Hydroponics / Aeroponics Rootbound In 4" Rockwool Flood & Drain?
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forums; A couple of my plants are starting to droop, and the roots are coming out the bottom of the 4" ...
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Rootbound In 4" Rockwool Flood & Drain?
A couple of my plants are starting to droop, and the roots are coming out the bottom of the 4" cube. Should I buy a mat or something to sit it on to extend the roots or will it fix itself? I've seen people do full grows in just 4" rockwool cubes, and my plants are only 1-2 weeks old.
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Uh... what type of tray do you have them in? What medium is surrounding the rock wool cubes?
It is no biggie to see the roots growing out of the cube. It is a big concern if you don't have anything covering the exposed roots from light though.
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It's a Lowe's concrete mixing tub with a plastic tray in it with holes so it doesn't sit in water. The light isn't hitting the roots yet, they're coming out the bottom.
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You are going to need a container about 2-4 times that for the life of all 4 plants! You will need to submerge the rockwool cubes and fill the tray with some sort of medium(hydroton, perilite, etc.) You will want the cubes to be 2-3 inches off the bottom at the very least in the new container.
That is to start!
Last edited by ^Slanty; 06-14-2012 at 09:21 PM.
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Originally Posted by
^Slanty
You are going to need a container about 2-4 times that for the life of all 4 plants! You will need to submerge the rockwool cubes and fill the tray with some sort of medium(hydroton, perilite, etc.) You will want the cubes to be 2-3 inches off the bottom at the very least in the new container.
That is to start!
I disagree with you. This size container (20"x26"x8") and medium is just fine for nice sized plants. It is a flood and drain system so no submerging is necessary except for 15 minute increments a few times a day. Hydroton in the system is optional. There is no need for them to be a full 2-3 inches up, the ridges in a hydro tub aren't that deep...
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I get that information from this thread: Dyna-Gro vs General Hydroponics (Dumpster Grow)
He was using the 2'x4' tub and was growing 6 nice sized plants. I don't think I'm going to grow mine as big as the ones in that thread.
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Any other input? I'm taking everything into consideration, just would like multiple opinions :P
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I use a similar setup just bigger (6" cubes), you said you were flooding the cubes for 15 min few times a day? At that stage I hand watered them once a day (just a few splashes on each cube). Maybe they are over watered, try to flood only once per day. Those cubes hold a lot of water.
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I would think that as well except for the fact that there's roots coming out of the bottom and only 2 are drooping.
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Originally Posted by
johnny32
I use a similar setup just bigger (6" cubes), you said you were flooding the cubes for 15 min few times a day? At that stage I hand watered them once a day (just a few splashes on each cube). Maybe they are over watered, try to flood only once per day. Those cubes hold a lot of water.
I took your thought into deeper consideration and did some more looking around on the net and I found a few good points. How would my plants be rootbound when there is no container to restrain it? I picked up one of my cubes and water dripped out of it like crazy just from me lifting it up. Since the two that aren't drooping are the ones more elevated I figured I'd cut the middle water cycle off and allow them to dry more. I'll post what happens, thanks for your input 
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