Rockwool vs Rapid Rooters vs Oasis Cubes

I'm a jiify man...but love rapid rooter when I can get them...fuck rockwell..Pain in the ASS

rapid rooters transplant fine into rockwool... just make sure that your roots are popping through nicely before you try to transfer. Also make sure you have pre-soaked/rinsed the rockwhool in well-ph'd water.

-Mitus

bikeskill said:

i used rock wool starter cubes then went to 3" rock wool cubes set on top of hydroton in an ebb&flo system and had no problems.............................

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you say on top of hydrton how high do you fill with hydroton and then how high up the RW cube do you flood? how often? I got a dozen clones in oasis waiting to go into the same set up

Shackleford.R said:

not too sure about how well the coco would do in a flood and drain... think jiffy in hydroton, ebb and flow would do well??

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i recommend the others over rockwool it holds too much moisture imo.

The first time I cloned was with Rockwool, I lost a bunch figuring out that you soak them overnight, drain them with a salad spinner, and then add about 20ml of water with a little clonex. Seems like an artform to me, takes a lot of practice to know how much to water to put in the cubes. Also pretty cost efficient. I dunno, I made an aerocloner and never looked back, get roots in 5-7 days and ~12"+ root mass after two weeks, no having to mist or mess with domes either. Put em straight into hydroton. Lower maintenance and faster growth but also smaller margin of error.

Sorry to hear about all the guy with bad experience with RW. I had trouble at first but now I have 100% success rate with clones and seeds.

check out suretogrow if you want to get fancy.

I used like 3" or 4" of hydroton and i flooded 1" from the top of the rock wool i flooded evey 4 hours for 5 min(to mix nutes and airate solution)while lights were on and flooded 1 time during night half way through cycle, I had 3 plants with a 3.5 gal. res.(ppm and ph calabrated daily), and a little giant pump i think it is 160gph over kill but it was free(my advitar is the grow I am talking about) hope this helps some.

I use fogger and rapid rooters with 100 % success rate. 5ml b1 and 5.8 ph. Also use clonex gel with little slices on the skin to promote root sites. Trim leaves in half to cut transperation and focus root development. I transplant plug in to 1/1 coir perilite in flood and drain wit hygroton on first 1inch and half of the pot. Sweet success. Click veg room link.

mdgcmd said:

I let my RW grain out and I squeeze out the excess water by pinching the little cubes.

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Squeezing rockwool is a bad idea because it collapses the fiber and it is not like a sponge and will not spring back. Then you are left with little airspace and soon root rot.

any of them

i know some who clone in soil without issue.

Shackleford.R said:

I have a new outdoor grow planned out in an ebb and flow system, based on the two tub system in the FAQ. I plan to fill the top tray with either hygromite, hydroton, or gravel, foregoing the 6 planters shown in the FAQ.

What I'm trying to decide now...

A-Which should I start the seeds in?

B-Transplant directly to grow medium, or into larger rockwool cubes and then to the medium?

C-Do rapid rooters and/or oasis cubes transplant easily into the larger rockwool cubes?

As a side question, what is a watering schedule like for each type?

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The spirit of this thread got lost in translation. It was more focused on which medium to GERMINATE, NOT which to use for cloning.

Though all words are always appreciated, the focus was to be about germination practices.

i use the simple wet but not too wet paper towel method with a touch of superthrive seaweed extract and maybe some h202 in ro water at 70 to 80 degrees works well with no problems consistent 90 to 100% germ rate with good seeds. as soon as any tap root is visible they go into soil or another medium though it seems they root fastest in soil imo.

Sorry. Seeds in glass of water till tap root then into rapid rooters then into the fogging cloner. Pinch a little off the corner of the rapid rooter and top it off then she pushes through. With a little help after she's lifted out then reach over and grab the shell off and set her free.

dbo24242 said:

check out suretogrow if you want to get fancy.

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do you have a grow log with the suretogrow? I bought 5 freaking cubic feet of their new size called hail. Worked ok for germination but they hold LOTS of water. I'm too much of a newb and have not done enough research to realize that I needed to have LOTS of roots coming outta the germination medium before putting into my NFT (pump always on). So far I have not killed any of my 3 babies but they have been tremendously slow (due to too much water and cheapo LED lights). I have finally gotten them under t5's.

IMO suretogrow hail size is too small for anything beyond germination unless you use it like the crouton size grodan rock wool.

I think I'm going to switch (next time) to rock wool.