I am moving my sweeties from the germ tray to my top drip net pots. I sproted them from seed in the little rockwool plugs and then placed them into the larger rockwool squares. The squares are like 5 inchese tall from the bottom of the rockwool square to the top. They are ready to be moved from the tray into the net cups, but when I put the whole plant into the 3' net cup, the rockwool cube sticks out above the top of the cup by like 2-3 inches. Is that ok? I guess as long as I cover the cups with something to block the light, it should be good? I tried pulling off some of the rockwool to make them fit more flush into the cups, but I don't want to damage the roots as they are already shooting through the bottom of the rockwool. Hope this makes sense, any advise?
You definitely want to make sure the net cups/cubes are covered so no light gets into the res, as well as use another medium like hydroton on the sides of the cubes as well (if there's room), IMO of course. Can I ask why you moved them into large cubes before putting them in net pots? You can move the starter cubes directly into net pots, and use hydroton to fill the space in the net pot. That'll save you a step, and some expense on cubes as you can clean and reuse hydroton. Also, you may find that the large cubes hold too much water, for too long. Good luck! Doin'
Start with these... Discount Hydroponics - Sure To Grow Cubes and move to these Discount Hydroponics - Sure To Grow Inserts And I'll betcha the rock-wool cubes fit just fine.
Raoul, Those sound like a great product. Have you used them before? Do they act just like rockwool? IE do they hold water the same way? thanks
I'm doing my first effort in a 6" Areo-lid with the insert. DH had the cubes on back-order so I chopped up one of the 6" inserts and made a cube. Started two and both took - I have one in my mini E&F and the other in a BB. As far as I'm concerned they work like a charm. And yes, they hold water but do drain out over time - my E&F runs on a 3 hr cycle and I would say that the cube in that system in almost drained by the time the next cycle kicks off.
Thanks for the info...that all makes sense. I moved them to the bigger rockwool square because they were still in the tray....I didnt have the net cups ready and I noticed the roots were already growing though the bottom of the starter plugs. I'll make sure not to make that mistake again...thanks Yoda!