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Why CO2 is so important to hydroponic systems and what is it?

Guest post by: Alma Newton

Article Overview: CO2 is Carbon Dioxide. Basically it is made up of one carbon molecule and two oxygen molecules that are in a gaseous form at standard conditions for temperature and pressure. But enough of the elementary science - how is it important to hydroponics?

Why CO2 is so important to hydroponic systems and what is it?

CO₂ is Carbon Dioxide. Basically it is made up of one carbon molecule and two oxygen molecules that are in a gaseous form at standard conditions for temperature and pressure. But enough of the elementary science - how is it important to hydroponics? The role of CO₂ in your hydroponic system is not a complicated one to understand – photosynthesis is a process that all plants use to converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from light. Now what this means to you is that your plants require CO₂ to make food for themselves, pretty simple. Not so fast.

Where is it? In the very air you are breathing right now. With that being said, why would you need CO₂ in your hydroponic system at amounts greater than what is in the air? Good question. Let’s break the explanation down.

CO₂ in the air is at about 400-450 ppm (parts per million). At first glance that seems to be pretty damn good – after all – if plants outside of a hydroponic system can survive quite nicely on that concentration why mess with it? The primary reason for increasing CO₂ levels in your hydroponic system is plant growth. Recall that CO₂ is used to make food for your plants, increase the supply of what makes food and you have bigger plants.

Now like all things, moderation is key- there comes point where you can have too much CO₂ in the environment and actually damage your plants. The most serious impact of excess CO₂ is to reduce the plant’s stomas opening. Why is this important? Stomas, in the botanical sense, are pores in plants which allow the plant to breathe or transpire. This reduced opening results in less CO₂ absorption and less transpiration.

Transpiration is a key process for plants because water and nutrient absorption depends on it. Now what is transpiration? It is like sweating but for plants, in laymen’s terms. In your hydroponic system, the nutrient solution is absorbed by the roots, it travels up the plant and the extra water that the plant does not need is released by the stomas. That is transpiration in a nutshell. There is more to the process than that, but for our purposes we only need to illustrate the concept. About 90% of the water that enters a plant’s roots is used for transpiration.

So that brings us to humidity as a result of increased CO₂ in your hydroponic system’s environment Think of it in these terms – your plant is in optimal growing conditions- what does it do? It grows like mad. With that increase in growth – there is an increase in the byproducts of photosynthesis, mainly water and oxygen via transpiration. You do need to watch for the increase in humidity as it can allow for the growth of fungi and no one wants that in their hydroponic systems. Good ventilation is vital and we will touch on this in more depth in future articles.

You will also need to pay close attention to your hydroponic system’s temperature. When you “enrich” your crop with CO₂ you need to adjust the temperature as well – as much as 13^oC (8^oF). Just keep in mind that the plant’s metabolism works much faster when exposed to that “enrichment” so all your crops requirements will increase as well. CO₂ as an addition to hydroponic systems can increase your yields and be a benefit to your crop done properly. Having said this, if you are just starting out in the wonderful world of hydroponic growing, CO₂ enrichment is something that is not absolutely vital to your system. Our recommendation is not to jump into CO₂ enrichment without proper research.

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Article Tags: hydroponic systems, hydroponics, in home garden



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