Rockwool grow questions

[Jkrustie]

Heya

This is my first serious attempt with growing soiless in rockwool.
I've got some nice Diablo(Next Generation Seeds) seedlings in my 4"x4" rockwool blocks.

Growth looks good, and after 5 days going from the 1" cubes to the 4", the roots are starting to come through the bottom.

This is where I have a question, how long can you allow the roots to grow through the rockwool cube? I have them in a cloning tray, so the roots will presumptually grow in the tray, sucking up run off inside the tray after waterings.

Now...it seems to me that roots exposed to the air would need constant moisture to live, so does there need to be run off in the tray 24/7? Or will the dark moist area directly below the 4" cube serve as enough moisture?

I plan to transplant to a medium sized pot filled with Grodan Grow cubes, the tiny 1cm X 1cm rockwool cubes. I am going to be feeding as if this was soil, watering from above, the rockwool acting as soil would.

So how long can the roots grow into the tray, how soon should I get them transplanted into the pots?

I am also concerned about some discoloration on the young leaves. It looks like light burns, but I'm using cool white flouros. I observed the exact same thing last time I grew these seeds, and I thought it was light burn. Perhaps it's just the genetics? No pests, temps are perfect, feeding with Canna Substra Vega at 8mL per 5L water, and Rhizotonic at 20 mL per 5 L (min. suggested feed).

Other then that, how do they look, coming along for their age?

Pics won't upload.....

Thanks.

[Jkrustie]

pics, had to convert to gif???wtf

[Jkrustie]

Mods please delete above post with gif images ^^^
Thar, these are the Jpegs ignore the above pics.

[Jkrustie]

Holy crap, does no one post here anymore?
bUMp

[floyd2zapper]

Hi jkrustie.

I had that problem recently i just filled the bottom of the tray with hydroton clay medium and had about 2 mils of nutrient solution at (cf 10) on the bottom for the roots to grow into the main reason i did this was was to protect the roots from the light.

Hope this helps .

[BlueBear]

If you are going to take out those babies how long do you plan on waiting? If the root ball becomes to large it may stress the little ones some when you take them out of the RW. Also, the grow rocks seem like a good idea, but remember the roots are going to need more water than the RW cubes so water them seperatly. If those cubes are always water logged you may run into root rott problems.
Adieu

[Jkrustie]

Thanks for your replies.
I allowed the tray to become dry over night and sure enough the root tips underneath have dried out. So I have to keep them moist it would seem.

Floyd, I have considered leaving a layer of solution in the tray, and covering it up with hydroton, which is a great idea, however Blubear makes a good point by saying excess moisture will cause root rot. I have Rhizotonic in the mix, which helps break down old roots and stops the growth of vertain fungus etc, but I don't like the idea of a constantly wet medium. Because of the capilarry water up take of the rockwool, leaving water in the tray will always be sucked up into the rockwool.

Bluebear I plan to keep them in the rockwool, and put them into a pot with rockwool already in it, like a soil transplant. So all the growth now is good.

I guess I'll have to just wait it out and see, it is too early to throw them into a pot just yet imo, so I guess a small % of the roots will die while the rest catch up. I don't want to transplant until there is a large amount of roots, for the simple reason that if i transplant now, the roots will shoot down again, and there will be areas above that don't develop as much as id like.

Any other ideas?

[floyd2zapper]

Hi Jkrustie.

It worked for me i might of got lucky though.Bluebear is a lot more experienced than me and i have had advice from him myself he knows his stuff.

Good luck with what you decide to do mate take it easy.

[Jkrustie]

Well my bigger seedlings were drooping a little on the outer area of leaves, so it looked like they needed more water. I'm not so experienced in rockwool so it's hard to tell how wet to go. The rockwool has always been moist, never dry to the touch, never light to hold up, and when I water i soak them through and through, is this correct? Last time I lost a number of seedlings because they dried out so damn fast, so I thought it was good to keep rockwool moist at all times.

I decided to give them a good watering, because what I hope isnt the signs of poor water up take due to rot, looks like they needed water to me.

I also added a barrier of tinfoil over the rockwool and the tray, to keep the light away from the exposed roots below.

I had some of the rockwool i need ordered today, but it won't arrive till this time next week....I don't know how long I can hold them out like this....
I might have to cut up some 1" RW cubes to serve as a trasnplanting medium.

decisions decisions.....

[floyd2zapper]

Jksustie.

What system r u going to put them in.

[BlueBear]

I sent a long post to you and it didn't post for what ever reason, doh! Well what system or method are you trying to use and why? Roots have anchor, tap and feeders when you say you want to let them grow for whatever reason then you may rethink that because you don't want to stress them with a educated plan IMO. You could throw a home made bubbler together to take care of them until your stuff arrives for under $50, or you could just throw them in a soilless mix like ProMix right now.
Sorry, I spent so much time on the original post that I sent that I don't have as much time right now.
Adieu

[Jkrustie]

The system is going to be 100% rockwool.
I will be transplanting into a pot, hydroton layer on the bottom, then rockwool cubes as a filler, and then a layer of hydroton on the top.

