What is best medium/method to GERMINATE a seed for NFT or Aeroponics?

Ive got a home-made ez cloner with the ez cloner sprayers in a rubbermade tub.

I have 2 inch net pots.

My entire assembly line is set up in 2" net pots.

Currently, my mothers are in 6" rockwool cubes.

I am wondering if i should keep doing the rockwool, or if i should start making mothers compatible with the rest of my op, which is a combo of NFT and Aeroponic sprayers (not the good kind, just the red ez clone sprayers mounted in pvc, 1 min on, 5 min off)

Wondering if i should bring my mothers over to the aeroponic nft world, or keep them in rockwool.

The new seeds that i am about to germinate will be mother plants.

What direction should I go? All advice welcome!

well, no one liked that question, so i will ask another one..

If i germinate in a rapid rooters little plug, and put it in the 2 inch pot, and then keep that rapid rooters plug in there as the plant grows AND PUT THE NET POT INTO A 1 min on, 5 min off, sprayer condition...

Will the rapid rooter staying wet cause root rot... even if the vast majority of the roots grow down and beyond the plug and the 2 inch pot?

Because, right now, thats the way i think im going to go. Any objections??

It may sound old fashioned but I use a mixture of vermiculite and perlite to start by seedlings for "mothers." I just hand water them and keep them under a dome. Once they have put on a few true leaves I removed them from the standrad garden vareity plastic 4 inch pots and transfer them to larger pots filled with hydroton. I like by mothers to grow slow as my main reason for the mothers is as a back up incase of a crop loss. I do use mothers" from seed for newstrain introduction. I never bud them out however. More than just a few times I have taken plants started in vermiculite and perlite and removed most of the vermiculite and perlite right after roots and a few leaves have grown and put them in net pots in aero pipes. Just put the pots nearest the drain end of the aero pipes and use a fine mesh bag to collect the perlite and vermiculite as it washes free. If in a aero reservoir just put the submersible pump in a mesh bag, or lightly push a mesh bag into the external pumps feed pipe from the reservoir.

fatman7574 said:

It may sound old fashioned but I use a mixture of vermiculite and perlite to start by seedlings for "mothers." I just hand water them and keep them under a dome. Once they have put on a few true leaves I removed them from the standrad garden vareity plastic 4 inch pots and transfer them to larger pots filled with hydroton. I like by mothers to grow slow as my main reason for the mothers is as a back up incase of a crop loss. I do use mothers" from seed for newstrain introduction. I never bud them out however. More than just a few times I have taken plants started in vermiculite and perlite and removed most of the vermiculite and perlite right after roots and a few leaves have grown and put them in net pots in aero pipes. Just put the pots nearest the drain end of the aero pipes and use a fine mesh bag to collect the perlite and vermiculite as it washes free. If in a aero reservoir just put the submersible pump in a mesh bag, or lightly push a mesh bag into the external pumps feed pipe from the reservoir.

Click to expand...

I use the paper towel method to get a taproot. Once the taproot is 1/4" I place the seed into a soaked rapid rooter (Ph'd water plus trace superthrive). Next I put the rapid rooters in a cutting tray under a humidome. There is a heat mat under the cutting tray and the cutting tray has some water to slow the heat matt down.

Once the seedlings pop out, I take the humidome off and turn on the T5 at about 1.5 feet. In about 2 or 3 days you will see the tap root sticking out of the bottom of the rapid rooter. Usually, I have filled the cutting tray with ph'd water and superthrive so that the tap root can get close enought to the water.

Finally, after I sense the tap root has sprung some side shoots (couple days after tap root comes out of bottom of cube), I use a very sharp serated knife to cut the rapid rooter and slowly peel it apart to remove the seedling.

Next I place the naked seedling into a neoprene collar and provide 1/3 nutes in an aeroponic system based upon Stinkbud's. It works and I am free from any medium from that point.

car washer said:

I use the paper towel method to get a taproot. Once the taproot is 1/4" I place the seed into a soaked rapid rooter (Ph'd water plus trace superthrive). Next I put the rapid rooters in a cutting tray under a humidome. There is a heat mat under the cutting tray and the cutting tray has some water to slow the heat matt down.

Once the seedlings pop out, I take the humidome off and turn on the T5 at about 1.5 feet. In about 2 or 3 days you will see the tap root sticking out of the bottom of the rapid rooter. Usually, I have filled the cutting tray with ph'd water and superthrive so that the tap root can get close enought to the water.

