"HOW LONG SHOULD IT TAKE FOR ROOTS TO GROW OUT OF BASKET IN A DWC WITH CLAY PELLETS"

[William and Sue Ashley]

Just wondering how long it takes for the roots to actually make it into the res water from the basket?....

[alltatup]

Wm&Sue, that will depend on various things, but one thing that Nebula recommended to me early on in the veg stage of my current grow was to raise the level of the water in the reservoir so that the bubbles would be splashing the bottom of the pots. In my case, that helped to bring down the roots.

You got a picture or two you can post?

[William and Sue Ashley]

Thanks alitatup.....I sent some pics yesterday of the plants and set up.....I did the hand test with the lights and think they were much to close even though the hand test was fine. These are new seedlings about 1 week and I have 600 watt MH on them. I had the lights about 28" away but was drying everything out. I set the light to 250watt and raised them to the top. Tent is 7' high....Whats your thoughts..? Also hand watering the root riots more often.....Do you think this sounds good.....First time and want to get my girls going.....

[alltatup]

I meant pics of the bottoms of the pots, but they are prolly too young to be showing roots at the bottom yet. Just remember not to waterlog those root riots!!! I'll go look at your pics, but I have a totally different kind of setup from yours, so I'm not able to give you advice on yours. But one thing I was studying on GWE yesterday was about light, you might wanna check out this page:

http://www.growweedeasy.com/too-much-light

I got a lux meter so I could monitor how much light my girls are getting, and I found this page very helpful:

http://www.growweedeasy.com/lux-meter

[Tersky]

I make sure that my water reaches about a 1/4 inch at least of the bottom of the net pot or in my case the rapid root (especially in the seedling stage). Using this method i have never had an issue with the roots not growing into the res tho i am have only been doing this a little over a year.

[DWC4ME]

Water level just at the bottom of the net pot, 3 large cylinder type air stones, I use rockwool cubes and hand water once a day or every other day depending on how dry the cube looks usually once a day. I get visible roots out the bottom in about 1-2 weeks from sprout.
my set up, and 2 cents.

[alltatup]

My water's about 1.5-2 inches below my pots. Nebula told me a coupla months ago to raise the water leve to 2 inches below the pots so all the air stone bubbles would lighly splash the bottoms.

Before roots emerge from the tiny rockwool or root riot cubes, I have them in my box under the lights in a shallow glass container, and I hand water. Once the roots emerge from the small cube, I put them into the 4" rockwool, put that in the net pot, and fill my reservoir to the proper level with low-strength nutes. And stick in the water emitters on top.

Interesting all the different methods!!!