What's new
  • Happy Birthday ICMag! Been 20 years since Gypsy Nirvana created the forum! We are celebrating with a 4/20 Giveaway and by launching a new Patreon tier called "420club". You can read more here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

20K WATTS IN ROCKWOOL

G

growing303

Member
Hello ICMAG, I have been on and off the sight many years. some of you may have followed my past SOG.

Time to get started again; full legal under my plant count. Not using any harmful pesticides or fungicides this time.

33X digital 600W ballasts running Digimax and Plantmax bulbs.

25 plants per light ebb and flow with polly plastic over the tables.

4" cubes. General Hydroponics three part with some additives.

I am in the process of converting all the rooms to SOG.

this is my first HYDRO grow and i would love some input, as always thank you to the legends of ICmag you guys taught me to grow.
you guys know who you are.



Some big plants getting flowered



power board



more big plants
 
G

growing303

Member
Please help me with these plants:


this one has curled fan leaves, and is lighter green than the rest. also characteristic is really short node stacking with very long petiole. i have seen this in 2-3% of the plants. possibly overwatering? roots don't dry out as much on the runty plants.

and this:


light green growth, wide leathery leaves, leaves curing down, dark leaf veins.
 
_tessarecting

_tessarecting

ஓ
Looks great man! Whats the feeding and watering schedule like for the rockwool? Water multiple times a day with a drip? Curious how you do it with ec/ppm.

Overwatering can cause that some are just more vigorous than others.
 
DunHav`nFun

DunHav`nFun

Well-known member
Rockwool has a tendency to hold onto moisture , and maybe the table has a low spot where those particular plants are located and they`re sitting in leftover solution , but they definitely exhibit signs of overwatering and possibly rootborn critters God forbid , especially in a room that size....anyways....

Be diligent on pest management , and keep up the good work....A clean room is a happy room....

Welcome back and thanks for the show....

Peace...DHF....:ying:.....
 
G

growing303

Member
DHF

DHF

Thank you for the input, always valued your opinion. And read a lot of your responses.

There are seemingly no root born parasites, but the cubes are now covered and harder to inspect daily. But i will get in there and take a good look.
 
Ganoderma

Ganoderma

Hydronaut
Mentor
Veteran
I think I may see some issues, mind you it's been a while since I dabbled in RW.

You are having sighs of a PH issue. Some of those leaves look to have a what could look like over feeding.

You are not watering them enough! You are growing in rockwool, you need to have several water cycles through out the day. This keeps the ph and your ec/ppm levels stable with in the RW. By only flooding once a day you are cause issues. I also think that your solution is to strong, 1.9 is way to strong.
 
RoostaPhish

RoostaPhish

Well-known member
Veteran
Although I respect what the gentleman is saying regarding ph swing inside of a cube with its regards on when to water. You can definitely over water rw, and you would actually need to extract a sample with a syringe from inside the cube to determine this. There is no way to definitively say from our vantage point that this has occurred. I grow huge trees in my ebb systems with rw and only water once a day and never experience much swing with in the cube. The method is used to determine when to water. And it occurs at different times in different gardens.
 
G

growing303

Member
Pluto. I have been watching your grow, from the start. Very inspirational . where do you cap EC in bloom?

Ganoderma- Thank you very much for the input, first time with this much RW love the guidance, i agree the plants are likely getting burned i am seeing tip curl.

but under watering seems unlikely- I say this because the few plants that exhibit these symptoms seem to better when i skip watering them for a day. they turn from droop to pray.

RoostaPhish- Thank you as well for the information. can you describe a little about syringe water extraction and how i could use that information to determine the needs of my root zone? I know this may be a lengthy response but i would very much appreciate it; and i have never heard mention of this method on the internet or in hydroponic literature.

buds are starting to set on the SOG i will get a picture tomorrow.
 
B

BadRabbit

Active member
RoostaPhish said:
Although I respect what the gentleman is saying regarding ph swing inside of a cube with its regards on when to water. You can definitely over water rw, and you would actually need to extract a sample with a syringe from inside the cube to determine this. There is no way to definitively say from our vantage point that this has occurred. I grow huge trees in my ebb systems with rw and only water once a day and never experience much swing with in the cube. The method is used to determine when to water. And it occurs at different times in different gardens.
Click to expand...

With all due respect, I'm just amazed at the number of people who talk about overwatering with RW. No .... you can't overwater it. Period, end stop, not happening.

Rockwool is designed to equalize to a very near ideal air/water mixture within minutes after watering and will stay that way for hours. Pour a gallon of water on it. Then pour 3 on the cube next to it. They will end up with exactly the same amount of water in tham in about 3 minutes. Make it 10 gallons, same outcome.

That means no, it is NOT like dirt ... dirt can easily hold way too much water, RW will most definitely not.

If you leave it siting in a puddle of water, as one commenter suggested, yes, but if the RW is able to drain, no, you cannot "over water" it. I suppose if you're dumb enough to leave your pump flowing nonstop so the cube would be in water, then yes, that would qualify.

But overwatering as in "watered it too often" or "...too much". Baloney.

run pumps 2 to 4 times a day, one is a bit too little.... right on the edge .... 3 is ideal, but 4 or 5 short floods per day are perfectyly fine.

Let's see .... just to level set for some reading this who may ask the question, yes, I have many, many years of constant experience with it, it's all i've used for years, in all forms and several style of hydrop applications.

For growing issues, look to your nutrients, light schedules, temperatures, humidity .... not "overwatering" RW, that's a rabbit trail. So to speak.

best,
rabbit
 
RoostaPhish

RoostaPhish

Well-known member
Veteran
You guys are funny. Although it is unlikely to kill the plant, I have seen it happen. RW benefits from a dry period in between flooding. And you are better able to see how a plant is reacting to what you are feeding them if you space you watering out as long as you can. There are tons of videos showing rockwool covered in algae and hurting roots. There are certain circumstances like with MM tables, that use a constant watering with rockwool, however there is minimal media, and the actual brunt of the root system is in the table itself. Which contains no media what so ever. Your comment actually states that you can in fact over water it. I never claimed that he was over watering it, just that it can happen, and referencing the method used to determine precise times to water with relation to ph inside a block.
 
RoostaPhish

RoostaPhish

Well-known member
Veteran
growing303- You essentially plunge a syringe into your block and extract a liquid sample from within. When the ph starts to rise due to RW inherent alkaline ph, out of your desired range, this would determine when to water again to correct it. And like I stated previously there is no preset time which this occurs. And can change do to the water/nutrient consumption of the plant and even sometimes from the nutrients being used. It is the only definitive way to know what is actually going on inside the cube, as your nutrient solution will never show exactly the same readings as you find inside the cube.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Latest posts

Top