I've been using rockwool cubes. I do not like it. Ok for clones.
I'm going skip the rockwool step and do the perlite route.
I've been using rockwool cubes. I do not like it. Ok for clones.
I'm going skip the rockwool step and do the perlite route.
DrDoob
Well-Known Member
Sue does clones in perlite too with a bag around them to keep moisture and co2 in, I personally use an aero cloner then transplant into perlite once there are adequate roots.
Both methods work great, as do others. Really, if the mother is healthy and basic hygiene practices are followed, the cuttings are able to take up sufficient moisture via their cut stem ends (and are encouraged to do so), and the gardener has left enough nutrient storehouses (aka: light-energy capture/conversion engines aka: leaves
) on them to supply / fuel the job at hand but not so many as to overtax the cuttings before they have grown root systems... then the cuttings will turn into rooted clones.Most in the time, they'll do so even in the absence of one or more of those things. It's what they're programmed to do, survive.
Mom still sticks bits of random plants in glasses of water and places them on the windowsill. Now she has the bottom chunk of a bunch of celery that she bought from a grocery store - and took a week or two to finish eating, while storing it (of course) in the drawer in the bottom of her cold, dark refrigerator - in a glass dish that's half full of water. I don't know why, after she finally did finish the celery, she decided to try to get the end piece (long minus roots) to grow.
But I took one look at it when I visited the other day and said, "Mom, that thing has been in there a while. It's time to get it out of your saucer."
Because it had (approximately) a dozen tiny little celery plants growing from the top of it, and they looked hungry."
"Hey Mom, put some of this Super Double Turbocharged NitroExpress Magnum Growth Enhancer on those things and stick them under this 16,000-watt lamp."
Or, you know... Just cut them apart and stick 'em somewhere, and don't pester them until you feel like eating some celery
. Plants just grow. If they can, they'll reproduce. They'll clone themselves if we let them. Do a web search for air layering. Or "HELP!!! It Rained for Two Weeks and I Couldn't Go Visit My Plants - Now Half of Their Branches Have ROOTED INTO THE @!#%ING GROUND!!! WtF?!"
Buck5050
Well-Known Member
Some hempy in tubes.
They have been fed 6gr/gal of MegaCrop and .5gr./gal of sweet candy from Greenleaf nutrients. Every other day the last 14days. The next mix I will raise the sweet candy slightly and see how they like it. At this point I am completely sold on MC. I haven't added calmag in months. I do though feel like the mag from some sweet candy added helps under the LED's.
They have been fed 6gr/gal of MegaCrop and .5gr./gal of sweet candy from Greenleaf nutrients. Every other day the last 14days. The next mix I will raise the sweet candy slightly and see how they like it. At this point I am completely sold on MC. I haven't added calmag in months. I do though feel like the mag from some sweet candy added helps under the LED's.
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- #3,145
@Buck5050, I get excited every time I see a shot of your setup. 
While I was visiting DrDoob last month he made a switch to the larger perlite, in the hope that it’ll be easier to clean those #8-sizes pieces for reuse. He’s taken recent photos and asked me to share the initial ones first.
While I was visiting DrDoob last month he made a switch to the larger perlite, in the hope that it’ll be easier to clean those #8-sizes pieces for reuse. He’s taken recent photos and asked me to share the initial ones first.
That stuff is HUGE!!!!
Was it purchased locally or shipped
Was it purchased locally or shipped
Walmart for $75, ouch
DrDoob
Well-Known Member
It’s not cheap but if it’s reusable that’s fine. It seems to be working greatly. They’ve got roots popping out of the hempy holes now. I’ve never seen that with the smaller perlite.
I saw thatIt’s not cheap but if it’s reusable that’s fine. It seems to be working greatly. They’ve got roots popping out of the hempy holes now. I’ve never seen that with the smaller perlite.
I think the hydro store has the big stuff
I'll check next time I'm out
DrDoob
Well-Known Member
Dang I got it on Amazon for $57 and now it’s $90. I’m going to add another to my cart and see if the price goes down.
In my other tent I used the #8 large stuff only on the bottom half and regular perlite on the top half. They got a little underfed but they’re doing great too, I’ll be checking those holes closer now.
In my other tent I used the #8 large stuff only on the bottom half and regular perlite on the top half. They got a little underfed but they’re doing great too, I’ll be checking those holes closer now.
Dang I got it on Amazon for $57 and now it’s $90. I’m going to add another to my cart and see if the price goes down.
In my other tent I used the #8 large stuff only on the bottom half and regular perlite on the top half. They got a little underfed but they’re doing great too, I’ll be checking those holes closer now.
How long u been using it Doob?
DrDoob
Well-Known Member
InterestingSince around April 11th or so. This is the first round I’ve tried it.
I may try Coco next grow, but this also looks fun to try
DWC hasn't panned out as hoped. Huge plants but small buds.
