Hydroton in Flood table

i am putting hydroton in the bottom of my 2x4 flood and drain table....but heres the thing the hydroton keeps getting stuck in the flood hole is there anyway to stop this??

Thanks

I wouldn't do that. Change that if you can. If you want to use hydroton, I would put it in net pots. You really don't even need it at all as long as you have rockwool.

Put a piece of screen over the hole if you aren't going to change it.

why shouldn't i do this other than the obivous reason of the hydroton getting stuck in the flood/drain hole

RocRaida said:

why shouldn't i do this other than the obivous reason of the hydroton getting stuck in the flood/drain hole

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Because it's a waste of hydroton. Do you just have plants sitting in hydroton in your table with no pots or rockwool?

doitinthewoods said:

Because it's a waste of hydroton. Do you just have plants sitting in hydroton in your table with no pots or rockwool?

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If your plants are just loose, and you get males... you're screwed. Pulling the males means you'll leave little pieces of roots behind/they'll be tangled with your girls. Then these roots will decay welcoming nasty pathogens you don't want anywhere near your roots. Get them in individual spaces/containers.

I personally like to put them in pots, so I can move them around more easily. I use only hydroton, no rock wool or rapid rooter. I find that they absorb too much moisture and lead to root rot. With just hydroton I can flood every 2 hours, giving the plants plenty of nutes and oxygen.

What do you have over your drain hole? Do you have a filter/drain set up? Like this:

i have 8 WW feminized seedlings in 4 inch rockwool cubes...i noticed some algae on the tops of the rockwool...so if i bought some 5 inch pots put hydroton and my seedlings in the 4 inch RW in them this would solve the algae problem?

And no i do not have a filtered drain

I use net-pots and put hydroton in the flood table.

I use clones so no worries about males, but I don't know how you could move your plants around when the roots will be four feet long growing thru the pots and into the hydroton in the flood table.

I put a screen on my fill/drain holes and overflows. I use female clones from fem himalayan gold, why the heck would anyone want to worry about males? My 4x4 tables are filled with hydroton, and the clones are in 1.5 inch rockwool cubes.

In my not as experienced as other people heres opinion... the plants roots have much more space to grow out then if they were in pots, i dont need to move my plants around, plant em once and dont fuck with them

lol, I can help you with your algae problem. Just cut some four inch squares out of paper or whatever. Nothing fancy. A few days without light and the alge dies. I have done the 4 in rw block and am doing it now too. It wont hurt anything for a long time. You can buy nice little block covers made out of panda film but I jsut use the everyday ads in the mailbox. I am attempting to garden as lazy as possible. Like a real gardner.