My Experience With Sure To Grow Bucket Inserts

[Vespatian]

The system we are using is as follows:

CAPS Ebb & Gro buckets
Nine buckets under each hood
Magnum XXXL 8" air cooled hoods
Quantum digital ballasts
Each rez contains one recirc pump and 4 air stones
Each rez is chilled
Hydroton

We run 10 bloom lights.

We clone in 1.5" RW cubes.

For this trial run we dedicated one light (9 buckets) to plants grown in the STG bucket inserts.

The RW clones transfered easily into the square opening in the STG insert. During the veg process we noticed what has been widely reported: The bottom 4" or so of the inserts remain saturated at all times. We also noticed that the top surface of the inserts sink down in the bucket about 2" or so from where they are initially set.

At no time during veg or bloom did we have algae issues.

The STG buckets performed exactly as the surrounding hydroton buckets during both veg and bloom.

During clean up we noticed basically the same root mass in the bottom void space for each product.

Installation and clean up is extremely easy with the STG product, though it costs more.

We've bumped our STG usage to 3 lights this run, being on the conservative side.

 

[fatigues]

The STG buckets performed exactly as the surrounding hydroton buckets during both veg and bloom.

This is the part I'm not getting. STG supposedly does NOT wick. Hydroton does (somewhat) and that's a pretty huge difference.

It seems to me that STG is ideal for a drip emitter system and will also work well after roots are well established. But without wicking, I don't see how STG is going to work as well as Hydroton. Can you help me out in understanding how you used it and whether wicking (or not) was an issue in how you used STG inserts.

 

[Daddy-O]

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[Vespatian]

This is the part I'm not getting. STG supposedly does NOT wick. Hydroton does (somewhat) and that's a pretty huge difference.

It seems to me that STG is ideal for a drip emitter system and will also work well after roots are well established. But without wicking, I don't see how STG is going to work as well as Hydroton. Can you help me out in understanding how you used it and whether wicking (or not) was an issue in how you used STG inserts.

Fatigues, yes I think I see the error in my wording.

The two products "act" very differently, i.e., hydroton wicks slightly vs. STG almost not at all, hydroton drains almost completely vs. STG almost not at all, etc.

My use of the word "performed" was meant to convey that the plants in the STG buckets were of the same size, density, and health as the plants in the hydroton buckets.

Sorry for the confusion.

Also, yes because STG does not wick it is critical that when you transfer rooted clones into buckets that you make sure they fill up to the RW cube.

Daddy-O, I hear you. Everything you said I believe is true. The tipping issue for me is simply the ease of installation and disposal.

 

[NorCalFor20]

i got an offer from those sure to grow guys saying they would send me free samples of there sure to grow inserts but i think it needs more time and design improvements before i grow 12k worth of medicine using them...

just bought 4 bags of hydroton again time to rinse

 

[odis]

vespatian,

So you were satified with the stg inserts? I am 3 weeks into veg and so far so good, plants seem healthy and doing good so far. i did have to cut my flood times down to once a day. and not real happy about that, i like the idea of giving them freash nutz and O2 as offten as posible. but the plants would droop pretty bad towards the end of the 18hr of light

Can you give a little more detail on your flood times and any mods. that you had to do useing the STG? tips tricks ? HA. I really want to get this stuff dial in. I just love the stuff if it will perform!

I havent seen any recent attemps with stg to speak of and would love to hear some more opinions..

 

[ThePieEyedPiper]

Anyone having problems shouldnt be blaming the stg inserts. Sounds more like grower error or something else. I'm having spectacular results with three weeks to go. I run 45 buckets to one ebbnflo "sog" syle. 6 buckets were STG others are rockwool in rock. Yield looks to be the same but the STG look much greener. Same system, lights as rock.

 

[ThePieEyedPiper]

I was flooding twice a day until week 5.

