Growing with rockwool. What are the tips and tricks you veterans have picked up

SuperHI TnT · Jul 11, 2018

ive been growing for a year and 3/4 of that has been strictly done with rockwool. I use floraflex for feeding and floranova/bloom nutes. The last few crops have been excellent but I’ve been doing a bit of research and realized how little I know about this substrate and how to produce the biggest yields with it. Any little tips or tricks or general advice would be great. Feel free to ask questions because I’d like to get a dialog going with other rockwool drain to waste growers.

rkymtnman · Jul 11, 2018

@JohnDee

JohnDee · Jul 11, 2018

rkymtnman said:
@JohnDee

Hi SuperHi,
Like you...I've been doing rockwool research. I've always cloned in 1 1/2" cubes and am now looking to do veg in 4"x4" and then onto hydroton.

What sort of rockwool grow do you have going?
JD

ANC · Jul 11, 2018

I didn't come up with this method... but basically use a long tray that is positioned at an angle. Line the bottom with polyester batting and place your blocks on that. Cover it all with panda film, so no light can reach the batting. Water is fed in at the high side through a wide T inlet and drains back into the reservoir on the other end. My pump runs about every 6 hours. This way you can grow a giant root system with a 4" cube.

coreywebster · Jul 11, 2018

ANC said:
I didn't come up with this method... but basically use a long tray that is positioned at an angle. Line the bottom with polyester batting and place your blocks on that. Cover it all with panda film, so no light can reach the batting. Water is fed in at the high side through a wide T inlet and drains back into the reservoir on the other end. My pump runs about every 6 hours. This way you can grow a giant root system with a 4" cube.

like NFT?

ANC · Jul 11, 2018

Yep, you have the batting with the blocks on and then cover the trays with plastic the keep water in and light out. Flood it from one end, drain it on the other with gravity.

coreywebster · Jul 11, 2018

How have you been using it so far?
What system?

SuperHI TnT said:
ive been growing for a year and 3/4 of that has been strictly done with rockwool. I use floraflex for feeding and floranova/bloom nutes. The last few crops have been excellent but I’ve been doing a bit of research and realized how little I know about this substrate and how to produce the biggest yields with it. Any little tips or tricks or general advice would be great. Feel free to ask questions because I’d like to get a dialog going with other rockwool drain to waste growers.

Airwalker16 · Jul 11, 2018

SuperHI TnT said:
ive been growing for a year and 3/4 of that has been strictly done with rockwool. I use floraflex for feeding and floranova/bloom nutes. The last few crops have been excellent but I’ve been doing a bit of research and realized how little I know about this substrate and how to produce the biggest yields with it. Any little tips or tricks or general advice would be great. Feel free to ask questions because I’d like to get a dialog going with other rockwool drain to waste growers.

I'd at least upgrade to FloraTrio.

SuperHI TnT · Jul 11, 2018

JohnDee said:
Hi SuperHi,
Like you...I've been doing rockwool research. I've always cloned in 1 1/2" cubes and am now looking to do veg in 4"x4" and then onto hydroton.

What sort of rockwool grow do you have going?
JD

At first I had bad luck at best because I was letting the blocks and slabs sit in stagnant drainage water. Once I figured out that the medium needs to drain it’s been smooth sailing. The funny thing is nobody on this forum thought of that. Now I use 6” hugo blocks in 6” by 36” grodan Dutch leach trays. Sometimes I add a 3” slab and sometimes I don’t if the plants seem tall early on. The last bud I grew was blue dream and gorilla glue #4 and got a pound of dry bud off of 6 plants. I use the floraflex caps which is how I’ve been able to somewhat automate it. I use 4 CLUO-48 1818 90 cri LED’s at around 90w apiece. My tent is 32” by 48” by 48” and I have another that’s the exact same size. Each sits on one side of my closet.

JohnDee · Jul 11, 2018

SuperHI TnT said:
The funny thing is nobody on this forum thought of that

More accurately: Of the miniscule number of people that visited your thread...nobody decided to comment.

SuperHI TnT said:
I use the floraflex caps which is how I’ve been able to somewhat automate it.

How are those working out? Using two feed hoses or just one? I'm gong to try the 4" ones out next grow.

SuperHI TnT said:
Sometimes I add a 3” slab and sometimes I don’t if the plants seem tall early on

I'd like to understand this point better. If you have tall plants that won't need much veg...then you don't use the slab? Or what...please explain.
JD

JohnDee · Jul 11, 2018

I just wanted to clarify the floraflex caps...

