they're both important. I mean I'm no expert or anything so maybe a long time rockwool user could chime in. but imagine how long a big cube takes to dry out when the plant isn't big enough to drink the water....takes a long time and the roots stay wet longer than is ideal. people tend to water less to combat this but then you have salt building up. imagine you have a chunk of paper towel and you kept pouring salt water on it just until it was saturated, and you did this day after day..... imagine the amount of salt that would build up..none of it would be getting washed away. that's where the runoff comes in and in some case flushes. but usually just watering until there is significant runoff is enough an no flushing is needed.
Help with rockwool drain to waste setup
- Thread starter Justin Freidman
- Start date
they're both important. I mean I'm no expert or anything so maybe a long time rockwool user could chime in. but imagine how long a big cube takes to dry out when the plant isn't big enough to drink the water....takes a long time and the roots stay wet longer than is ideal. people tend to water less to combat this but then you have salt building up. imagine you have a chunk of paper towel and you kept pouring salt water on it just until it was saturated, and you did this day after day..... imagine the amount of salt that would build up..none of it would be getting washed away. that's where the runoff comes in and in some case flushes. but usually just watering until there is significant runoff is enough an no flushing is needed.
Justin Freidman
Well-Known Member
Understand. I always thought top-watering rockwool stopped salt build up, that's one of the reasons I went with top feed over a flood and drain tray (plus grodan state not to flood and drain big mama cubes)
I watched this guys short video and thought it made a lot of sense to me. It's worth checking out and only short.
you're correct in thinking so. just need to water enough to wash the salts away. which is why the medium can't be oversized for the plant cause then it takes too long to dry out between watering.... it's all about a balance between the two.
Justin Freidman
Well-Known Member
Thanks again for taking the time to reply and for your help dude.
Justin Freidman
Well-Known Member
Thanks man!
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Or never use rock wool again...
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Start in the 2" then up to 4" THEN 6-8". There's a reason there's so many sizes.
Justin Freidman
Well-Known Member
Cool, Thanks!
Ouesterner
New Member
THE trick !
kingromano
Well-Known Member
arduino are not reliable for moisture content measuring
in my opinion
i own the delta-t sm150t, its a professional WC monitoring meter
but you have to hand measure
if you want total automatation the grosens is advised, but its a big investement
the sm150 is more affordable and give an excellent value for money
rockwool is the queen of the substrates imo. but tricky to water conveniantly
Airwalker16
Well-Known Member
Economically, WATER is the Top Dawg of mediums. In my opinion, why would you ever spend money on rock wool, soil, coco, or anything for that matter when Hydroton is infinitely reusable and the waters already gonna be used to begin with. RDWC could save some Big Ops insane amounts of money. They're all just too afraid or uneducated on how to do it right.
With waterfalls.
I hope to change that some day.
kingromano
Well-Known Member
rdwc is a joke compared to well managed rockwool drip system
only advantage is that dwc dont consume substrate
