Improvements have been made to my root bubbler
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In the end I used three of these long air stones. One of them seemed clogged and was not functioning.
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.
A peak inside to see how the plant stems are sitting in the water. When its closed they are further down in the water.
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.
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.
That's quite amazing. How long did it take to build this, also what plants are you growing?
Thanks alot... it took me about an hour to put it all together. I am growing sun opener plant cuttings in it.