Rockwool damaging roots...

[shillamus]

Originally Posted by malangon

I followed this link.

http://www.tomorrowsgarden.net/conte...roponic-system

I went back and looked at the video again to see if maybe I screwed up. But there's a very clear section in the video where he puts a seedling in a rockwool cube directly into a pot with hydroton. The cubes stay wet all the time.

Dang it....

Hey.. I want to go vertical. Thanks for sharing the rain tower!

After reading the posts here I am concerned I am not draining my cubes enough.

Isn't deep water culture with roots constantly in the aerated water?

5x5 fence post is expensive

http://www.lowes.com/pd/Freedom-Pre-...x-8-ft/4009495

[GpsFrontier]

Hello shillamus,
Yes a water culture system submerges the roots in aerated water. But the key word is "AERATED." Air bubbles wont penetrate the rockwool cubes if their saturated. Think of it like this, when you let the water drain out of the rockwool cubes it gets lighter right? That's because water is heavier than air and as the water drains out, air takes it's place. If the water doesn't drain out, air can't take it's place. Thus suffocating the roots because they can't get enough air.

Those vinyl fence post tubes are nice, but expensive. About 4 times more expensive than ADS tubing. You can also get larger diameter PVC and sewer tubing at pluming supply houses. If getting a large diameter tubing, I would get thin wall tubing. It weighs less, costs less, is easier to cut, and still strong enough.