Rockwool and Coco Slabs

since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Run to waste for me with " medium" systems like wool...coir...or peat. Recirculating rockwool top feed and clay pebble flood and drain were the way everyone grew back in the day. People flirted with rain gutter NFT and aero but not much. I had much less headache and ease of growth when i let my slab runoff go down the drain. Back in overgrow.com days i tried like hell to convince people this was viable but no one listened.
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
since1991 said:
Run to waste for me with " medium" systems like wool...coir...or peat. Recirculating rockwool top feed and clay pebble flood and drain were the way everyone grew back in the day. People flirted with rain gutter NFT and aero but not much. I had much less headache and ease of growth when i let my slab runoff go down the drain. Back in overgrow.com days i tried like hell to convince people this was viable but no one listened.
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I've never had problems recirculating with rockwool, always worked great for me.
I was designing/building tubes similar to the now aeroflo tubes as far back as 92. That's how all of me and my friends grew for years.
One of us got busted, and the san jose mercury news did a story on it. Something about space age indoor growrooms are here:-D
Funny thing is, GH says they had nasa engineers design theirs, years later. Funny shit:lol:
Freshly rooted cuts in oasis cubes right into flower. Awesome shit! Someday here soon, i'm gonna fire some of those bad boys up again.
I rock all kinds of setups, like I had said, but when shit is 100% legal, and if i'm able to be a player, it will be in MY tubes for sure.
Until then, it's just too many plants for my setups nowadays:-(
 
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Chillin chillin

Well-Known Member
Aeroknow said:
I'm usually at 1.7-1.8 in both run to waste, and recirculating.
I haven't tried to pump them with EC's like 2.2 for quite a while. I used to when I was captain experimento though:-)
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I get up to 2350ppm with some strains, the 2.2 I was referring to was per light ( 2.2 lbs per 1000w light) now w double ended hoods and drip to waist its 3+ per, co2 soon...gonna shoot for 4 per
 
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since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Thats what i thought you were trying to say. Weight. My ec in coco coir.....i never go above 1.8 on just about everything. Just base nutes mainly. Little humic and silica maybe. Bloom enhancer if i got it. But i like to run my tanks fairly simple.
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
Chillin chillin said:
I get up to 2350ppm with some strains, the 2.2 I was referring to was per light ( 2.2 lbs per 1000w light) now w double ended hoods and drip to waist its 3+ per, co2 soon...gonna shoot for 4 per
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Oh, right on nice. lol.
Yeah, I switched over to DE's a while back. Will never buy a single ended again.
I'm pulling 3 with a couple of flavors. 2.5 with most though. All super fire strains. Wish I could get away with growing Blue dream, would be killer to see how much i could pull off that strain these days.
Each one of the DE fixture's I use(phantom) is covering a 4'x6' area, in most of my setups. Or, 2 lights per 12' length of trays. Hitting 3lbs a light is 2lbs per 4x4, but with less watts than if I was rockin old single endeds. Fuckin love the DE's. Almost completely converted over.
I'm rockin 3 DE's per 2-4x8 trays on some of my setups, it's not quite as efficient, but still blows SE's out the water.
 
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Chillin chillin

Well-Known Member
It does blow them out of the water. Trip on this....I also have phantoms, plus 3 other gavida type knock offs covering 4x4 space. They work pretty Damon good if I must say.
Here's the kicker, I scored a 29light room w a dispensary I take my stuff to. They have 20 Gavidas and I must say on 750 the Gavidas are hella brighter than the knockoffs on 1150
 
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Chillin chillin

Well-Known Member
since1991 said:
Thats what i thought you were trying to say. Weight. My ec in coco coir.....i never go above 1.8 on just about everything. Just base nutes mainly. Little humic and silica maybe. Bloom enhancer if i got it. But i like to run my tanks fairly simple.
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Are you able to get a good yield this way? When I left coco I had to put so much pk booster or everything was airy...
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
Chillin chillin said:
But the knockoffs around me go for $250 where the Gavidas are about $450
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The complete Phantom DE's are the same price as gavitas.
I have friends with gavitas, and i have yet to see someone back up the claim about gavitas being way better. I hear it allot though lol.
I use the phillips bulb that comes with the complete setups, and I also use ushio with systems I built. Both yield the same.
Chillin chillin said:
Are you able to get a good yield this way? When I left coco I had to put so much pk booster or everything was airy...
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I love coco. I fell in love with it when it first hit the scene. I grow trees in it, and also sog. The only thing I add to my base nute soup is usually some Cal-mag(depending on the starting water). I don't pk ever anymore. Rock hard buds here :-)
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Aeroknow said:
The complete Phantom DE's are the same price as gavitas.
I have friends with gavitas, and i have yet to see someone back up the claim about gavitas being way better. I hear it allot though lol.
I use the phillips bulb that comes with the complete setups, and I also use ushio with systems I built. Both yield the same.

