Always overwatering seeds in hydro

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
I mean... as long as the rockwool isn't actually fully submerged in the water, if the bottom just barely touches the water, it will "wick up". But rockwool is extreamly porous, and it shouldn't be able to wick up enough water to drown your plants.
I've always just started my seeds in a dome, add a 1/4" of water to the tray for now. Once they break the surface i give 24 hours of light untill some roots break out of the bottom of the cubes. Once they do, I move to the system, add hydroton, then the cube so the cotyledons are just above the net cups rim. Then I fill the water level to just barely touch the cubes, they are like that about a week before the roots are long enough where I can lower the water level 1" or so below the net cup.
No problem with over water since the rockwool naturally holds so much air, and my rez water is well oxygenated.
 
S

SamWE19

Well-Known Member
ÒÒlegilizeitÒÒ said:
I mean... as long as the rockwool isn't actually fully submerged in the water, if the bottom just barely touches the water, it will "wick up". But rockwool is extreamly porous, and it shouldn't be able to wick up enough water to drown your plants.
I've always just started my seeds in a dome, add a 1/4" of water to the tray for now. Once they break the surface i give 24 hours of light untill some roots break out of the bottom of the cubes. Once they do, I move to the system, add hydroton, then the cube so the cotyledons are just above the net cups rim. Then I fill the water level to just barely touch the cubes, they are like that about a week before the roots are long enough where I can lower the water level 1" or so below the net cup.
No problem with over water since the rockwool naturally holds so much air, and my rez water is well oxygenated.
Click to expand...
That’s strange as I’ve always had the exact opposite experience. Rockwool, rapid rooter, root riot, tried all these and they seem to wick up so much water if water is available to wick up that causes the drooping leaves from over watering. Simply having water splashing the bottom of The net pot seems to do it.
 
ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
SamWE19 said:
That’s strange as I’ve always had the exact opposite experience. Rockwool, rapid rooter, root riot, tried all these and they seem to wick up so much water if water is available to wick up that causes the drooping leaves from over watering. Simply having water splashing the bottom of The net pot seems to do it.
Click to expand...
Yeah I got some seedlings right now about a week old in rockwool, just sitting in about 1/4" of standing water and doing great.
 
Gemtree

Gemtree

Well-Known Member
I always started in 50/50 perlite/verm or 100 perlite in cups. It all brushes off pretty good when you go to transplant just put it in a bucket of water and gently break it all away
 
ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

ҖҗlegilizeitҗҖ

Well-Known Member
SamWE19 said:
That’s nuts have you always had them in standing water? So your telling me the cube is saturated with water?
Click to expand...
Yes I suppose its "saturated", but the rockwool is so porus it naturally holds enough oxygen where the plants are doing great.
Again, the cubes are sitting in only about 1/4" of water.
If they were completly submerged it would obviously force all the oxygen out of the cube.

DWC roots grow directly in water with bubbles, a wet rockwool cube shouldn't drown a plant.
 
S

SamWE19

Well-Known Member
ÒÒlegilizeitÒÒ said:
Yes I suppose its "saturated", but the rockwool is so porus it naturally holds enough oxygen where the plants are doing great.
Again, the cubes are sitting in only about 1/4" of water.
If they were completly submerged it would obviously force all the oxygen out of the cube.

DWC roots grow directly in water with bubbles, a wet rockwool cube shouldn't drown a plant.
Click to expand...
In dwc you are physically adding oxygen to the water with the air pump. Standing water wouldn’t have any.
doesn’t make sense to me...

I’m gonna pop a seed in a rapid rooter today and put it in 1/4 inch of standing water and I’ll take a pic in a week or two showing the drooping leaves
 
S

SamWE19

Well-Known Member
Here for example is a seedling started in a rapid rooter. Approx 4 weeks ago now.

it spent 2 weeks in a rooter tray before being moved to my main hydro system.

I’ve messed with timbers from splashing the hydroton 24/7 to on 15 mins off an hour to being on 15 mins every 8 hours they just constantly seem to show overwatering as the rapid rooter stays soaking but the hydroton dries out in the 6 hours off so the roots growing out of the RR dry out and die back to the rooter
 
Renfro

Renfro

Well-Known Member
Well the condition sure looks like a lack of oxygen at the roots. If the water is above 70F then it is unable to hold much O2. Overwatering in DWC is just a lack of dissolved oxygen, usually caused by warm nutes.
 
S

SamWE19

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
Well the condition sure looks like a lack of oxygen at the roots. If the water is above 70F then it is unable to hold much O2. Overwatering in DWC is just a lack of dissolved oxygen, usually caused by warm nutes.
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s definitely lack of o2. But it’s not dwc it’s an nft /aero system atm. But this even happens in just rapid rooters for me. Clones are fine... but seeds always seem to take 2 weeks of overwatering waiting for enough roots to grow through hydroton so they don’t get overwatered.

What stumps me is people here saying they soak their rapid rooters and saturate them and don’t get overwatering symptoms.

i try hard to not overwater and I get droopy seedlings
 
S

SamWE19

Well-Known Member
SamWE19 said:
Yeah it’s definitely lack of o2. But it’s not dwc it’s an nft /aero system atm. But this even happens in just rapid rooters for me. Clones are fine... but seeds always seem to take 2 weeks of overwatering waiting for enough roots to grow through hydroton so they don’t get overwatered.

What stumps me is people here saying they soak their rapid rooters and saturate them and don’t get overwatering symptoms.

i try hard to not overwater and I get droopy seedlings
Click to expand...
Renfro said:
Hmm I keep mine wet as fuck too. Never had issues. The plant pictured above, it's a clone right?
Click to expand...
no that’s a seed... my clones have always been fine.
I want to start from seed more often to change the strains up but this issue always sets me back 3 weeks with seed grows... havnt been able to figure out wtf it is
 
S

SamWE19

Well-Known Member
Renfro said:
Maybe the problem is something else, is the lighting too intense?
Click to expand...
What would you say is too intense? I have around 1000ppfd in the Center but only 350ppfd in my far bottom corner so if it was lighting I would expect the plants in the corners to not have the issue
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top