I had the pleasure of meeting
@copperrein earlier today, and she inspired me to put together a post about how I go from cloner to RDWC. So here it is:
How to use Coco in RDWC
Whether I am going from seedling in rockwool, or a clone from my aerocloner
I go into coco in a very small pot
I mix some Great White in with the Coco, as well as sprinkle some on the roots directly. Place the little one in a pot and cover fill with coco. You want to pack it down, but not too hard. It should be firm, but not solid. Ideally, keep it warm with a heat matt, and feed little and often ideally. Try not to let the coco dry out, it should always be at least barely moist. This is coco, not soil. Coco is a hydroponic medium.
Within a week or so it should look like this:
I then transplant into a pot like this (1.5L pot):
I do the same thing as last time. I mix some Great White in with the coco. I put an inch of coco in the pot, sprinkle some great white on the bed where I will place the little one. And fill with coco. Same again, firm, but not hard.
After 2 weeks. The roots in this pot should be nice and dense, and look similar to they did in the smaller pot. At which point i move them to a net pot:
I lay a layer of clay pebbles, about an inch high (using mainly smaller pebbles if possible to keep the bed even). Then i lay some coco on top, sprinkle some great white, and place the plant from the 1.5L pot on top of it. Pack the sides with coco. I use a chopstick to gently push the coco down to fill the sides.
And you eventually end up with something like this:
I duct tape pipe cleaners to the outside of the pots for my LST.
Flipping to flowering
Personally, I flip as soon as the roots of all 4 ladies are touching the water in the system (which is sat 1inch below the net pots. As soon as the roots are in the water, the root growth can be explosive:
Doing it this way, I end up with this come harvest
Some tips
- Sprinkle Great White on the roots whenever you transplant. This stuff is amazing.
- Keep the rootzone of young plants warm. This will encourage faster root development. It will require more frequent feeding. But the results will speak for themselves.
- If the roots you are transplanting are root bound at the bottom, be sure to pick them apart a little (gently) at the bottom, before you move them to their new pot.
- Protect the net pots from light when you transplant them - roots don't like light. I place the net pots in the 1.5L pots for a day or so, as soon as I see roots I move them into the system and hand feed until I get something like this, and then I full the system up to 1 inch below the net pots.
Some bits of coco can end up in the res, but never enough to worry about. The system I built uses 32mm pipe and 19mm to and from chiller and i've never actually had a blockage caused from coco.
I hope this is helpful. This is just the way I work with Coco in DWC. Any questions, please don't hesitate to ask
and thanks! Glad to have you here. I really like your setup too. 
