Building a bubbler for starting plant cuttings

avatar

Many plants can be grown from a cutting. Though some are harder than others to start that way. One problem with starting cuttings in small jars of water is its stagnant. And eventually the oxygen leaves and the cutting has a hard time starting in low oxygen environments. So my idea is to add air to the water. Using an aquarium bubbler I run air hose into a plastic box that will have plant cuttings inside of.

20200917_092712.jpg

By capping off one end of the tubing. And then piercing holes throughout the line that's under water allows air to escape into the bin of water the plant cuttings are in.

20200917_095007.jpg

I start off piercing the tube using a thumbtack. But after awhile I realise I have a better tool for the job.

20200917_095350.jpg

Using the large needle it allows me to piece the tube but not cut through it by accident.

20200917_095944.jpg

I lay the tubes around the the bottom of the bin and try to cover as much area as possible so the bubbles rise up all around the plant cuttings.

20200917_101322.jpg

I add more holes to the tube so I have around four feet of distributed air lines at the bottom of the plastic bin.

20200917_101856.jpg

I put a hole in the side of the bin so I can run the air hoses through. If I added them through the lid it would disturb them every time I wanted to check on my cuttings for roots forming.

20200917_102345.jpg

I add more holes and then place rocks down on the tubes so they will hold them in place and not rise up. With the air added to the tubes they might be more buoyant. I'll have to add more water to see if I need them.

20200917_102601.jpg

With the bubbler on it adds quite alot of movement to the water which is nice. And hopefully the bubbles rising will give more air to the plants. I may need to use air stones if this does not work well enough.

20200917_110752.jpg

I cut about fifteen holes into the lid. I start off by drilling them and then hole sawing them. It was rough and did not work well on every hole. But saved me about an hour of manual cutting.

20200917_110756.jpg

Next up is to find some large sponges to cut into circles and put a hole in the center for the plant cutting. Then I can place the sponge in the hole which will hold them up. Just enough not to fall into the water but still has part of the stem submerged. The leaves will be on top outside of the box.



0
0
0.000
8 comments
avatar

You can add a rooting hormone like Rootone to the water to speed the process up. Whenever I cut holes in plastic I lay the plastic against a piece of sacrificial wood which makes the holes cut a lot cleaner. Found out the hard way when I broke a tub I had nearly finished cutting all the holes out of.

0
0
0.000
avatar

Ah yeah I use rooting hormone powder. I add it to the water with the jars. Maybe I'll use it in the bins as well.

Haha yeah that would have been smart. Next time I'll try to do a better job on them... hehe

0
0
0.000
avatar

What are you planning to plant in it?

0
0
0.000
avatar

My sun opener cuttings will probably go in there. They seem to be struggling a little to form roots in the jars.

0
0
0.000