Update: I hit up a local hydro shop and asked the employee about my lack of roots problem. He suggested I get some Dyna-Gro rooting concentrate. I got it and used some in my solution today. I hope it works.

Tokersmoker;

If I leave them in the rockwool, how do I feed them other than just hand watering them? Do you want me to have the water leaves touching the RW? I thought that was a very bad thing.



Yes, I used an airstone for the whole time I had them in my DWC. I am wondering though, isn't my hand watering like DWC until the roots reach the water? I don't understand how I can have a DWC if there are no roots to reach reservoir.

Right now, I am using a 105w 6500K CFL and a 125w 6400K CFL (true wattage) until they are done vegging. Then I have a 250w HPS for flowering.

I will switch to 500 PPM and see if that makes a difference.

Ceerock;

There is no water in the res. I am hand-watering to waste (I dump it out). If my water is not oxygenated enough, do I need to have the air pump in my solution right before I pour? I thought the pouring itself would be oxygenating enough.

That picture is from about 2 weeks ago when I had them in 1 in. rw cubes in a single 25 gallon rubbermaid DWC. Since then I have transplanted them to 4 inch cubes that I hand water.

A magic sauce is not going to fix this problem. Stopping the oversaturation of the rockwool will.

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Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

If the rockwool is touching the water it will suck up water as it needs to keep your plant watered, so you wont have to worry about hand watering. There really shouldn't be any difference between your hand watering and the DWC, at least while your roots are still in the cube.
I don't believe you were overwatering, as the rockwool prevents that. The rockwool cube should allow proper O2 for your roots.
I'm not sure what is taking your roots so long, but run with adding the Dyna-Gro to your nutes and hope for the best. You may want to get another additive like Diamond Nectar.
I use Dyna-Gro for the silicon and Diamond Nectar for some other mineral elements on top of my gereral 3 part nutes.

Are you kidding? Have you ever used rockwool before? Sure doesn't sound like it!

Rockwool is the very easiest medium to overwater because it is so absorbtive. It has a very strong wicking action that will allow water to displace all the air in a cube if it is watered too frequently.

__________________
Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

Hand water if you like, but wait until half the water is taken up out of the RW. Don't BOTH handwater and run the DWC.

um, what's a water leaf?

No, leaves should not be allowed to touch wet media.

No, not at all. DWC keeps roots submerged but there is a constant supply of air coming from a bubble curtain (air stone). If RW is kept saturated, there's no air.

Until you have roots that can reach into the aerated res, you're right, you don't have DWC.

Yes, keeping an air stone in the soln you use to hand water is a good idea, but one of the biggest drawbacks to RW is that it stores so much water that if not removed by a vigorous plant, the water can lose most of its dissolved O2 before the plant can take it up.

No, pouring water won't introduce much O2. Remember, air is 73% nitrogen and only about 20% oxygen. It's actually not so easy to dissolve significant amounts of O2 in water. Constantly aerating a solution with a pump & stone is an effective way of dissolving O2 in it.

__________________
Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

Here is a quote from Wikipedia, "ROCKWOOL - Mineral wool products are used for their ability to hold large quantities of water and at the same time maintain a high percentage of air as well."

Yes, I have used it and I have NEVER been able to overwater ANYTHING I have grown in it. You have??? If so, all I have to say is WOW, was the cube sunk in water?

hahahahahaha Wikipedia!! Now there's a great source of totally and reliably correct, peer-reviewed growing information- at your fingertips! Another example of Wikiwrongess. Sounds like it came from a sales brochure.

If you have never overwatered anything in rockwool, you simply haven't used any. I spent a LONG time working out reliable cloning in rockwool cubes - and the main trick is preventing the material from being kept too wet!

__________________
Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

I have heard many peoples failures of trying your technique...

Like I said, if you have overwatered anything in rockwool, WOW... Like I said the only way your going to overwater rockwool is to have it submerged in water.

Only people who can't follow instructions.

um, wrong. All you have to do is give it water faster than it can be removed by the plant and evaporation. The speed of removal varies with the size of the plant, the volume of rockwool, how much air is being circulated in the area of the rockwool and whether it is directly exposed to light.

__________________
Get a harvest every 2 weeks - A batch of clones in rockwool - Al B. Gone

Al,

When I said "water leaves" I meant water level. Sorry, stoned.

Thanks for the tips. I used to have the plants in a 1 inch rw cube surrounded by the hydroton. Then when I moved them into 4 inch ones I had to cut the corners and I put the pellets in the sides to fill in the gap and on top to try to prevent any mold from forming at the base of the stem. I also have some on the bottom to keep the rw at the same level as the rim of the net pot.

I didn't think that the rooting concentrate was a magic sauce, I had no idea what was wrong and just wanted to try something. I have tried to be more careful about when and how much to water, but I still feel like its a complete guess. For the last couple of days, instead of watering all plants at the same time, I has switched to daily for my two largest and every 3 for my smallest.

As for aerating my nute solution, do you have any tips for that? Should it be aerating 24/7? Will that prevent any growth from popping up? Last time I tried mixing up a 3 day supply, some goopy shit appeared after a couple days.

Thanks!