Carbon dioxide and it's importance to your plants

Carbon dioxide or CO2 is essential for a healthy plant. Click here for some basic plant biology. As you can see, CO2 is an essential building block in glucose production which is used as energy for new plant growth.

It is normally present in the atmoshere at 3 PPM (parts per million) and if it falls below this quantity, plant growth will slow down and eventually stop. Higher quantities of CO2 will cause a plant to grow more and faster.

Is this something to be concerned about? If your hydroponics garden is outdoors and receives an adequate flow of fresh air, you have nothing to worry about. If your setup is indoors or in an enclosed greenhouse you may need to introduce some CO2 into your garden. So how would you do this?

The easiest way to add fresh CO2 to your garden is to merely spend time with your plants. We exhale a lot of CO2 in a short period of time which is probably one of the reasons why plants that receive a lot of attention flourish. A second way would be to put some dry ice on a plate near your plants to melt - this also produces CO2. The third way would be to get a cannister of CO2 and release it periodically in your garden.

Whichever method you use, keep in mind that carbon dioxide is heavier than air so will sink to the floor and do nothing for your plants without some kind of ventilation fan. 'What do I do?', you may ask. I keep it in mind but never worry about it even though my plants are in an enclosed greenhouse. I have put some windows in the structure and sometimes I will turn on a floor fan for circulation, mainly to bring the temperature down and I have not had a problem.

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