rockwool table set up

[lexseaa]

Hey,
so I have a 4 x 8 table i plan on setting up with rockwool. I cant find an answer really anywhere. What should I line the table with? Coco Mat has seem like the best choice. Would I still need a drop ceiling plastic grid type thing to keep it off the bottom of the table? Or plastic plastic to line to table.

I dont really want to double stack blocks, is getting a slab and sticking 2 or 3 on top of it an option?



thanks for any advice

 

[93OG]

How do you plan to use the table, ebb and flow, nft, dtw?

 

[lexseaa]

I'm going to do what ever the plants ask for. A mix of flood and drain and top watering.

 

[93OG]

I wouldn’t mix hydro systems. For example you would be pointlessly flooding a top feed system reducing oxygen in the root zone or top feeding during the drained cycle would also reduce oxygen to the roots. Just something to think about

 

[lexseaa]

Okay. Do you have any info about lining tables?

 

[93OG]

If you do rockwool I think I would use the ceiling grid panels to give the rockwool an air gap but I haven’t ran flood and drain rockwool before. I’m probably not the best person to answer that one.

 

[lexseaa]

Thanks I was thinking that with a coco liner on top, maybe a rockwool slab and than the blocks I have and top it off with panda film.

 

[TintEastwood]

Wanted to try rockwool but had trouble finding successful grows, across the interwebs. Just not enough peeps or techniques for this noob.

Ended up doing coco DTW.

 

[lexseaa]

I've got thrown into it
I've invested in a 4 x 8 table and I'm stuck with it. I have 3 coco buckets going but I'm trying to learning something new. That's all you can do. I'll word my search alittle diff on youtube and I find video I haven't watched. It's just not giving up

 

[93OG]

How about hydroton in 1 to 3 gal pots flood and drain on the table. I just don’t think you’ll be happy with rockwool. I started out using it because that’s what the guy that taught me used. It was always a balancing act between too much and not enough water.
you might look at commercial tomato grows. I’ve seen some that use rockwool slabs.
Or maybe you could use your rockwool cubes on top of a coco mat or other capillary mat and run it nft style.

 

[Renfro]

I ran flood and drain for a long ass time and never had any luck with rockwool personally. I always used the LECA balls in square pots. Are you aiming for a SoG? How many plants are you gonna put on that 4x8 table?

 

[70's natureboy]

I use grow rocks in my flood and drain. If I was using rockwool I would probably only have to flood once a day. For me it's easier to transplant clones from the Clone King to netpots with grow rocks. I had good results with rockwool slabs and a drip system years ago. Rockwool just holds so much water you have to be aware of that and water accordingly.

 

[lexseaa]

How about hydroton in 1 to 3 gal pots flood and drain on the table. I just don’t think you’ll be happy with rockwool. I started out using it because that’s what the guy that taught me used. It was always a balancing act between too much and not enough water.
you might look at commercial tomato grows. I’ve seen some that use rockwool slabs.
Or maybe you could use your rockwool cubes on top of a coco mat or other capillary mat and run it nft style.

I have a coco matt otw. Gonna put that on top of ceiling pannel grid thing, than coco matt, grodan slab, grodan block, than panda paper

 

[Nugs1]

I have a coco matt otw. Gonna put that on top of ceiling pannel grid thing, than coco matt, grodan slab, grodan block, than panda paper

I just finished up two runs one was flood and drain in a 3x3 tub and a 4” block in hydro ton. Did well. Then I cut a rock wool slab I had in half and grew two in each side. Flood and drain the same but I had longer times between feedings because the rock wool holds onto a lot of the water. You do want to make sure you let it dry out every couple of feedings. Not literally dry out but less water inside than usual.
Rock wool paid off just as good slightly higher numbers but different strains so hard to compare.
I am also about to start a 4x8 flood and drain table lined with rock wool slabs. Only going to spend $100 bucks on the slabs that’s it. I’ll lay them in and the clones will be placed directly into the slab. All the slabs will be cut out of the bags mostly so the roots can travel where’ve they’d like instead of having vertical growth it’ll be more horizontal root growth. Also it’ll be easier to transplant my 100 clones with out the bags around them.
It’s my first stab at this scale. I’m hoping for an oz average each, so somewhere near 100 ozs.
Good luck on your grow!

 

[A e o n]

drip onto blocks placed on slabs. fish safe pond liner makes the best custom grow tables, you can use double layer of clear plastic, get a thick mil or could tear.can reuse slabs a couple times if tight on $

 

[Renfro]

fish safe pond liner makes the best custom grow tables

I have used a LOT of 45 mil pond liner over the years. Build a custom reservoir using 2x12 lumber lag bolted to make a "sand box". If you have a 4x8 tray you make the box 4x9 so you can access the reservoir when the tray is on top. Line it with pond liner, backfolding the corners, use staples to fix it around the top of the box. Run 3 sticks of strut channel across the reservoir to sit the tray on. Now you have a reservoir with massive capacity that supports the tray and only raises it about 13 inches off the floor preserving valuable height for plants. Due to the large capacity I am able to run these with a SoG flood and drain system for a whole cycle with only top offs and addbacks. I made some that were long enough to put two 4x8 trays on, you can make them as big as you want. With ones I made for a 4x4 tray, they were about 4x4.5 feet, each inch of water was about 10 gallons. Running them at 10 inches depth I had 100 gallons. Never had one leak or give me any issues. Even built brackets to hold float valves that were connected to RO h2o via a solenoid valve that was timed to top off the reservoir in the middle of the dark period when all of the water was guaranteed to be back in the reservoir.

 

[A e o n]

I have used a LOT of 45 mil pond liner over the years. Build a custom reservoir using 2x12 lumber lag bolted to make a "sand box". If you have a 4x8 tray you make the box 4x9 so you can access the reservoir when the tray is on top. Line it with pond liner, backfolding the corners, use staples to fix it around the top of the box. Run 3 sticks of strut channel across the reservoir to sit the tray on. Now you have a reservoir with massive capacity that supports the tray and only raises it about 13 inches off the floor preserving valuable height for plants. Due to the large capacity I am able to run these with a SoG flood and drain system for a whole cycle with only top offs and addbacks. I made some that were long enough to put two 4x8 trays on, you can make them as big as you want. With ones I made for a 4x4 tray, they were about 4x4.5 feet, each inch of water was about 10 gallons. Running them at 10 inches depth I had 100 gallons. Never had one leak or give me any issues. Even built brackets to hold float valves that were connected to RO h2o via a solenoid valve that was timed to top off the reservoir in the middle of the dark period when all of the water was guaranteed to be back in the reservoir.

Ran some awesome basil + tilapia systems using 45mil pond liner, building 12" deep 4x8 trays in a similar manner, using large stock tanks from the local farmfleet for the res/fish tank

 

[Major Blazer]

If your 4x8 table is a flood and drain table made for hydroponics you don't need to line it with anything and you definitely don't need any kind of "drop ceiling" to keep anything off the bottom (I keep seeing this idea mentioned here recently but it's entirely redundant I assure you). Cocomats are a nice compliment to the system though and I liked using them myself. Regarding rockwool cubes, they'll work but plastic netpots with hydroton (leca) like @Renfro said are better. It's the regular wet/dry cycle that provides oxygen to the roots in f&d which makes hydroton more ideal here (rockwool holds too much moisture).