Rapid Rooter DWC Wetness Question

darthxrinzler · Feb 10, 2025

I've got 3 week old plants in rapid rooters, in 5" baskets, in my DWC. The roots are starting to come out of the basket and going into the water (a few of them). Water level is about a half inch or so below the basket. My baskets have a raised center, so the rapid rooter itself is probably about 3.5" away from the water in the reservoir.

Growth is slow and the rapid rooters feel wet still. If I press on them I see moisture. My question is, once roots are touching the reservoir water, is it OK for the rapid rooter itself to remain pretty wet? Or should they be dry/damp?

I know they shouldn't be too wet during seedling stage/early growth when the roots have yet to touch the reservoir water, but once roots are touching, is it OK?

If they shouldn't be wet once roots are touching the reservoir water, I'm wondering If maybe I should lower the water level.

I'm new to hydro, so all feedback is welcome. Thanks!

Smokey0418 · Feb 10, 2025

I use a product called oasis. It’s very similar to a rapid rooter.
They soak up water like a rockwool cube .
I would like the product wet but not quite soaking.
There is also another tray that rockwool uses to raise there cubes from the bottom of tray, for seedlings this is great for your root to show poking from the bottom .
Cuttings well there just going up root a lot so sitting in the tray is not going to slow them .

Once the seedlings root has reached the bottom of cube it’s into the net pots.
I fill net pot to put single layer over my riser in bottom.
I then would swing my seedling in my fingers , flinging and extra moisture from my cube.
I want my plants roots to seek water.
I then fill with hydro clay.

I would run my water into my net pot about an inch which puts my block about 1-2 inches away from the water.

If running bennys , which I do I would then inoculate my cup by watering around the perimeter of my cup trying to not get any moisture on my cube.

Roots should show quickly 2-3 days.

Would not water again unless they looked wilty which they should not as the moisture should be right there.

Personally just leave my water like that on a rdwc set up and over time it will go down.

I guess if you change you water sooner and roots are dangling , and inch under would be fine and then just once a week inoculate your net pot to make sure you don’t get bad stuff happening above the water line.

Easy peezy.

Enjoy and good luck.

One_Bell · Feb 10, 2025

Hi!

Newbie hydro grower here also. I used RQS soiplugs, which offer the same concept as the rapidrooters. They didn't moist up too much when set in the X-stream propegator. Do you have any airstones in already?

darthxrinzler · Feb 11, 2025

One_Bell said:
Hi!

Newbie hydro grower here also. I used RQS soiplugs, which offer the same concept as the rapidrooters. They didn't moist up too much when set in the X-stream propegator. Do you have any airstones in already?

Yes. I have airstones in.

darthxrinzler · Feb 11, 2025

I went ahead and lowered the reservoir water a bit.

It's the weirdest thing. One rapid rooter dries out and the other doesn't and it still wet to the touch. The one that's wet to the touch is the plant that's healthier and doing better.

Still looking for info if it's ok to have the plug wet and not dry/moist once roots touch water in the bottom. Or would that still suffocate them?

One_Bell · Feb 11, 2025

darthxrinzler said:
Still looking for info if it's ok to have the plug wet and not dry/moist once roots touch water in the bottom. Or would that still suffocate them?

If you keep some space between the waterline and netpots there are still parts of the roots that are suspended in air so I don't think you wil suffocate them. And what do you know about your waterquallity? Are you using tap? Did you measured pH?

darthxrinzler · Feb 11, 2025

And just so everyone knows upfront. This is my first test grow. Seeing what works and what doesn't. They're autos. Probably stunted. Touched the shit out of them in the beginning. Stayed in the humidity dome/germination tray too long. Over waterered them in the beginning. (Like I said, learning process, and I'm cool with it, don't care about yields atm, just want to make it to finish line and adjust things for my 2nd grow)

Now they're in my smaller tent with rdwc I made, until I get my bigger tent and main system up and running. Going to use the smaller tent to get em started and then move to other tent (same baskets) to get a perpetual grow going.

This is them now. Left one really perked up over past week. As you can see, I have roots, but unsure if it's ok to have the plug be wet, or if I should continue lowering the water until the plug is dried out..ish

Plugs are only exposed atm because I'm trying to let em dry out a bit.

darthxrinzler · Feb 11, 2025

One_Bell said:
If you keep some space between the waterline and netpots there are still parts of the roots that are suspended in air so I don't think you wil suffocate them. And what do you know about your waterquallity? Are you using tap? Did you measured pH?

Using RO water. PH is around 6ish.

Rapid Rooter DWC Wetness Question

Rapid Rooter DWC Wetness Question

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