Why Don't I Get Roots?

I start the seedlings off in rockwool. I wait for the roots to grow massive like I have seen in pictures. You know, the roots all hanging out the bottom of a piece of rockwool, indicative of being ready to place in the 5" hydro baskets. Anyhow, how long does that take? It seems as though when the root heads out the bottom of my rockwool, it turns brown and stops growing. What gives? What am I doing wrong? I mean, I give the seedlings distilled and ph tested water, not too much. When they get their first and second set of true leaves I switch to the appropriate strength of nutes. It's like they roots don't want to come out of the rockwool. Help?

are you letting light on the roots maybe?

Peacce

try rapid rooters rock wool sucks

k-town said:

are you letting light on the roots maybe?

Peacce

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If I have the rockwool cube sitting inside the humidity dome, how can I keep the light off of the roots that emerge from the bottom????

Roots will die when conditions are not right. It's called air pruning. If you covered your rockwool and root zone from light, and kept it moist in there, your exposed roots would stay vibrant and white.

HTH

how long are you waiting to see roots?

it takes mine about 1.5 weeks to see a root sprout. and thats just a sprout.

i don't ph test my water for that either... but i know its at 7.0 when i pour it on.

potroast said:

Roots will die when conditions are not right. It's called air pruning. If you covered your rockwool and root zone from light, and kept it moist in there, your exposed roots would stay vibrant and white.

HTH

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Wow, I learned something new today. Air pruning sucks for me at this point. What is a suggestion then to keep the roots proper from bathing in the CFL as the seedling developes strong roots whilst in rockwool?

On average, if conditions are optimal, how long does it take to get a gob of roots like I have seen in pictures? Do the roots have to be that prominent on a clone before I can place them inside the 5" hydro basket?

Please look at the pics labeled today's date and tell me if you think I can cut a slip off them to start a clone. Do they look pretty healthy? Like on a scale of 1-10 and 10 is best. Thanks for all your help man.
https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-pics/index.php?u=23698

Umm, to answer your first question, like I said, cover them.

I don't know about a gob of roots, but when I see 1 or 2 just sticking out of the cube, I put them into a larger medium. Not enough time to air prune.

I saw 7 pictures of 2-inch tall plants. Are you really asking if you can take a 4-inch cutting off of those?

You can take any branch that is long enough to root, without killing the mother.

HTH

potroast said:

Umm, to answer your first question, like I said, cover them.

I don't know about a gob of roots, but when I see 1 or 2 just sticking out of the cube, I put them into a larger medium. Not enough time to air prune.

I saw 7 pictures of 2-inch tall plants. Are you really asking if you can take a 4-inch cutting off of those?

You can take any branch that is long enough to root, without killing the mother.

HTH

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LOL, thanks for the input P.R. I'll get there somehow

In Jorge Cervantes grow video, he has his seedlings/clones in rockwool cubes in a humidity dome, but he puts a layer of perlite(maybe a 1/2" to an 1" thick) on the bottom so that the roots have something light and fluffy to grow down into and protect them when they sprout from the bottom of the cube. Seemed to work pretty well. Also the cubes were all pretty close together. Hope that helps.

Emosdoom said:

In Jorge Cervantes grow video, he has his seedlings/clones in rockwool cubes in a humidity dome, but he puts a layer of perlite(maybe a 1/2" to an 1" thick) on the bottom so that the roots have something light and fluffy to grow down into and protect them when they sprout from the bottom of the cube. Seemed to work pretty well. Also the cubes were all pretty close together. Hope that helps.

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Thank you for the info. It was appreciated.

Yea that same thing seemed to have worked for me, I was having the problem of roots getting to the bottom of rockwool and dying. Seems like the perlite gives the roots the oxygen they were being deprived of...

jonnyblaze24 said:

Yea that same thing seemed to have worked for me, I was having the problem of roots getting to the bottom of rockwool and dying. Seems like the perlite gives the roots the oxygen they were being deprived of...

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Thanks for the comment man. I'll get that perlite then...

stop germinating in rockwool.
i have tried every method from the sublime to the rediculous.
plant in sterile peat/lite mix, no nutes at this time, depth at 4x the diameter of the seed.
keep soil temp at 70 degrees F and you will see the cotyleons (sp?) first, then the true leaves. i plant 3 seeds to one two qt. pot and repot when ready into moist fertile well drained soil if in a bio (soil) situation (which all pro smokers will tell you is the only way)