Dirtbags Hydroponics Thread.

Aqua Man said:

They musta heard the megacrop was here .

Good shit.

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Stay the course dirtbag. Looking good.

Took a syringe sample tonight and ph in the block was 7.1... tested the pail of nutrient solution I poured through it yesterday... 7.1... Odd. I've never had pbp swing like that on me. Maybe my meter is getting slow or something. It was stable at 5.9 when I watered yesterday. Guess these girls are getting another watering like it or not.

I've heard Rockwool doesnt use the lime binder anymore and there is no need to pre soak rockwool anymore. Anyone know if this is actually true? I've got a crazy high ph going on in the blocks. Even after rinsing almost a gallon through each one at 5.5 some are running off high 7's and one is syringe testing over 8ph.

Wtf is this all about? @cemchris you are the rockwool guy, do you know what the score is here?

I only use RW for cuttings. But I still pH them and it says to do so on the package.

You running the bigger blocks has peaked my interest though. I usually just put them in soil or RDWC w/ pebbles.

Dirtbag said:

I've heard Rockwool doesnt use the lime binder anymore and there is no need to pre soak rockwool anymore. Anyone know if this is actually true? I've got a crazy high ph going on in the blocks. Even after rinsing almost a gallon through each one at 5.5 some are running off high 7's and one is syringe testing over 8ph.

Wtf is this all about? @cemchris you are the rockwool guy, do you know what the score is here?

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That is what happens when you chill while they are building the roots. After a watering tho it should go right back to the feed. Weird its staying put on you. Was this with pure blend? No sure if it's the case now but when I used PBP in rez's (at least 10 years ago) I had to use a shit ton of down since they PH buffer the hell out of it. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

I just checked against cubes I had left over.

This is the input



This is letting a 6in hugo soak from dry for an hr and a half and then feeding to runoff. The soak water was the same ph/ppm when I pulled the cube out.


This was a half height paragro 6in cube dry and feed to runoff with no soak. All taken syringe from the cube.


This is pretty much what I have noticed with them and why I no longer soak cubes after talking to the Grodan rep and confirming you no longer needed to soak cubes vs before when they changed the manufacturing. It's weird that its holding like that. I'm kind of lost since I have never seen that. I'm leaving out of town today. I will water the cubes when I get home and test it again before and after to see if the same thing happens. Wonder if it's a batch thing with the maple syrup dividing line.

Also btw I emailed Greenleaf about the Mega Crop and sediment.

This was their reply


They say they use no binders. Sucks since it looks like control with them sucks. That would have been a good answer if they had. Not so great that they dont. That or this person is cust service and doesnt know shit.

cemchris said:

Also btw I emailed Greenleaf about the Mega Crop and sediment.

This was their reply
View attachment 910432

They say they use no binders. Sucks since it looks like control with them sucks. That would have been a good answer if they had. Not so great that they dont. That or this person is cust service and doesnt know shit.

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It “should” dissolve completely.

Lol I agree. This is a hokey company in my opinion.

Nobody116 said:

I only use RW for cuttings. But I still pH them and it says to do so on the package.

You running the bigger blocks has peaked my interest though. I usually just put them in soil or RDWC w/ pebbles.

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Just a heads up. Back until a few years ago the manufacturing process still had a lot of left over lime in the blocks. You used to have to soak the hell out of the cubes or drip them for a day or 2 before use and water to 20-30% runoff. They changed the manufacturing process and cut pretty much all the lime out to cut down on runoff and waste for the big glass houses to stay with enviro regulations (also since coco was kind of taking market share away from them). This is according to Grodan. Why you can get away with 10% runoff now with less input. They have a big write up on it in a white paper. You should always PH them but like with rooters I no longer drop it to 5.5 like the package says and just use about 5.8 350-400 ppm for the soak on them with no issues.

I might just be using older cubes? But I also only soak them for about 20 minutes.

Also, I’m not that fussy about the pH.
Between 5 & 5.5 is close enough for me. Not for growing, for soaking the cubes

cemchris said:

That is what happens when you chill while they are building the roots. After a watering tho it should go right back to the feed. Weird its staying put on you. Was this with pure blend? No sure if it's the case now but when I used PBP in rez's (at least 10 years ago) I had to use a shit ton of down since they PH buffer the hell out of it. Not sure if that has anything to do with it.

I just checked against cubes I had left over.

This is the input
View attachment 910429


This is letting a 6in hugo soak from dry for an hr and a half and then feeding to runoff. The soak water was the same ph/ppm when I pulled the cube out.
View attachment 910431

This was a half height paragro 6in cube dry and feed to runoff with no soak. All taken syringe from the cube.
View attachment 910430

This is pretty much what I have noticed with them and why I no longer soak cubes after talking to the Grodan rep and confirming you no longer needed to soak cubes vs before when they changed the manufacturing. It's weird that its holding like that. I'm kind of lost since I have never seen that. I'm leaving out of town today. I will water the cubes when I get home and test it again before and after to see if the same thing happens. Wonder if it's a batch thing with the maple syrup dividing line.

