I've cloned successfully into 1" rockwool. I then placed the rockwool cubes into 12 oz. cups with potting soil and then grew to about 6" to 12" (about 6 weeks growth from completed clones). I just ordered a hydro kit and should have it in a few days (decided to do hydro rather than messy dirt). How should I transplant from the 1" rockwool cube/potting soil cup to the hydro unit. Should I just gently pull the roots from the dirt and place the rockwool cube with the dirty roots into the hydro? Or should I rinse of the dirt and place the rockwool cube with the rinsed roots into the hydro unit? Or is there a better method. The first method above will make the hydroi unit dirty but less transplant shock (which mayabe doesn't matter since the hydro unit will clean the dirt off anyways) Other alternative would be to reclone the clones - which I don't mind but seems silly. Any expert advice out there? thanks, dimwit
I would recommend the bathtub and lots of coooool water. Not cold and not warm. Gently massage the roots to loosen and remove as much dirt as possible. I've done this several times before and the plants are fine after a couple days. It depends on the hydro unit you're going to get though....... If you're going to be pumping water... (NFT, E&B, Bio-Buckets, etc..) you'll need great water filters until the remaining soil is washed away. I don't recommend that. Better just to re-clone? OR... cut the soil back down to the original rockwool cube and re-root them. Should be just fine. If you're going with a bubbler system, then you can just change the reservoir early and not worry about clogging. I'll run plain water for 3 days and change it out. The plants loved it and bounced back fast.
If youre using a bubble system, you can transfer the plant (leave whatever soil stayed on the roots). Put coco in the netpot, then transplant. Cover the net pot so no light gets to the roots once they start to grow out of the pot. Once a decent amount of roots come out you can put the net pot into the system. Reason, in a bubble system, you do not want the net pot to be submerged in water until roots show, you want the mist from the bubbles to water the roots and not drown them in the water. The soil will not get soaked and you will have easily transplanted to a hydro system safely.