dwc

you can use a soiless mix or even 50/50 perlite vermiculite..just rinse the roots in a bowl of water before putting em in the buckets

 

Ive actually had to make this decision a few times. At the time i only had some hydroton. All i did was germinate the seed in a little sandwich bag and damp tissue till it was ready then popped it directly into the hydroton attatched to my dwc bucket. Its worked for me 100% of the time every time ive done it, but the downsides ive come across is that the roots will not grow very uniform and pretty like they do when you baby them from smaller rockwool cubes into bigger ones as they grow. You also have to keep the water lvl pretty high in order for it to reach the tap root while its making its way through the rocks.

 

You can use a tiny piece of rock wool and once it gets bigger you can pull away the rock wool . Ive been able to get most of the rock wool off once the plant was bigger.

Question? Why do you want to get rid of the rockwool. If it is because it getting green, then you need to bury it deeper in the tron. Or just sprinkle tron on it until its a inch deep or so.

Good night and good luck.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-M6DfeIETA&feature=related]DIY Hydroponics Top Drip Bucket System - YouTube[/ame]

 

Rapidrooter starter plug off eBay, hands down the best

 

If you're going to run DWC and don't want any media in your net pots get a commercially available aeroponic clone machine. I use a turbo klone 24 with dome and consider it one of the best purchases for my garden. It's made cloning and transferring to DWC buckets easy.

These can also be DIY'd. Most use neoprene holders for the cuttings and no media. The long roots that result allow you to dangle them to the bottom of the net pot with some in the res on the first day if you thread a few through. This really speeds up recovery from transplant to the net pots.