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I dont know what's going on. I'll check them again today and see if anything changed overnight, but I did check the starter blocks in regular 5.5 water and the ph never drifted so I assumed the Hugo's would be the same.

Seems in never rains but it pours... Fuckin truck died this week too, has a cracked engine block. Its one bloody thing after another. Thank God the vacation is already booked cause I could sure use one .. and we couldnt afford to book it now lol.

I assume it would be best to flush these things with solution until ph in the block stabilizes? I would have last night but ran out of water and said fuck it all and went to bed.. But I'm a bit concerned about constantly flooding the block now. Today will be the 3rd day for them to be fully saturated with very little dry back.

Honestly I would go by what the plants are doing before you start flooding them. If they are starting to take off and healthy I would just let it chill and ride it till it needs to be watered again. Cube PH ect is something you want to pay attention to when tuning them once they get onto drip/flower or have been vegging for a couple of weeks.

Dirtbag said:

I dont know what's going on. I'll check them again today and see if anything changed overnight, but I did check the starter blocks in regular 5.5 water and the ph never drifted so I assumed the Hugo's would be the same.

Seems in never rains but it pours... Fuckin truck died this week too, has a cracked engine block. Its one bloody thing after another. Thank God the vacation is already booked cause I could sure use one .. and we couldnt afford to book it now lol.

I assume it would be best to flush these things with solution until ph in the block stabilizes? I would have last night but ran out of water and said fuck it all and went to bed.. But I'm a bit concerned about constantly flooding the block now. Today will be the 3rd day for them to be fully saturated with very little dry back.

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Just keep going, he who dares wins.

PH in the blocks is high again today, but remained 5.5 in the res, so its rising in the blocks only. Most are syringe testing low to mid 7's, but one of them Is ph 9!?!
And overnight some of them are looking like total shit. Some look ok, but getting a little taco leaf, pale, and not great overall. This one just looks terrible. It's true, when it goes south in hydro it happens fast.

I cant for the life of me figure out what TF is causing the ph to spike though. Just using pbp grow and 0.2ec calmag with RO, Total of 0.8-0.9ec 5.5-5.8ph going in...

Frustrating as hell. Now I risk drowning them and rotting roots, cause I dont think I can leave things like this.. theyll be dead in the 3 days I'm waiting for dryback.

Damn...

You have a bit of nice green coming through, so you were/are on course, but your making to many changes at once to be able to work out what's going wrong, and why do you want to dry out your rockwool?

Dirtbag said:

PH in the blocks is high again today, but remained 5.5 in the res, so its rising in the blocks only. Most are syringe testing low to mid 7's, but one of them Is ph 9!?!
And overnight some of them are looking like total shit. Some look ok, but getting a little taco leaf, pale, and not great overall. This one just looks terrible. It's true, when it goes south in hydro it happens fast.

I cant for the life of me figure out what TF is causing the ph to spike though. Just using pbp grow and 0.2ec calmag with RO, Total of 0.8-0.9ec 5.5-5.8ph going in...

Frustrating as hell. Now I risk drowning them and rotting roots, cause I dont think I can leave things like this.. theyll be dead in the 3 days I'm waiting for dryback.

Damn...View attachment 910439View attachment 910441

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Thinking outside the box here (or should I say cube) . If the plants growing well and uptaking a lot of nutes depending of the ratio of the nutrients and what the plant is taking up. Can have a large impact on the ph

Aqua Man said:

Thinking outside the box here (or should I say cube) . If the plants growing well and uptaking a lot of nutes depending of the ratio of the nutrients and what the plant is taking up. Can have a large impact on the ph

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ec is rising in the block. It's at 1.2 today, went in at 0.9. ph should be going down if anything.

chemistry said:

You have a bit of nice green coming through, so you were/are on course, but your making to many changes at once to be able to work out what's going wrong, and why do you want to dry out your rockwool?

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How am I making too many changes? Would you suggest I let them sit in a very hig ph solution?
And I want dry back because the roots arent fully developed yet.

Dirtbag said:

How am I making too many changes? Would you suggest I let them sit in a very hig ph solution?
And I want dry back because the roots arent fully developed yet.

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Why are you growing in rockwool, and are these the same plants you changed the nuits on?

Dirtbag said:

ec is rising in the block. It's at 1.2 today, went in at 0.9. ph should be going down if anything.

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Ppm will rise if the plants are taking up more water than nutrients. leaving what's left more concentrated and more impact on the ph. Just the way I see it. So I still feel its possible but by no means am I saying its the cause. But that will depend on nutrient ratio of feed and ratio of what the plants are taking up
What's your humidity at I'm just curious will let the pros on rockwool figure this out.

Next feed hit them at an even lower ph to start balancing the process out. I would hit them 4.0 or 4.5 and ph in the rockwool will mix with low ph and eventually balance out. Been there easy fix