Dissolved oxygen improves plant growth, reduces crop time

Incorporating dissolved oxygen into hydroponic production systems during warmer temperatures can help improve plant growth and reduce crop time.

Trying to grow hydroponic crops like leafy greens can be a real challenge during warmer times of the year. Growers have few options to lower temperatures, including cooling the greenhouse and/or water temperature. Another production technique that is being used by hydroponic growers in the United States and Australia is to introduce dissolved oxygen into the fertilizer tank solution.

“We’ve heard anecdotal reports that increasing dissolved oxygen levels can help prevent some root diseases like Pythium and other root rots,” said Tyler Baras, special projects manager at Hort Americas in Bedford, Texas. “We’ve also heard that increasing dissolved oxygen can possibly improve nutrient uptake and improve overall growth. Another possible benefit with using dissolved oxygen is reducing tip burn on leafy greens.

“These are some of the main issues with growing in warm climates like Texas during the summer. With an increase in water temperature comes a higher disease pressure and chances for tip burn. This has occurred in both nutrient film technique and deep water culture systems.”

The optimum water temperature for lettuce is between 65ºF-70ºF. For basil the optimum water temperature is around 75ºF.

Baras said most of the references he has read for adding dissolved oxygen suggest incorporating 4-10 parts per million for leafy greens.

“Most growers that I know are adding between 6-7.5 ppm for leafy greens,” he said. “When growers start to go beyond that rate to reach a higher level they have to use something like compressed oxygen or ozone. These are the main two methods, which are more expensive, for achieving a higher dissolved oxygen rate. Most growers I know are using a less expensive Venturi system or an air pump with air stones to add dissolved oxygen.”

Trialing different levels of dissolved oxygen

Baras has been studying the impact different dissolved oxygen levels can have on butterhead lettuce, basil and arugula grown in deep water culture systems. He set up deep water culture systems with three different levels of dissolved oxygen: 2 ppm, 7.5 ppm and 29 ppm.

“We have been tracking growth and how it affects the morphology of the plants,” he said. “The 2 ppm dissolved oxygen rate is what we were able to achieve without doing any type of aeration. This was our control.”

In another system Baras used a Venturi attachment to a small submersible pump that drew in atmospheric air.

“The highest rate of dissolved oxygen that we could achieve using atmospheric air was a maximum of 8.5 ppm,” he said. “The rate hovers between 7.5 to 8.2 ppm, with it usually averaging 7.5 ppm.”

The third system is a high rate of dissolved oxygen that uses compressed oxygen tanks to deliver 29 ppm.

“This system uses nanobubble technology,” he said. “We were using a prototype device that forces oxygen into a solution in really small bubbles so that the oxygen stays in suspension longer instead of falling out. The lowest rate that we could set was 29 ppm. This level of dissolved oxygen is much higher than what most leafy greens growers are targeting.

“A lot of the flowering crop and cannabis growers who are incorporating dissolved oxygen are actually targeting these higher rates. These growers are achieving 20-40 ppm dissolved oxygen. The flower and cannabis crops tend to prefer to be grown on the dry side. With this type of nanobubble dissolved oxygen technology it opens up this production method to crops beyond leafy greens.”

Some dramatic results

Baras said he has seen some dramatic effects on plant growth with higher dissolved oxygen rates. At the beginning of the trials during the first month the water temperature in the fertilizer tanks was 80ºF. During the second month the water temperature was between 75ºF-80ºF.

“At 2 ppm the arugula plants were severely stunted and were unsalable,” he said. “At this low rate there were also some severe nutrient deficiencies. At 7.5 ppm the arugula looked normal with slight deficiencies. There weren’t any nutrient issues at the 29 ppm rate and the plants almost doubled in size.”

Baras said even at the low rate of 2 ppm some crops could still be marketable.

“The basil and butterhead lettuce could still pass as marketable at the low 2 ppm rate,” he said. “The plants were very small and it would take several more weeks of production to reach the target weights we were aiming for. At the 7.5 ppm dissolved oxygen rate the plants had fairly normal growth as to what we are used to seeing.

For butterhead lettuce at the 2 ppm rate the heads were smaller and compact. The core of the heads were tighter, but actually had a good shape. At the 7.5 ppm and 29 ppm rates, the heads had similar shapes.

For the basil there was an increase in height as the dissolved oxygen level increased. Overall the plant height and size increased at higher dissolved oxygen rates.

“At the 29 ppm rate, the plants looked like the plants at the 7.5 ppm rate, but they were about a week ahead,” Baras said. “Both of these rates produced plants with healthy looking morphology, but the plants receiving 29 ppm dissolved oxygen developed faster. On average all of the crops grown with 29 ppm were at least a week faster to finish to a marketable size.”

Differences in root growth

Baras said the roots for the crops in the three rates of dissolved oxygen had different growth patterns.

“The roots in the 2 ppm dissolved oxygen systems were very short and stubby and almost seemed to be retreating from the water,” he said. “The roots remained mostly in the stone wool rooting cubes.”

At the 7.5 ppm dissolved oxygen rate the roots were long and had a lot of lateral branching. Baras said they looked like standard hydroponic roots.

“At the high 29 ppm rate the roots actually had less lateral branching, but they were really white, long and thick,” he said. “But there was less lateral branching. It almost seemed like since there was so much oxygen in the water the plants didn’t need to have as much lateral branching.”

Even though there were differences in the root morphology, there was no significant difference in the root weight for all three dissolved oxygen levels. The average root weight for both the 7.5 ppm and 29 ppm rates was 0.8 ounces. The root weight for the 2 ppm rate was about 0.7 ounces.

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For more: Hort Americas, (469) 532-2383; info@hortamericas.com; https://hortamericas.com.

David Kuack is a freelance writer in Fort Worth, Texas; dkuack@gmail.com.