need some advice about watering rockwool

[lysol]

What 1 night of a "dry cycle" can do. I watered these
http://img74.imageshack.us/img74/8915/1001211.jpg
before bed and woke up to this
http://img524.imageshack.us/img524/4476/1001217.jpg ( rockwool looks wet because I watered them before I took pics )

I watered w/ solution from the resevoir and misted them with plain PH water. If you are gonna go 3 days I sure hope you have larger cubes, high RH then me, or know what youre doing.

 

[420blunts]

hey lysol i was never planning to water every 3 days. so far i've been watering 6 everyday and the other 6 every other day. just to see the difference. the thing that i notice is that the ph run-off is a bit higher on the 6 rw that i water every other day. anyone have any idea why ???

 

[lysol]

Because the one you water daily causes the PH to be "reset" each time you water it, If you let water just sit out the PH will swing faster then if it is gallons in your rez where it is more stable, water smaller amounts more often keeps things stable, and prevents them from drying out if you get a hot day or lets say you had to crash a friends house because you went out drinking or something and forgot to water them before you left

 

[TGT]

The way I do it is with a hydro dome. I cut my clones, use the gel or powder and insert into rockwool. I use straight tap water and get roots in 2 weeks. I did here if you pre-soak your rockwool at PH 5 before using you can get roots in less than a week. Might be something to try.

With the dome I open every day for fresh air, wipe of all humidity with a dry cloth and recover. Usually this way I have to add new water (luke warm) every 5 days. I let them go through a dry spell, not totally dry, but fairly light when picked up. The dome helps this with the extra humidity. I also cut off big leaves, sometimes cutting half the pointed tips off so that it doesn't need as much water when there are no roots to bgine with.

Also, I usuallt use a daylight spiral flourecent,but other times I use my HPS. Usuallt at about 5 feet distance. Any closer and with my train they get yellow fast. Oh ya, one other thing, I do add a tiny bit of nitrogen to the waterr to keep them greener longer until they get roots. I get 100% success every time.

Not saying anyone is doing anything wrong, just this is the way I have been doing it for years and it always works great for me.

TGT

 

[420blunts]

thanks for the input lysol. i'm watering everyday now. ph is more stable that way. i mix enough nutes for the day only. babies are looking green and pointing upwards. another question i have though. for instance if i'm in the 800 ppm week on my feeding schedule, will it be okay to feed them 800 ppm everyday for 6 days then water once for that week ? for now i feed/feed/water repeat. when i did soil i used this method but every 3 days.

hey TGT thanks for your technique on cloning with rockwool. will give cloning in rw a try after this last week of veg. one question for you though. would i have to use anything to make a small hole in the rw before i insert the new cut in or do i just shove the stem into the rw after they get dipped into the cloning gel ? made clones before but i did'em with jiffy peat pucks.

 

[Wait...What?]

I guess you told me!

full strength nutes for clones. 1500ppm is too high anyway. 1300ppm is closer to optimal. do more research and experiment on more plants. Its not about the overall strength, its about the balance between the ratio of elements.

I was being sarcastic when I said you need more stuff, but inflection is hard to catch in a textual medium. You need LESS stuff in your nutrient mix. You already have too much stuff you don't need in your mix.

but, its just an opinion, and worth exactly what you paid for it [which i hope was nothing]

yeah fuck the nute burn he'll just flush it all away right? I've had shitty over fertilized weed and you CAN tell the difference between an over fert'd plant vs one that was never over fed. Dont tell me that a small clone can handle 1500 ppm without getting nute burn.



or it could be that the plant has no need for 1500 ppm while it has a mere 4 fan leaves worth of vegetation, that it will probably need an absolutely minimum amount of water over the course of several days as the plant is consuming such minimal amounts of both water and nutrients. The plant cannot and will not take in more nutrients if its already consuming them as fast as it can. Excess of that amount (easily found with a simple ppm pen) is just wasted nutrients and stress for the plant, all while building up those tasty chemicals you just love to smoke later on down the line.



you work for Advanced Nutrients or something??

last I checked it was a WEED and we all know it can grow from a clipping you tossed in the trash three weeks ago. It doesnt need some multi hundred dollar nutrient regiment. Water and a couple bottles is all ya need. The rest is just for show and tell.

