Rockwool no Hydroponics?

TheDankness said:

Dang knowboddy was right. I looked it up and any soil-less growing is referred to as hydroponics. I am a man and I can admit when I'm wrong. I think its kind of stupid, bubbleponics, aeroponics, and normal ebb and flow or drip emitter systems are all so fundamentally different. Aeroponics are highly oxiginated and the roots grow basically in mid air, bubbleponics the roots never leave the water, and we all know how the other two work. Just doesn't make sense to me that they are all lumped into their own category. I think they should use different criteria to label something hydroponic other than just "not soil", but I don't make the rules, so oh well. I was indeed speaking of soil-less rockwool when I said it would dry out fast by the way, I think thats what the original question was. Anyway peace, sorry for my contribution to the spread of mis-information, won't happen again.

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I was right i said hydroponics is the use without soil..if you read the first page you can see that..so sorry for your misinformation again... lmao...

TheDankness said:

This is not true. Not all soil-less growing is called hydroponics. You may have heard of aeroponics and bubbleponics. Neither of these are hydroponics, and neither use soil. I would also not recommend growing in rockwool unless it is used in hydroponics. You can use it if you want, but it will dry out really fast, normally its used in applications that are watered frequently such as ebb and flow and drip emitter. If you are just starting seedlings in it, you can set the cubes in a tray with about a half inch of water in the tray. The cubes will wick up the water, kind of a ghetto hydroponic system if you will.

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this has been quoted a few times here and Im not one to ruffle feathers , but I think theDankness has been misinformed about a few things.

First off Rockwool does not dry out fast, exactly the opposite, it dries out quite slowly. It is not watered frequently either, 1 or 2 times a day at the most or in Ebb and flow it gets a soaking 1/day.

I have thrown away unused clones in 3" RW cubes into a plastic garbage container, 2 weeks later when I went to dispose of them, all 20 were still alive.

You never leave RW cubes standing in water either. They act like a sponge and the longer water sits the faster it loses oxygen.


sorry bro , just need to set the record straight.

so you water rockwool 1 to 2 times a day? THATS MORE OFTEN THAN SOIL REQUIRES, IT MUST DRY OUT FASTER HUH? Oh and I have seen many threads on here of people who use "passive hydroponics", so whether it sucks or not I do not know, never done it myself, but people definately use it WITH SUCCESS for that matter. Just rockwool in a tray with water, just like I said. Why are you people out to get me, I made one mis-step and I apologized for it, I know a lot of douche bags on here that wouldn't. GET OFF MY BACK YO.

wyteberrywidow said:

I was right i said hydroponics is the use without soil..if you read the first page you can see that..so sorry for your misinformation again... lmao...

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By the way, no you didn't, knowboddy said it first, so make sure you are really the one who posted first before you try to take credit.

go read the first page that should shut you up..

wyteberrywidow said:

main thing is hydroponics is growing without soil

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this was on the first page

K I read the first page again and you know what I found? KNOWBODDY SAID IT FIRST DUDE, MAYBE YOU SHOULD READ THE FIRST PAGE! God are you nuts? As I've already stated many times, I already apologized to knowboddy, he was the one that I disagreed with, NOT YOU. You just chimed in after he already made the statement, I don't even know what you're trying to prove here. I KNOW I WAS WRONG AND APOLOGIZED TO THE PERSON I DISAGREED WITH, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? You want an apology too? Well you're not going to get one dude, you didn't make that point first, knowboddy made it like 5 posts before you. You ain't getting shit psycho. Now leave me alone or Ill talk to an administrator about how you're trying to start shit. Judging by your activity you try to start shit often...

hahahhahahh queens

Don't call me a queen dude, I hate guys like that who start shit, they really get me in the flesh. The guy obviously posted on the subject after the point was made. I apologized for it and this guy can't let it go. But my ranting is over, I will not give him any more attention don't worry. That's all he seems to be after...

