peternorth

I have come to the conclusion after doing side by side grows with rockwool ,jiffy pellets,and soil/perlite mix.
I would ideally like to use a non organic clean media for propagating cuttings,and starting seedlings such as the rockwool
grodan type to keep from having to rinse the rootball prior to transplanting into hydro system..
After trying all three I'm going to have to find something else maybe the coconut fiber would be adequate..
The rockwool witout a doubt has stunted growth and just plain given me **** starts with both clones and seedlings.
I know this to be fact as I have done clones in which the clones in different media given the same light,nutes etc... have surpassed the rockwool growth,and vigor by as much as 50-75%...
The rockwool just seems to prevent the roots from growing and escaping the mass of the cube and get that big healthy root system quickly...
What are your experiences?????

HydroSan

I find rockwool just as good as a 50/50 perlite/verm mix

Are you pre-soaking in 5.5pH adjusted first? It does need some pH correction IMO, I like to use warm water too, don't know if it helps, but it sure brings up the RH in the clone box quicker Also, careful handling is required when it's wet, if you handle wet rockwool with big hamfists, it wrecks the O2 holding capacity, and destroys the mass of the cube, meaning overwatering would be the norm for battered cubes

Rockwool cubes, Grodan in particular, are the backbone of the hobby here in the UK, infact, I don't know another grower who uses anything else

San

Jork

I have done three rounds of cloning, the latest one being in rockwool. The first one was perlite and vermiculite and the second was perlite and peat. With the first two I had about a 70% sucess rate. With the rockwool however, 100% of the clippings rooted. Moreover, the root mass was much larger and "agressive" in the rockwool cubes. They also rooted in about 10 days compared to the two and a half weeks using the other mediums. Overall, I found rockwool easier and more effective. Needless to say, I do not plan on using anything other than rockwool from now on.

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Marijuwana

Ive tried a few different methods of cloning.. using a plain soil mix, peatmoss, rockwool cubes, pure plain ph adjusted water. They all work but..

Rockwool cubes gave me the fastest most succesful results. The key is exactly what San mentioned, if you handle them properly and adjust all those little wrongs to make the rights, they work great. If you can get the perfect Temp, RH, and the right amount of oxygen.. they all come together and deliver the results many hydro growers see..

-Mj.

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Quest4high

you have already done so. If you don't pre-soak rockwool, the ph will be too high to substantiate a root medium quickly for a clone or IMO, seeds. Once I rinsed, have not missed a one yet, not one.

Hydro (san) rules, no crap!

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The Grow Guide

Agent 86, a great bubbler bucket thread!
Buckethead thread...tooo funny.