Thinking about going bubbleponics? This should convince you...

So I posted in my grow journal a quick comparison of day by day photos of my mother growing rom seed with no bubbleponics set up (no feed lines) and then 3 from seed using the feeder tubes.

Now, this is not to force it down your throat by any means, but hopefully if anyone out there has been thinking about converting, maybe this will help them choose a side of sorts.

The pump is 20$ and the hub is about 5$. $30 max could get you the boosted growth that you are about to see.

Here they are..



With NO WATER LINES it took 4 days to get a sprout above ground from germ


With bubbleponics, this was Day 4





Day 10, no bubbleponics:



Day 10 w/ bubbleponics




And for shits and giggles lets go up as far as I have pictures

Day 16 no bubbleponics:



Day 16 with bubbleponics



I mean, it's a crazy difference for not too much additional investment. I was not a believer either until I did it. it shocked the hell out of me to be honest man.

Very nice comparison. All us hydro folks know what a difference it makes. Thanks for posting all those pix. +rep

Nice to meet ya homegrownhairy... ballin' ass name by the way haha.

Yea I am a little obsessed so I usually take pictures every single day. It just came up in conversation in my grow journal in my sig and I went from there and started converting some dwc boys into bubbleboys =P

Nice..... are you using the same type nutes on both after you started feeding? If so what type?....

I showed those pics to the BubbleHead Banquet Theater the other night.

Here is their response:

they just could NOT quit applauding!

tmsculli said:

Nice to meet ya homegrownhairy... ballin' ass name by the way haha.

Yea I am a little obsessed so I usually take pictures every single day. It just came up in conversation in my grow journal in my sig and I went from there and started converting some dwc boys into bubbleboys =P

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I thought dwc was bubbleponics. Please explain.

very nice. i still cant get over this technique

You already know what DWC is,a nd many growers use the wrod Bubbleponics as a slang word for DWC, since they have the bubbles from airstones.
A dude in Michigan, a friend of mine, he has a patent and copyright on the word Bubbleponics, and it means growing with Feeder tubes to each cup, from a submersive water pump. A water pumps sucks in AIR or OXYGEN and WATER, and delivers the mix to each root ball or root base, in a rockwoll cube.

on his site he says:

A true Bubbleponics System is my favorite. It uses a submersive water pump, that pumps water to an Irrigation Hub, also called an Irrigation Manifold, that divides the water into 6 streams to each grow cup and root base. It is the MOST rapid growing system available. I can get an average of one inch growth in height daily using the Bubleponics Sytem.

So, What Is Bubbleponics, Exactly?

The world’s first continuous plant feeding system, Bubbleponics is a hybrid design that takes the best from both worlds of the Deep Water Culture (aka DWC, “bubbler&#8221 and drip systems. Since the nutrient mix is highly oxygenated, Bubbleponics converts its drip function to a constant feed flow directly to the inner roots. Without needing to take breaks to allow the root base to drain and absorb oxygen, plants in the Bubbleponic system are able to deliver unparalleled growth energy.

This advantage is particularly pronounced during early vegetative phases when the plant’s root mass is still relatively small. Cuttings placed into the system experience no noticeable transplant shock and practically start growing immediately. In experiments measured against leading aeroponic systems, the Bubbleponic design shaved, on average, four days from a two week growing cycle, a 30% growth rate increase over Aeroponics in the early vegetative stage; truly amazing. As the root mass of the respective plants grow larger, growth rate advantages were less evident, however, the plants in the Bubbleponic planter maintained their 4-5 day lead over the aeroponic plants throughout the cycle.

In a series of stress tests, plants in the Bubbleponic system performed remarkably when recovering from an over-fertilized condition. With almost the entire root mass destroyed, Bubbleponics was able to revive 67% of the plants which started re-growing new roots and were able to complete their cycle. None of the other plants in the aeroponic products survived this stress test. The tests concluded that the Bubbleponic system provided significant recovery advantages over other systems when it came to anything that stressed or killed that root mass.

Hub Feeding Ensures Consistency

The Bubbleponic design is, ironically enough, one of the first hydroponic products to use real irrigation parts. This includes a hub feed system, where the main flow from the water pump is broken up into 6 smaller feeder tubes via a pressure regulating irrigation distributor. No other plant’s sites are thus dependant on any other as they would be in most drip systems that use T’ed designs. This also ensures identical feeding conditions at each site.

DWC is simply letting the roots hang in a nute solution with an airstone. Bubbleponics uses the same except it also has a submersible pump that circulates the nute solution to the net pots through feeding tubes.

The difference in the first three weeks is huge. I use an aerogarden which does the same thing, for the first three weeks then transplant to DWC once the roots are developed enough to hang in the water.

Many people using bubbleponics turn off the tubes after three or four weeks.

It seems that the biggest benefit is a huge jump start during early growth and root development that you get from directly feeding the root zone.

DOH! Roseman beat me to it...shoulda known he's quick.

That explains why I thought it was DWC. It is, just with the location of the dripper tube moved and the water pump run 24/7. Well and I guess the addition of a manifold if you're doing multiple sites in one resevoir. Is is still bubbleponics without a manifold and using one plant per res?

I know not all dwc setups use a water pump but that idea is really nothing new so how did anyone get a patent on this? Seems lame.

Is it the aerogarden company that holds the patent? Just curious, I already don't like that company so it would just add one more little thing to not like about them.

This is a good idea. Is the pump running 24/7? Can you run this till finish or do you think its good just for the 1st few weeks?

His name is Martin Wiggett, he patented the process and copyrighted and registered the word.

Dawwww thanks Roseman haha.

*blushes*

I'm having so much fun with growing man, the learning curve, the success, it really is just great. I honestly am about to start growing some produce outdoors in a bubbleponics tank just because it's fun to do haha.

texashustle said:

This is a good idea. Is the pump running 24/7? Can you run this till finish or do you think its good just for the 1st few weeks?

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Both the water pump and the air pump are going to be running 24/7 although many have it on cycles very similar to that of an aeroponics unit. I was instructed by sir ROSEMAN to go ahead and pull the tubes after about 2.5 3 weeks or so. Basically once the roots are substantial enough to be in the solution and "drink up" themselves, you can go ahead and pull the pump.

You can grow Romaine lettuce ready to eat, in two weeks!

holy shit are you kidding me roseman? I am a salad fanatic....hmmmmm

tmsculli said:

holy shit are you kidding me roseman? I am a salad fanatic....hmmmmm

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I haven't eat beef, pork or chicken in 34 years.

Roseman said:

You can grow Romaine lettuce ready to eat, in two weeks!

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Wow thats crazy. Too bad other veggies cant be ready in 2 weeks haha. So running the pump 24/7 wont drown the plants? Any pics of how it looks inside the net pot? Like how close are the feeder tubes to the rock wool or rapid rooters?

I had the same question as above. Can you not use rockwool/hydroton with bubbleponics then if the pump is 24/7 sounds like it would drown the babies if you did. Just empty net cups with neoprene inserts only?

Ah, see the above concerns are ones that ROSEMAN enlightened me about. You are going to pull a Homer Simpson "Doh!" as soon as I explain it.


You have the air pump pumping ridiculous amounts of Oxygen into the water correct? Right. Now, you have a submersible water pump. Good, so, the submersible water pump takes in water from around it and then feeds it up through the tubes to the plants. What hasn't clicked in your mental image of the process is that the highly oxygenated water is being pumped into the net pots, not just flat out water. So, you can't drown them because you are pumping intensely oxygen rich water into their root system =]