TheDankness said:

so you water rockwool 1 to 2 times a day? THATS MORE OFTEN THAN SOIL REQUIRES, IT MUST DRY OUT FASTER HUH? Oh and I have seen many threads on here of people who use "passive hydroponics", so whether it sucks or not I do not know, never done it myself, but people definately use it WITH SUCCESS for that matter. Just rockwool in a tray with water, just like I said. Why are you people out to get me, I made one mis-step and I apologized for it, I know a lot of douche bags on here that wouldn't. GET OFF MY BACK YO.

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We aren't out to get you bro, Personally I don't care what you say, its just when you say untrue things and present them as fact , thats what gets me. I just don't want a bunch of new people basing their grows on your premise and then having bad results.

When we water the rockwool, we use teaspoons of water, your using gallons so by the math soil is watered about 100 times as much as RW is. THATS MUCH MORE THAN RW REQUIRES, IT MUST DRY OUT FASTER HUH?

Now if you could just point me to a post where the rockwool sits in tubs of water and they have good results I would be delighted to take a look.

I really hate to pull out the Wikipedia quote but...

"Passive subirrigation

Main article: Passive hydroponics
Passive subirrigation, also known as passive hydroponics or semi-hydroponics, is a method where plants are grown in an inert porous medium that transports water and fertilizer to the roots by capillary action from a separate reservoir as necessary, reducing labor and providing a constant supply of water to the roots. In the simplest method, the pot sits in a shallow solution of fertilizer and water or on a capillary mat saturated with nutrient solution. The various hydroponic media available, such as expanded clay and coconut husk, contain more air space than more traditional potting mixes, delivering increased oxygen to the roots, which is important in epiphytic plants such as orchids and bromeliads, whose roots are exposed to the air in nature. Additional advantages of passive hydroponics are the reduction of root rot and the additional ambient humidity provided through evaporation."


I also have a picture of a soil passive hydroponics setup. I am never posting on this thread again, you're all nuts.

Your Wikipedia quote mentions nothing about setting Rock Wool Cubes into tubs of water. Got anything else?

i handdipped a clone in a 3 net pot fora few weeks. it worked great.ihanddipped every day when the lights come on. she grew wonderfully. you should see how the roots go through the cut up rockwool cubes i made. it is awesome!!!

TheDankness said:

K I read the first page again and you know what I found? KNOWBODDY SAID IT FIRST DUDE, MAYBE YOU SHOULD READ THE FIRST PAGE! God are you nuts? As I've already stated many times, I already apologized to knowboddy, he was the one that I disagreed with, NOT YOU. You just chimed in after he already made the statement, I don't even know what you're trying to prove here. I KNOW I WAS WRONG AND APOLOGIZED TO THE PERSON I DISAGREED WITH, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME? You want an apology too? Well you're not going to get one dude, you didn't make that point first, knowboddy made it like 5 posts before you. You ain't getting shit psycho. Now leave me alone or Ill talk to an administrator about how you're trying to start shit. Judging by your activity you try to start shit often...

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Lets get one thing straight as soon as you gave your incorrect info with your first post out of the wood works, i replyed and corrected it..yes knowbuddy said it in his first post you disagreed,I posted right after you stating the fact..Now you are just going about it like a little girl..YOU MUST NOT KNOW HOW TO READ...
P.S. my activity is up like that because i am subscribed to alot of threads..LMFAO..

TheDankness said:

This is going to sound stupid, but soil uses water too, just delivered by hand. So why isn't soil hydroponics? The only difference is the growing media, and I don't get why soil is all by itself and rockwool, coco coif, and all that other hydro stuff is all referred to as hydro, just because its not soil.

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The key difference is the source of nutrition. In hydroponics the food is delivered via the solution and the rockwool or other media (when even present) is just there for the roots to hold onto, retain solution, and so on. In soil growing fertilizers are often added, but a certain amount of nutrition is expected to be present within the soil itself.

As far as the question to why so many different methods of growing fall under the umbrella of hydroponics rather than their own distinct category is this key distinction. Anything with soil isn't hydroponics. Anything without soil is. We then subdivide hydroponics into several subcategories.


To the debate on whether rockwool dries out faster or slower than soil, I've never actually tried it. But I would imagine it would vary quite a bit depending on several things. Best answer is to just try it how and where you'd be using it and see which you like the results of best.