Which reusable medium, growing with small plants?

[SamandMax]

Getting rockwool packs devlivered by the post office guy or getting it myself and driving it around, annoys me. So far I fill my flood table with the small rockwool cubes.

I am looking now for a medium that I can reuse without too much effort.

I have an electrical sauna where I can put the pebbles. Then ramp the sauna up to 90 C (194F) to 100C (212 F).

What you think about that?

How often can I reuse the clay pebbles? Will they degrade?

I would not feel comfortable if I need to throw the pebbles in my garden. Rockwool blends more nicely in the garden soil.

[Floyd]

I use to grow in flood & drain. I started with rockwool but it was costly and hard to get rid of. I ended up putting a cover over the tray. I drilled holes for net pots in the cover that I filled with perlite. Did 80 site SOG. Worked really well and found it easier and cheaper than rockwool. I didn’t reuse the perlite though. I hear that it can be reused. You could do the same thing with the pebbles.

[Bammer1082]

I re use expanded clay pebbles from dwc. Just need to wash them well. If you’re looking for reusable mediums I think this is your best best.

[cannabissequoia]

I’ll chime in with zero hydro experience here.

Perlite breaks down into dust easily, clogging shit. But it’s cheap, light, & washes out easier than LECA(“hydroton”, clay balls).

Clay pebbles will last forever(ish) but are allegedly a nighmare to thoroughly rinse out, perhaps certain salts/nutes cling to it more than others, leading to a buildup over time. Like your shower.

[DougDawson]

Have you thought about a DWC setup? No medium to reuse.

[SamandMax]

interesting idea! Pls tell me how I can make DWC. I have two flood tables ( each 150mm deep) and a big reservoir.

Can I have a pump which floods the tables constantly?

[SamandMax]

how serious are the roots sticking to the pebbles? Is it easy to separate roots and pebbles?

If you have planted a plant in hydroton, can you still pull the plant after some time and move it? Or will it rip off the roots?

[anon5325009]

@SamandMax

[cdnBuddy]

Mapito!

Pull main root ball. Dump 5.6ph water over medium to wash salt line away. Prep 5.6ph at .8ec and flush until run off matches what’s going in.

Place new clones in crates and after a short 3day veg flip.

End of first run add canmazym to res for last 2 weeks. Also add for the first 2 weeks of grow. @ifish has been reusing his for years. I’m on my 3rd run.

This weekend I’m setting up 2 4x2 flood tables with 6 crates in each. I will probably post some pics in my journal of what I’m doing.

Still dialing I’m things and fixing some small issues. I love mapito. I flood ever 2 to 3 days pending on the size of the plants. Pending the vibe I’m getting I don’t open the tent for 3day spans. I’m only busy at start and end of each grow.

[ifish]

Maaapitoooooo : ) roots can’t grow thru clay balls : )
Like @cdnBuddy said , just use cannazym on Mapito or Rockwool at start and end of grow in feed and that will get rid of the dead roots meaning it can be easily reused over and over and over lol no need to dump in garden : )

[webeblzr]

I’m using coco husks and large chunk perlite, a couple of types of compost, also with organic additives. I can clone in this mix, use it in 4" pots, 1-3-10 gallon pots. I also plopped a vegging plant into a hydro set up, and this mix loves living there also.
Cheap and easy to use.

[Hapi]

I run two different Hydro systems, a RDWC 8-8 gallon system, and 4- 5gallon bucket DWC system, both I use Clay pebbles. Once plants are set and the roots finally grow in between and through the pebbles and reaches water, no need to move plants to disturbed roots tangled in pebbles until time to cut and harvest. Yes you have to break free the pebbles trapped in the roots, but its a small amount, most fall free, and remember , most of the root mass is below the basket and pebbles. Thats ime on those systems, I have not run a flood and drain, or have yet to use flood tables, peace