Proper care for plants? Absolutely!
Why do plants form girdling roots in pots, thereby hindering their own growth, and why don't girdling roots occur in nature and in AIRY?
Roots have two main tasks:
- The fine root absorbs nutrients.
- The coarse root searches for water.
Unlike in a normal plant pot, roots can freely develop in nature. However, underground there are strict rules that protect them from dryness, nutrient deficiency, erosion, other plants, and predators:
🌱 Grow until you can't go any further!
🌱 If you encounter an obstacle, grow around it!
🌱 If you can't go any further, stop growing at the tip and form new roots!
🌱 Grow away from the origin, never back there!
🌱 Grow where it is moist and cool!
🌱 If you encounter an obstacle, grow around it!
🌱 If you can't go any further, stop growing at the tip and form new roots!
🌱 Grow away from the origin, never back there!
🌱 Grow where it is moist and cool!
Such a maze - always along the wall...
Back to the plant pot: Its occupant behaves as if it were living in the wild. The roots hit the impenetrable wall, try to avoid the obstacle, and inevitably grow along the inner wall.
The result: almost endless girdling roots form - an effort that is absolutely ineffective and weakens the plant! The plant urgently needs a bigger home so it doesn't starve!
The result: almost endless girdling roots form - an effort that is absolutely ineffective and weakens the plant! The plant urgently needs a bigger home so it doesn't starve!
With AIRY, this annoying repotting is eliminated. But why?
The secret lies in the perforated inner pot of the AIRY biofilter. When the coarse root encounters one of these holes in its search for water, it comes into contact with air! And this causes it to stop growing and to branch anew. Experts call this process Air Pruning.
AIR(Y) Pruning in every AIRY
The AIRY biofilter thus prevents the formation of girdling roots. At the same time, the coarse root eventually finds water and grows into the AIRY's water tank. With that, it has reached its actual goal - and leaves the space for further development to the fine roots.
As a consequence, this means: A plant in the AIRY system grows as naturally as in its actual habitat. It can develop optimally and naturally. And through the very fine development of the root system, it can convert more and more pollutants into nutrients over time, in other words: Your air-purifying plant becomes more powerful over the years! Fascinating, isn't it?
P.S.:
AIRY has been around since 2015. In all these years, we have only rarely heard of (and seen corresponding pictures) a plant that didn't care about the above-described "air pruning." Then roots grew out of the lower air inlets or the plant (usually a snake plant) caused visible bulges through its strong growth and in one case even cracks in the pot. Just recently, a customer told us that she wanted to pot another plant in her AIRY, but couldn't get the existing plant out of the pot because it had grown so strongly into it. Even though the actual rule looks different: These exceptions do exist.
Voilà: the plant-friendly AIRY biofilter
What does it have that other pots don't? In short: It ensures that your plants
- to thrive magnificently
- to optimally purify the room air
- to be watered when you are traveling
And he also looks good! You don't need elaborate technology, neither electricity nor filters, just a plant, mineral substrate, and our AIRY.
The author: Peer-Arne Böttcher
Peer is the founder of AIRY and passionate about the topic of healthy indoor air. For many years, he has been intensively engaged with the scientific foundations and technical possibilities of how our breathing air can be sustainably improved – completely without chemicals, filters, or electricity.
