Quote Originally Posted by stinkyattic
"Just" filter out the roots... tee hee!
Have fun brah... I'm all set with filtering out the roots from a whole bedroom full of plants that this guy wants to run. Maybe on a tiny scale.
Hydroton is the ULTIMATE re-useable medium. I honestly don't think it ever goes bad; just dump it in a rubbermaid tote with tepid water and cannazyme, grab the root balls and swirl to release the pebbles, and let soak for a week until it starts to stink, then stick your res pump in there and pump out the water, replace with fresh water, pump out a couple times until the water runs clear, then re-fill and adjust to pH 6. Let sit until the pH appears stable and you are ready to rock n roll.
It's surprisingly not as hard as it seems if you do it immediatley after you cut the plant down. I did it out of boredom to one of my 5 gallon pots before I chucked it..

Take the main stem (or the stub that's left of it) and smash it against the floor a few times. Not pulverizing but give a little more force than the weight of the soil allows. This will cause it to break open.. from there you can kind of wiggle/sift the dirt loose from the root mass. Then take a fine screen and run your loose soil through it.

Took me like 10 minutes to do 1 pot and I didn't have any visible roots in the what I got back from the pot. You will lose some soil/coco in the process.

Hydrotron, I'm slowly trying to make my way over to hydro but I'm a big pansy. :hippy: