Begining to think Hydroton REALLY SUCKS

[Daddynobucks]

Here the deal have been soaking a batch of washed Hydrotron in Ph h2o
this is the 4th day now that its back up to 6.5 after being dropped to 5.1 after 12 hrs. this last time.
WTF
how can there be such a diff. from one bag(batch) to the next??

this is why my garden is having problems I am sure.

any thoughts or help would be great.
Daddy

[Weezard]

Here the deal have been soaking a batch of washed Hydrotron in Ph h2o
this is the 4th day now that its back up to 6.5 after being dropped to 5.1 after 12 hrs. this last time.
WTF
how can there be such a diff. from one bag(batch) to the next??

this is why my garden is having problems I am sure.

any thoughts or help would be great.
Daddy

Tell me about it!:mad:
I've got a 50 pound sack o dat crap.
After conditioning and a month of use the PH still "creeps"
Think I'll just use it as "PH-up" pills;).

Aloha
Weezard

[JackdaWack]

I like how it creeps up, i drop the ph and let it rise and then drop it again. I get the full range of ph vs nutes, only issue is u have to stay on top of it. I also use a small amount of hydroton per plant, what ever fills up the 3.5" net pot, So it's a very small creeping ph, If i were using an entire table full of this stuff, ide probably kill myself.

[Daddynobucks]

:)
I use 6" net lids on 5 gal buckets with a 40 gal rez.

the tub full is just for washing and Ph ing, usually stops rising after 4 or 5 days of soaking, but this is way off. even after 4 days :mad:

thinking about going down to the river and gettig a bucket or two of washed river rock off the gravel bar, couldn't be near as bad as this H crap

time to medicate

[tinytoon]

u running recirc DWC?

[disrupt86]

Tell me about it!:mad:
I've got a 50 pound sack o dat crap.
After conditioning and a month of use the PH still "creeps"
Think I'll just use it as "PH-up" pills;).

Aloha
Weezard

:D fuckin word! i never had prolems until i switched to this unnamed crap after a month and 5 days in a top feed drip it only now fluctuates .02 percent. i have had to use a half gallon of ph down this grow.shit i think i spent more on gh ph down than on the new batch of hydroten

[tinytoon]

outside of Hydrotron what would you all recommend for 6" net basket in DWC? Not running rockwool or anything just a clone rooted in a rapid rooter and then in the basket it goes.

[MerryPrankstr]

I'm running mine in coco.

My latest technique is germinate in 3 "coco to 6" coco pot to 6" net pot in DWC. I waited for the 6" pot to get plenty of roots growing up the edge before I move to the final 6" net. This allows the roots to bind the coco so none drops off into the DWX rez. Aeration through 1 each 6" air disk per bucket. Each rez looks like a boiling bucket of water, which is what I was aiming for. That's plent of nutes hitting coco without erosion and contamination of the rez. There's the odd speckle in there, but it works out fine for my application.

The tallest of the run is 44" inches with heavy fruiting and the plant is more than stable. The ph gradually raises as rez is used up and nuetrients have been uptaked but no practical ph difference due to medium.

My :twocents:
M.P.

[disrupt86]

i think coco might retain to much water for a dwc "but ive never done it"u could try the new sure to grow inserts,i have a bunch of free samples im going to try pretty soon.u could also use lava rock.or silica rocks there a hydroten alternative there like a extra 15 bucks a bag over hydroten.

[DreadedHermie]

i think coco might retain to much water for a dwc Seems like it might, but it doesn't. I'm running coco in DWC, and Zard has, too.

I messed up and ran the res level too high so the bottom of the netpot was actually submerged about .25". No problem. :thumbsup:

I use a special product that removes not only bits of stray root, but stray coco particles as well! Pretty pricey, though. I'll see if I got a pic...BRB.

[DreadedHermie]

There. Cost me a fortune, but it works like a charm. Doesn't mess with the pH., either!


[attachment=o231453]

:D:stoned:

[Weezard]

"i think coco might retain to much water for a dwc "but ive never done it""

I have.
It doesn't.
Had to stop doing it.
It worked too well!:thumbsup:
[attachment=o231455]

Now I just use Coco in 10" square pots.
That keeps my legal on amounts.:cool:

There's some more pics of the DWCoco setup in my albums.

Aloha,
Weezard

[DreadedHermie]

Now I just use Coco in 10" square pots.


I like your elevated bucket (the square pot) idea as opposed to a sunken netpot. Like a catamaran kine sing. More room for roots.

A standard 8" netpot lid only permits ~2.7 gal in the rez. How full you had dat one?

[u.g.u]

I think you guys are tripping on the hydroton I have been using it 10 years and would use nothing else. I rinse them off real good put all the plants in, and do a res change the next 2 days in a row to get the residual dust off. No problems at all. Ph creep is pretty normal I set mine at 5.8 check on them 2 days later its at 6.2. the only time ph creep is bad is if it goes the other way say from 5.8 down to 5.4 and so on. Normaly that means you have some bad bacteria in the res. a little h202 clears it up. I dont like anything that retains moisture or nutes ie coco, rockwool, dirt you have way more control with a nuetral medium.

[Veedubin]

I use rockwool cubes that are cut up on the bottom half my basket and then put hydroton on top of it. I guess it would be more like a 25% rock wool to about 75% hydroton. I like this because when my plants were young they had that rockwool to grow too. I know my way works, I have root balls like basketballs lol. Thats what i did this time so ill have to wait and see how it turns out when they get a little heavier with buds.

[cannamanibus]

I always thought hydroton was fine also. Although their is a particular article where the guy gets 1.5 G/W and he used CoCo slabs in a Drain To Waste system, with like i forgot 10-15 clones per sq/ft. Which was about 400 power plant clones in a small area. I forgot what nutes he used, Im talking about the one out of the bible. The baddest G/W ive seen and only dream about getting. i mean 1.5. DAMN!!