Pete cubes/Rockwool questions

Greetings,

I have a buddy that has gotten a hold of some clones from a friend of his. The clones came rooted in 1" pete cubes. His setup is the 12 pot ebb n gro. Flooding every 4 hours.

Would it be ok to plant the pete cubes directly into the hydroton? I've heard they can cause problems with retaining water and causing stem/root rot.

I've suggested transferring the pete cubes into 4" rockwool and planting that into the hydroton as I have experience with rockwool and know it never causes rot problems.

Just not sure if it would be an issue to have the cubes directly in the hydroton with that much flooding.

Also, is flooding every 4 hours an issue for rockwool? I've never had issues with it but apparently some people have. I guess it retains a lot of water.

Any info is appreciated.
 

PeteSwitch

Well-Known Member
Greetings,

I have a buddy that has gotten a hold of some clones from a friend of his. The clones came rooted in 1" pete cubes. His setup is the 12 pot ebb n gro. Flooding every 4 hours.

Would it be ok to plant the pete cubes directly into the hydroton? I've heard they can cause problems with retaining water and causing stem/root rot.

I've suggested transferring the pete cubes into 4" rockwool and planting that into the hydroton as I have experience with rockwool and know it never causes rot problems.

Just not sure if it would be an issue to have the cubes directly in the hydroton with that much flooding.

Also, is flooding every 4 hours an issue for rockwool? I've never had issues with it but apparently some people have. I guess it retains a lot of water.

Any info is appreciated.
You can plant them into Hydroton OR set them on top of a bigger Rockwool Cube & the roots will grow through the 1st & then down through the 2nd cube.
 

Hillcrest

Active Member
I'd go straight to hydroton. Why stress the plant any more by allowing the roots to pass through peat.. then rockwool..... then hydroton.
It'll speed your growth rate up skipping the rockwool and going straight to hydroton.
Only flood up to the bottom of the rockwool or peat it'll draw up then what it needs. This prevents the cube or peat staying too wet and causing issues.
Don't flood the cubes or peat.
 
I'd go straight to hydroton. Why stress the plant any more by allowing the roots to pass through peat.. then rockwool..... then hydroton.
It'll speed your growth rate up skipping the rockwool and going straight to hydroton.
Only flood up to the bottom of the rockwool or peat it'll draw up then what it needs. This prevents the cube or peat staying too wet and causing issues.
Don't flood the cubes or peat.
makes sense. so basically just have the peat cube an inch or two above flood level so roots can reach water, but peat doesn't constantly stay wet.
 
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