First dryback after transplant in rockwool?

Hey All! Been growing in coco for a few years, giving rockwool a try this run. I cloned in the grodan a-ok plugs and placed them into 6" hugos once rooted. I'm using a Teros 12 to read wc/ec. The Hugos read 80% WC after initial soak, which from what I'm reading is the field capacity I was expecting. It's now been a week since transplant and I haven't watered once. The Teros is still reading 80% WC on the side of the block that's on the drain side of my table, which is where Aroya says to place the sensor. Higher in the block is reading 40-45% WC, which makes sense.

The clones look healthy, although I do see some spots on the leaves, maybe a mag def. Dankumhunter's feed chart says the initial drydown should be to 45% WC, which is what I'm waiting to see on the Teros. My question is, is it normal to not water for over a week on initial transplant? My worry is mostly pushing fresh o2 to the root zone through watering. Thanks to any rockwool pros who give advice!

Transplant Day:


Today, one week later:



Teros reading today after no water for a week:

Did you use the guide to place the sensor probe? Probe should be pushed flush against media and you should not reuse any sensor holes as it will lead to inconsistent readings.

boostedhonda said:

Did you use the guide to place the sensor probe? Probe should be pushed flush against media and you should not reuse any sensor holes as it will lead to inconsistent readings.

Click to expand...

Yes to all of that. I placed it on the drain side of my table as aroya recommends. The readings are consistent across the cubes. Today is day 10 and I watered the cubes for the first time. The drain side was still reading 60%ish but everywhere else was around 40-45. Finally have some roots peaking out the bottom as well.

I think next run I'll switch to the 4x4 cubes for veg and put them on slabs. These Hugo's just hold too much water for a fast veg time. I'll be able to fill those 4x4s out way faster with roots.

Just stick with that amount of dryback til you see a good amount of roots popping ping out the bottom. I believe those blocks are supposed to have a higher field capacity as well. Do you have a watering system? Those blocks will dry out quick in flower.

Yeah I'm gonna give them one more good dryback which should hopefully be quicker now thay they have some roots.

I do, just waiting on a part to fix it but should have that up and running by next week. Hoping to flip in 12-14 days

Are you crop steering?

I will be yes. Gonna buy a growlink to hook the teros up to so I have graphs this run as well

definitely worth every penny.