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Antitranspirants in Hydroponics? · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hi there hydroheads, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily, the podcast where precision
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  growing meets scientific curiosity.
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  I'm Dr. Russell Sharp and today we're exploring the use of antitranspirants.
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  This is an area that's not really applicable as much in hydroponics as it is
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  to horticulture in general, but there are a few antitranspirants on the market
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  for sale to hydroponic growers.
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  And so I thought I'd talk about their uses, where they should be used,
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  and where I think they probably shouldn't be used in hydroponics so they're
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  not an everyday hydroponic additive but could be
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  used for certain uses strategically and
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  to help with plant establishment transplant success and even
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  disease prevention so let's take a deeper look at them the when
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  and the why why she should block transpiration so
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  they're anti-transpiration anti-water loss products they're
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  applied to leaves and they reduce water loss through transpiration the
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  process by which water evaporates from plant stomata the
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  holes in the leaves the stomata are the holes the guard
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  cells are the actual structures that make the holes so a
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  bit like pupils of your eyes they're often used in tree planting and anti-transplant
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  especially species like conifers that don't shed their leaves in winter these
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  trees continue to lose water even in their dormant state so it could lead to
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  desiccation during transplanting and especially transport.
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  The worst thing you can do if you take a tree back from the garden centre is
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  to put it in the back of a pickup truck and not cover it because you're going to get transpiration.
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  So to combat this growers often apply entry transparent sprays and these can
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  be made from a number of substances.
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  Silicone oils are a common one natural
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  resins and waxes and latex emulsions
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  either synthetic latexes or natural latexes
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  and that's there's at least one company doing natural latexes
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  for hydroponics and they create a
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  thin film that blocks tomato and seals
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  in moisture rain or irrigation eventually washes off
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  the plant in the rain which is important because they're not
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  meant to be permanent so there's a couple of issues i
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  know you can already see with that one they block the
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  moisture in and keep it in the leaf could be foliar diseases and secondly they
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  need rainwater to wash them off so they're not permanent whereas in hydroponics
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  especially in a grow room or greenhouse that's not going to be the case they're
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  just going to stay there and either degrade or decompose on the on the leaf
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  which is not going to be good.
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  So, when to use them? If you're transplanting young plants or trees outside,
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  especially during drought or cold weather, then an antitransplant would be good.
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  So maybe you're using a hybrid system where you're growing in a grow room or
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  a greenhouse and then you're moving the plants outside later on.
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  I would definitely look at applying an antitransplant. If you're handling bare-rooted
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  plants, ones that have had all the growing media removed from them,
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  latex emulsion can be sprayed onto the exposed roots themselves
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  rather than the foliage in the nursery or wherever you
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  are to keep them hydrated before you transport them
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  if you want to protect evergreens in winter desiccation
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  or especially from road salt spray then they
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  often use that road salt if you know you're going
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  to be spraying loads of road salt
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  down because it's going to get icy or snowy then you can protect
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  plants with them by just putting a
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  barrier to all that salt salt kills plants really quickly
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  especially conifers in the winter unbox.
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  Hedges and things like this and privet so as
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  I said reduce transplant shock really giving them a chance to
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  establish there's also evidence that antitransplants
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  can prevent some fungal and bacterial infections by stopping
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  spores from making contact with the leaves that would
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  be minimal effects really it's mainly going.
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  To be water loss and chemical burns from things like de-icer
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  maybe if you were applying glyphosate weed killer spraying.
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  It near to some trees you might put an antitransplant around just
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  before where you apply it so it doesn't the weed killer the herbicide
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  doesn't affect your plants so it should
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  be a short-term solution though and it's a.
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  Period of pure stress and it's not a permanent thing so
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  antitrustants come with some caveats as we said
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  they block stomata which doesn't stop water loss
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  it only limits it could limit co2 it's so
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  not only stops water loss it limits co2 increase intake
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  so it reduces photosynthesis less photosynthesis equals
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  less growth and in warm environment antitransplants can
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  prevent evaporative cooling so that you
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  get leaf scorch or overheating so if you're in a really hot
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  environment don't put even if you're transplanting don't put
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  an antitransplant on because as soon as that leaf stops transpiring
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  it stops you know plants lose water
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  to keep the heat down that's one of the reasons and your plants
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  will cook and so long term use could
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  be harmful so best when
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  the plant is dormant or not growing very quickly as
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  well so you can actually make your own household antitransplant
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  mixing vegetables can work as you
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  know a simple mix using vegetables can make a temporary
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  antitransplant not as durable as commercial products but
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  it'll reduce water loss for a day or two and then wash off naturally so commercial
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  options there are a number of different products that you can you can buy that
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  that would do that and say there's one in hydroponics that's latex based i'm
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  not sure i think it's it's almost certain it's a natural latex so like a from
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  a like i don't know what produces natural latex like a rubber plant for example.
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  You can also put other additives in there, so there's gross stimulants used
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  in fodeus sprays may also contain a film-forming agent.
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  So seaweed extracts and chitosan, they form a sort of microcolloid layer on
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  the plant, so not really a blocking stomata, but it might limit transpiration
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  a tiny little bit, but nothing to write home about.
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  When you spray seaweed and chitosan onto plants, they don't stop transpiring,
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  so I wouldn't worry too much about that.
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  Should you use a anti-transplant hydroponics most
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  of the time probably not they're rarely water
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  stressed because you've got so much water around you're already.
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  Managing humidity airflow light intensity blocking stomatas
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  in an already controlled environment is going to limit gas exchange.
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  And hurt your plants the leaf temperature will be too high only use.
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  When you're looking to transplant out away from your hydroponic unit
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  into the outside if you're moving plants from indoors to
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  outside okay and there's temporary protection in
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  case your system malfunctioned okay in these
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  cases antitransplants you know could buy you some time and
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  reduce transplant suck but they shouldn't be used as standard i
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  don't think okay so they're tools for reducing water
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  loss they're useful in tree planting transplanting and winter protection
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  they're made from natural oils waxes silicones and
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  latex emulsions and they're not great for long time use i
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  suppose there might be a use for antitransplants again in if
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  you're taking cuttings from a propagation unit and
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  put them into somewhere where it's really low humidity
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  and high airflow so you would normally wean the
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  plants though that means that you slowly increase the decrease
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  the humidity when you're seeing cuttings or maybe you've not got the opportunity
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  to do that and then an antitransplant could be good there but
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  it's going to be risky because you could damage the
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  plants you put them into an environment and then stop their photosynthesis
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  or reduce their photosynthesis and reduce their water loss so potentially
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  could be used for transplanting cuttings
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  from a propagator to a grow room or a
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  greenhouse but it's it's a risk and it would definitely need to be experimented
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  on and tested to make sure it's the right option in your situation that's been
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  Until tomorrow, goodbye.