anyone ever consider open cell foam

I have a bunch of open cell foam left over from a hot-rod project (normally use it as anti-slosh in my gas tanks). The thing is, holding it up to the light you can see all the way through (well.. pinhole light but still) a 6" thick segment of it. It's nothing but channels and air. I have a few cubic feet of new clean foam that I'm thinking of trying as a rooting medium instead of coco or orchid rock.

Right now I'm having troubles with my dirt attempt but thinking ahead to when I say screw dirt.

Thoughts?

If I'm being a tard, feel free to politely say so.

I don't think that roots would be able to move through the open cell easy enough. Motorhead here too, by the way. If your not happy with soil try Hempy buckets, cheap and easy.

I'm going to assume (and I'll google it in a second) that that's a brand name. Thanks for the tip.

The cells are pretty big in the foam I'm thinking of using but I'll have to admit I have no idea if it'd work or not. It definitely will not hold any real moisture unlike coco or rock wool. I don't know if that's a major issue with auto feeding / drip irrigation.

wouldnt have very good aeration i wouldnt imagine...not to mention it would probably stay waterlogged and ya girls start dampin off

no, I'm pretty sure you're thinking of that yellow sponge like trash... I'm talking about the black stuff from RCI... really huge cells, not tight. Hell, it's looser than a loofa.

Peep delta below... hope the pics come out clear enough:

what I'm talking about. notice the huge cell size


this stuff won't do..it's too tight, I know that already:



not sayin that it'll work and y'all are insane, quite the opposite. I'd just like to see the discussion keep going. hehe I know it won't hold fluid.. already done that test. Holds water like a sieve.

I'm currently growing in Prepara Power Plant Minis which use foam/sponge as a medium. The units themselves are a kind of ebb & flow and kind of a DWC. I have two Trainwreck clones in them now and am using a fertigation cycle of flooding 15mins after every hour and a half passes during the day and 15min after every three hours during the night.

got pics? I'm really interested in it.

You can cut it into smaller pieces and mix with rock-wool chunks to make "mapito". It a hot grow medium right now in Holland and I have a grow in process right now with it..... I saw bags of rock-wool pieces this weekend in a hydro shop so you could mix it with that. There are others here using it as a way to clone too, by wrapping it around the stem and putting it in a solo cup. Look up "mapito" here on RIU and Google. It is a viable grow medium with a little help from from another medium.

shit . could be a good idea. I say make a couple of extra clone and try an experiment. If it starts to work ..... go for it. If it looks like shit .... pitch it and let us know how it went.

I say if using just the foam you might have issues with water retention keeping roots waterlogged and not allowing air to roots.

I think i used this kind of stuff in a aquarium once. If it is the same material then it has next to no water holding capability and will have to be watered nearly all the time.

I say give it a go, it could very well be great.

This is what i used:

Here's the clone experiments with open cell polyurethane......
https://www.rollitup.org/do-yourself/555876-dwc-raft-cloner-g-p-3.html

Could be very possible to grow in it. Maybe something like a continuous recirculating drip. It would be like NFT without all the extra plumbing.

That is some nasty looking crud on the roots.

superstoner1 said:

That is some nasty looking crud on the roots.

Click to expand...

Looks like residue from hydroton and lava rocks. Honestly doesn't look that bad at all, pretty normal given the medium.