Finally, after I sense the tap root has sprung some side shoots (couple days after tap root comes out of bottom of cube), I use a very sharp serated knife to cut the rapid rooter and slowly peel it apart to remove the seedling.

Next I place the naked seedling into a neoprene collar and provide 1/3 nutes in an aeroponic system based upon Stinkbud's. It works and I am free from any medium from that point.

Click to expand...

All sounds good except the rapid rooter part.

I try to keep soil and organics out of my aero system. Do the roots esily seperate from the "organic matter" of the rapid rooter?

Rapid rooters: "Rapid Rooter plugs are all natural soilless organic grow plugs that are made from composted tree bark and other organic materials."

Kind of an oxymoron advertisement as soil is a combination of fine rock, mineral powders and organic matter by most definitions.

NOUN: 1. The top layer of the earth's surface, consisting of rock and mineral particles mixed with organic matter.

soil n. The top layer of the earth's surface, consisting of rock and mineral particles mixed with organic matter ...

Life-supporting upper surface of earth that is the basis of all agriculture. It contains minerals and gravel from the chemical and physical weathering of rocks, decaying organic matter (humus), microorganisms, insects, nutrients, water, and air.

Gotta love marketers. Soilless. Wow!

I germinate em in rapid rooters or STG. The STG requires a little more attention that the rapid rooters though.

fatman7574 said:

All sounds good except the rapid rooter part.

I try to keep soil and organics out of my aero system. Do the roots esily seperate from the "organic matter" of the rapid rooter?

Rapid rooters: "Rapid Rooter plugs are all natural soilless organic grow plugs that are made from composted tree bark and other organic materials."

Kind of an oxymoron advertisement as soil is a combination of fine rock, mineral powders and organic matter by most definitions.

NOUN: 1. The top layer of the earth's surface, consisting of rock and mineral particles mixed with organic matter.

soil n. The top layer of the earth's surface, consisting of rock and mineral particles mixed with organic matter ...

Life-supporting upper surface of earth that is the basis of all agriculture. It contains minerals and gravel from the chemical and physical weathering of rocks, decaying organic matter (humus), microorganisms, insects, nutrients, water, and air.

Gotta love marketers. Soilless. Wow!

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To be clear. I remove the seedling from the rapid rooter altogether before it goes into the aeroponic system. The rapid rooter just gets the tap root to 2+ inches. I stick the seedling in a neoprene collar after I perform the surgical removal from the rapid rooter. Rapid rooters work extremely well to get them started. No PH issues. Rockwool sucks. Its a little work, like 30 seconds worth, to remove the seedling and I haven't lost one yet. Even had small bits of tap root tear off and it didn't even matter.

I wsan't suggestingthat you were putting the rapid rooter into the net pot. I was just asking whether or not the roots were easy to seperate from the organic substances used in the rapid rooters. That and making lite of the absurd claim that rapid rooter makes that their product is soil free. I have lways just used vermiculite and perlite beacuse 'they' are inert unlike organic substancs, so the only harm they can cause is by clogging of emittersor such if no filtraion is used.

clean rapid rooters and hydroten, and a drop of superthrive, results are priceless

great info guys, thanks

ooh I forgot superthrive!

Hey sherri,

I'm aeroponically inclined, and have had the same question as you, and yes,

Rockwool is the answer.

I germ in cup with distilled water, 70+ degrees, then when the tap shows, I grab them with surgical pliers and insert the seed correctly into a pre soaked and shook rockwool cube.

Into the heated dome,

and I have very high success rates- I do need my seedlings to put on sets of leaves faster though, however I think with more wattage i'll get a better response.

Treeth said:

ooh I forgot superthrive!


Rockwool is the answer.

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agreed...

heres what ive done so far..

i have created clones in rockwool (rapid rooter) and put in the incubator.

Once a single root came out the bottom or the side of the rockwool...

i tear off as much rockwool as possible, and put the neoprene collar on it, and put it in the 2 inch basket pot, and put it in the homade easy cloner (rubbermade tub with sprayers)

There i let it re adjust, and continue to further grow roots.

Once there are a decent amonut of roots under the plant, (about the time they start to penetrate the bottom of the 2" basket pot)...

I take that pot out of the cloner, and put it into a veg station with weak grow nutes.

From then on out, i will have a different station with different levels of nutes.

I believe this same process will work for seedlings.

The key to doing it this way is to let the roots start, but not get abundant that way it is easy to remove the small plant from the rockwool so that it can contunue its life in basket pot, sprayer format.