DWC: how wet is your Rockwool starter cube?

My rockwool starter cube is staying too wet. I would like to be able to keep the water level higher, so I’m wondering if there is any potential problem with only burying half of it like this:

What do you think?

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If it stays dry there won’t be a issue but if it keeps getting wet being exposed like that will cause it to grow algae

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I agree. If I don’t burry mine below the hydroton or cover it with lightproof plastic they turn green with algae pretty quick in the light.

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Any real issue with the algae if it just stays on the cube?

I could probably cover the top with hydroton to prevent it maybe… The rockwool seems to be staying moist but not soaked like before.

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Not really sire what the negative would be but I figure it could cause unwanted growth like bacterial growth to reach the stem and then in turn could make your plant sick but im not 1pp% on that.the other option is to lower your resivoir level and juat keep it buried. I run dwc too and in one of em I have the rockwool sitting all the way on the bottom of the net pot and don’t have any issues. I would bury it and just lower the res like I said but you can always experiment and see whats what man

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I had the cooler only holding 4 gallons and it was still getting wet…

The rez will share 2 plants:

So I’d like to have about 6 actual gallons.

I might just try this and tomorrow cover it in a mound of hydroton… Thanks for walking through this with me!

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No probelm!! Yeah you should be good man. Having them like that will make it easier to get em covered but not the way you had em half way out. If you still have issues definitely just put the res down to where the waterline is just below the net pot because you really don’t want the pots sitting in water. If you do you will be fighting ph swings in my experience anyways. If you neutralized the hydroton it won’t have as much of that effect but still. Give a shout anytime because like I said thatvis the method I use too soabything you need bud

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Do you happen to know how wet your rockwool stays?

I lost three plants recently to stem rot, so I’m paranoid about the starter cube staying too wet.

I was growing in 6-inch rockwool cubes so it’s pretty different because there’s no aeration and the water is just sitting in the cube, but I’m still not sure if it’s okay for the cubes to be fairly moist in dwc.

The cubes stay moist even when the water line is 1 inch below the net pot. I’m not sure if my pump is just too crazy powerful or if the moisture level is normal.

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Mine stays somewhat moist to dry. If I have it sitting on a layer of hydroton like in one of mine it stays dry. I figure the one sitting at the bottom of the bot might be a little moist but not much. I keep my res a good inch below the net and let the bubbles do their thing. Once your roots drop from the pot there is no need to have your res up to the pot

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I cover mine and leave about 2" of air gap between my net pots and the water in the res. Works great.

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Thanks everyone for chiming in so far :+1:

I changed the title to reflect what the topic is about.

I’m looking forward to getting these past the seedling stage… Have always hated it lol.

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