They are a molded plastic product designed to fit on top of rockwool cubes. I know they make them in 4" and 6" cubes

They do two things...
Provide an attach point for a top drip hose connection.
They cover and protect the cubes...to minimize algae

They are perfect solution to several rockwool problems.
JD

SuperHI TnT · Jul 11, 2018

JohnDee said:
More accurately: Of the miniscule number of people that visited your thread...nobody decided to comment. It was actually a really popular thread more so than usual

How are those working out? Using two feed hoses or just one? I'm gong to try the 4" ones out next grow.
They work good actually but I’d go with the Hugo blokes unless higher isn’t an issue because you’ll have to stack it on another 4 incher. I have the measuring caps with the quicker droppers for flowering which are great except with floragrow because the sediment it has in it clogs the drillers and the regular flora caps are great except for the tiny drainage holes in the corners. The water coming out of those holes drips to the ground so I pulled the wrapper up enough to cover the whole cap

I'd like to understand this point better. If you have tall plants that won't need much veg...then you don't use the slab? Or what...please explain.
JD

I’ll clarify...my last grow the plants were shorter so I had plenty of head room so I added the 3” slabs into the Dutch leach tray. That particular batch took a bit longer to ripen and the next batch vegged a little to long and got taller so rather than risk running out of room I opted not to use the slabs. The first run I did with this system I didn’t use a slab and got great results but not quite as good a yield

SuperHI TnT · Jul 11, 2018

I have used the 4” and 6” 2.0 caps and I also use the drip shield caps for flowering. It really is a great system. I opted to go without pvc and used hose and air pump manifolds that have the adjustable valves with a regular water pump. I can finely tune flow just like with their system at a fraction of the cost

SuperHI TnT · Jul 11, 2018

JohnDee said:
More accurately: Of the miniscule number of people that visited your thread...nobody decided to comment.

How are those working out? Using two feed hoses or just one? I'm gong to try the 4" ones out next grow.

I'd like to understand this point better. If you have tall plants that won't need much veg...then you don't use the slab? Or what...please explain.
JD

I use just one feed hose for the couple I’m growing that don’t have the drip shields. Two would be better but it’s a temporary situation

SuperHI TnT · Jul 11, 2018

Honestly I’m looking to replace my caps with the new 6” matrix systems floraflex just came out with. I like how it wicks the water into the rockwool. To me it looks like their new and improved version of the floracap

JohnDee · Jul 11, 2018

SuperHI TnT said:
I’ll clarify...my last grow the plants were shorter so I had plenty of head room so I added the 3” slabs into the Dutch leach tray. That particular batch took a bit longer to ripen and the next batch vegged a little to long and got taller so rather than risk running out of room I opted not to use the slabs. The first run I did with this system I didn’t use a slab and got great results but not quite as good a yield

Thanks SeperHI,
Indeed, that explains it perfectly...a headroom issue.

And on a thread on rockwool...we will have to talk about pre-flush...Pre-soak with rockwool. I've always used 1/4 strength nutrients (Maxi-Bloom) with just a bit of epsom salts.
JD

JohnDee · Jul 11, 2018

SuperHI TnT said:
Honestly I’m looking to replace my caps with the new 6” matrix systems floraflex just came out with. I like how it wicks the water into the rockwool. To me it looks like their new and improved version of the floracap

I will look into that...thanks
JD

SuperHI TnT · Jul 11, 2018

JohnDee said:
Thanks SeperHI,
Indeed, that explains it perfectly...a headroom issue.

And on a thread on rockwool...we will have to talk about pre-flush...Pre-soak with rockwool. I've always used 1/4 strength nutrients (Maxi-Bloom) with just a bit of epsom salts.
JD

Wierd that you mentioned maxibloom because I ordered it and the maxigro to do a side my side comparison with floranova

JohnDee · Jul 12, 2018

SuperHI TnT said:
Wierd that you mentioned maxibloom because I ordered it and the maxigro to do a side my side comparison with floranova

I switched over to Mxobloom when I realized that it does the Lucas formula so nicely. So no Maxi-grow...ever.
JD

SuperHI TnT · Jul 12, 2018

JohnDee said:
I switched over to Mxobloom when I realized that it does the Lucas formula so nicely. So no Maxi-grow...ever.
JD

What do you mean? Should I not use maxigro?

Growing with rockwool. What are the tips and tricks you veterans have picked up

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