Aeroponic Geenhouse Blueberry

Hi everyone

I am trying to figure out if it is possible to grow blueberries aeroponically
Will I get faster growth rates? did anyone try or heard of anything like this?

I just figured that since it takes blueberries three to four years to grow
and produce decent crop, then aeroponics should help cut down the time

Sorry if this sounds too stupid

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Bluesavvy....

Sorry i can't help you with this one but i'm sure someone in the know can and will be along to guide you....

 

Thank you for dropping by Loli

 

Hello and welcome to Gardeners Corner.

I too have no idea how this would work. Maybe someone here might though.

 

Clueless and Marley, thank you for dropping by

For the video, this is not the aeroponics I am looking for. Mine will have
a mist pump for irrigation, where the O2 intake will be much higher, which can
actually cause a faster growth rate in many kinds of plants.

What I really need to know is whither it will be sustainable on blueberries and how a blueberry plant would respond to higher O2 intake. Growth/Crops/health etc.

 

I'm guessing here, because I have no experience of aeroponics, but here goes.

Blueberries naturally need acid soil. Most acid soil (that I know of at least) has very low oxygen content, as it is often the likes of peat, veg matter decaying anaerobically. Blueberries are also very tolerant of wet conditions, with some articles I've read saying they are a bog plant (although mine grow in containers and do fine). All this make me think that blueberries are adapted to not need a lot of air to their roots, so I'm going to guess that given them more air is going to make little difference.

Its worth trying though if you have the setup.

 

I am actually in between the aeroponic and hydroponic roads and I might just take the hydroponic. It does make sense though that an aeroponic system won't make much of a difference for a plant that is adapted to a very low PH level. (However, does the low oxygen level contribute to the very slow growth of their root system?)

How can I get my blueberry plants grow faster hydroponically?

 

I run high pressure aeroponics (80psi during each misting). While it does speed up growth it wont cut years off a plants natural growing time if thats what it normally takes. You might gain a few months
PH isnt system specific, you can set it to whatever the plants are happy with, i run all my hydro/aero at PH 5.8
I`ll see if i can find a blueberry plant to throw into the system just to see how it does with mist .

 

Hex, thank you for sharing the info

So is it true that aeroponics will speed up the crops of plants and get them to produce a bigger size crop?

 

Pure theory alert (I've been reading my horticultural science book again ).

In commercial food crop growing, hydroponics and aeroponics may be used to provide a greater level of control of conditions in the rooting zone, and to enable more plants to fit in a given area. Its usually used along with other things to provide total control over growing conditions, which will include control over lightning and heating, water and nutrient supply, and air/CO2 etc.

Commercial growers using such systems apparently have computers controlling ever detail of everything. Higher crop yields are achieved partly through the feed/watering (the aero/hydroponics part) and partly through the light, with different bandwidths of light stimulating different chemical processes within the plant, so for example more light at the blue end of the spectrum to get the vegetative growth going, then a switch to more red to stimulate fruit fruit production.

So if the book is right (and I have no reason to doubt it) it seems to be saying that if greater yields per plant is your goal, then you need to look at lighting, heating/cooling, and CO2 supply in addition to the hydro/aero setup.

 

Co2 supply in a large commercial grow production is something difficult and won't be feasible unless the crop is of a high value such as marijuana. I highly doubt that tomatos for example can make it worth it.

What I am mainly interested in when it comes to using supplemental gases to increase crop, is to inject O2 straight to the routs through auroponics, or by using nano bubbles in a hydroponic system. I did some research on nano bubbles and read independant research articles and they all seem to agree that nano bubbles can double up the size of the crop. But the question is: why no one has submitted a single evidence of that?

As for connecting the grow system to be controlled by a computer to acheive consistant optimum growth environment sounds like a great idea, and can lower the risk of farming big time.

 

I suspect there's no evidence that oxygen bubbles directly to the roots increases anything for one very simple reason. The roots themselves don't need any oxygen. Its the soil borne micro-organisms that form a symbiotic relationship with the plant that need oxygen, and air is going to provide all they need whether it comes a 'nano bubble' or not.

The rest of the plant does need oxygen, but not via the roots. Plants breath via tiny little pores in their leaves. While photosynthesis is happening (ie during the day), its CO2 in -> Photosynthesis -> O2 out. Then at night when the plant is running off its energy reserves its O2 in -> some biochemical magic -> CO2 out. Overall, there will be more O2 output over the plant's life than CO2 output, and more CO2 input than O2 input, which is kind of the opposite to us meaty life forms, hence plants enrich the atmosphere for us, and we enrich it for them

 

The main benefit of aeroponics is in the rapid, abundant root growth and the type of roots it produces. All things being equal, environment wise, an aeroponic plant will generate a more efficient root system in less time using less resources. The time and energy saved can be put to good use in the top growth.
When it comes to crop size there`s no substitute for a green thumb, the method simply increases the potential
I enjoy growing run-of-the-mill veg with aeroponics, there are easier ways to grow stuff but they`re not half as much fun to watch.

It appears blueberries will do ok on a strawberry nutrient with an EC:2.5 , PH: 5. They are sensitive to shifts in the nutrient solution so its advisable to use drain to waste rather than recirculating..