Transplanting to hydrotons and lava rock?

[jensen71]

Has anyone using hydrotons as grow mediums ever layered the bottom of their netpots with lava rock? I was thinking of expanding my 10" net pot into a 3 gallon bucket drilled at the bottom with holes to create a larger netpot lining the bottom with lava rock so that the roots would develop more branches and take up more surface area while changing the 5 gallon bucket to 7 gallons to sustain the expanded root growth past the lava rock layer. In theory it would give each plant supercropped during its first month a lot of branches that would turn to colas more roots which would expand downward until they can go no more to control growth in the plants. Has anyone done this before? Would like to hear about your experience with it.

Thanks!

 

[RockinDaGanja]

Ive used lava rocks strait up no hydroton just in my net cup. I went to my local hydro store to pick up some hydroton and the dweeb working there told me that Germany ran out of it and mined out all the stuff to make expanded clay pebbles. anyways They need a very good rinsing as they put off a lot more dust and break down more rapidly then clay pebbles. I actually bought a cheap bag dumped them into a burlap sack and bashed them on the floor to break them up into smaller sizes. Rinsed the hell out of them and filled my net cup with the smaller lava rocks. Ive never built a sub medium though under my medium. In my honest opinion it would be better to just get a bigger bucket and bigger net pots which is essentially what your doing.

 

[DukeO]

Has anyone using hydrotons as grow mediums ever layered the bottom of their netpots with lava rock? I was thinking of expanding my 10" net pot into a 3 gallon bucket drilled at the bottom with holes to create a larger netpot lining the bottom with lava rock so that the roots would develop more branches and take up more surface area while changing the 5 gallon bucket to 7 gallons to sustain the expanded root growth past the lava rock layer. In theory it would give each plant supercropped during its first month a lot of branches that would turn to colas more roots which would expand downward until they can go no more to control growth in the plants. Has anyone done this before? Would like to hear about your experience with it.

Thanks!

If you want to supercrop the roots. Cut the tap root and then new roots will go crazy. It will slow things down at first. Then they will fill my 5gal buckets in no time. I found that out when I cut out some root rot out one day. Then I tried it again and the same thing happened. After cutting the tap the new roots will fill the net pot and the plant's growth will take off. Do a test. Take a 12" plant and cut it's tap. Pour some water over the pellets a couple times a day for three or four days and you should start to see some new roots poking out. Then they will fill the bucket.