ethcan
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Cec?Are you going to run 4" blocks cut into slabs or Hugo blocks independently? Different combos hold moisture differently so drip times will vary. No cec in Rockwool is nice though
Depending on how you were running your Coco exactly the same. Rockwool will prob want to get feed more then twice a day. If I do full min watering on wool I cant go more then 3-5 hrs between waterings. If I'm doing small feeds (10-30 secs) its on the hr. Was a Coco warrior for years and now strait wool and only wool and never anything but wool. WOOL.
But seriously the only thing you might have to change up is back off the watering a little after you transplant clones. Over watering rockwool at that stage will lazy them up and lag the plant. Other then that its pretty much the same vs not having to deal with washing pots and having fucking coco everywhere. Oh and cutting down the trash after a run in like half or more. Dial it in just like you did Coco but you don't need as much runoff. The only difference you will really notice at first is rockwool can get way drier then coco and still be 5 x 5. You want dry cycles with the lights off but don't really want them drying with the lights on. There is a happy balance. As the cube dries out the ph/ppm start to swing inside the cube. So the trick is to keep them at a happy medium where the cube is staying near the feed input PH wise. Not too wet not too dry. Tuning this is where you start to see rockwool shine and really start killing the game.
Me personally I run sterile only in wool. It just takes a bunch of guessing and potential problems out of the mix I never have to worry about. 12-17 Hugos (6in non quick drains) use about 50 gals a week for me if that helps. Not a lot of runoff (maybe fill a 90 gal runoff res about 1/2 - 3/4 through an entire run maybe less per 4x8)
As far as flex caps on rockwool. If you already have them great. If not I would skip them. I use them on my Moms I hand water in wool. Too fucking expensive to kit out a whole grow with them and its one more thing to wash at the end with no real benefit and honestly if you are dripping them right you would never fill the top of one anyways unless you are using the ones with built in drippers. Rockwool is a sponge so a single 1/4 at the base will do just fine (for 6in cubes at least).
This topic is exactly what I came here looking to find! I'm considering the switch myself. Two questions.
1. How large of a plant can you get in a 6x6x6, from the perspective of sites per 1k light. For example, I run 4 plants per 1k non-cooled HPS in 2 gal pots with coco, and the stalks are huge at harvest. Would this rip the hugos up? Would they tip over? I see most warehouse growers cramming in as many sites per 1k as possible, and not many people using the 4 per light method. What's up with that?
2. If cloning in an aerocloner, what do you do with the rooted girls? Always seemed to me that if you wanted to use rockwool, you had to start with it. Can you just squeeze them into a starter cube and put that into a 6incher?
Great information you've provided for me here. Everything you stated is very helpful. The cleanliness, lack of extra (unnecessary) labor and garbage disposal are my main reasons for changing over, and anyone running a grow of a decent size with a bottom line will know that these are very relevant concerns.
Did some brain picking with my guy. We went over Grodan's rockwool guidelines. 3% saturation feeds 3 times per day, first watering event within 1 hour of lights on and no more watering events 2 hours before lights off.
Interesting you mention about the Floraflex. I really like them for what I'm doing now, but is it really true that better more even distribution of solution is not necessary for the 'wool?
To those responses above, thinking straight hugo's.
Been running coco for a while just looking to make the switch. Trying to reduce labor cost with smaller plants and lots more in RW...
Thanks but that didn't help....Not to mention clean up, sanitizing, trash runs, etc etc.
LolThanks but that didn't help....
Question...
I understand there are environmental factors and plant size factors but what is considered a good dry down time for RW.
Should the wool be light before next watering.
I'm running blue dream vegged 2 weeks in 6" Hugo's then flipped .. the roots are just making there way to the bottom of the block. The plants are about 3 ft tall entering into their 2nd week of bloom. I have been hand watering once a day .. should I up it to 2 a day.
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