(help needed) dwc Rooting tips to speed up seedling root growth and set in.

a Fix would be greatly appreciated

Its the 2nd time using rdwc both times the seedlings took for ever to set roots near 3 weeks , once they did set they took off and soon caught up.

Used Rapid rooters 6 inch net pot lids hydroton gravel and 400 ppm nutrients to set in.
Have been hand watering once or twice a day to set them in
Must be missing something anyone have tips / suggestions ?

is it normal for the seedlings to take 3 weeks to root into the nutrients ?

Yeah, that's normal. However, I've had huge issues with rooting plugs in DWC/RDWC causing pathogen issues as well as keeping the stem too wet.

I went to roots only and I made a clone DWC bucket with neoprene sleeves and I grow the roots out nice and long first. Then I transplant into the netpot and slide the roots through the holes. No waiting and they take off from day 1 - no top feeding or wondering where the hell the roots are.

I do exactly the same. plugs get SATURATED and stunt root development and encourage rot. Bare roots in hydroton WORKS WONDERS. P.S. hydroton gets and stays fairly wet in dwc. even if the net pot is an inch above the water.

I like those neoprene plugs and holders Im going to keep those in mind and build some once I find a phenotype worth cloning still using seed hoping to luck onto a flavorful pheno.

Im going to take the advice and skip the RR'ers instead next go will start the seed bare in the hydroton and 6 inch net pot lid and say a raised water level to ensure the roots get wet fast.
Can hardly wait to try this out next round , I think its going to be the trick / fix

Its about as cheap and easy as could be.

That said - I have a method for getting the roots going before I stick them in here. I had mixed success with an EZ Cloner as well as this bucket - when I just put bare cuttings in it.

I use a $2 propagation dome and dip my clones in rooting hormone and then into one of those peat jiffy pellets. I soak the pellets 1st in pH'd water with Rhizotonic. I put the clones into the dome for 7 days or so, until roots show through. Then you can very carefully peel back the mesh that holds the peat together and then carefully rinse off the peat. You're left with a good start on a bunch of roots - and it still has some of the rooting hormone/peat stuck to it. If you were to just put a cutting directly into the bucket, the rooting hormone would rinse off right away. Doing it this way keeps the hormone ON the cutting for that 7 days. Then pop that into the nursery bucket and each of those roots will grow into a furious bundle.

I do this now for all my clones even if they're going into coco. That last pic was rehabbing some clones from the EZ Cloner. Because those don't have a dome, rooting canniballizes the leaves and really beats them silly. Under a dome they stay nice and green.

Here's what's going on in my nursery buckets right now. I ended up just letting them go - I have too many but they're so happy... Turns out that a friend needs them for his DWC - so they are a huge head start... These have just been under a 2', 2 lamp T5 with 1/4 nutes all along. I've barely done a thing to them since I first put them in. I top off water or nutes every once in a while - that's about it.

FennarioMike said:

Yeah, that's normal. However, I've had huge issues with rooting plugs in DWC/RDWC causing pathogen issues as well as keeping the stem too wet.

I went to roots only and I made a clone DWC bucket with neoprene sleeves and I grow the roots out nice and long first. Then I transplant into the netpot and slide the roots through the holes. No waiting and they take off from day 1 - no top feeding or wondering where the hell the roots are.

Click to expand...

After going thru root riot cubes, rockwool, jiffy pellets..... I too went to straight roots... everything else simply slows it down, and smothers the roots with water...

I also dropped my root hormones/clone gel... just water on just roots gave me the best results, simple bullshit 3.5gal bucket, pump, and mist/sprayer manifold.... maybe $30, and lasts years....

Neoprene collars become handy after a while, when you start color coding with them