I love coco. I fell in love with it when it first hit the scene. I grow trees in it, and also sog. The only thing I add to my base nute soup is usually some Cal-mag(depending on the starting water). I don't pk ever anymore. Rock hard buds here :-)
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If they would of had nanolux de 600's when i bought gavita 6/750's i would of bought them
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Chillin chillin said:
Are you able to get a good yield this way? When I left coco I had to put so much pk booster or everything was airy...
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Oh yeah. In coco coir any strain ive ran just didnt need ec of 2.0 or more. Waste in my opinion. But everybody is different for sure. Veggie greenhouse growers use ridiculous ec. Way high.
 
Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
since1991 said:
If they would of had nanolux de 600's when i bought gavita 6/750's i would of bought them
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I like how the ballasts are oriented on the nanolux.
I like how I can run these phantom setups with the ballast seperated(remotely) when I need to. Saves allot of height, just like the nanolux does.
 
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Aeroknow

Aeroknow

Well-Known Member
since1991 said:
Oh yeah. In coco coir any strain ive ran just didnt need ec of 2.0 or more. Waste in my opinion. But everybody is different for sure. Veggie greenhouse growers use ridiculous ec. Way high.
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Right now I'm rocking the the shit outta Tupur(as in two per light) It's a coco blend. Perfect right out the bag imo. Hella clean too. And, zero tannins in the initial runoff:-)
Waiting for them to come out with threepur:D
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Ive used it. Its good. No one seems to buy it at the stores around here so sometimes you can find in on sale. My go to was readygro moisture.....for years. I been using canna brick lately....same results....cheaper.
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Alex_Supertramp1 said:
I was actually wondering the same thing as I was going through this forum. It seems this day everyone is either running DWC or Coco. I get the R/DWC because it's awesome and yields great. I have also seen some really experienced growers do great with Coco, but it seems like Coco is more like soil and only the best growers can yield well compared to Hydroton/DWC. I've seen less experienced growers run side by side coco and DWC and the coco gets blown away. I've also seen DWC side by side with Rockwool and the yields were roughly the same. I realize there are a lot of other factors that need to be dialed in, and it also has to do with the experience of the grower with the chosen medium, it just seems like Rockwool is pretty simple for the beginner and comparable to DWC in terms of yield. I don't understand why I don't see more people growing in Rockwool cubes or slabs. It's an amazing medium. And slabs make a lot of space (in a compact area) for vigorous roots.
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Back in the nineties and early 2000's everybody grew in rockwool slabs. Recriculating nutrient solution was how everyone did it. Drain to waste was unheard of unless you were a sunshine/promix guy. And most growers did not have a clue what they were doing woth the medium. Overwatering...over fert...salt build up. To this day people swear the medium off (especially top feed slabs) because they dont know what they were doing.
 
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since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Chillin chillin said:
But the knockoffs around me go for $250 where the Gavidas are about $450
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What are the knockoff brands? I run 8 6\750.flex Gavitas in one room and 4 1000 watter oldschool single endeds in another and the Gavitas stomp them all over. I wish Nanolux DE 600 's were out when i bought the Gavitas. I could of used that flat ballast in my 6 foot 8 fukin pain in thee ass inch basement. Lol
 
since1991

since1991

Well-Known Member
Chillin chillin said:
Are you able to get a good yield this way? When I left coco I had to put so much pk booster or everything was airy...
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Yeah. I can hit 2 units with my Gavita 6/750's on the 750 setting. A click higher on the dial burns my tops. But yeah...if monocrop my sour og cut i can hit really good numbers. Unfortunately my people are sick sour og and want that low yielding stuff i have to grow. It is mega potent though. And tastes great.
 
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