Questions on Nutrient Strength and PH stability

[xcrispi]

sorry for past dbl. post . i'm a high on n not catch it quick enuf to remove .
bad bad bad bad bad
crispi

[Weedhound]

I happen to be thrilled with the recirculating thing--my drippers haven't been so clean since the plants were seedlings and the plants are going nuts with semi-fresh nutes every day. I can already see my russian thing is much more frosty than the last batch and the last batch was nothing to sneeze at!! Yee Hee!

[latewood]

recirculating systems using rockwool allows rockwool to build up toxic levels of certain nutrients. That is why Porfessional commercial growers drip to waste. If you apply fresah nutrient solution...It is said that it will control the toxidity levels of the rockwool, because with the fresh solution the nutrient levels are balanced.

I prefer to use hydroton in drip systems, due to the inert nature of the expanded clay.

I only use rockwool for cloning or seed starting, and the blocks do well in dwc, because you are not washing nutes over/thru the rockwool causing the ph to fluctuate. So unless you are dripping to waste; you should look into changing your medium. later gotta go

[BlueBear]

If you don't know what drip to waist means, it means that the solution/nutes leav the system to another ress or drain after coming in contact with the plant/rockW and do not recerculate back threw the system, the drippers are providing fresh nutes/water with every feeding. So basicly to avoid the PH flux you can do drip to waist or place rooted clones in hydro rocks with just the roots only. Another way to do it is have a small bubble cloner that uses the smallest net pots and once roots start coming threw just place the whole net pot into a larger one and surround with hydro rocks. Not all people face serious probs with the RW, but many do and just deal with it in drip set ups.
Adieu

[kindprincess]

hey guys good thread; i'm learning...

could someone maybe post a link to a diy, or a begginer's guide or something?

darling bear, crispi, you've got mail...

love, kp

[hbbusa28]

Thanks guys. Yeah I'm on the drippers and Rockwool. Never thought of running off to waste. That's a really good idea. I'll try that.

[latewood]

now one thing. the commercial guys I know. water for like 45 seconds, every 5 minutes, and they are using micro drip lines, in dutch hydro buckets, or leach trays. a smaller pump will save nutrients...there are some obstacles to converting to drip to waste. think/read about it, later.