Improvements have been made to my root bubbler

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A few months back I built a system that would help cuttings of plants form roots. By adding oxygen to the water I hope it will stimulate them to grow new roots quickly.

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I bought some aquarium air stones to use for this project. These are about 15 inches long and a tube hooks up to each of these air stones.

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Before these air stones I pierced holes in an air tube and capped off the other side. Bubbles indeed came out but I found it was not very impressive. With the air stones now many bubbles are forming.

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I added a one way check valve into the tubing. So if I lost power to the pumps they would not draw water into the lines.

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I was suprised the blue part of these air stones were made with some kind of hard material. I was expecting a sponge like texture. Its more like an actual stone.

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In the end I used three of these long air stones. One of them seemed clogged and was not functioning.

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This design is simular to a "raft hydroponics" system. But instead of the plants floating on the surface of the water they are suspended by the cuttings in the lid. I cut up sponges to hold the plant cuttings in place.

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A peak inside to see how the plant stems are sitting in the water. When its closed they are further down in the water.

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By going with longer cuttings they do better in this design. My shorter cuttings did not work out so well and had to be replaced with larger ones.

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Looking forward to trying this root bubbler with other kinds of plants as well. I think I will revisit growing some stems of plants that otherwise failed. Maybe with extra oxygen in the water this will help out alot.



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2 comments
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That's quite amazing. How long did it take to build this, also what plants are you growing?

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Thanks alot... it took me about an hour to put it all together. I am growing sun opener plant cuttings in it.

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