RDWC Setup

Here is my setup. I'm getting 6 clones tonight. HEAVY PICTURES.

1. Unsure about the height of a 600W MH during short rooted clones.

2. What water level should I have between the water and a 6in net-pot in 5gallon buckets.

3. If the roots aren't developed enough to reach the humid hydroton bottom or water...
3a. Should I water around the rockwool to keep the roots from drying or is this a risk for rootrot?

Any suggestions/questions/advise would be very appreciated.

-Katripus

Hello cannabis gods & goddesses, I come here before you with experience of making clones, but no real experience of growing/getting past the delicate stage.

I wish I had fluorescents. I am terrified of the early stage. (killed so many seedlings in past). The clones have finally arrived .


I just got 10 clones, some stronger than others. All have roots inside, some are on the outside (not many).


The 600W MH is 29 inches above the lid level.


Last time, I used waterfarms (drip action). there's about 3 and a half inches of hydroton below the rockwool cubes.

should I water around the hydroton 5x a day to make sure the roots don't die/dry out before finding water?

The rockwool cubes were kinda soaked when I got em, so..what do you guys think?

Here are some clone pictures. 1-6, 1 being the middle front plant, then moving in a counter clockwise circle.

VCLONE 1V


^CLONE 1 ^

VCLONE 2V

^CLONE 2^

VCLONE 3V

^CLONE 3^


VCLONE 4V


^CLONE 4^

VCLONE 5V


^CLONE 5^

VCLONE 6V


^CLONE 6^

All questions previously asked still apply. Any response would be very valued to me. I am paranoid as hell that they'll die. I'm so scared of HID in these early stages.

Thank you all! You guys are the greatest.

Should I spray the leaves or..should I keep the light on em for a while? Should I let them get 18/24 or 24/24 in this stage? I don't want to kill them off with too much light .

AHH!! Don't wanna stress em out anymore, just want the roots to grow long enough to get water from under the layers of hydroton.

- Set your light about 24" above the clones to start. If the leaves start to cup or bleach out raise it higher.

- The amount of air space from the surface of the water to the bottom of the net pot depends on how energetic your bubbles are. Fill a net pot with hydroton and put it on one of your buckets. Leave it for an hour or two and then start removing the hydroton until you find the "wet spot " If the hydroton is wet about half way down the pot your good. If not raise or lower the water level accordingly.

- You want at least a 1" gap, so if you can't wet the bottom half of the net pot with just the mist from breaking bubbles you need a bigger pump.

i would think that you should definitly be watering them if theres no drip tubes (i didnt see any in the pics) or bubbleponics going on

Do any of those cones have roots showing? Sorry to say but they don't look very happy....

What size net pots are you using?

Give this a read, I think you'll find it helpful

https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/255664-putting-bubbles-your-ponics.html?highlight=putting+bubbles+ponics

Kk I will water around the rockwool / hydroton to keep that area moist.

I'd say on 2 of them, I saw roots coming out on the sides. The others, there were roots inside where the stem was. I pushed the rockwool around the stem to cover up that gap with a little tool. Yeah, they looked pretty stressed.

6 inch net pots.

Think I should move the light from 29 inches to maybe 35 so they don't get light bleached? Thanks for responding, keep it up!

Ya 35" wouldn't hurt.....

You shouldn't squeeze or deform the rockwool, ruins the air space in the fibers of the wool.

Your pots look really deep....should be fine though.

If your going to water from the top, don't soak the wool. Aim for damp. You want the roots to search for water.

katripus said:

Here is my setup. I'm getting 6 clones tonight. HEAVY PICTURES.

1. Unsure about the height of a 600W MH during short rooted clones.

2. What water level should I have between the water and a 6in net-pot in 5gallon buckets.

3. If the roots aren't developed enough to reach the humid hydroton bottom or water...
3a. Should I water around the rockwool to keep the roots from drying or is this a risk for rootrot?

Any suggestions/questions/advise would be very appreciated.

-Katripus

Click to expand...

Your setup is cool I like it!

Definetely give you 5 stars for the way you made it look so spacy and custom.

Shit, I may just do the same thing to my bubblers! heehee.

So tell me, what did you use to cover your buckets???? Enquiring minds wanna know


You should have the clone in a rockwool cube and layer the bottom of the netpot with hydroton.

Then fill the rest of the netpot with hydroton to hold the clone/rockwool in place.

