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How do YOU prepare your seeds for hydroton ebb and flow tables?

supersmallgiant

supersmallgiant

Member
I have been germinating my seeds in rockwool plugs and once the seedling are a few inches tall I transfer them to the hydroton filled ebb and flow tables.

Now here is where the problem arises. The rockwool stays wet for ever, and the hydroton dries out fairly quickly. If I only flood the table a few times a day the rockwool will dry enough to send out roots but then the hydroton is too dry and kills the emerging roots. If I keep the hydroton wet enough then the rockwool is so wet it doesn't send out roots and stunts the plant. I have also tried rapid rooters with even worse results... damping off. Lately I have been stripping the rockwool plugs down smaller and it seems to help a little but still is less than ideal.

I have been thinking about germing the seeds in paper towel and then trying to transfer them to my aerocloner. Hopefully I can get them to grow roots in the cloner and skip the rockwool all together. I am just too nervous to try it with expensive seeds but will probably try it with my sam the skunkman freebies when the time comes. Think it would work?

What is your method?
 
P

Pazuzu

New member
I started my seeds and clones (in homemade aero cloner) in rockwool 1.5 starter plugs. I then transfer these into the 3 in. rockwool cubes that are made to accept the 1.5 starter plugs. I then put these cubes in 6 in. net pots with hydrotron that go into my low pressure aero veg unit and then they transplant right into my flowering low pressure aero flowering unit.
I water them 6 times a day for 10 min and they are showing exceptional root growth with nice white t-bones on them. The cubes stay damp but not saturated. So perhaps by moving up to a larger cube you will be able to shed more water from the cube?
 
D

~deadwood~

New member
the bottom of your rw cube should sit 1/2" to 3/4" above your flood height. if you keep your heights correct your cubes don't get fully saturated.
 
stonedar

stonedar

Macro-aggressor
Veteran
well I generally use peat pellets for everything, I've never had the problem you have described. I've also used rockwool, oasis cubes, and had good luck.

I'm not sure what to tell you to do differently it always just worked for me.

to start seeds in an aerocloner just stick the seed directly into the bottom 1/2 inch of the neoprene insert. run your cloner a few minutes and see if the bottom doesn't stay wet. I had never thought of trying this until I read a thread on here. I tried it last week (also with some Sam freebies by coincidence) worked just fine.

I'll be back in your thread in a minute with a link.
 
paladin420

paladin420

FACILITATOR
Veteran
Not lookin for rep just the same answer as you Brudda. I leave rockwool alone just for the reasons you state. Was gonna try rapids until Read your post. So I guess since these are Prime Grindhouse beans, I will prob move to dirt. Grow them out n sex them. Take cuttins.
I'm not sayin I hate Dirt but, it sure slowes shit down. Good Luck Hopin for a better answer
 
stonedar

stonedar

Macro-aggressor
Veteran
picture.php


Ganoderma's pic see thread below
 
paladin420

paladin420

FACILITATOR
Veteran
stonedar said:
well I generally use peat pellets for everything, I've never had the problem you have described. I've also used rockwool, oasis cubes, and had good luck.

I'm not sure what to tell you to do differently it always just worked for me.

to start seeds in an aerocloner just stick the seed directly into the bottom 1/2 inch of the neoprene insert. run your cloner a few minutes and see if the bottom doesn't stay wet. I had never thought of trying this until I read a thread on here. I tried it last week (also with some Sam freebies by coincidence) worked just fine.

I'll be back in your thread in a minute with a link.
Click to expand...
No shit!!! I thought of that but,damn risky LOL
 
FirstTracks

FirstTracks

natural medicator
Veteran
Peat pellets. Wait until roots are poking out the bottom. bury slightly in hydroton. top feed for 1st few days to let roots grow down. once 1st few nodes are there start bottom feeding.

Alternatively, I've started in perlite and just washed the perlite off the roots and transplanted to hydroton when the roots hit 4" long or so.
 
S

spacecasejay

Member
you can germ in moist paper towell, transfer to a thin sheet of stryofoam where the babies will chill out in a bubble, once roots are strong you can transfer to nets for your tables.
flood often at first
 
Andyo

Andyo

Active member
Veteran
15 yrs + of ebb/flow in hydroton using rockwool

15 yrs + of ebb/flow in hydroton using rockwool

I cut up slabs of rock wool to 6 inch by 3 by 3 with the fibres running down to assist drainage ,seeds planted in a little slot made by a scalpel then just closed over .
Once the seed is up i remove the seed case and membrane as it stays in the rockwool and can make suseptable to stem rot.
700 seedlings under 2 kw ebb/flow rock wool sides seperated by cut corex.@ 2 weeks into the hydroton pots ,never had a problem .
Cuttings used to use rockwool plugs into 3 inch cubes flooding up so just touching base of 3" cube
Now ive moved country n scaled down from 24kw to 6.8 kw so only 12 big ebb/flow buckets per kw i root the cuttings into cut up rockwool ,I tried 2" x2"x 3'" got the same problem to damn wet to grow on well.
So ive done the same again rooting cuttings into cut slabs vertical fibres 3 x 3 x6 also noticed the cuts root better as the rock wool can be wet at the base but just right 1.5 inches from the top.
I wrap the blocks in black white poly once rooted n bring on till white root mass is grown ,then into hydrton pots "they fly then.A
 
D

dgtm85

Member
i just popped 6 fem beans for the first time in over a year and i did it the way i always do it with great success. i just put the seeds in between two moist paper towels in a sandwich bag then when the seed pops open and it has a little tail on it i put it in a rapid rooter in my humidome (rapid rooter slightly moistened with ph'd water not soaked) then when the seed shoots out in a few days transplant to RW where i will hand water untill roots are showing from the RW then to the hydroton where it will be flooded and as stated above your flood line must be correct, if i can flood the tray a couple times and stick my finger down the hydroton and feel the RW it should be dry on top.
 
supersmallgiant

supersmallgiant

Member
I finally tried the seeds in the aero cloner method. I will use it every time now. I got 10 for 10 out of it and now I don't have to deal with that damn rockwool and the problems I get from it. I soaked the beans for 24h in a solo cup of 5.5ph tap water then let them pop in moist paper towel. Once they had a tap root I placed them in the foam with the leaves poking out of the top and the root exposed on the bottom. My cloner sits on the floor next to a veg table with no direct lighting so they stretched a little but I just bury the stem anyway. Here they are after a couple days in the cloner.

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I liked this picture so I'll throw it in too:

picture.php
 
A

alfie moon

Member
They look great, i think i will try without direct light as yours look far healthier then mine!
Is that just tap water or you got a mild feed?
cheers
 
supersmallgiant

supersmallgiant

Member
alfie moon said:
They look great, i think i will try without direct light as yours look far healthier then mine!
Is that just tap water or you got a mild feed?
cheers
Click to expand...
I know the clones work far better without direct lighting. They focus on rooting instead of photosynthesis. This is my first time trying seeds in the cloner so who knows with them though. The cloner had tap water and 1-2ml bleach per 10gal of water, no nutes. Same way I clone. :tiphat:
 
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