Air To The Throne – With AirDome!

If you want to increase growth and yield with AutoPot you really have to take a look at AirDome. There is probably no other way of boosting health and productivity so effectively, inexpensively, and simply. 

Consider the other commonly promoted methods for improving your plants. Unlike switching your nutrient regime, the cost of AirDome is minimal, it requires little setup, and is easy to grasp. 

Unlike switching your grow media, you’re not 100% committed with AirDome, you can activate it as and when required (provided you potted up with one!). 

Unlike the latest in lighting or environmental enhancements, AirDome is inexpensive, directly aids root development, and directly stimulates uptake. So, ‘what is AirDome?’

What is AirDome?

Physically an AirDome is a small semi-spherical plastic cage with four porous pipes inside. The pipes are connected to pins on the inside of the cage. They are then joined in a cross-shape by a 6mm cross connector in the centre. 

One of the pins doubles as an inlet that passes all the way through the side of the cage. A 6mm pipe attaches to that inlet where it appears on the outside of the cage. 

The whole assembly sits in the bottom of your pot. You run the 6mm pipe up the inside of the pot, out over the lip, and on to your air pump.

Potting up with AirDome

Once your AirDome is in place in the pot you add a 25mm / 1 inch base layer of pH-stabilised pebbles or gravel BEFORE adding grow media. This base layer should surround the AirDome (but not go inside it). The quicker, easier, more efficient alternative to this pebble layer is an AirBase – Square or Round depending on your module type. You may now add your grow media.

You must ensure that the grow media you use is ‘open’ and allows the passage of air. If you don’t the air will be trapped at the bottom of the pot and blow back at the AQUAvalve in your AutoPot module tray. Blowback will potentially interfere with the AQUAvalve’s function and risk a flood. 

To be honest open grow media are a cornerstone of AutoPot growing anyway. We’d never really recommend using 100% soil or coco.

Please let me switch my AirDome on!

All in good time. Very good time. You need to leave your plants to establish properly, ideally for 2-3 weeks. This establishing period is really beneficial to the roots. It trains them to seek out moisture and nutrients and ensures they’re really ready for the added oxygen that AirDome introduces. Your plants will thank you for it. 

How does AirDome work?

Once you’ve set up your AirDome, have your pot filled, and have your plant established you can switch on. 

Your air pump will draw oxygenated air from your growing space, push it through the 6mm pipe, to the AirDome where it’ll be distributed via the four porous pipes. By now the purpose of the cage should be clear – it keeps the media off the pipes and allows them to do their thing freely. 

Now air is being introduced to the rhizosphere where its effect is twofold. Firstly, it stimulates root growth and helps cultivate an uptake-conducive root structure. Secondly it aerates the root zone and helps to prevent compacting, keeping your grow media in peak condition. 

In a hydroponic system you’d be introducing air to the roots via the tank in which your plant is suspended. If you were using fabric pots you’d be allowing some air in via the porous pot sides. AirDome allows you to get that same aeration but with a huge range of grow media. Because you can aerate soil and coco mixes from within you can cultivate a bio-diverse rhizosphere whilst maximising growth and yield. 

Anything to bear in mind?

Bear (!) in mind the ‘Goldilocks Rule’. Be sure that the air you’re blowing in is warm. Not too hot, not too cold. Temperatures between 18ºC – 21ºC are perfect. 

Don’t overdo it with the air pump. Each AirDome needs no more than 1 L / 0.25 gal per minute in terms of output. Any more than that risks upsetting the function of the AQUAvalve in your AutoPot module tray. 

As an aside – we don’t recommend trying to add air to your nutrient solution via your reservoir and pipework. Whilst you might consider an airstone in your reservoir to be an intuitive way of oxygenating your water / nutrient solution such a strategy will fail on two counts. 

1. When the bubbles hit the surface of the water in the reservoir they’ll burst anyway

2) The air can remove CO2 from the water, upsetting your pH levels in the process

That’s all folks

It’s hard to emphasise how much we love AirDome (although admittedly we’ve given it a good go!) The device is such an affordable, brilliantly straightforward, non-invasive means of improving plant growth and yield that you’d be daft not to try it. With that in mind it behooves us to inform you that AirDome is available from all good AutoPot stockists and our online stores!

Here in the UK

Here in the US