’s probably more efficient ways to aerate your soil, I also can’t imagine that the air is penetrating very far from its point of origin. I don’t see the N toxicity. I’d just avoid getting into it with the haters, they want you to get ruffled up at their comments, just wait for a fish that’s worth catching to bite.
 

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Looks good, I think like someone else said there’s probably more efficient ways to aerate your soil, I also can’t imagine that the air is penetrating very far from its point of origin. I don’t see the N toxicity. I’d just avoid getting into it with the haters, they want you to get ruffled up at their comments, just wait for a fish that’s worth catching to bite.
I'm sure that plant is long gone....... probably the OP also.
 

conor c

Well-Known Member
harder to overwater than regular pots, and more expensive than fabric pots so they think because of the premium price they have premium features. Personally I just grab whatever fabric pots are the cheapest
Faster growth too and most strains like the extra air in the root zone ive used the 15 litre airpots mostly but i like em i find em easier to handle and move about vs fabric ones as well and i get what u mean mate but i dont buy into the it costs more its better kinda thing definitely not with most things in life but they work well for me
 
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