Ebb & Grow w/ rockwool

[Seed Buyer]

Was thinking about pulling a couple old Ebb & Grow systems out of retirement but hate dealing with hydroton. Was toying with the idea of using rockwool. Plants are vegging in 4" wool cubes then would be transplanted into the the Ebb & Grow just for bloom. Was gonna do a 2" layer of hydroton and back fill with Grodan Cubes (rock wool dice). Thoughts?

 

[ugmjfarmer]

Do the Hydroton like you planned, but grodan makes a new 3/4" size grow "chunks". Those would work better with the system then the normal 1/4" grow cubes/dice as they wont compress as much, more air space. You can water more frequently and worry less about overwatering. Hope that helps, the grow chunks look promising for ebb'n'gro setups.

 

[Casual]

Very interesting. I'm working with a buddy on an Ebb & Gro setup and really want to avoid hydroton. I'm not liking the reviews I've been reading on the Sure To Grow Inserts, and am leaning towards Sunleaves Rocks, and now have to get a good look at the Grodan Chunks. The Chunks seem nice, but very expensive. $40 for 2 cubic feet... Anyone know how many cubic feet are in a normal E&G bucket? We're setting up for 27 buckets!

Thanks!

Caz

 

[Seed Buyer]

I talked to the folks at Grodan and they are running an Ebb & Grow in green house and said so far the best results have been w/ small layer of hydroton for drainage and then back filling w/ the Grodan dice. They said the new larger chunks are not doing as good and might hold to much water. Think I am going to put down a minimal amount of hydroton and back fill w/ the dice.

 

[anferneybra]

Cant beat hydroton for ebb and grow, especially for the 2gallon pots. I have tried the rockwool backfill, didnt hold water right, and the PH swings were out of control. The Sure to Grow stuff is just too experimental at this point, I tried one, and the plant fell over at 2.5 ft tall, there is no weight in the bottom to simulate ground. I feel that hydroton is hard to clean, but very worth it, just go outside, poke a ton of horizontal slices with a blade in the bottom half of the large bag and hose that shit down.

my two cents

 

[brightskies]

Has anyone used the water "repellent" version of the granulated rockwool? I was thinking about making a blend of the rockwool dice and the repellent rockwool to achieve a good balance of moisture retention and drainage.

I have never seen the repellent wool in person.

 

[MTZ]

use marbles and you dont have to worry about anything, jst make sure you cover the tops with a black cardboard disc or something similar

 

[globel]

1 large bag of hydroton is good for 6 buckets.. Greentrees

 

[!!!]

You can just have the 4" rockwool cubes sitting in the tray with nothing in between.

Search online for "mediumless ebb flow"

 

[john7894]

Hello guys I have a quick question for whoever can give a educated answer. I am currently using a ebb&flo 35 bucket system controlled by one res and one brain. I am currently 2 wks into flowering. The medium I am using is half hydroton (on the bottom) and half rockwool cubes (on the top). I feed for an hour to make sure all the buckets fill completely up. When we flood, the buckets are filled to about an inch below the top of the rockwool so everything is submerged. The theory is that the rockwool cubes will retain enough nutes to only have to flood once a day. We are worried that if we flood more than once a day it could lead to root rot. Do you believe that this is enough or should we feed more than once? We also feed it right when the plants wake up. Is this a good time? We are newer growers and any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[superusa]

To be honest I can see not wanting to use just hydroton because it doesn't hold water for shit, but a 3 or 5 gallon bucket full of pure rockwool (except the bottom 2") sounds like a nightmare to me. I think rockwool holds far too much water. I think i would fill the bottom 2" with hydroton or aquarium rocks, and then mix hydroton and rockwool dice 50/50 or so to keep it from staying too saturated and leave space for some air to reach the roots..

 

[Cheeb]

You can just have the 4" rockwool cubes sitting in the tray with nothing in between.

Search online for "mediumless ebb flow"

!!!, what trays would that be?!?

- -

Possibly perhaps your talking about finding a lid to fit the ebb and grow bucket and using a netcup to support either the 4" block or a much smaller portion of hydroton and just flood more frequently. Would definately work well - pretty much a DWC bucket contruction but paired with an ebb and gro brain to do frequent floods instead of constant aerated water. Roots would hang in the empty space.

HAPS does something like this, but does aerate his buckets as well. I'd try to avoid the aeration in each bucket for simplicity sakes and still bet it'd work just fine. Flood every 90 min for 30min or so.

Have a friend trying it now but havnt spoke in a while to check his progress.

Anyone know where to get lids that snap onto the black ebb buckets tightly??

 

[Mitch Connor]

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=122198

I've been doing a lot of thinking on this subject as I've never really been fond of Hydroton. I did some looking around and found Higromite to be a very valid replacement. Dongle has used it and says it's amazing. It also goes by the name of Dyna-Rok by Dyna Gro.

http://www.dyna-gro.com/Website%20pdf%20Files/Dyna-Rok%20II%20Sheet%202002.pdf

If you can find a supplier around I'd give that a shot. I'm going to be running my 12 bucket ebb'n'gro system soon with this stuff.

**Found a reliable retailer that carries it for just about as cheap as you can get. $19.99 + Shipping for 20L (5gal) of the stuff. It's twice as expensive as Hydroton, but worth it.

http://www.discount-hydro.com/productdisp.php?pid=361&navid=34

Crappy for me, because I'm in Canada. I guess I'll have to go to some local hydro shops and see if they can order it for me wholesale.