Clones to hydroton

[steelyeyes]

I have some clones that are in an aeroponics cloner. I'm going to grow them in an Ebb and Grow with hydroton in the buckets.

How to I get from here to there?

Once they get some roots should I move them to rockwool cubes (after soaking cubes in 5.5 pH water) and then put them in the hydroton? What size cubes should I use, if any?

Where should the water level come up to on the cubes? I've read just to the bottom twice a day at first and to the top of the cube twice a day.

I'm totally new at this and any help would be great. Thanks

 

[Mr.LovaLova]

I use rockwool for my ebb and flow set-up. I put 6"blocks on top of slabs and flood for like 20 min twice a day. I prefer this because the rockwool acts like a wick and retains water good. A lot of people will get 6" blocks and transfer the clones to them and then fill the ebb and flow tray with hydroton and place the cubes on top of the pebbles. This works very well, i just personally don't like hydroton, to messy to clean up I like to just throw away and start fresh each grow. If you do this you will only need to flood like once a day during veg and twice a day during flower. Just set your drain so it is about an inch from the bottom of the RW cube and you will be all set. I wouldn't recommend strait hydroton for an ebb and flow because it doesn't retain water very well. Hope this helps.

 

[Malachi]

Or a 50/50 mix of verm/perelite or even 50/50 hydroton/coco works good in an ebb and flow ...

 

[sky high]

Yo steeleyes.

When you get a decent set of roots on your clones in the aerocloner simply...Ok.... CAREFULLY transplant them right into the hydroton. I usually determine the depth I need the cut to be and clear out that many rocks...then gingerly sit the clone down into the container....and lightly place the hydroton you took out back on the roots/around the stem of the clone.

Other than damaging the roots...your main concern will be not letting them dry out in the hydroton until they spread out some root. Hand water or give a lot of frequent cycles with a timer....

that's how i do it anyway.

FWIW...IF you wanted to start in rockwool, you would want to root your cut >>IN<< the rockwool...not in the aerocloner. Basically you would use a rooting hormone/clonex/etc and snip/dip and stick the cut in the RW and wait 7-10 days to see roots coming out of the cube/etc....then you could carry out the procedure with slabs/etc. that mr. LovaLova described above.

hope dat helps....

s h

 

[steelyeyes]

I've got a few bucket so I'll see about trying one or two methods and pick the one that works the best. Thanks for the help so far..:)

 

[steelyeyes]

If I go with straight hydroton, or possibly a little pearlite in there too, how often should I flood the pots at first?

It seems like more would be better without something like rockwool that stays saturated....suggestions?

 

[steelyeyes]

Yo steeleyes.

When you get a decent set of roots on your clones in the aerocloner simply...Ok.... CAREFULLY transplant them right into the hydroton. I usually determine the depth I need the cut to be and clear out that many rocks...then gingerly sit the clone down into the container....and lightly place the hydroton you took out back on the roots/around the stem of the clone.

Other than damaging the roots...your main concern will be not letting them dry out in the hydroton until they spread out some root. Hand water or give a lot of frequent cycles with a timer....

that's how i do it anyway.

FWIW...IF you wanted to start in rockwool, you would want to root your cut >>IN<< the rockwool...not in the aerocloner. Basically you would use a rooting hormone/clonex/etc and snip/dip and stick the cut in the RW and wait 7-10 days to see roots coming out of the cube/etc....then you could carry out the procedure with slabs/etc. that mr. LovaLova described above.

hope dat helps....

s h

I did the straight to hydroton with lots of short duration floods and it seems to be working out pretty well. Thanks.

 

[steelyeyes]

They're on 6 floods a day at 15 minutes each, although it takes time for the pots to fill so they're probably only totally flooded for half that time. They're happy and green and growing. They started out small because the original clones were cut from some pretty woody stems which took too long to root, so they got slimy. We saved the ones with the most roots and even though we moved them early while they're too small they're rallying.

My next clones were cut more correctly, rooted five days faster and most likely will catch up to these at the rate they're moving along.

 

[gamehendge]

slice open a 1-inch cube ad carefully place roots inside and slide the 1-incher into the 6 inch block,no damage,quicker start.

 

[steelyeyes]

I don't like the blocks. They hold too much water, therefore they are the bottleneck to more feedings a day. I can push more nutrients to all the roots many more times a day without something like rockwool to trap water and cause root rot.

Dudes I know that use the blocks water twice a day tops and I can feed six times. I think my plants are growing faster than theirs.