Pro Mix grower gone Rockwool

[moses224]

I have a 4 x 8 tray that i plan on filling with 4 and 6" rockwool. Right now i have established cloned (rapid rooters) in the rockwool in two 4x4 trays until they root into larger 4 and 6 cubes... then I plan on moving all into 4 x 8 and running an ebb and flow system....right now im focusing on mainting the minimum moisture i can while keeping clones vegging and healthy....question being....I read allot about hydroton, coco, etc but in the past my ebb and flow have always been rockwool on tray....I need all the advice I can get as I have over 100 clones rooted and want to make sure they take right no root rot etc....been in soil for way to long and honestly remember e&f being easy but reading they post got me nervous....

what watering regiment should they be on 1 day, 2 a day 3 a day?

thanks in advance for assistance

 

[ogatec]

RW can be problematic...when the plnts are small you have to wait for the RW to dry out (like soil), so it could be once every couple of days... then once the roots pop out of the bottom of the cube, 1x-2x per day should be plenty with RW.


if you grew with a "dry" media such as hydroton, you would water every 3-4 hours

 

[moses224]

bump

 

[CaptainTrips]

Im flowering with hugo blocks, I flood 4 times a day... probably don't need to flood that often, but they don't mind it.

 

[Rednick]

It really depends on a lot of factors with RW.

If you keep them in hugo blocks then you can lift to see if they are dried
!!!!You never want a block 100% dry. That is dead in RW.!

The larger and thicker the block or slab, the longer it can go before watering, but the less oxygen gets to the roots from the slower drying. If too little RW, shit dries out completely and it's dead.

Heat, humidity, transpiration, air flow are all important factors in how often to water your RW.

That's why I stopped.

 

[Wait...What?]

rockwool works better as a top drip medium. go with hydroton instead. better capilary action to wick up the flood.

when I use the e&f tray, I flood for 15 minutes, every 3 hours, when the lamps are on.

 

[moses224]

i added a 3" layer oh hydroton to bottom of tray then have rw 4 x 4 on top...the rapid rooters already rooted into rock wool (2 days) so im trying to stick with rw just manipulate setup...what do u think.....layer help?

 

[Shcrews]

I have a friend who gets very good results by filling his ebb/flow tables completely with hydroton, then covering the top with panda plastic and making slits to place 3" rockwool cubes on top.

 

[Anima]

if your cubes' tops are above flood level you should top water once a week or so to prevent nute salt buildup. The cubes will wick up and dry out every flood leaving behind salt deposits.

If you do not cover the tops of your rockwool -They will grow algae

So my suggestion is to have the rockwool get completely submerged every flood, and cover the tops of the rockwool. Put those rockwool cubes down at the bottom of the tray and fill up with hydroton till no more light can get to the rockwool.
Flood every 4 hours for 15 mins. You can decide to not flood during the dark times if your humidity spikes too high.

Good luck!

Peace and kindness
-Anima

 

[moses224]

Thanks you anima. I just got back from buying 4 more table / trays and also bought covers for rockwool while I was there so ill try your method