Washing hydroton

ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
What is your technique when it comes to getting roots off hydroton rocks. This is one of my least liked parts of everything. Sometimes you gotta see someone doing it a different way to get off your 1 track mind set.

Thanks
 
I have seen them cleaned with hydrogen peroxide and water, soaking for a day or 2 minimum. I have also seen them cleaned with distilled vinegar and water. After soaking they rinse it off really good and then throw them back in a bucket with the airpump for one last rinse. I personally didn't want to have to think about cleaning hydroton so I'm gonna be wasteful and just throw it away the first few grows. I bought a 25L bag for $23 at my local homedepot once that gets low I'll start washing it and saving it.
 
I break off the majority of roots when harvesting. The really small ones would drive me bonkers trying to do it all at once...so I dump the remaining hydroton into rubbermaid bins a few inches deep, and stack them (in alternating directions) to let them dry out. I will leave them there for the entire next crop. By then, the hydroton is really dry, and any remaining roots are brittle and just break off if you swirl the pellets around a bit. Then toss them into a sink for a final swish before throwing them into the pot for the next round. I keep TWO CROPS worth of hydroton at all times...one to use, while the other one dries out. Just keep alternating use for a crop/dry for a crop, and its almost effortless compared to trying to clean them up just after harvest to use again right away. That's when you can get some potential problems missing old bits of roots or whatnot.

For the price of hydroton and being able to re-use it for infinity, I thought it was worth is to just have double what I needed and do the process above. Saves a tonne of time.
 
I get the bulk of the root ball out when harvest is complete. The little root pieces I don't worry about.

I soak the hydroton in a tote with a cup of bleach to each gallon of water, usually use five gallons. I soak anywhere from 24-72 hrs depending on schedule.

I have another tote with holes drilled all over the sides and bottom. Outside I dump the hydroton into this tote to drain and dry. Then hit the hydroton with the hose, stirring with my hand until rinsed well. Let dry.

Once dry into clean tote it goes with Hygrozyme 6ml/gal water pH'd to 5.8 for a couple days and then it is ready to reuse.
 
Modern Selections said:
I get the bulk of the root ball out when harvest is complete. The little root pieces I don't worry about.

I soak the hydroton in a tote with a cup of bleach to each gallon of water, usually use five gallons. I soak anywhere from 24-72 hrs depending on schedule.

I have another tote with holes drilled all over the sides and bottom. Outside I dump the hydroton into this tote to drain and dry. Then hit the hydroton with the hose, stirring with my hand until rinsed well. Let dry.

Once dry into clean tote it goes with Hygrozyme 6ml/gal water pH'd to 5.8 for a couple days and then it is ready to reuse.
Click to expand...

While this method absolutely works, it can be very time consuming when doing 50+ 2 gallon buckets per crop. It also requires bleach and a product like "Hygrozyme". My method requires nothing but enough pellets for 2 crops, and enough rubbermaid bins (or even a 'weed drying rack') to stack/hang them in the corner of the grow room.
 
ProPheT 216 said:
What is your technique when it comes to getting roots off hydroton rocks. This is one of my least liked parts of everything. Sometimes you gotta see someone doing it a different way to get off your 1 track mind set.

Thanks
Click to expand...
I remove the root ball and shake out loose hydroton into a rubbermaid tub. Rinse in h20 and then I bake it in the oven at 400°f for 30 minutes to sterilize. Put in clean tubs and small dried out root pieces just crumble off in the tub.
 
If I had a lot of it to clean, I would pressure wash it over a screen or something. A large bin with a screen on the bottom that holds it in from flying away as you blast it. Then bake it.
 
I just dump a gallon of 35% h2o2 into my ~30gal RDWC, effectively making an ~1% mix, and let that run for a week as part of my cleaning cycle.
Hydroton will get salvaged as much as possible from the root balls, given a quick rinse, and put into buckets with a few gallons of the 1% mix I scoop out of the res. Then they soak for a week while the system runs its cleaning cycle. They’ll sound like a bucket of rice crispies, and after a week when I draining the system I rinse them off again and they're ready to go
 
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