im confused on the whole rockwool with hydroton in an ebb and flow system. My seed will be germinated then put into a 1"x1" rockwool cube. However ive been reading that you can put it into a 4x4 slab when ready then into hydroton or just place the rockwool into the hydroton at 1x1. What would you guys reccomend that use this method? also, how deep do i put the rockwool into the netpots filled with hydroton? should the net pots be in another pot as well? or just straight onto the flood table? all help is appreciated as im still a little confused on the ebb and flow but i will be trying it out thank you guys
Placing 1" into 4" is preference, I personally would drop the 1" in hydroton, hydroton should surround the cube but not over, you can add more hydroton when plant stem can handle it, or cover the top of pot, help keep light off of roots. One net pot is fine
Alright now should I let the Rockwool rest to where the water slightly touches the bottom of it when the tray is flooded?
I did ebb and flow my first grow, I flooded up to about half of my net pot, very bottom of your cube. You can flood less when roots are established. I got great results with e and b, but my reservoir was very large and hard to maintain(and expensive). Last few grows I've been doing a drip system, and I love it. Also setup and helping a friend with dwc. But all work great. The most important thing is getting the roots water, so early it is a must to flood upto just below the cube. Hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions.
Thank you for the response! I figured it may be a little expensive and take up more room with the resevoir. For your drip system grow are you using 5 gal buckets? How is the maintaining of the system? How long did you wait to put your plant into the system? Sorry, I'm very interested in drip system cuz the simplicity. I may use one while growin with the ebb and flow.
I actually converted my ebb and flow into drip system. I use 6" PVC with 3.5" holes cut out. I have home made net pots that sit nicely inside. With my ebb and flow, my res was about 25 gallons, I now use a 5 gal bucket for my res. It is easy to maintain, but when they get big, I have to top off the res every other day. I only have x4 plants in my current setup, but I use LST and SCROG combo to get them bushy with lots of colas. I run a small 120gph pump that runs to an adjustable valve (Heres link: Amazon.com: Orbit DripMaster 69000 8-Port Manifold, Adjustable Flow: Patio, Lawn & Garden), from there I run 1/4" tubing to each plant, and made a drip ring from a barbed Tee and extra hose. It runs through my PVC to a drain and back to the reservoir. I feel both ebbNflow and drip work well, but the main thing with drip is, it is easier to maintain and regulate reservoir. I buddy uses 5 gal buckets with drip, but it is a deep water culture, since each bucket serves as a reservoir, it works well too, he has 5 5 gallon buckets, 4 plants, 1 res. It holds about 10-15 gallons. My advice is try a couple different ways, I found the drip was easiest for me to maintain(and actually uses less nutes), any of these methods works great, and it is big difference from soil. Good Luck!