problems with soil to hydro transfer

hi, iv transferred a 4 week old plant from soil to hydro but i couldnt get all the soil off the roots without ripping the roots and i dont want it to cause rot, how much of the root mass can be removed? and how long after the transfer will i know its ok? any advice would be ideal cheers in advance

Pretty much all of it, and then you would have similar to a rooted clone and takes about a week to regain an amount of roots that can support it properly (it may yellow a bit in the meantime). It's like with topping, if you cut off roots new (side shoots) will start growing pretty much immediately. I would start with keeping about half of the roots on and see how it goes before removing any more. The soil roots will become a single rotting whole with fresh hydro roots around it. When the latter are several inches you can cut off the soil roots.

Use cannazym or similar to turn some of that dead matter in to nutes.

Good luck!

Also to help get all the soil off you can get a big bucket or similar with water and dunk the root mass in the water. Gently shake up and down and most of the soil should be gone and the roots still intact. Once in your hydro setup make sure to have some airstones in the water producing a good amount of bubbles. That and keeping light out of your reservoir will help keep down chances of root rot. Also like Sativied said, use some Cannazym or even
Botanicare AquaShield if you run into root rot.
Hope she makes it!

ok mate cheers for that will the soil roots rotting not affect the plant too much then? and sorry im well new to this is the latter the new roots that will grow? thanks again sativied

jamie882013 said:

will the soil roots rotting not affect the plant too much then?

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Well that's the risk of transplanting. I haven't been able to transplant soil and coco plants to DWC without at least some of the roots going bad (I have just a small unchilled bubbler, your miles may vary). I just pull them gently to check, if they are rotting they come off very easily.

jamie882013 said:

and sorry im well new to this is the latter the new roots that will grow?

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Yes, that's what I meant with the latter.

cheers bud youve been a massive help, i was wondering how long after the transplant should i leave it, to check if the roots with soil around have rotten? i dont wanna stress the plant too much by taking it back out of the clay pebbles. and how far up the net bucket should the water be, should i be trying to tease the roots downward with less water or making sure some of the roots are submerged so their 100% getting what they need? thanks again

I think the best way is to use small containers 8oz and then wash off all the dirt when the are still little. A week to10 days for seedlings, slightly longer for cuttings.

ar right my plants about 5 weeks now and getting the soil off was alot harder than i first thought

jamie882013 said:

cheers bud youve been a massive help, i was wondering how long after the transplant should i leave it, to check if the roots with soil around have rotten? i dont wanna stress the plant too much by taking it back out of the clay pebbles. and how far up the net bucket should the water be, should i be trying to tease the roots downward with less water or making sure some of the roots are submerged so their 100% getting what they need? thanks again

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The roots in the net cup itself, in the clay pebbles will stay good longer, and may actually adjust, than the ones that are actually submerged. I put a few pebbles in the cup but don't cover the bottom so I can slowly lower some roots through the holes, pull them through if needed. Those will be submerged and will be able to take up enough water for the roots that are in the net cup (besides the high humidity in the net cup already, make sure it's closed, i.e. dark). By the time those submerged roots will go bad, the part in the net cup should have spawned healthy new white roots. It's a shame I don't have a good picture, I transplanted some a while back, but you will clearly be able to tell the difference between the new hydro roots and the old ones. Besides white, they will be separate from each other (like the roots sticking out of a rockwool from a newly rooted clone).

Ideally you let them get used to being in hydro gradually. But I think the best approach is to count on them going bad (rotten is big worth, they will die before rotting). The problem with transplanting to DWC from a medium is that the roots will stick together sort of blocking themselves, while in the medium they were spread out. You probably noticed that already when washing of the soil. The more bubbles you got going on, the less that's going to present a problem. Also the more roots you cut off (depending on container size obviously), the less that is going to be a problem as well.

Make sure you keep the nute solution temp low (below 68 ideally), even more important with a transplant than it is in DWC already.

Good luck! And don't worry if some leaves turn yellow and die off, as long as it starts creating new roots it will likely survive.

cheers for the advice bud just got rid of the rest of the soil and pulled some of the roots through and looks a whole lot better "like it should" should i say. i did look for my camera but no where to be seen at the mo will deff look it out though everythings easier when seen. thanks again bud