I'm a fan of anything that makes my garden look like this:
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thoughts on rockwool
- Thread starter ronby
- Start date
I'm a noob, but the thing I find interesting about rockwool is that you can pretty much tell it's state of hydration just by looking at it. Bone dry rockwool is light color, saturated rockwool is dark. Perfect seems to be somewhere in the middle.
I use about 40 ml per gallon of 3% hydrogen peroxide also so it keeps that old sponge smell away.
As for the envoronmental aspect, it's basically rock. What's wrong with that? Rock is everywhere. Crush the used cubes and scatter them on your lawn. Throw them in your garden. Mix them with compost. Throw them on the side of the road. It's not toxic waste, its totally benign.
After all you are using hundreds of kilowatt hours of electricity to grow your garden and people worry about not being able to reuse rockwool? Most of that electricity is generated with fossil fuels. Rockwool's environmental impact pales in comparison.
I use about 40 ml per gallon of 3% hydrogen peroxide also so it keeps that old sponge smell away.
As for the envoronmental aspect, it's basically rock. What's wrong with that? Rock is everywhere. Crush the used cubes and scatter them on your lawn. Throw them in your garden. Mix them with compost. Throw them on the side of the road. It's not toxic waste, its totally benign.
After all you are using hundreds of kilowatt hours of electricity to grow your garden and people worry about not being able to reuse rockwool? Most of that electricity is generated with fossil fuels. Rockwool's environmental impact pales in comparison.
I think the over watering isn't a huge problem in rockwool UNLESS...
your container or cube is too big, for example right after transplanting. You want to water less frequently for a few days in this case.
The other circumstance is poor drainage.
If drainage is good (I put RW cubes on a small grate, not directly on the tray, and when I use pots w/RW croutons and cubes I pack the bottom of my pots with hydroton) and roots are profuse, you can start feeding frequently and watch your plants take off.
your container or cube is too big, for example right after transplanting. You want to water less frequently for a few days in this case.
The other circumstance is poor drainage.
If drainage is good (I put RW cubes on a small grate, not directly on the tray, and when I use pots w/RW croutons and cubes I pack the bottom of my pots with hydroton) and roots are profuse, you can start feeding frequently and watch your plants take off.
HUH?
THROW THEM BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD?
sooooo not cool
well figure that it takes at least about 16 weeks to grow and flower good size plants indoors. Running a 1000 watt HPS 24 hours a day for 8 weeks and 12 hours a day for 8 weeks uses 2016 kilowatt hours. Burning coal to generate that much electricity would release 4268 lbs of co2 into the atmosphere. Using natural gas to generate the electricity releases 2649 lbs of co2.
To worry about littering the landscape with rockwool blocks that are completely inert seems like ignoring the mountain and focusing on the molehill.
Let's say during your 16 week grow, you grow 24 plants under your 1000 Watt light. You use 6 inch rockwool blocks. Since it takes eight of the 6 inch blocks to make up a cubic foot, you have generated another 3 cubic feet of trash to go into a landfill. That's 22.4 gallons. One trash bag full. Most households generate more trash than that in week. So your net landfill impact is one trash bag at the end of 4 months.
Compared to a ton or more of co2 released by the electricity generated to power the lights.
Let's go back ONCE AGAIN to where you advacate tossing used R/W cubes on the side of the road - and I seriously doubt you want them on your road, right?
I have used 6 inch rockwool for a long time, works great most of the time. Recently I am testing uni-slab and it seems promising.
As far as the environmental impact goes, I think it is semi absurd to worry greatly about them.
1) They are made outta rock aka mother earth. Thats more organic than organic!
2) How is this worse than coco fiber which is transported across oceans and grown in coco farms which are usually grown where a forest WAS.
For massive industrial hydro in Netherlands, disposing of truckloads of this stuff is a bit of a challenge, but for us hobbyists its no big deal. All the concern about them is being fertilized by the sellers of other mediums. Compared to the electricity used this is nothing. If ya make a big dealout of this you are very deluded and u should get your priorities straight.
As far as the environmental impact goes, I think it is semi absurd to worry greatly about them.
1) They are made outta rock aka mother earth. Thats more organic than organic!
2) How is this worse than coco fiber which is transported across oceans and grown in coco farms which are usually grown where a forest WAS.
For massive industrial hydro in Netherlands, disposing of truckloads of this stuff is a bit of a challenge, but for us hobbyists its no big deal. All the concern about them is being fertilized by the sellers of other mediums. Compared to the electricity used this is nothing. If ya make a big dealout of this you are very deluded and u should get your priorities straight.
