Starting up something new .. normally i run 28 topped plants vegged for 2 weeks then flowered , in 8" coco tek pots flood and drain style. Im moving to a new room and need flowers asap so im going three trays 75 plants per tray 4x4 rockwool cubes vegged for 2 or 3 days max. I have used rockwool once and it did poorly, I have heard of putting a bed of hydroton down and your 4x4 cubes ontop of this and im going to try it out, Any thoughts or any advice on anyone working with rockwool flood and drain .. thank you.
I'm having some issues with rw atm. It just holds too much moisture. The plants almost always look overwatered. I'd start them in the 1" or 1.5" cubes and then put them into the hydroton. The 4" cubes are just too much. Or maybe I just don't know how to use them properly. If you do use the 4" blocks, def put them on top of hydroton or something and do Not completely flood the rw as it will stay saturated for a looooong time. Retiree
I run a 4'x8' flood table and I use Rock Wool cubes. I start my clones in 1" rock wool starter plugs under fluorescents. Once they are well rooted with at least a few inches of visible roots I transfer them to 3"x3" Rock wool cubes. I then flood them once a day until I see that they have roots poking out the bottom of the rock wool cubes. Once they have a good amount of roots, they can handle more moisture. I start upping the floods to 3 times a day then up to 6 by the time I start them flowering. I ran 30 plants last time but this time I plan to run 40 per tray. Once the plants are ready to go into the main flood tray (I veg in a separate room then I transfer to the flower room) I put the rock wool cubes into 2 gal. smart pots filled in with hydroton around them. This has worked very well for me.
cool sweet ras .. how long do you plan on vegging for? my thoughts were since im going sheere plant numbers .. id just put a bed of hydroton in the flood tray and place my clones into 4x4's or 3x3's lets the roots establish and flower asap.. so SoG pretty much.. was planning on 75 per tray but we'll see.
I flowered mine @ 12" but you could easily adapt my style by using 1 gal. smart pots instead of 2 gal. and 2" cubes instead of 3" and I would say you could do approx 60-75 plants flowered at 6" in the 1 gal pots would be awesome. You could get a 6" clone within a few days of veg. under optimal circumstances.
if ur rockwool is holding too much water...adjust ur pump timer and or depth of the flood... i really liked rockwool, except that it isnt impervious to mold and algae....but then, what is?
