Has anyone tried carbonated watering?

**Snadger** · 07-05-2016, 08:13 AM

Well that's a new one on me, but it certainly sounds feasible!

**gardening_gal** · 07-05-2016, 08:29 AM

Great! Now I need to add plants to the list of Soda Stream users! It always runs out of gas before I get there right now, it'll be worse if the plants get in on it too!

**Kirk** · 07-05-2016, 03:06 PM

Would have thought that it would be too acidic, especially if it got on the leaves:
CO₂+H₂O -> H₂CO₃, which is soluble in water, similar falls from the sky as rain but not a high a concentration I would suspect.

Any CO₂ dissolved in the water would drop out as gas (bubbles) when the carbonated water hit the soil/plant so cannot see it being available unless in a confined place such as a green house - they improve tomato yields by this method at present where the CO₂ content of the air is raised in commerical production. Tomato's it seems evolved when the earth had a higher CO₂ content so they like it. But on a garden or outdoor plot you breathing over them would I think be as much use.

**Chris11** · 07-05-2016, 07:01 PM

The article is full of mistakes and contradictions. It's written in an attempted scientific style, but it's scientifically illiterate. The writer doesn't appear to even know the difference between macro and micro nutrients.

It looks more like a test for high school students to spot the deliberate mistakes

Or maybe it was written by a student as part of some high school Biology project

If you used carbonated water, the biggest difference would be the pH compared to tap water. Similarly, rain water pH is much lower (more acidic) compared to tap water.

Depending on the plant, some much prefer lower pH, (and therefore rain water), potatoes being a good example.

I agree with Kirk that carbonated water would be far more acidic than rain water, and I can't see it being of any good to the plant.

**snakeshack** · 07-05-2016, 09:44 PM

adding CO2 to water is often used in aquariums to increase availability and helps to control unwanted algae by promoting plant growth that then mops up excess nutrients from fish waste.I would think that outdoors the effect on growth would be negligible as it would " gas off"and blow away,the effect on ground pH would be small due to the soils buffering effect too.
There would be good grounds for moving your primary fermentation vessel into the greenhouse if you brew your own beer or wine though.as this would increase available CO2 in the air and boost growth.

**w33blegurl** · 08-05-2016, 04:46 PM

n=3 is a very poor trial of anything (I didn't even bother reading the article!)!!! That being said, you have nothing to lose but your pennies!!

**AkionTotocha** · 08-05-2016, 11:38 PM

I do have a home brew beer and dandelion wine going off at the minute...

Snakeshack is right, I would have found that info googling from an aquarium POV.

So then I wonder if it wasn't so much the carbonated water and instead was tap/rain water vs carbonated mineral/spring water, (I can't look at the original link at the moment to check if it's tap or rain water they used) if they used a spring water that was also carbonated then even if the CO2 gassed off the trace minerals in the water itself could have been beneficial (vs an experiment with rain water and carbonated rain water)

**TrysHard** · 09-05-2016, 08:27 AM

It is like the Aspirin Theory but more expensive

**snakeshack** · 09-05-2016, 02:02 PM

You are all aware that Evian is just naive spelt backwards ?

**rary** · 09-05-2016, 02:54 PM

The ph of tap water varies quite a bit from one part of Britain to an other, so the ph of the waters used in the trial could contribute to the differances, but I think this is a good thread, as it may make people think of different things to try

**Bal** · 10-05-2016, 10:29 PM

Could it be used on acid loving plants such as blueberries in an emergency for instance if th water but is empty. Especially for those that have chalky so alkaline water.

**KairdiffKid** · 13-05-2016, 04:10 PM

Originally posted by Bal View Post

Could it be used on acid loving plants such as blueberries in an emergency for instance if th water but is empty. Especially for those that have chalky so alkaline water.

I've done it before with acid loving plants when I had no rain water available, but sparingly. It has a pH of 3-4 so is pretty acidic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbonated_water which is more acidic than ideal conditions for blueberries (which like a pH of around 4-5).

At a push it might be useful when trying to lower the pH (acidify) soil where acid loving plants are growing.

**jackarmy** · 13-05-2016, 08:30 PM

Originally posted by AkionTotocha View Post

I've heard this somewhere, and while sipping a bottle of fizzy water tonight I remembered this:

Apparently it's supposed to help growth? Not to use just fizzy water but the occasional bottle every few months. Maybe to do with the carbon dioxide being more readily available...?

I found a paper from Colarado uni: The Effect of Carbonated Water on Green Plants

So what do you all think? Anyone got enough spare cash to try it?

Not me, I'm poor.

Exscuse my Sceptism but its probably the same people that sold you that useless bottle of fizzy water you were drinking

**AkionTotocha** · 13-05-2016, 11:38 PM

Why useless? I like the taste and texture, and that seems like a good reason to drink it - and there's certainly worse things to be putting in your body.

At a very basic level, water is water, essential for all life on Earth, so I'm struggling to see.. where... the word useless is applicable here

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