Didn't prepare rockwool correctly am I screwed?

[Joeguy1010]

So. I'm new here. And new to rockwool. I'm coming from coco. Anyway I have 36 clones in big mama blocks. I went with the recommendation from grodan of soaking for 30MINS in 5.5ph
THIS IS NOT LONG ENOUGH. so now I'm seeing runoff of 8.2. And some immediate cal and K deficiencies. Ran well over 200 gallons of 5.0. through all of them And the runoff stays steady at 6.4 what can I do. Please help

 

[Joeguy1010]

Has any body experienced this.

 

[cemchris]

Ive never presoaked Grodan except for rooters and never have had an issue. Just water them in and transplant. Also have never used big mama's cause thats too expensive for my blood @ 4-8 bucks a cube. Don't know how different an 8in vs a 6in will be tho for waterings except you prob cant get away with 1 dripper in a big mama.

The equilibrium for rockwool is around 6.0 to 6.2 PH. I have never tested my runoff so can't help you there. What are you feeding @? K and Ca def seems like lockout from something being out of wack. 2 things you will almost never see a def on, specially if using off the shelf nutes. Might be all the water going through them if you flushed them that much with a plant in it. Dry times are essential. 6in cubes after transplant and watering them in dont see water from me for 5-7 days. If you dont have the dry off after transplant you will get a real lazy root system and have all sorts of problems if full saturating the cube vs micro feeds.

The difference between wool and coco is pretty small. You have to water coco a little more (based on pot/plant size) and let wool dry out more then coco.

 

[Joeguy1010]

So after trying everything to get the ph down its still at 7.1. But I've been using recharge, tribus and photo+ every 3rd watering as a sort of feed, feed, tea regimen. And the plants looks great.
Ive always been a "sterile rez" guy but I think this really speaks to the power of microbes.
I'm not sure which product is saving my a$$, or if it's all of them. But I will definitely be continuing with this regimen.