Fill the bucket until the water reaches 1 inch above the bottom of the pot.

Put in the proper amount of nutes either buy a manufacturers feeding chart, or you will have to acquire a ppm meter. Its pretty hard to grow good dank without one.

when you start seeing roots drop the water/nutrient level down 1-2 inches.

make sure you have lots of air in your bucket. Dont skimp in that department.

And always use a drop of superthrive per gallon. Stop using Superthrive when you go into flower.

Your light distance looks ok.

And if the water is one inch up from the bottom of the pot, there would be no reason to handwater the rockwool, Its getting moisture from the bubbles bursting.


VERY COOL SETUP! Make it happen!
Good luck

Don't squeeze or deform rockwool, check~

Thanks for the compliments . "Fill the bucket until the water reaches 1 inch above the bottom of the pot." So fill it until there is 1 inch of space between the bottom of the netpot and the water level or 1 inch above the netpot (1 inch of hydroton in water) ?

I hope it works ! I just don't want them to wilt up and die. If I can just get past the whole rooting / keeping them alive, I'll be good when they're stronger and tougher!

I'ma set it so it turns off for 6 hours in 1.5 hours, then back on in 6 hours so I can get to 18/24, I'm always afraid of too much light might kill the cholorphil or something, don't want wilting / dying action ;o;.

katripus said:

Don't squeeze or deform rockwool, check~

Thanks for the compliments . "Fill the bucket until the water reaches 1 inch above the bottom of the pot." So fill it until there is 1 inch of space between the bottom of the netpot and the water level or 1 inch above the netpot (1 inch of hydroton in water) ?

I hope it works ! I just don't want them to wilt up and die. If I can just get past the whole rooting / keeping them alive, I'll be good when they're stronger and tougher!

Click to expand...

If there are no roots you want the water nute level 1 inch above the bottom, in other words you want the bottom of the net pot submerged in one inch of water/nutrients

Then when you see the roots poking through the netpot, immediately drop water/nute level 1-2 inches so there will be a gap between the netpot and water/nutes...Im stoned, hope I explained it ok..heeheee

katripus said:

I'ma set it so it turns off for 6 hours in 1.5 hours, then back on in 6 hours so I can get to 18/24, I'm always afraid of too much light might kill the cholorphil or something, don't want wilting / dying action ;o;.

Click to expand...

huh? You want it running 18/6

when the light comes on, i'll re-level the water (thanks).

CLOSETGROWTH said:

huh? You want it running 18/6

Click to expand...

er ya,

Should the rockwool be a little damp?

Here's an update, it has been around 30 hours since the last pictures.

v- Clone 1 -v

^-Clone 1-^

v- Clone 2 -v

^-Clone 2-^

v- Clone 3 -v

^-Clone 3-^

v- Clone 4 -v

^-Clone 4-^

v- Clone 5 -v

^-Clone 5-^

v- Clone 6 -v

^-Clone 6-^

Kinda seems like they're liking the light better being raised to 36 inches instead of at 29 inches.

Should I continue watering around the rockwool? Should I use pH water with 1/8th str nutes?

If they root, do you think they can form new growth and grow to be healthy plants once they're free of stress?

What causes the leaves to kinda curl and twist?

Thanks again all~

I'm gonna pull up a seat for this one. I'm getting ready to start my grow with the same setup you got going on, minus the foil taped buckets.

Dropastone said:

I'm gonna pull up a seat for this one. I'm getting ready to start my grow with the same setup you got going on, minus the foil taped buckets.

Click to expand...

That is not foil my friend, it's alumnium tape and it was a bitch to apply on lol.

I'm going to post more recent pictures soon, I still don't know what to do...just praying at the moment.

Eh fuck it, what's the use if nobody else responds haha

Yes I would say to keep the rockwool wet if the roots haven't reached your res yet and lay of the nutes till they start looking better.

So What's up, are they still looking wilted and sick or are they starting to come around? I'm wondering if that aluminum tape might be burning your plants? Just a thought, try covering up the tops of your buckets with cardboard or something and see if that helps, it couldn't hurt.

Don't get discouraged yet. I post a lot of questions that don't get answered right away.

At first if you don't succeed try and try again. Just think of it as a learning experience.

Anyway just hang in there.

It looks like those clones could have stood to spend a few more days in the humidity dome. They are really droopy and look like they are not getting enough water. I would have wait until some roots are poking out of the RW cubes on all of them before putting them into the system.