Rockwool Blocks

[Olivier]

I throw them in the bath. 4" 6" and slabs.. ph down pretty low. Swish about a bit and leave for an hour then drain. Refill bath, add grow, ph down then drain again. I dont squeeze either.

Maybe I'm just chicken

[cheesehead]

I'm in the don't squeeze gang.... hold cube loosely in palm and fingers and sort of flick my wrist about 5 times to get the excess water out. Works a treat and keeps air in the cube.

One other thing is dry flowers green up solution in your pre soak, this stuff saves cuttings every time and keeps them looking green and happy.

CH

[Guest DCRBob]

I really don`t get all this with rock wool I get 99 cuttings out of 100 and thats the one with the label in it

We need to make sure we have got the right blocks and keep them clean. take a look in the store room of your shop if its not as clean as the kitchen go to another

Culturally not Grodan, Grodan blocks/plugs are softer so the humidity in the block/plug will be to high.

The culturally block needs to be soaked in 17% hydrogen peroxide 1ml to 1lt at 20c for 30 sec to 1 min now shake out all the water thought the bottom of the block this should leave the top of the block almost dry 5% or less and the bottom of the plug about 90% we are looking for 85% humidity

CloneX and push the cutting into the block just untill you feel the cutting pushing into the block and stop the glass will cut into the steam so no need to cut at the internode

Every 24 hr you need to water with 17% hydrogen peroxide 1ml to 1lt at 20c from the bottom of the plug dont add any feed until you see root and don`t over water, keep the tops dry. most cutting die from drowning and damping off, if you do over water shake the water out the bottom of the block/plug be gentle the new root will got like this.

with root we are ready to put the plug into the block now add your feed at 50% dip the block into the feed 2/3 down untill you see the bottom of the block get wet, placing your hands flat on both side of the block push the bottom of the block in 5mm to 10mm no more now the block is ready to take the plug

dip the plug or small block in the feed and push into the block

as always hope it helps

Edited July 29, 2014 by DCRBob

[MistYGr33n]

i soak rockwool in my normal feed. I pour or dunk the cube in the feed then leave it overnight. I squeeze excess nutes out before i place clones in. I have just put 4 Killerskink in a GT100. Over the 2 weeks rooting out the 4" grodans i did squeeze excess nutes out. Once or twice i have heard a "snap" when the plants are getting on. This is surely a root snapping within the cube. I saw no negative effects on the plants but it isnt a good thing. After 2 weeks i didnt need to get rid of excess nutrient, the plant would drink it. over the day.

I also use Formulex. Mist the clones 3-4 times a day and dont soak rockwool cubes at all. Let them dry. Plants take the nutes through the misting and root out the rockwool cubes.

MistY

[themanbearpig]

any idea why roots keep dying then coming back to life then dying then coming back

[Redeyezman]

any idea why roots keep dying then coming back to life then dying then coming back

I feel like this happens to me in rockwool too. Switching to coco, so bottom roots are always in water, and top roots always in air. Let the Osmosis handle it.

[Chadb]

Great tut thanks man 

[Snypie]

I tried growing in rockwool but it is failed. Please help me out what was i doing wrong.

 

So i started the seeds in rapid rooters. I was watering them with just RO water for a week. I bought a 4 inch rockwool block. I did not wash it out in flowing water i just put them in a large bowl and adjusted the PH around 5.0. The water EC was 0.2. After few hours later the PH was 5.8 I PH'd down to 5.0. I did this battle for 2 days than putted the rapid rooters into the rockwool. I rinsed some water out of the rockwool so it was not dripping wet. I put them on a grill and folded the top with mylar. Each cubes hold 0.5 liter of water. I tried watering them as Grodan's advice -> when the cubes were half the wetted weight (it takes about 3-5 days). After 2 weeks i began feeding them around 0.6-0.8 EC. When i watered the cubes the PH was around 7.0 and the EC was over 2.0. I flushed them out with a lot of nutrient solution but the next watering the EC was high again...

 

What was i doing wrong? Propagation? Watering schedule?

[kraven]

hi ladies n gents ive got a silly little question about the 1 inch cubes.

ive got some seeds just sprouting in the small 1 inch cubes im planning to put them into the bigger cubes and then into an nft tank.

My question is ,

there sitting in the cubes in some tiny tray propergator with the roots just poking out the bottom of the cubes and the little plastic cube holder kinda trays they give ya with the cubes ….the very tips are going brown which I know isn't good 

what should I do ?

been that long since ive been here ive forgotton how to post a picture 

Edited June 18, 2019 by kraven
adding photo.

[ScapeGoat]

I would like to add to this advice ( some of it apples to the 1inch cubes only) : 

 

• Use a salad spinner to shake out excess moisture from wet cubes without squishing them or collapsing the cubes.
• Cubes which are too wet will invite pythium and restrict oxygen to the roots.
• a properly damp cube will weigh around 18-20g. 
• When cloning with rock wool use a small glass and an airstone in propagator to keep the humidity high and stop blocks drying out
• don't spray the cubes once set just leave them until roots show.
• Pre-soak as mentioned in the first post. Feed is not entirely necessary to soak, but recommended for healthy beginnings. 
• If you plan to expose the rockwool surface to light for a long time it might be worth covering the tops to stop algae growth
• You can do this by cutting a circle of black/ white out vinyl and then a single cut along the radius. (from the edge to the middle of the circle)
• Then you can easily slide in the stem and protect your roots and cube from light and algae. 
• Once planted, the idea is to never soak the cube directly when feeding but wick up moisture from underneath - however that works for your setup. 

Hope that helps someone. Took me forever to get adjusted with rock wool. Good luck.

[ScapeGoat]

Just read this again. The ideal cube weight for cuttings is more like 25-30g. I got that part wrong for sure! Oops

[Trashedagain77]

I will admit that I only ever once pre treated any of the cubes or slabs I used for clones. They were grodan. I put the rooted peat jiffy into the pre holed 6" cube and water in with 100ml of pH 5.0 plain water. Then more or less daily starting at EC 0.8 (my hard water reads 0.4)100ml upping to 150ml, depending on the weight of the cube allowing them to be light before next water. Often plants will bend over with red stems, toxicity, I flush through with 100ml PH'd water if this happens and they bounce back 99% of the time. Once there are plenty of roots out of the bottom I lift up the outer plastic so it is 5-10ml above the top of the wool. The cube is then placed into my pre filled custom tubs. I then water in with 6l each perhaps extra depending on individual run off readings. I aim to balance all tubs readings (run offs). I only ever lost one or two most due to damping off. I never used to use peroxides niether. Peace.