Hempy has been great, just need to work on my up potting so roots don't get packed so bad in flower
Fun fun fun
Ganjagrowergu
Well-Known Member
That is exactly the kind of perlite I need, but certainly cannot afford. Looks really nice @DrDoob Looks to be about the size of most of my lava rock. I'd be interested to see how many times it can be recycled.
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I just explained hempy to my buddy. He's never grown anything past 2 nodes, lol. He couldn't believe that there isn't dirt in my pots or that it is possible to do Hydroponics without pumps.
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I just explained hempy to my buddy. He's never grown anything past 2 nodes, lol. He couldn't believe that there isn't dirt in my pots or that it is possible to do Hydroponics without pumps.
Buck5050
Well-Known Member
This is an amazing shot. That new Swamp Water nutrient by Dr. DoobIt’s not cheap but if it’s reusable that’s fine. It seems to be working greatly. They’ve got roots popping out of the hempy holes now. I’ve never seen that with the smaller perlite.
Hope no pet shop turtles start swimming in that. In a couple weeks they would grow into teenage mutant ninjas...
DrDoob
Well-Known Member
Not that It's usually much better, but I was away for a bit and no one vacuumed the run off out in my absence so it kind of got gross.
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- #3,157
Not that It's usually much better, but I was away for a bit and no one vacuumed the run off out in my absence so it kind of got gross.
It’s all below the drain holes though. Interesting how the roots came out and found the pool like that.
Buck5050
Well-Known Member
Here is an updated shot of my first dry weight hempy tube totals. Though this is a small sample size of my first attempt in these containers. The 13 gram average is enough per tube to keep me driving forward in this project. Four tubes in one square foot = 53 grams.
This method produced very little larf and was really easy to trim. Bud quality was top notch in direct comparison to the mothers that were flowered prior. @SweetSue you aren't the only one getting excited here.
Should be great; Hydroton, Geolite, Hydro Crunch, and other brands of expanded clay balls are all (relatively) sizable, and people have used that kind of stuff for years in various types of hydroponics setups.
But it might turn out to be mostly reusable. Plant roots can - and do - sometimes break up concrete into smaller pieces. When I was using the expanded clay media, I threw away (yeah, I know
) some each time when I couldn't easily rinse off nutrient salt buildup - but I noticed that some would end up fractured, too. A small(?) percentage of that huge perlite might get remanufactured into small-chunk perlite, lol.Which will, of course, be as harmless as those broken clay balls that I should have kept.
I like perlite, although the stuff I have access to locally is much smaller and is probably intended to be mixed with soil more than used as a stand-alone media (although it obviously works for either use). Yours looks much more impressive. My only real gripe with the stuff is the "sludge" that ends up in various drains when rinsing a bunch of it for initial use. I've read somewhere, probably here on the forum, that it tends to collect in sink traps and such and can eventually build up enough to become an issue.
I don't know how likely that is to happen, but it did concern me when I read it. I use a pretty good "organic" product as a preventative drain treatment once in a while. It appears to eat other "organic" substances, then either die or go dormant and get washed away by hot water. It's neither strongly acidic nor strongly caustic; therefore, it's something I can use on decades-old drains (including the toilet's built in trap and its drain) without concern. But it's not going to eat something like perlite sludge (which kind of reminds me of a really thin mix of concrete, lol).
I should be rinsing perlite / coco coir / et cetera outside in the yard instead of inside in the sink or basement. And I do, in Spring when it's "Fruit & Vegetable Garden Prep Time," but I figured doing so in Winter might be a trifle suspicious. Maybe I should cultivate an "always prepared, do everything as early as possible" personality type. But... <LOOKS AROUND> That'd be a mite suspicious, too
.Amazon <SHAKES FIST>. I had a bunch of stuff picked out last year and was saving up the funds to purchase all of it at once. Then Amazon declared an extended "free"-shipping event. "YAY!" I thought, "Now I can probably go ahead and buy everything."
Turned out I'd be on the hook for about twelve more dollars, even after allowing for the shipping... deal. Which is about like a locally owned grocery store that used to advertise a "15% off" sale of half their stock - and then raise the pre-sale price of everything about 20% just before the sale started.
Maybe Bezos was feeling a little short.
Either ought to be fine. There's a significant difference in size, but I wonder how significant that is compared to ultra-fine grains of soil. Compared to that, all perlite could probably be considered to be "huge." (IMHO, as usual.)
Be interesting to see if there's some kind of quantifiable difference between grows with the two different sizes of the stuff. Got a couple young clones handy, lol?
DrDoob
Well-Known Member
As Sue can tell you I don’t even rinse the perlite. I just let the dust settle in the pots and either flush or harden at the bottom. I have had the holes clog once or twice but I keep a metal chopstick close and poke the hole every couple weeks just to be sure.
As a matter of fact I do have a few clones handy for experimenting with.
As a matter of fact I do have a few clones handy for experimenting with.