Rockwool vs soil for seedlings?

Hi i am a beginner farmer, i have been doing alot of research before i started an i am growing 6 medi seeds right now under a 4ft by 4 bulb blue light tubes and was wondering if after germination should i put seeds in 1 inch rockwool cubes and water cubes once a week or plant the germinated seeds into the foxfarm ocean soil

i sprout my seeds using the paper towel method then put in rockwool cube and when the first set of true leaves come through i then plant her in a pot. 2c

ok thats
what i was doing as well thank you for your input

i have another question 2 ask when the rooted seedlings are in the rockwool should i add any nuts or just stay with plain distilled water??

ANY reply??

I was looking for the same advice, i planted my seeds in rockwool cubes and now i have four little seedlings and i was wondering about adding nutrients, and 3 people told me to just continue watering until the 3rd or fourth node before fertilizing... well thats what im doing at the moment just watering every second or third day with pH 5.5 water and they seems to be growing slowly but surely.... im not too sure about this though
They said when i begin feeding to just use 25% of the recommended nutrient strength and work my way up..... so i hope this is useful and good luck with your plants!!!! im using rockwool and hope to set up an ebb and flow system once my plants are more mature..

ok thank you very much thats i was thinking but it was great input thanks\. but i dont know if my plants its only been 3days since they poped out of the rockwool but they look a little weak to me ill have some pictures up tomarrow hopefully but thanks alot man.

I'll check back in a couple of days and let yeah know how mine are getting on.....two of mine look weak too... hopefully we'll reap a fine harvest!!!!!

hopefully man its good to hear someone is in the same boat as me but u said ur Ph is 5.5 is that because your in rockwool mine is 6.0 in rockwool.

you would probably give them a diluted nitrogen based fertilizer but be sure to add in extra water so it not strong.

5.5 i read at a couple of locations, but i did also read 6 so who knows, anyway they seem healthy but i have'nt put them in my room yet.. giving them the natural start.. ... "the other post" ....what about a nitrogen solution??? do you mean begin feeding at the 3rd or fourth node as that was my question?? i have canna nutrients and an additional PK solution to enhance flowering at that stage??

i would never think about adding any nuts for the first 2 weeks of plant development but i dont think these sprouts are going to last the week i think they maybe goners i forgot to soak the rockwool in water before putting the seeds in!!! so i got the rockwool to absorb some water hopefully if they get through this week ill have them back to health i tried to take some pictures but my camera is out of battiers ill have them up soon

yeah man ... and leave it to soak, that way the ph will remain constant and the rockwool will retain water correctly.... as previously i had a couple of failed seedlings and when i opened the center of the rockwool i could see that it was dry in the middle ..... so i learned the hard way and these are my last four seeds so im been very careful and protective this time.

that might be why mine are dieing so we made the same mistake hopefully they live through.

Now after soaking the in distilled water for about 1hr do u just plant the rooted seed in or let rockwool sit out for a little bit?

just give it a little squeeze to remove the excess water, then pop the germinated seed in to the hole, i used a match and put the tap root in as far as it would go and kept the top of the seed where you can still see it probably 3 or 5 mm below the surface. Then i just pulled a little bit of the rockwool across the top "or just lie a little piece on top so you can check and see if it's coming up, kind of cheeky but i can't resist looking" this way works and does'nt upset the seed. Keep it warm and moist and im sure you will have a nice little plant in a couple of weeks!!!

Do you want some sound and seasoned advice?

If You plan on growing anything worth a shit,,DO NOT start any seedlings in rockwool......Just don't do it! You're obviously new to this ...

If anybody really gave a shit about you and knew what they were talking about they would have told you this at the onset...


I don't wanna see you struggle,,growing is supposed to be fun and easy...
don't make it hard..
I have come to hate rockwool ,,,and I was buying that shit back in the mid eighties,I've been around it for awhile..
It's unneccessary and a bitch,,only good for cloning cuts if you don't have a aerocloner, and even when you have clones that root in the shit and need to move it to a net pot,you then have to be real careful so no water from the table makes contact with it,otherwise it wicks the water and drowns your roots....the shit is outdated and a waste...

Ideally in a hydro application today you want to just root a cutting without media,in an aero type cloner and transpant the rooted cut in a netpot with
hydroton or lava rock...Fuck Rockwool !!!


