ianjones

i stated before in my topic in the introductory forum that using the houseplants as emergents has become a very interesting part of this experiment and that it would behoove me to do a little research on hydroponics. well, i have and i have found some very helpful things that im certain will be a boon to everyone.

1: any terrestrial plant can be grown hydroponically. 2: hydroponics (hydro = water, ponos = labor) is a subset of Hydroculture and there are a few different styles of hydroponics. 3: if you are growing your houseplants as emergents from your aquarium, the style that you will likely be most interested in is called "Static Solution Culture" where plants are grown in mason jars, aquariums and other "stillwater" environments (other methods run the water across the roots using pumps and chambers to recycle, re-aerate, and re-fertilize the water. 4: when using the static solution culture method, oxygen is usually provided to the plant roots by gently aerating them via aquarium air pumps (bubble makers) BUT in the absence of pumps, the roots can be aerated by keeping them partially above the water line.

I will attest that this last finding is evidenced in my tank by what i will call the "Arrowhead-Leaf Vine". when i taped it to the back of the tank, it was completely perpendicular and its roots were entirely submerged. in its time in the tank, because of its inherent pliability, it has upturned the bottom portion of itself (the part of the plant below the tape is almost completely horizontal in the tank now, while the top of the plant and the leaves are still vertical) to bring half of its roots above the water line.

after my findings and observations, i have, just today, pulled most of the houseplants out of the water enough so that ther roots are not completely submerged. i believe that this will not only promote better plant growth and avoid plant death, but that it will also increase oxygenation of the water, especially at night when plants consume oxygen rather than produce it, by getting more oxygen from the air rather than depleting the oxygen in the water column.

a cool, helpful link on static solution culture:

http://www.hydroponicgrowing.co/plan...ice-gardeners/