Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Is the advantage of submerging the roots of the plants in a aquaponics system is that you don't have to water the plants? Seems like this frees up your pump to so aeration.

No.

The roots need oxygenated water as well.

The water is getting oxygen from a pump. I was saying that you don't have to use two different pumps, one for oxygen and one to water plants that are not in the same water as the fish.

It depends on your system.

You have to design it so that everything gets what it needs. This can be done with one pump but many supplement their fish and/or their plants with an air pump.

If you have one pump is not freed from water the plants rather it is trapped into water the plants but they are not terms I would have used to describe what we are doing.