Flo Gro 400 / 400W HPS/MH Cooltube - Why soil?

[FullSpectrum]

Hi all,

I'm beginning my first hydroponic setup with a Flo Gro 500 Ebb and Flood system.. It can be seen here where I transplanted a Critical Mass a couple of hours ago:



The manufactorer has also made a video of how to use it, but he seems to begin the grow in soil, then transplants from soil to hydro clay pebbles.



Is this really the best way? I just transplanted a Critical Mass from my outdoors greenhouse (in soil) to my hydro tent with the Flo Gro 500, like he does in the video.. But what would you initiate the grow from seed in when you're headed for hydro?

I would like to avoid soil in the future, so what would you do to achieve this?

[Murdock]

use rockwool cubes to start off with, a soil works on a different ph level to hydro plus the thought of that shitty brown water blocking pumps, i,d get your light down on that plant its stretching pretty bad, you want your branch spaces within an inch or two of each other

[Grandad]

i used this method once before, and whilst it did work out ok for me, i wouldn't do it again. as murdock says use rockwool cubes, or rob some from the loft like i do.

[FullSpectrum]

Pretty much what I thought, concerning the soil in the water.. I wonder why the heck he does that in the video. I mean they made the Flo Gro 500... Hmmm... And the stretch of the plant is because it comes directly from my greenhouse in the garden. The photo was taken a couple of hours after the transplant to the clay pebbles, which is now just 3-4 hours ago. I became a bit paranoid concerning the distance to the plant, given that I just burned off three white rhinos in Grodan rockwool cubes today, because the MH was too close, apparently (they were quite small and fragile). I will lower the light a bit once the plant has recovered from the transplant in 24h or so..

Thanks for the reply man, I will get some new rockwool cubes and skip the soil shit next time. Thanks again!

[FullSpectrum]

i used this method once before, and whilst it did work out ok for me, i wouldn't do it again. as murdock says use rockwool cubes, or rob some from the loft like i do.

Haha, robbing rockwool from the loft, that's something else. Thanks for the reply to you too

[Danmuz]

i used this method once before, and whilst it did work out ok for me, i wouldn't do it again. as murdock says use rockwool cubes, or rob some from the loft like i do.

Random question......would is actually be safe to use rockwool from the loft? Just germinated some seeds and realised I have run out of rockwool cubes and am desperate to get them in the propagator :/
Cheers

[waterdawg12]

Hi All! Only been doing hydro for a few years so still learning but here's a couple of things I found re starting seeds. I do very little in the way of cloning, still looking for "the one". I used rock wool for the first two years exclusively in many different setups and had mixed results. What I found was the wetness was an issue. I found that by limiting the water till full root development the girls did much better. All my setups are the same in that they incorporate net pots and hydroton. I germ in paper towel (i know lol) then as soon as I see a tail I put them in the RW then into the net pot. When using flood or recirc I flood till just hits the bottom of the rock wool. There is a layer of balls first then the RW, if this stays wet, the girls do seem to suffer, i equate this to soil over watering. I have found that a reduced flood rate helps but could be just me. My last run I placed the babies directly into the balls and they did ok using bottom sprayers (low pressure aero). Next run I will try rapid rooters. As for the attic stuff, umm no lol, not the same. As stated she's a lanky one lol. You may want to top that lady to bulk her up once she gets healthy again, just a newb thought. I have not try rappid rooters but have read many good things so again may try them next, stay tuned lol.