[GIS]

I use both, and love both. I think they both work great. I still like rockwool because the 1.5 cloning cubes have plastic on them, so you can write strains on them, easy to keep track of without little sticks, etc. I like the 3" RW blocks because you can veg a plant very easily in it, under flouoros you don't have to water that often, and the roots love it. My main concern with RW is that it's not that environment friendly. I am kind of jumping on the whole green bandwagon, and am slowly switching to almost all coco, and hopefully organic nutrient soon. I think both coco and RW are great mediums, and like any growing medium, they are as good as you can use them. It's too hard to choose, I won't do it!

[buddin_904]

bump

Both have their pros.. most will find coco "easier" thus resulting in most saying its a superior medium. Coco is great. Currently using it for its ease and forgivingness.

Rockwool definitely wins in setup/reload factor though. Nothing easier then just pushing a rooter in a block and setting it on a table. Can be trickier trying not to over-water at 1st. Once you dial any setup/method they are all great.

Dont like the fact that rockwool doesnt ever go anywhere if you just pitch it. I know it makes great insulation however. Does anyone have any info on recycling old used rockwool for home insulation? Is it possible to shred/dice, then dissolve roots and dry to be used to insulate the garage or something?

Rockwool gets a bad rep for not being earth friendly, but it does recycle. Its rock. The problem is that its typically not recycled because of whats been growing in it, but rather pitched elsewhere. Do med friendly states have rockwool recycling spots? I can only imagine there is a ton of rockwool being used - only to be pitched into dumpsters.


Coco is great. Its easy and is renewable. Having to transplant a lot of clones is more time consuming then rockwool. Sucks it has to imported in by boat/container.

rockwool = convenient
coco = easy to grow in

I vote neither. Mediumless makes it all look like a waste of time/$$/stuff.

Go mediumless!

[domtown]

I like both mediums for growing but both have pros and cons. The biggest question is what method is easier for the grower. If you are growing somewhere where supplying and draining high volumes of water to waste is inconvenient, I would not choose coco! I have a sump pump in my basement and I drain everything to that, a necessity if you consider how much water you're going to pump through when flushing.

Also, you really can't use coco for ebb/flow applications which I would've preferred using instead of hydroton. Hydroton is a pita to reuse and very expensive AND I hate the red powder shit that gets everywhere.

Oddly enough, my most prized possesion is one of my mother plants that was given to me in a rockwool cube. I dropped it into a 3 gallon pot of coco and she grew into a monster. You can still kinda see the rockwool to the left of the small green stake. I know she needs to be transplanted into a bigger pot but I just love looking at that surface root

coco is the shit!

fungus gnats can be controlled well with BTI and nematodes

[MtnLivin]

Coco all the way baby... I water with low dosages of Azatrol throughout veg and early flower to prevent gnats and other bugs.. Works brilliantly.

[domtown]

Originally Posted by MtnLivin

Coco all the way baby... I water with low dosages of Azatrol throughout veg and early flower to prevent gnats and other bugs.. Works brilliantly.

I just bought some Azamax and started spraying foliar. I read that it can be fed systemically but I was a bit nervous. Do you mix right into nutrient tank or do you mix and feed Azatrol separately? Also, how long have you used it this way?

I hate the coco gnats but the mites are driving me insane. Temps and humidity are nothing that mites enjoy and i still have them here and there.

[_Dude]

I was all excited about rockwool but now I'm reading threads about people seeing 50% reduction in growth after switching from hydroton to rockwool, ph problems, etc. Hell with that. And yeah you get all the answers telling him to do this or do that, look, the whole point of switching to rockwool is less work. I don't want a system redesign, I want to get rid of hydroton, sorting roots out from ANYTHING, transplanting, etc. The idea of just moving one block and setting it on top of another block and calling that transplanting is very appealing.

The there's the gnats and the algae. Well, I got algae now. And gnats. But I don't want a bigger algae/gnat problem.

Coco? Yeah well, I was really liking that "put the block on the other block, done" thing. Now I don't know. I'm going to have to run a side-by-side with a few in rockwool and see how it goes. Maybe I'll do a few in coco too. But I could give a shit about all this hippy green recyclable stuff. I want easy. Easier than clay balls. All this "soak, flush, expand, process" crap sounds like the opposite direction from easy. But at least I don't have to recycle it, like I have to recycle hydroton. That stuff's way too expensive to throw out. So we'll see. Hell I'm considering dirt at this point. Anything where I can just TOSS the rootballs.

i prefer using rockwool for seeds and clones, then switch to coco.
never had much luck with starting seeds and clones in coco.

[Warped1]

I run hempy's..but I couldn't find any vermiculite locally so I went with coco and hydroton. So far I like it, it holds moisture well, and no gnats after a month. I bought 3 bricks for $9 and I'll get 3 grows from that. It's ok