Darkdreamer

Hey ,

I am wanting to keep 3 clones in 4" (80mm) net pots . %100 clay balls apart from the rockwool cube the clones were started in. I am just a little confused on the best way to water them by hand for around a month of vege.

At the moment I am just watering through the top with an appropriate solution, pretty much just when they seem to need it. I did however wonder if it needs to be on a timetable ?
I had another thought of kinda just dunking them in a reservoir like a flood drain style setup. Would this need to be on a timetable also ?

Will it even work to keep them like that for a month and still have healthy plants at the end ?

Kung Fu Bruce

It will probably be a pain to keep up with hand watering them because in hydroton they will soon need to be watered more than once a day. As far as a certain schedule, it doesn't matter as long as they don't dry out too much. To keep them in a reservoir would be your easiest solution and is commonly known as DWC (deep water culture). You will want an air stone in the reservoir and it is also helpful to block light from the roots when they start growing through the pots.

EMj

When taking cuttings from my cloner, I put them into net pots with hydroton. I then put them in a tray for a week with an air pump feeding the water. DWC. I then would put them into the Ebb n' Gro. For that week in DWC I would run Voodoo Juice and when I pulled them out the roots were well out of the net pots and bone white. From there right to flower. 1 week veg in the cloner, 1 week veg in the Voodoo tray. Worked like a charm!

Peace

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Darkdreamer

Thanks guys . My main issue with setting up pumps etc was I was wanting to keep noise to a minimum . I guess it will be a rather large chore to keep watering them by hand once the roots start emerging from the pots but was hoping by that stage my NFT system was free. I was kinda wanting to be lazy and not set up / buy any more gear but I guess I am going to have to bite the bullet.
Does anyone have any experience with hand watering for a long period of time ? .... Before I motivate my ass to build an automated system

Kung Fu Bruce

You could leave them in a shallow resevoir with no air stone necessary. Maybe just the bottom 1/3 of the pot submerged so it can still get air from above. I mentioned an air stone before because it is usually not much extra work, and for the noise try hanging the air pump with a rubber band.