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HYDRO Keeping hydroton in containers

bryanwheat

bryanwheat

New member
After some research i have narrowed down ideas to keep my hydroton from all falling thru the holes in the bottom of my containers. 1" holes with normal sized hydroton = a big mess, lol. Normal gravel i decided against because it is limestone, and while the calcium would be nice to have, the ph would likely be effected, so me next idea was some river rock, which would work well but again that thing with who knows what the rocks actually are and contain and if they will react with the ph, and the last and i think most reasonable thing i could use is lava rock which seems to be used a lot in hydroponic systems. I guess what i am asking is if anyone has any experience with the river rock or lava rock in their recirculating systems and if they have and any problems with ph control by chance.
 
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Hey there!

fellow hydro grower.

usually, the net pots with hydroton/ clay pebbles will be in contact with the water for about the first 10 days from planting.
At next water change the netpot should be dry with the roots long enough to be dangling into the water below.

what I typically do is soak my clay pebbles/hydroton for 2 x 24 hrs in water at pH 5.5.
first 24 hrs in plain pH 5.5 water.
2nd 24 hrs in water at pH 5.5 + nutrients.

your issue I think is a container with very big holes, bigger than the hydroton usually is.

what about a plastic coated wire mesh to hold the hydroton in the container?

i’d think the river/lava rock would be fairly inert and not really influence the pH too much over the 10-14 days it is in water contact.
I am open to be corrected by someone with more experience/knowledge on the subject.

cheers,

FDP
 
I am using a drip system with containers filled with hydroton that the roots grow in so the whole life cycle will have water moving over it a few times a day, so it will be in contact with the water quite a bit.
 
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Hi Bryan. Welcome to GWE.
The drip system is only needed for the first week to 10 days for new seedlings. Once the roots reach the water in the reservoir, the top feed can be turned off after 2-3 days. Using it for the whole grow can create issue of trunk rot or root rot in the hydroton (plus wasted electricity and extra hassle). 👍
 
My system is a drip system, not deep water culture. It uses a top feed from start to finish and the roots grow into a 5 gallon container of hydroton.
 
I have used river rock when I first started growing and experimenting. Had the same issue and I ran out of hydroton when I decided to grow more plants so I just used river rock. I had no issues at all. Only problem I had was 5 gallon buckets where packed with roots but I guess that’s a good problem right? That and here in Cali I needed a way to keep my water cool so I had to use plastic ice packs in the buckets. I think you should be ok using river rock. I believe Nebulas tutorial even says that some growers use river rock?
 
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