Top watering DWC seedlings

winks00

Member
Ok, Just a touch of info to make my question easier to answer...
I have a 3.5 gallon bucket with 6 inch net pots. I started the seeds in a paper towel and put the popped seeds into rockwool to sprout... O ce sprouted, they went into a humidity dome until the 2nd set of true leaves started for 2 days... At this point the roots were coming out of the bottom of the rockwool, so I put the rockwool in the net pots with hydroten... This is where I am getting .mssive amounts of different information... Below is the 2 methods that make most sense and are the most common..
I have been told to put the water level so that the roots are in water, but not the rockwool... However, if the level is that close, the popping bubbles are going to wet the rockwool...
I have also been old to leave the water level lower and top water the plant until the roots touch the water level...
So... If option 1 is best, how far below the rockwool is necessary to prevent root rot?? And is this sufficient or should I also top water until the roots are longer? If so, how much and how often should it be watered??
And if option 2 is preferred, what is the rate of top watering?? .5 gallon per hour is what I have read... but is that 24 hours a day or once a day for a few minutes or several times a day for 20 minutes at a time... where should the emitter be placed? at the surface of the rockwool or halfway down the rockwool or at the verry bottom?? Also, what if I am hand watering?? How much? How often? And, should I take water from the reservoir and water with it or mix ph adjusted water??
I have found tons of videos and information, but am not finding answers to very specific questions... Or I am just not looking in the right places...
Thank you for all your wonderful advice!!!
 

kingtitan

Well-Known Member
I use rapid rooters but the same can also apply. I start in the rooter and then put in a 3" net pot when roots come out the bottom. The net pot has regular hydroton broken up with a hammer and washed. it creates a bit more tighter area, the roots will act like it does with grow rocks where the roots split at the sharp edges, have a layer of this on the bottom and then put the rooter/rockwool on top of that. let that net pot sit in a tray of PH water just enough to keep the bottom wet and it will wick through, light water from top with a teaspoon of water just to keep it wet.

When you see some roots in the net pot you can put in in your bigger netpot with hydroton at the bottom again, water level here should be right at the first level with bubbles popping through. this way the rockwool or rooter is not saturated too much, with rockwool you need to be more careful, the rooters tend to hold good amount of air.
 

winks00

Member
my plants now have their 3rd set of true leaves started and I already transplanted into the 6 inch net pots with hydroten... currently, I have the water level at maybe 1/4" below the bottom of the net pot, where the bubbles are getting the bottom layer of Hydroten wet as the bubbles pop... This wicking appears to be keeping the roots wet, but I don't know how wet because the roots are not showing through the bottom of the net pots yet... Do you top water until the roots are touching water?? How much and how often do you top water??
 
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