As far as seedlings go this applies triple,,,,start them in paper towel ,then to a good soil,and take cuts later,those can be in the dreaded rockwool if you feel it's so necessary.. tell ya what do a test take some miracle grow ,moisture plus soil at Lowes fill some cups,and moisten it well, now put a cut deep down in there and put it in a humidity dome with a heated seedling mat underneath....Don't mist the damned things ,leave em alone...in 5 days there will be roots coming outta the holes in the bottom of the cups,,(You do have holes in it I hope ?)

You didn't even have to use the rooting powders,,,,that's another gimmick.
You show me a seedling grwon in soil and another in rockwool the same age and I'll show you a stress free healthy seedling 4 times the size in a week...

The one in rockwool will be either drowned or dead ....

1 more thing that's important.......Quit believeing this no need for nutes at the onset BS!!! total crap!!! give the damned seedlings some nutes as soon as they are above soil....Jesus I'd like to bitch slap the idiots who spread such crap!

Wow i was underthe inpresstion that in rockwool plants had better root growth when the are seedlings and clones?? i was told this by my hydroponic store and post on this website.

Iv'e been using natural potting soil for mine (it turned a week old thursday) and my plant is taking off fine, i havent really worried about nuts yet because as cabron said, it is suposed to be fun afterall.

It's allready about 2 inches tall and as a new farmer i can't resist sitting and staring at it daily.

OK Hazey
Here's a couple answers to your questions ,and again TY for having a great attitude about learning,I love clearing up the BS floating around these forums that have new
growers chasing their tails trying to grow a weed ,like it's rocket science,,usually the culprits are people who have something to gain ,,,as in follow the $ there's so many
snake oils out there that are rubbish it makes me sick...I suggest you stay out of hydro
stores for 2 reasons,,,the security risks and the financial risks,,they rape you for big$
and sell you a bunch of shit ,,far from needed...

You the grower head home with all your new containers of super dooper bat shit and ultra root stimulator,,,,mega growth booster....etc... ya feel like a million bucks although you're now left to eating ramen noodles for the next 2 weeks cause you're broke bro!!

You're not going to get any better root growth from a seedling than in a great soil ..
Of course hydro will give you a noticeable better result,but we're talking seedlings here.
You can't (as a newbie) start seedling in hydro,,more advanced growers can,but it's not practical.

Seedlings need to be in a stable environment the first 30 days,,this is crucial why?

Because if you're using standard seeds which most of you are,you need an environment that has 0 stress to help you keep the plant's innate survival
mechanism from throwing you a batch of males...

A plant's sex isn't fully determined until about the 30 day mark dependent on
the strain,,,environment is everything,,,high amounts of nitrogen,blue light
spectrum,cooler 70 degree temps,higher humidity 60% -70%,,are some of the
contributing factors that help give a higher female ratio..

Seedlings in rockwool are a constant struggle to maintain the ph, nute level, moisture
levels all in check for a beginner,,,it's not a natural environment flat out.
I havn't even mentioned the high risk of damping off in rockwool for seedlings.


You shouldn't be worrying about keeping your valuable seedlings alive,,shit you've just
just spent enough damned money on the beans...

Start em in soil and tell the hydro guys to go listen to the B side of Dark side of the moon a couple more times, and kindly stfu! they love newbie failure,,,keeps you coming back and spending more $....don't be fooled...

You mentioned you have some fox farm soil already so you're already off to a good start get those small cups ,containers filled up with that precious soil and placed under that fluoro,,a heat mat that is meant for seedlings is always a help,but make sure you
don't get the soil too warm,this will bake your precious lil embryos and rot them quickly.

Try and keep a barrier between them,a tray will be best,place containers in the tray,mat under the tray.
You mentioned vegging the seedllings for 3-4 months...now I don't know what kinda
lights you have planned for the vegging process nor the strain but let me tell ya..
The only people that veg for that long are growing 3-4 pound trees in 5-10 gallon DWC
applications surrounded by vertical 1k Hid's can you say commercial? I don't feel that's what you have in mind..

Let me show you 2 seedlings I have that was vegged for a mere 45 days,,,they are now at day 18 in 12 hours of light...pretty big huh??
Notice the 5 gallon bucket and the windex bottle for a reference in size.
Maybe a veg of 30 days for you would be max?
Later after you select some mothers or maybe just
1 ,you can practice cloning and use cuts from her.
Then you can keep the veg time down to maybe just
a week....

Enjoy ,and have a great growing experience...