Hand water rockwool for whole grow

Rodian79

New Member
OK I thought I saw a post in here like this but now I cant find it again. I am doing a grow in a week or so and I wanted to hand water and keep the ladies in rockwool the whole grow. I have tons of free time and I dont mind the work. I was just looking for watering tips and anything I may need to keep an eye out for. I know it is cheap and easy to automate I just dont want to do it. I am growing in a larger closest about 5 foot squared with 7 foot ceiling. Using 400w HIDS for 4-6 plants nute mix from a friend of mine that has worked well for him, Never did the rockwool thing before. minus a setting them in the tray I am ready to go. Any tips advice more than welcome. Thanks in advance
 

ASCIIGHOST

Well-Known Member
I have done whole grow in rockwool handwater. The croutons work best for drainage, and so you dont overwater. Even if you dont mind all the work of hand feeding coco coir works better. It holds more water, and more air. Both of which the roots love. Switch to coco.
 

ASCIIGHOST

Well-Known Member
once they sprout in 1inch rockwool cube feed with about 200ppm for a week then up it to 300 and so on. judge if it needs feed by weight of rockwool. for me under T5 (400w will have heat and cause faster evaporation from rockwool) i do about 5ml every 18-24 hours. fresh feed brings fresh oxygen too. and salt build up not a big concern at this point so very small runoff is all thats needed when adding.
 

Rodian79

New Member
sound advice ty. I think after this grow I will check out the coco I have heard lots of good things
 

ASCIIGHOST

Well-Known Member
sound advice ty. I think after this grow I will check out the coco I have heard lots of good things
im in agreement with you as to starting off hand water only. if you have a PPM pen, and a PH pen, just measure it out everytime and you shouldnt go to wrong. focus on "floating EC" not so much extreme cases of lots of nutes, followed by very little nutes because damage was done and you think you need to flush.

my fundamental problem with handwatering rockwool only was getting enough water to her. they drink a lot. but you gotta float EC so you dont lockout nutes. use the 1 part floranova to keep thing simple
 

ASCIIGHOST

Well-Known Member
top or FIM after about 7-9 sets of leaves to help with height, and shape. will get more tops and way better quantity. give a few days to recover from top, and resume super cropping. i always use twist method between nodes to supercrop. never the bend over method. much better control, easier to learn and master.
 

Rodian79

New Member
i will looking into the twist method, frankly makes me nervous but I have back up seeds. I have a week or so before I scheduled my start so plenty of time to read up on some things. i have good room going vertical but need to keep it manageable.
Am I being paranoid worrying about the light penetration to the roots being only in the rockwool.
 

ASCIIGHOST

Well-Known Member
they make rockwool covers. white on 1 side, and black on the other. cover with anything that will stay clean and is dark. dont twist or super crop until its big enough. if you pick just 1 to do, pick topping.

what size rockwool you using? 1 inch cube to start then into 4 inch block? i like to set the blocks on clay pebbles to help air flow through the rockwool block. way better results. id even sit it on clean rocks if you got no clay pebbles around.
 

Rodian79

New Member
OK need the covers to help my anxiety :) I am starting them in 1" then to stack on to 4" block I am not looking to grow trees so the cropping for fat lil bushes Azure Haze is the strain I did a good amount of research on them besides they are fussy feeders and tuffer to clone I think I should be ok.. I have some hydrotron laying about so I could pop them in there.
 

ASCIIGHOST

Well-Known Member
air prune as best as you can in the 1inch rockwool then put in a 4 inch cube, dont put on top. i dont think youll be able to flower very well in 4 inch cube. you started from seed?
 

Rodian79

New Member
I am going to stack them into 6" or big pots with drainage, after the 4". Yes I will be starting from seeds germ outside the cube.
 
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