2 of the seedlings are showing signs of water up take problems. I have the ends of the biggest leaves curling down under, not like a burn, but like its trying to suck up water. So I think ive had the medium too wet too long. Im going to let them dry out somewhat before i water again and hope the problem will reverse..

As for the rest, i dont have funds or time to make a bubbler, so im thinking i jsut need to transplant to a enclosed pot sooner then later.
I will probably just cut up some of the standard size rockwool cubes into smal pieces, and transplant asap.

The final pot, which will be very large, will have a layer of hydroton, an air stone, then rockwool, plant, and hydroton on the top. I am going to be doing a 1 or 2 plant scrog in a 3' by 1.5' cabinet.

I'm kind of concerned, I don't see any serious signs of damage yet, but I want to correct this ASAP cause this was a expensive strain, and these are my last seeds D:

[BlueBear]

Why the RW as the mane medium? I would just use perlite to replace the RW IMO. The RW is so much more delicate to a certain degree IMO, moisture issues and PH fluctuations as well. I hope you don't lose this strain. If you did what I am saying you could get them going ASAP. A bag of perlight will only run about $7 or so and fill enough pots for those little ones. Also, with the RW medium as your soilless you will need to constantly watch the moisture and ph soak them before you use. Do you have someone to guide you threw the use of this set up? I haven't known of many people on hear using that set up or a soilless bubble set up, though I have herd about it just not read a grow or known anyone who has done one, so you might not be able to get allot of personal experience with trouble shooting . But it is funny, before I checked this post out today I was thinking about the soilless bubble stone set up after listening to the grow report a couple weeks ago. The advise that I am giving you is more general than specific so you have to way it out. If you are really worried about them, I would think about taking them out of the RW and putting them in a cup of strait perlite and hand watering them until you decide what you can do, it should give you some time. Again, this is just my opinion. Hopefully someone can give some more input.
Adieu

[Jkrustie]

Thanks for the feedback!

This style isn't something I'm just throwing together, I am copying a grow of a friend of mine from Overgrow (R.I.P.) He grew Chronic from Serious seeds. He grew in this exact same way, 100% rockwool using the small cubes. He had no problems, and he ended up scrogging under a 400W hps in a cab.
He ended up with a whopping 1.02G/w, OVER a gram per watt!!!!!

I wish I still had access to his grow journal, as it had pics and instructions from start to fonish, but his contact info, as well as the rest went down the shitter with Overgrow :(

I believe I just need to get them into a more permanent place and watch I don't over water..IMO the perlite would require a lot more watering and care, since it holds hardly no moisture at all.

What do you think about the leaves tho? They are still curled under like that this morning. Mild root rot?

[Jkrustie]

Well I bought some hydroton and transplanted the seedlings that has the curled leaves. I didn't have any of the small bagged RW so I cut up all my 1 inch clone size rw cubes for now. It looks snug and happy, lets hope those roots will shoot down now. Main thing is the RW is cut very small, so there are lots of places in the cracks that oxygen will stay in.

As for the rest, I added a layer of hydroton to the tray, and filled it up with my solution. This way any roots coming down from the rw blocks will have water to drink from, while keeping the rw cubes relatively dry.

feedback?

[BlueBear]

Sounds great. It should work out for you. With the OG threads and such, sometimes I google what I am looking for and it will show up in the search then I click on cash text and I can usually read the whole thread or journel or what ever it is that I am looking for, sticky or whatever. Give it a try. Google his OG name with the name of his grow.
Adieu

[Jkrustie]

Cool!
Ya I dunno about this strain. I see some wierd growth on some of the seedlings, and wierd markings on others. The growth, overall, seems healthy and is coming along fast.

The biggest one still has curled leaves tho.. I guess ill have to wait it out.

Thay tuned im going to change this into a journal once i get underway...that is if u dont like monster scrog journals :D

[BlueBear]

Sounds great.
Adieu

[Jkrustie]

Just a small update.

Growth of the transplantee looks good, They are steadily growing. The curled tips are still curled tho....very strange indeed.

The rest seem to be going slowly but surely. Kinda hard to tell development at this stage since I see them everyday.

Couple pics showing problems etc.

[Jkrustie]

Sounds great. It should work out for you. With the OG threads and such, sometimes I google what I am looking for and it will show up in the search then I click on cash text and I can usually read the whole thread or journel or what ever it is that I am looking for, sticky or whatever. Give it a try. Google his OG name with the name of his grow.
Adieu

Hey, I searched around but couldn't find it. I foung some strain guides but not the journal...it was a very popular one so maybe it is cached out there on google..could you help me search? His user name was NaturalBornGrower, the thread contained titles such as scrog, chronic, 2 plant scrog, i think he changed the main title to 1.02g/w or something. Key words like chronic, scrog, canna coco, canna subtra, serious seeds, etc.

:D