How to manage clones in 4" Rockwool during 4 week veg period?

Hi guys,

I will create clones in an aeroponic cloner which I will then transplant to 4" rockwool cubes for 4 weeks before moving them to a final NFT system for flower.

My question is what is a viable solution for veg in terms of watering and storing the plants before transplant into NFT? Can I keep them just in 4" rockwool and handwater for 4 weeks?

My options so far are:
1. Keep in 4" rockwool only and handwater
2. Place the 4"cubes into a pot with loose rockwool cubes/clay pebbles and handwater. I will carefully then remove all smaller cubes/pebbles from the roots when I transplant into NFT flower system.
3. Install in an Oxypot Vegging System or similar.

Thanks for any help

Why aren’t you going straight into NFT ?

Herb & Suds said:

Why aren’t you going straight into NFT ?

Click to expand...

So basically I have 1 tent for vegging and clones, and another tent for flower (2.4mx1.2m) that has 2 NFT trays.

I am trying to get perpetual so that I can harvest one of the NFT trays every 4 weeks and replace with 4 week vegged plants from the veg tent.

jawhi said:

So basically I have 1 tent for vegging and clones, and another tent for flower (2.4mx1.2m) that has 2 NFT trays.

I am trying to get perpetual so that I can harvest one of the NFT trays every 4 weeks and replace with 4 week vegged plants from the veg tent.

Click to expand...

If it were me I would focus on getting system dialed in without concern for perpetual
I run a perpetual in soil/peat but I don’t know if you realize the root growth you are going to have in four weeks
Transplanting will be a royal pain
Another tent with a second nft would be a better way
Or a different grow style
Whatever you decide I wish you luck
WELCOME TO RIU

Herb & Suds said:

If it were me I would focus on getting system dialed in without concern for perpetual
I run a perpetual in soil/peat but I don’t know if you realize the root growth you are going to have in four weeks
Transplanting will be a royal pain
Another tent with a second nft would be a better way
Or a different grow style
Whatever you decide I wish you luck
WELCOME TO RIU

Click to expand...

So the system itself is pretty dialled in the main tent, the new part for me is the veg tent and the perpetual goal. It does seem like most perpetuals seem to be in soil, I guess there's a good reason for that.

Maybe I am underestimating the root growth within those 4 weeks veg. I guess I'm trying to figure out if I can deal with that mass during the transplant or if just keeping them in the 4" cubes would keep it more manageable?

Another option I thought of is to get a GT205 NFT tray or similar and use that for veg, but still leaves me the same problem of transplanting a large and probably tangle root system.

Just my thoughts. I’m currently trying to develop a similar system but instead of NFT I’m going to DWC. I’m not planning to veg quite as long as you just till the plants show sex but I’m setting up a basic flood and drain (and I mean basic) to keep the cubes in and then I can transplant more easily without stuff being caught up in the roots. Flood and drain roots also don’t grow in a ball and spread out more which I think will make the transplant easier.

NFT was designed for short-lived, small root mass plants like lettuce, basil, etc.

It's not a good choice for cannabis

OK after giving your comments some thought I'm going Oxypots (DWC) for both veg & flower, which should make transplanting easy and solve my problem.

Guess now I got to learn a new hydro method...

Thanks for your input everyone.

Ok so I went with a Oxypot 6 site for veg and 2 x Oxypot 4 for flower.

Initially started from seed in rockwool (and now into netpots with clay) but going forward I will use an aero cloner and no rockwool.

Basically once im up and running it goes like this with each flower zone staggered by 4 weeks:

Rooting & Sapling: 4 weeks in aero cloner (2x T5)
Veg: 4 weeks in Oxypot (220w LED)
Flower 1: 8 weeks in Oxypot 4 (660w LED)
Flower 2: 8 weeks in Oxypot 4 (660w LED)

Naptown916 said:

Just my thoughts. I’m currently trying to develop a similar system but instead of NFT I’m going to DWC. I’m not planning to veg quite as long as you just till the plants show sex but I’m setting up a basic flood and drain (and I mean basic) to keep the cubes in and then I can transplant more easily without stuff being caught up in the roots. Flood and drain roots also don’t grow in a ball and spread out more which I think will make the transplant easier.

Click to expand...

Curious to know how that goes for you. I'm not in love with NFT anyway so didnt need much excuse to try something different based on advice here