Rockwool Cubes or Root Riot Cubes

im a hydroponic grower and use small rockwool cubes to start my seedlings or cuttings in but ive been told root riot cubes are better, can any one tell me why and if i use them can they be put in bigger rockwool cubes so i then can put them in my hydroponc trays ?

i use them to germ my seeds them move them to my coco after 11 days. ye i swear by them. just keep them a little on the dry side and ye you get amazing roots. idk whatt else i can really say about the. but ive always had 100 percent success with germination and never had a clone not root or die on me while using them.. im sorry i can not be more of an help

spitsbuds said:

i use them to germ my seeds them move them to my coco after 11 days. ye i swear by them. just keep them a little on the dry side and ye you get amazing roots. idk whatt else i can really say about the. but ive always had 100 percent success with germination and never had a clone not root or die on me while using them.. im sorry i can not be more of an help

Click to expand...

did you use rockwool befor starting with the root riot cubes ?

not mate. just get my seed with a pair of tweezers and place it in the root riot pointy way up. in 48 to 56 hours there always popping up. i place them straight under a light with temps 75 to 85 place in a humidity done at 80 to 90. been over with no probs. and place under a led light. the root riot keeps them in the dark and warm ans when they crack the light is available straight away. take from done once a see the first set of leafs . mist them for a few days to help with humidity drop.

unlucky said:

im a hydroponic grower and use small rockwool cubes to start my seedlings or cuttings in but ive been told root riot cubes are better, can any one tell me why and if i use them can they be put in bigger rockwool cubes so i then can put them in my hydroponc trays ?

Click to expand...

i've had mixed results with rockwool as far as cloning (not the cloning master yet ) lol. but i was at a hydro shop with my buddy and we were talking about what we use and what we can recommend to eachother. he recommended i try the root riots for cloning, says he's been 100%. i took his word and bought the tray that comes with the plugs and some free clonex. came home and did some research and couldnt find a bad word about them. havent had an opportunity to try them yet but they're waiting on deck figure i'll save my rockwool for seedlings .. and as far as putting them in bigger rockwool i'm sure you'll be perfectly fine

I used 30 of my 50 root riots. I didn't get one to root.

I've done it both ways and what gave me the best results was to start the cuttings in root riot plugs in a dome, and after they were well rooted, placing the root riot plug into the 3inch rockwool blocks with the same size hole in it as the root riot plug.

From my experience, the root riot plugs hold water a lot longer and needs less watering to keep your clones happy. By starting them in the rockwool plugs instead, I found that if I wasn't constantly on them I would lose high numbers.

You can do it any way, from sprayers to domes, but for me the easiest, cheapest and most reliable method to get a high percentage of strikes was the root riot and then into my rockwool.
Are you using a horticultural heat mat or anything with them? that really ups the success rate imo.

mike91sr said:

I used 30 of my 50 root riots. I didn't get one to root.

Click to expand...

Can you post a couple pics or something? Do you let the root riot plugs dry out? That's bad. As is too wet. They just need to be damp. I spray mine on average twice a day,, once early morning and once after dinner, lightly with a spray bottle. You'll develop feel for how wet they like it in no time.

JohnnyGreenfingers said:

Can you post a couple pics or something? Do you let the root riot plugs dry out? That's bad. As is too wet. They just need to be damp. I spray mine on average twice a day,, once early morning and once after dinner, lightly with a spray bottle. You'll develop feel for how wet they like it in no time.

Click to expand...

No pics of them. It wasn't all 30 at once, I tried roughly 5 or so at a time. They survived 4-5 weeks sometimes with almost no yellowing before finally having stem rot when I pulled them out. I did the same, spray once or twice a day

I have used root riots, rappid rooters and r/w cubes and hands down r/w wins for me

I used to use rapid rooters but I like the rockwool in dwc so I can direct the roots downward instead of all over the sides.

mike91sr said:

No pics of them. It wasn't all 30 at once, I tried roughly 5 or so at a time. They survived 4-5 weeks sometimes with almost no yellowing before finally having stem rot when I pulled them out. I did the same, spray once or twice a day

Click to expand...

Something is wrong if they went 4-5 weeks without rooting. I normally get my first root strikes on the 5th or 6th day after cloning them, depending on strain, and they're pretty bushy and ready to be planted in 2 weeks max. Are you seeing any root action at all in your 4-5 week wait?

I use mostly Rapid Rooters (upside down).

They hold more AIR than Rockwool. The Rockwool holds more water.

BUT for me it is really strain dependent.

My Pre-98 Bubba has a hard time with Rockwool, as they are a little harder to root (takes longer)

With the Hybrids (WW, OG Haze, Mad Chem) it doesn't seem to matter.

I also grow in soil.

Just my $ 0.02

JohnnyGreenfingers said:

Something is wrong if they went 4-5 weeks without rooting. I normally get my first root strikes on the 5th or 6th day after cloning them, depending on strain, and they're pretty bushy and ready to be planted in 2 weeks max. Are you seeing any root action at all in your 4-5 week wait?

Click to expand...

Lol I know something is wrong. Like I said, they ended up with stemrot by the end of that time even though the leaves were still mostly green. Temps ~65night-75day. I tried water pH'd from 5.5-7.2, with and without SuperThrive and/or Hormex rooting hormone.

Ok. I use plain water from @ neutral ph. I think the heat mat under them has a lot to do with it also. They love to be toasty while they're rooting.
From my own experience the important things are ambient temperature, a small amount of light but not too much, they tend to not like too much light, high humidity in my dome without a lot of circulating air in the clone room (makes it harder to keep them humid) and the heat mat underneath. And sterilizing my scalpels and stuff. When I stick to those things I don't ever have a second thought about clones, they just happen.

I do have a lot of experience, but I can still remember back to the days when I would kill mass clones like it was my calling in life to do so. One time in particular still hurts to remember. Before the MMJ law happened here in '08 and you couldn't just get strains easily without ending up on a fed list, I lucked into meeting a somewhat talented grower who had ties to California and easily had 50 strains (not the slightest exaggeration) readily available. It was like being unleashed in WonkaLand. He sold me a 60 site cloner that he'd made and showed me how to use it, along with 60 cuttings. Lol...I was so sure I couldn't fail. The next three weeks were some of the most agonizing days of my life as one by one I managed to drown or otherwise kill each and every one until I was right back to where I'd started when I met him. A very humbling memory. =)

well it looks like there is mixed feelings about rockwool or root riot....ive always used rockwool and get 100% from them...i think i will get some root riot and do a little test see how it holds up over the rockwool thanks for all the info ...... i never start my seeds off in rockwool i give the pionty end a quick rub with sand paper then put them on damp kitchen roll and cover with one more sheet of kitchen roll pop them on a plate and put the plate on top of my frigde then 24 hours later the root is out, 48 hours later i then put them in rockwool and off we go

how did u put them out...?what process did u use..?

used both of them rockwool is slightly better imo. also agree with big cheese roots go downwards in rockwool versus outwards

The way I look at it if it's not broke don't fix it
100% is 100% one advantage to r/w is you can
mix up some thrive alive and a touch of mutes in
your soaking agent prior to use, to get a better
overall clone

this was a concern for me cuz I'm about to start from beans..good for beans too right?