How does aeroponics work?
How does aeroponics work?
Aeroponics is a method of growing plants without soil, where water is delivered to plant roots using a mist. But what are the benefits of removing soil? How do plant roots receive nutrients? How is the mist created? Let’s break down exactly how aeroponics works and what the benefits of the system are.
Irrigation
Aeroponics is a form of irrigation, which just means the delivery of water to plants to help growth. In aeroponics, soil is removed from the system and water is delivered by suspending the plant roots in air and exposing them to water in the form of a mist.
Another common irrigation method is hydroponics, where plant roots are submerged in water. The benefits of aeroponics are that the roots can access higher levels of oxygen in air than in water, the amount of mist can be controlled and altered at different stages, and the system itself uses far less water.
Oxygen boost
The main benefit of aeroponics is that it gives roots greater access to oxygen - increased root respiration helps plants to grow faster and stronger. This is because lack of root zone oxygen can decrease yield, growth rates, nutrient and water uptake.
Growing without soil
So why remove soil? Growing without soil also means plants can avoid soil borne diseases, and access to the roots allows growers to easily monitor plant health. Environmentally, using less soil from the natural environment protects it from degradation, damage caused partly by overfarming. Having access to roots also means the root zone temperature can be cooled, if the temperatures are inhibiting growth or causing nutrient deficiency.
Ultrasonic aeroponics
There are different ways to create mist for an aeroponic system. The most common method is high pressure aeroponics, which uses nozzles to generate the mist that irrigates plant roots. However, these systems are high maintenance, since the nozzles can become clogged and are hard to access in operation.
At LettUs Grow, we use an atomiser instead. This uses ultrasonic technology to create high-frequency sound waves that disperse water into many tiny droplets, like a mist. This mist can then be distributed and controlled to give plants the exact amount of water and nutrients needed at specific times in their growth cycle - meaning there is less water and fertiliser waste.
Nutrient delivery
When growing in soil, plants extract nutrients from the soil. In an aeroponic system, nutrient-dense droplets deposit onto the root surface and then begin to form a thin film around the root. The plant roots then uptake nutrients from this thin-film.
Aeroponic systems
Whilst we know a lot about why aeroponic irrigation systems can benefit plants, there is also still a great deal more research to be done. For example, further research should improve our understanding of the relationship between aeroponic droplet size and plant performance, or the relationship between environmental conditions and cycles (lighting, airflow, humidity) and aeroponic irrigation.
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