A batch of clones in rockwool

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by AugustWest

best cloning guide on the internets.... sticky imho

Al, thanx again dude.

No worries.

Originally Posted by sneakers

Hey Al, how does hydroton work in the flood method that you use and what kind of pump would you suggest?

Pellets work fine but of course, not being absorbent, require more frequent flooding. I'd start off with flooding 3x/day to the depth of the overflow tube, then shut the pump down, however long that takes with your size tray and pump. Digital timers make it easier to get this right as they can be programmed in single minute increments, as opposed to mechanical timers which usually have only 15 min on times.

It is critical that the rockwool cube is placed in the pellets such that the bottom of the cube is about 13mm (1/2") ABOVE the flood level. This will make the pellets near the cube damp enough that roots will seek them out but will prevent saturating the cube. If you saturate a RW cube with a small plant in it 3x/day it will soon show overwatering symptoms- yellow/dying lower leaves, slow growth etc. Since there is a lot more airspace in a pot of pellets than in RW, roots can be flooded much more frequently. Once the roots have grown down into the pellets, you can flood quite frequently without risk of overwatering. The beauty of hydroponics is the ability to move a lot of highly oxygenated nutrient solution over the roots, so the more often you can flood, the better. Pellets are good for this application.

However, I don't use pellets for a couple of reasons. First, they're heavy. I have 96 plants in flower at any given moment, harvesting 23 every 2 weeks. Buying in and disposing of heavy media is a pain. I use Fytocell because if its very light weight (you can lift 2x 100L bags with one hand, about a month's supply for me) yet high airspace content, which rivals pellets. Pellets are somewhat re-usable but are hard to clean totally free of old roots. If the pellets are not fully clean and sterile before re-use, root diseases can be transferred from crop to crop. Any cost savings from recycling of pellets is lost when a crop suffers from an introduced and avoidable root disease. It's more cost effective per litre of media to use Fytocell if the media will be used once and disposed of. Spent Fytocell can be left in pots after harvest until dry, bagged up and disposed of in common rubbish without fear of bags splitting and the stuff going all over the place.

The pump you use to flood a tray is a fairly non-critical item. It just needs to fill the tray to the overflow level within 3-5 mins. Cheap pumps will work but often are not the most durable. Choosing higher capacity pumps sometimes gets you a pump that lasts a bit longer. Centrif aquarium pumps are notorious for failing, either through air trapped in the pump's impeller chamber or through shaft failure. Replace them yearly, check them daily.

Originally Posted by doob3r

agreed, i was for rockwool and then against it and then for it then against it, with your shared info AL ive gotten very comfy with it

Coolio. As long as you can keep the cubes damp and not saturated, half the battle is won.

[Chronitron]

can i post this elsewhere? pictures and all?

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by Chronitron

can i post this elsewhere? pictures and all?

Once I post something here, the GC forum operators own the copyright. Ask them for reproduction permissions.

However, I can tell you that neither they nor I would be pleased if you took material from the board and published it in a grow book or something that made a profit for you. We'd be less likely to object if you posted in a freely accessible means. Reposting the material elsewhere here on GC is always OK. Always acknowledge your source when quoting material you didn't write.

My preference would be that instead of posting the stuff, you link folks back here to this thread. Information is frequently updated, methods changed, etc. The latest & greatest info will usually be here, where things that you post elsewhere without my knowledge may or may not be current.