 

[420blunts]

hey wait...what. i would really like to know your opinion on what i don't need in my mix.

 

[TGT]

hey TGT thanks for your technique on cloning with rockwool. will give cloning in rw a try after this last week of veg. one question for you though. would i have to use anything to make a small hole in the rw before i insert the new cut in or do i just shove the stem into the rw after they get dipped into the cloning gel ? made clones before but i did'em with jiffy peat pucks.

It is very important to poke a small hole in the rockwool before inserting the cut into it. The rockwool already has a small hole but usually it is filled in and bends the soft tissue of the new cuttings. I use a nail, the inside of a pen, anything to get a hole into it first.

I also use the powder, but I am sure the gel is just as good. I try to get the bottom of the cutting a couple millimeters from the bottom of the cube.

Hope this helps!

TGT

 

[lysol]

I took a bit of an extra cube and used it to "seal" the hole by packing it in, my theory was that it would keep the seed more hydrated. The only purpose it served was holding back the seed from breaking "soil". it also ripped a cotyledon off one of the babies. So dont do what I did. heh

 

[Wait...What?]

large scale commercial growers use a sort of upside-down cookie sheet almost exactly the size of a flat of starter cubes. the sheet has holes on it, and is connected to a vacuum line. they suck up the seeds onto the tray, place the tray over a flat of starter cubes, and then release the vacuum. It drops the seed in the hole.

Thats all they do, and they do it by the tens of thousands every crop cycle.

Drop the seed in the hole, make sure your starter cube/rapid rooter is wetted up, and away you go.

 

[Wait...What?]

hey wait...what. i would really like to know your opinion on what i don't need in my mix.

Most additives are meant for the human, not the plant. Do you think the plant cares that the additive smells like pineapples? Do you think the pinapple-smelling additive will somehow add pineapple flavor to the plant? I dont

The plant wants its nutrients in a specific ratio. Dumping this and that and the other into the res only throws off the balance. 1-1-2-.6 ratio between N-P-K-Mg, or 100ppm N, 100ppm P, 200ppm K, 60ppm Mg.

If, for instance, your plant is showing mag def, instead of throwing more mag at it, try finding out why it cant take the ample mag that should already be available [hint: where is the calcium going?]

Learn from my mistakes. I have tons of bottles of stuff tha I paid good money for, but don't really do anything othe than give me a warm feeling from adding more stuff to the mix.

 

[Metalhead419]

this is interesting. I have a question, sorry if im jacking your thread. I think some people would agree that a fairly common nute cocktail would consist of pure blend pro, cal mag, liquid karma and sweet. are you saying you would recommend to someone to use only the pure blend pro and cut the 3 additives?

 

[Wait...What?]

pure blend pro needs the cal-mag to maintain the balance [but some people do just fine on pbp alone]

but this is hijackin the thread. back to watering rockwool.

 

[lysol]

The time to dry out will greatly differ based on wether you have the cube sitting on a screen or hard ground, wether you have the sleeve on it, and wether you are using rockwool covers as well. with the cube fully wrapped not exposed to air it'll stay wet 4-5x as long. I think the larger your cube the more of a buffer you have, I'm having to coddle the grodan mini cubes to keep them at the right balance it seems but I'm also a first timer. I would recommend ~3" cubes for anyone just starting out.

 

[RockyMountainHi]

I'm luvin 6 inch HUGO blocks -

Did a full nute change-out after 15 and 13 days in cycle just topping off pH adjusted tap. I also added 3 more systems last night. I'm thinking 6 blocks on a 10-12 gallon resavoir.

I used 3/4 teaspoon Veg and 3/4 teaspoon Cal-Mag per gallon - dropped the pH to 6.2-6.3.
E/C TDS was .8-.9 / 700-760

I got a bottle of Liquid Karma - still reading up before I add it, but genaral concenssis is very good.

This shit ROCKS!