 

[Vespatian]

vespatian,

So you were satified with the stg inserts? I am 3 weeks into veg and so far so good, plants seem healthy and doing good so far. i did have to cut my flood times down to once a day. and not real happy about that, i like the idea of giving them freash nutz and O2 as offten as posible. but the plants would droop pretty bad towards the end of the 18hr of light

Can you give a little more detail on your flood times and any mods. that you had to do useing the STG? tips tricks ? HA. I really want to get this stuff dial in. I just love the stuff if it will perform!

I havent seen any recent attemps with stg to speak of and would love to hear some more opinions..

Hi Odis,
We ran the STG buckets on the same rez as hydroton buckets, so we didn't modify the flooding schedule at all. We flood 4 times a day (every 6 hours). The purpose of the trial was to determine if the STG buckets produced a yield comparable with the hydroton buckets under the exact same conditions. For us, they did.

I'm into flower now with 3 out of 10 lights using STG, and again there is no difference vs. the hydroton buckets.

Installation and clean up takes a few easy minutes, not numerous back-breaking hours.

 

[Cheeb]

keep the updates coming - and better yet pics.

I attempted to log a 5400w grow using these STG inserts, but unfortunately had very poor results. Initially things grew just fine at flooding 15min ever 4 hrs...as I neared bloom things started to droop so I backed off to 1 flood per day.

Couldnt seem to dial the medium and my plants looked overwatered and unhealthy regardless of what I did with the flood schedule.

Not sure what I was doing wrong, but would love to give them another shot - to save my back...regardless of a little extra expense.

peace
cheeb

 

[ThePieEyedPiper]

We are also running the minicubes with excellent results.

 

[ThePieEyedPiper]

lol we have 6 trash barrels of used rock left.

 

[DHF]

Every medium involves dialage regardless but the STG`s hold excessive juice from what I`ve been told by several well versed and experienced GroBro`s in an ebb and flow bucket environment , so it`s a big thumbs down as far as I`m concerned simply for the lack of drying out process between feed cycles not allowing a drying out and root formation/explosion process...........

Just my 2 cents from runnin ebb and flow buckets in lava for many yrs dialed and hearing bout the soggy inserts since they came out.......

Ebb and flow bucket rootzones require a drying out period between feeds for explosive root growth to support the accelerated growth of the plants above IME.........

Peace........DHF........

 

[FLoJo]

i have been running stg 6 inch cubes stand alone in an ebb n flo and i agree they do take some getting used to..

i ran 2 seperate strains, ak47 which started to look overwatered, have now had numerous ph and nute issues due to flooding once per day.. now have moved up to 4x a day and it has panned out, but they do not look as healthy as they should, and im sure the yield will be reduced.. i will say though that the ak that i have is not very grower friendly.. it is very finicky to ph, and ppms, and is very sensitive to bugs and mold.

the other strain i am running looks absolutely phenominal... looks exactly like it normally does in rocks, and has a ton of roots popping out everywhere.. it is a very easy strain to grow, and will take a beating. i will know in a month or so if the yeild is on par with the rocks.

i think they key (at least in ebb n flo) is to run the storm series that fit in the small black ebb n flow table pots. they have a much smaller surface area, which will allow you to water more frequently and act more like hydroton.. the large cubes were a mistake on my part because they hold waaay to much water when running a sog. i will give them another shot with my other strain, smaller cubes, and see what happens.

overall its a great idea if you have a larger grow, and i would love to get them to pan out!

 

[702Confidential]

Just tried soaking a bunch of their samples in plain RO and it seems to hold too much water. Like soaking cotton balls. I'm sure reducing feeding schedule would solve this problem though. Doesn't seem to affect the PH.

Heard the local hydro shops stop ordering the stuff because of root rot issues.

I think every medium is different and the grower must learn to adapt to what system they choose to create.

Hydroton works and is proven, but is a real big pain in the ass. I heard there is a new medium coming out which is similar to STG with less water retention. Hopefully it'll be much cheaper.

 

[FLoJo]

i had thought about using marbles instead of rocks.. no dust, easy to clean.. ehh