HYDRO Need advice DWC

[Bizoune]

Hi. New to hydro but have been growing for a while in soil.

i have three small questions I’m curious about and I know you guys are expert and usually very nice with noobs like myself.

1- Can I use rapid rooters instead of rock wool to start my seeds before DWC in 5 gals bubbling buckets? One the roots are long enough I just place the roof rooter in my clay balls and voila?

2- Do I need to water my Rockwool cubes with nutrients from day 1? If not, when do I start?

3- Once in the DWC system, do I need to water the cubes as well?

thank you so much in advance!

[Jebidiah]

Put the sprouted seed in the rooter and hydroton. I have well water I use to sprout the seed and wet the rooter in but do top feed with light nutrients from day 1 in the system. I also switch the tote lid to a tote that only has air stones after the roots hit the water so I have less to dig out of the roots later. But the water pump isn’t necessary good bubbles will splash the bottom of your net pot.

[Bizoune]

Ok so if I do:

1- germinate in rockwool or rapid rooter.
2- once root appears at the bottom, transfer into bucket.
3- once this is done, bubbles from the air stones linked to the air pump will be enough to maintain moisture.

Nutrients at all time, starting slowly.

did I get this correct?

[Smoklahoma]

Last grow I tried 1/2 rapid rooters and 1/2 rockwool. The RR dried out faster. I start in a dome till I see roots. Place in hydroton, mix light seedling nutes, set water level 1/2 below pot ,turn on air stones. I top feed about 1/2 shot glass with ph straight well water until I see roots come out of hydroton. Lower water level to 2 to 3 inches below pot and let it roll.

[Eliot Pryor]

Rapid Rooters have worked better than rockwool cubes for me. I put the pod in the net pot with hydroton. I put the seed in RR pod then I keep it damp until it sprouts. Then put it in the dwc setup with very light nutes until the roots develop. I use top feed all the time. Start to finish. Good luck !!

[Bizoune]

Eliot Pryor What do you mean by « top feed »?

[Bizoune]

How can you top feed on clay pellets?

[Jebidiah]

https://www.growweedeasy.com/high-yield-bubbleponics-technique

[Eliot Pryor]

I have a little submersible pump and a hose. Jebidiah posted a link. I also find it easy to check the solution that way.

[gbauto]

I use 6" netlids in my hydro system, and when I grow from seed I'll sprout them and place the seed in a RR. After I get roots showing through the RR, I will transplant the RR into the netid with hydroton.
If I grow from clones, I will place a rooted cutting into a 2x2x2 rockwool cube and hand-water those until I get roots popping out of the cube.
I use the cube on clones because I like the added stability anchoring the plant into the cube and then have the root mass grow down.
Seeds will already have a nice tap-root structure, so I don't have any issues letting those grow directly into the hydroton.
Hand-watering or top-feeding is just saturating the basket with nutrient solution to promote root growth.
Once the roots are down into the bucket, they don't need top-feeding.