When you’re growing with aeroponics, there’s not much you can do manually to treat plant problems because everything is entirely reliant on the system working properly. Any issues of plant growth, fungi appearing on plant foliage or roots, or even leaf burn, will be because of an issue with your system. The most common problems with aeroponics are:
Pump malfunctions
To put this in the simplest terms, don’t skimp on your water pump. Cheap pumps really are nasty with an aeroponic system because the life of your crops relies on this working.
Inside the reservoir tank is close to 100% humidity level – when the pump is working. The water pump is the reason for high humidity. When that stops working, humidity drops fast.
Combine the fast humidity drop along with the fact the pump won’t be able to spray any nutrients to the plant, the plant roots are then starved, which is why there’s a likelihood of your plants dying if the pump packs in.
The life of your plants relies on the water pump working. The instant it stops, there’s a serious problem.
Blocked nozzles
This is an easy one to miss and it’s also an easy fix. You see, with all the nutrients in the water being sprayed through the nozzles, those minerals will accumulate salt. Eventually, the salt molecules can accumulate in the pipes, reaching the nozzles at which point they’ll block it.
A partial blockage will slow down the misting, whereas a full nozzle blockage will stop any mist being sprayed. For that reason, it’s best to regularly check your nozzles are working as they should be.
If they aren’t, the only solution you need is rubbing alcohol. Just rub it over the nozzles and it’ll get to work breaking down the salt molecules and getting your nozzles unblocked fairly quickly.
Multiple Problems with bacteria and fungi
If you’ve done any research into the pros and cons of aeroponics, you’ll no doubt be aware of bacteria and fungi being of a higher probability than any other growing method.
Well, that’s just not true. What is fact is that all the conditions bacteria and fungi need to grow and spread rapidly are present in the reservoir of an aeroponic system. Warm temperatures and a humid environment.
The truth is, there’s no more bacteria or fungi concerns with aeroponics other than one and that’s Pythium Root Rot. The only reason is because the disease has a spore that can swim, meaning once it’s present in your reservoir, it’s going to infect all the water, and be dispersed onto the plants with every spray.
There’s only one thing you can do here and that’s prevention because if you do get disease ridden water, your plants will have seen their day.
Hydrogen Peroxide is the solution to fixing all the concerns to do with bacteria and fungi and that’s because on contact, it’ll eradicate it.
It also brings a new problem to the table and that’s the fact it’s so strong it can kill your plants, so while you’re trying to protect your crops, you could actually risk killing them yourself.
You need to get the dilution part just right, which is even trickier than you’d imagine because the majority of hydrogen peroxide suppliers already dilute what they sell to you.
Food grade is the best you can use since most of your plants will be of the editable type. That’s 35% and there’s very few manufacturers certified to supply this high a grade of hydrogen peroxide.
The recommended amount of peroxide to use in your reservoir is 3% per gallon to last up to four days. If you’re working in liters, it’s just 3ml per 1 liter of water. Remember to use the 3% peroxide solution.
At this concentration, your plants will be protected against a variety of bacteria, pests and viruses.