ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
This article is part of the Research TopicControlled Environment Agriculture Goes DynamicView all 3 articles
Aeration and agitation in hydroponic culture have detrimental effects on iron uptake
Provisionally accepted
- Utah State University, Logan, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Aeration in deep-flow liquid hydroponics provides oxygen for respiration, but even gentle movement from solution agitation can alter the beneficial rhizosphere. Here we report the detrimental effects of bubbling-induced agitation of the rhizosphere on iron uptake and chlorosis of tomato, sunflower, and corn. We grew each species in deep-flow liquid hydroponics with aeration rates from 0 to 2 liters per minute and in a peat-based soilless media, which allowed plants to develop an undisturbed rhizosphere. All three species had ample iron and chlorophyll in soilless media with the same nutrient solution and pH as in liquid hydroponics. Conversely, chlorophyll and iron uptake were dramatically reduced in hydroponic sunflower and corn by gentle agitation of the solution. Tomato, however, was minimally affected by solution agitation. These results indicate that minimizing solution agitation allows the formation of a beneficial rhizosphere. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that controlled agitation might be used to alter root boundary layer thickness and thus quantify rhizosphere effects on nutrient uptake and growth.
Keywords: corn, dissolved oxygen, iron chlorosis, sunflower, Tomato
Received: 29 Jul 2025; Accepted: 12 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Langenfeld and Bugbee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Noah James Langenfeld, noah.langenfeld@usu.edu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.