Reusing hydroton

Any tips for getting rid of the old roots and salt buildup? I read a couple old posts and saw some info about sterilizing it but not much about getting rid of all the old roots.

Someone just mentioned that baking it in the oven will clean that organic stuff out. I haven’t tried it yet, I just cleaned some with a 24 hour peroxide bubble soak then a screen to pick it clean.

I've always believed they need to be boiled. The other is to let them dry. Pour them from a bucket to another bucket repeatedly and then rinse.

I've used them before but I can't remember what I did. I do know I boiled them. Should've tried the oven...

I used 2 5gallon buckets. Fill one bucket half full of expanded clay, Hydroton, Add hot tap water and pour back and forth between buckets several times. Rinse well. Again fill with hot tap water and a quart of H2O2. Pour back and forth again several times. Drain and lay spread out flat in the sun for a day or two. Stirring a couple times per day. Pressure cooked breaks balls and oven just plain smells like.....yeah that.

Does H2O2 actually break down organic matter like roots or does it just disinfect the clay balls?

Innerorbit said:

Does H2O2 actually break down organic matter like roots or does it just disinfect the clay balls?

Click to expand...

The abrasive action of friction between balls cleans them. The sun and H2O2 sterilize so to speak. Minor loosening. No dissolution.

I have found that cleaning hydro ton as soon you harvest helps prevent root material from drying and breaking down into smaller pieces, which can be a nightmare to clean out.

Next I rinise with tap water, and I use 5 buckets partially filled with water to shake around the clay balls and pick out any material I see floating or on the hydroton. Then I rinise in 50% water and 50% h202 for a few hours.

I dont know the size of your system but hydroton are not that expensive considering how much time u need to invest in cleaning it and if u didnt clean in properly thats will cause lot of issues. i replace it every grow to not worry if i cleaned them well

Soak in high% H2O2 or dilute bleach, rinse in strainer of some kind; I drilled holes into the bottom of a 20 gallon tote and spray with a hose for the rinse. If you want use hygrozyme for first few weeks in case of extra root material, but for me small amount of root matter after soaking and rinsing have never been a problem. Can reuse indefinitely

I was permanently banned from a laundromat for this. But a wash in their machines with bleach only in cycles worked well. Medium balls that were bigger than washer drain holes. Should have added more towels to the mix. Noise got me busted. LOL. But many ways.

Let the roots dry, then crumble them with the hydroton, use a large net pot to sift the root dust out of the balls, then soak the balls in H2O to leach any salts, add H2O2 if you wanna sterilize as well. Rinse and reuse.

anyone tried pondzyme? I was gonna try pondzyme on my coco coir someday when I am trying to re use it, but for now while learning with It, im buying all new

Nizza said:

anyone tried pondzyme? I was gonna try pondzyme on my coco coir someday when I am trying to re use it, but for now while learning with It, im buying all new

Click to expand...

I have not used the pondzyme. Enzymes do a good job of breaking down dead organic material but they do have their limitations. I am not sure how pondzyme compares but canazyme is the most effective enzyme product that I have tried. I have used Hygrozyme and when I found out cannazyme was supposed to be better I gave it a try and was impressed. There was a fella on here that did a little test, as I remember he used different enzyme products to break down paper and the cannazyme worked the best. That said, there is still material left, it's just no longer "food" for anything, good or bad, to consume.

I think it's a good idea to use during your grow, especially if you're prone to stabbing stakes into the medium in order to support buds or train. This will breakdown the dead roots.

Lets see what others have to say on the matter. I am not an organic grower, I am a salty fuck lol.

Renfro said:

Let the roots dry, then crumble them with the hydroton, use a large net pot to sift the root dust out of the balls, then soak the balls in H2O to leach any salts, add H2O2 if you wanna sterilize as well. Rinse and reuse.

Click to expand...

Dry first eh? Sounds like that would work, maybe even better for removing roots, messy though! Grow, soak, rinse, all in big totes with hose sprayer is really low on mess and labor too. Couple applications of enzymes and let the natural biome take its role in keeping the roots healthy.

So to sum it up u need to buy enzymes bit tote waste water make sure they are root free and u can re use them or do the math and maybe its worth just buying new one i reused it this grow and regretted

I used to just dump it in a big tote and rinse it off a few times with water and soak it overnight and then rinse it a couple more times skimming anything that floated to the service and then reuse. But I was running sterile using NaOCl aka bleach.

When I used hydroton I used 6 inch square pots with hydroton. Letting the root balls dry out so they could be crumbled worked the fastest with least expense. Yeah it was work though. After chop I would dump the loose rocks into buckets, those only needed to be rinsed. The rocks in the bottom 2/3 were root balled hard, those I let dry out to crumble the roots into dust and sift them out. Once dry sifted they can be rinsed with high pressure water from a hose nozzle and using the net pot. Then all root balls were soaked until I needed to use them to pot. Then I would drain as I used them to pot.

kratosxxl said:

So to sum it up u need to buy enzymes bit tote waste water make sure they are root free and u can re use them or do the math and maybe its worth just buying new one i reused it this grow and regretted

Click to expand...

Why grow with hydroton/LECA if not reusing? At least add it to the flower pot out front or something. And to be clear I didn't use an enzyme for a while and still had good results reusing hydroton. I only added it later as a preventative (I let myself become less thorough with root removal to no detriment) and it also improved growth

Renfro said:

When I used hydroton I used 6 inch square pots with hydroton. Letting the root balls dry out so they could be crumbled worked the fastest with least expense. Yeah it was work though. After chop I would dump the loose rocks into buckets, those only needed to be rinsed. The rocks in the bottom 2/3 were root balled hard, those I let dry out to crumble the roots into dust and sift them out. Once dry sifted they can be rinsed with high pressure water from a hose nozzle and using the net pot. Then all root balls were soaked until I needed to use them to pot. Then I would drain as I used them to pot.

Click to expand...

Yeah the pebbles on the top can usually just be poured out and have little debris. Back in the day grew in hydroton 6" pots too, sometime 4" if flipping straight from clone, in ebb and flow. Decent system for large SOG grows

wash boil and wash then put in ph at 6 with 05%peroxide water with air for a day try to not let them dry out before use

A e o n said:

Back in the day grew in hydroton 6" pots too, sometime 4" if flipping straight from clone, in ebb and flow. Decent system for large SOG grows

Click to expand...

I did 12/12 straight from rooted clones n the 6 inch pots, plants ended up about 42 - 44 inches tall, lollipopped so they just made a top cola and maybe two nugs right below. Worked great and if I could have that kinda plant count it's the only way to grow IMO.