Rockwool Flock research, please read if you use loose rockwool

[tommithy]

I'll start by saying I'm a rockwool grower and have great success with the medium in general but there is one thing that just drives me bonkers and that's the process of transplanting my 40mm rockwool starter blocks into a 1 or 2 gallon pot of rockwool flock.

So I'm looking for how YOU plant your starter cubes into the loose rockwool. Basically a step by step from bag to pot that is full of wool and has a clone/seedling starter block planted in it.

Examples of what I'm looking for are, do you soak the loose rockwool? do you pack it in the pots dry? do you flush it before planting? how do you get your starter cube with your seedling/clone set nicely in the pot and then surround it with wool?

Thanks for any and all advice you offer here! I'm just trying to find out how others do this so I can come up with a good procedure that is better then the one I have now.

 

[tommithy]

Is there anybody that uses loose rockwool? I could use some help here.

 

[Legaldroman]

Hey Bro,
I'm going to transplant 4 seedlings that I have in coco plugs into 3 gal pots filled with loose rockwool tonight. From my experience it's best to soak the bails of rockwool prior to planting. I just flush it with plain ph balanced water and let it soak for 24 hrs.
Then I take the slightly moist rockwool and fill my 3 gal pots just like I would with any inert medium. I dig a little hole in the rockwool and drop my coco plug into it and then cover the coco plug with rockwool. After planting I water with a nutrient solution and I'm good to go. Hope this helps, if you want I could take some photos of the process to give you an idea of how I do it.

 

[headiez247]

I assume your talking about the crushed rockwool. Tiny little 1/2x1/2 cubes of it.

I do only rockwool, have experience with it.

Most people don't put the small 1x1 starter blocks straight into the crushed rockwool. You CAN, but most people don't.

Most go from the starter blocks and then into a 4 or 6 inch rockwool block then either veg/flower out like that or, they do what I do and once that 4 or 6 inch block has rooted, you put THAT into your crushed rockwool.

And yes, whether its crushed or the actual blocks, you wanna soak them first in 5.5 ph'ed water before using it for the first time.

 

[toohighmf]

you may also want to leach the lime out of the wool with a clearing agent, flush it out and then soak in supernaturals rockwool soak/conditioner. drain again. save the soak for feeds that week, and then go to real food when rooting takes hold. there is a great high phosphorous food source to help grow roots so the plants stay healthy through transplant.
Rockwool has a habit of raising PH unless properly leached of the Alkali heavy lime that RW is composed of.

 

[Cannabean]

headiez, I dont think he uses the cubes you're referring to. Rockwool floc comes in very compacted bales and it's not fit to a form like the familiar rockwool cubes or the small cubes you're speaking of.

Tommithy, I use rockwool floc for my temp mothers, in pots from 6"x6" up to 2 gal pots and have flowered plants in 5 gal buckets full of floc...and I agree, floc is kind of a pain in the ass to setup.

When I take the floc out of the bag I always break up any flocballs that are stuck together, making sure most of the floc is loose before adding water.

Some compound in the rocks that the loose floc is made of causes an extreme drop in pH when first introduced to water, and thus is the only rockwool that needs a really long presoak(cubes need 30 min max).

So I first fill up a 5 gal bucket 3/4 full with floc and then fill it with RO water until all the rockwool is submerged and leave it to sit overnight.
The next day I pour that bucket into another 5 gal bucket, this one with 10+/- holes <1/2" drilled in the bottom, and allow the water to drain to waste.

Once most of the water has drained away you can start packing your pots with floc or repeat the process again to ensure the pH has stabalized.

Here are some pics of the process when I was setting up a couple of 5gal pots of floc to flower some girls in.

here is a GDP temp mom in floc intended to give 10 cuts from before being culled:

 

[libby]

How often do you water as i have problems with that stuff staying wet...

 

[toohighmf]

libby, how densely do you have it packed? are you feeding until at least 25% of what you feed drains out the bottom? how big are your containers, and how often are you needing to water them? rockwool without anything to help wick it out should stay pretty wet. I have mixed hydroton 50/50 with flocking to add weight to the container and to aerate the rockwool as it could take a couple days to dry out.

 

[libby]

I don't pack it down, i try to use common sense that less material will hold less water, enough to stay wet,i only feed till it drips, don't see any reason to waste 25%, why not 10 or 80%?...And they can go without water/food for 4-5 days. in 2 gall containers,i feel i need to give them xtra, but they seem to be too wet.?

 

[toohighmf]

the main reason for 25% runnoff is so that ferts don't collect at the bottom of the pot and end up concentrating to high EC levels causing burning and lockup. If your going 4-5 days between feedings, what are you complaining about keeping it wet for??? That is a long time. I'm sorry if I am mis understanding the problem.

 

[libby]

So 4-5 days is normal?. I didn't know that. Okay, i'm onto the fert o.d. if not running off at 25%, but i water inbetween feeds,would this help?

 

[Cannabean]

Dilution between feeding helps but I would still be very cautious about feeding without runoff. I did 10% runoff myself. Maybe feed until runoff occasionally and EC test the runoff to make sure you arn't overdoing it.

 

[toohighmf]

that helps. 4-5 days is a long time, but if you can do it, go for it. less is more!

 

[opt1c]

i use loose cubes and go from a starter cube straight into bato buckets; just make sure the drip line is near the cube and you're set; i don't treat my loose rockwool and i don't have any problems

 

[Craven_au]

Nice grow opt1c have you done a thread on cloning looks awesome.k+

 

[tommithy]

Awesome peeps! this has shed some light.

Cannabean, you grow the closest to how I do things. I grow SOG in 1 gallon buckets so I am transplanting a lot. I clone in 40mm block and when I get roots I plant into the loose rockwool in the 1 gallon pot.

How do plant the clone in the pot that is full of clean rockwool? do you dig a square hole? or do you fill the bucket so much (maybe 3/4) set the clone in and then pack wool around it?

Thanks again peeps!

 

[opt1c]

just dig a hole with my hands; don't water the rockwool until after i've planted; wear gloves btw.. the dry stuff is a bitch... water around the clone; u only care about where the roots r for the first week or so; flood later in the plants life

 

[Craven_au]

Nice thread tommithy i will be trying loose rockwool in my next grow with a little hydroton 4 extra aeration have had good results with 3'' rockwool slabs and hydroton. be sure to keep us posted with your grow.

 

[Cannabean]

Awesome peeps! this has shed some light.

Cannabean, you grow the closest to how I do things. I grow SOG in 1 gallon buckets so I am transplanting a lot. I clone in 40mm block and when I get roots I plant into the loose rockwool in the 1 gallon pot.

How do plant the clone in the pot that is full of clean rockwool? do you dig a square hole? or do you fill the bucket so much (maybe 3/4) set the clone in and then pack wool around it?

Thanks again peeps!

Yeah I backfill it in.
For the 5gal bucket thing in the pics I filled them 5-6" below the top with rockwool floc, then put the plant on top(in my case they were in 3x3 rockwool cubes), then backfilled more loose floc up to level with the top of the cube. I then put a 1-2" layer of hydroton on top to discourage algae growth on the rockwools surface and give even water distribrution since I was hand watering.

 

[tommithy]

Yeah I backfill it in.

Do you backfill with wet or dry rockwool?