Coco in net pots? Non-recirculating DWC

New to DWC and wondering if I can get away with using coco in the netpot instead of rockwool surrounded by hydroton.

I've got a lot of experience with coco and like it, but I want to try DWC. I can already tell that I hate rockwool and hydroton.

Since my system is non-rericulating, the little bit of dirt that might fall down shouldn't effect anything, should it? It's just in a res with an air stone. I'd water the coco now and then with a coco nute solution to keep it from drying out and to avoid salt build up. I imagine I'd do the coco watering right before I change the res, which I expect to do once a week or so.

Excellent.

I think I'll germ in paper towel then plant in beer cups. Once the root system is established I will transplant the coco to 5" netpots and away we go.

Thanks!

Let us know how that comes out.



Edit; Got a ? Why not go straight to the net pot?

GODWORK said:

Nameno...i use the beer cup method also...only because it offers me a little more control of my roots & plant location...
It does offer mega root mass for better uptake...but i get the same thing from putting seedlings in the cloner...

its just a matter of personal issue

Click to expand...

Funny that you say this. Before I opted for this coco method, I had tried to put the seedlings directly in the cloner. They were dangling by their cotelydons in neoprene inserts. The problem is that I'm not the most dexterous person and I broke a few taproots out of the 20 seeds I germed (the fact that I need to continually add ice to my cloner also increased the chance of something breaking). So in the end, I've opted for the coco in beer cups with a transplant to my netpots once a root ball is established.

As for why not straight into the netpot, its becaue I'm using two large coolers that take up a lot of space. If I start out in beer cups in my closet I can maximize space. They don't need the room afforded by the cooler until they are at least a few weeks old anyway.

I'm hoping to get good results with this method. My concern is that hydroton will damage the roots. Coco just seems like a better option for me and I know it well. I'll report back in a few weeks with pics.

What about using rockwool chunks/dice (1/4" in diameter) for the bottom two or so inches of the net pot? I gave clones to a friend recently that I started in a power cloner and he put in a top fed system using the 6" rockwool blocks. We took the naked clones and we put in the rockwool chunks around the roots gently to fill in the circular holes and keep light from getting to the roots. If you put these chunks in the bottom you could fill the rest with coco and they will likely help filter the coco from the runoff even more...

I've only run recirculating DWC systems with the hydroton/clay pebbles, never tried this non recirculating method, but if you're using coco I can def see the advantages.

Don't mean to clog up this thread but GodWork- your inbox is full and I can't respond to the PM you sent me...not sure how else to tell ya

Yea noticed you seem to have several conversations goin at a time.

I'm doing this right now.
I germed some in coco starters and put them in 3" net pots with coco to veg.
There was a little bit of coco at first that got into the res.

https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/644544-bloom-coco-net-pots.html