# can i just soak my rockwool in store bought distilled water?



## garden_engineer (Jan 30, 2009)

well im planning on using rockwool with the grow i just started,it's not gonna be anything serious,probably 6 plants is all. but ive never grew in rockwool before,my ?'s are....

1. do i have to buy the conditioner or can i just soak the rockwool in distilled water?
2. i dont have a ph meter to know for sure what my ph is but generally speaking,how much lemon juice would i add to a gallon of distilled to bring the ph to around 5.5?
im low on funds at this moment and am trying not to spend any $ on this grow besides what i paid for my rockwool. (i have some nutes from my last grow)
anyways,thanks for any tips you can give me,im gonna be hand watering using normal old store boughten distilled water but i wasnt sure if i could just soak the rockwool in distilled water or if i'd have to add a little ph down/lemon juice to it to get it down to around 5.5...???? any suggestions?


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## Tater (Jan 30, 2009)

Don't even bother wasting your time trying to grow hydroponically if you aren't going to invest in some basic ph and ppm test equipment, you will fail horribly and waste your time.  Try organic growing where ph doesn't matter so much.


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## garden_engineer (Jan 30, 2009)

i normally grow in coco,i'm just stepping out of the box a lil with this grow,ill probably have to break down and get a ph meter but ive never had any problems with my ph levels using just normal ol distilled water.i was just wondering about if i had to lower the ph level in the distilled water to soak the rockwool in or if i could just soak it in str8 distilled water (without adding ph down/lemon juice)


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## Tater (Jan 30, 2009)

Depends on what you are doing.  Starting new seeds, trying to clone, or are you talking about general feeding?


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## garden_engineer (Jan 30, 2009)

im talkin about preparing the rockwool so i can put my seedling  in it. im starting my seeds in peat pellets,then im just gonna throw them in the rockwool and do it this way. i just have to soak the rockwool before doing this. see what im sayin?


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## garden_engineer (Jan 30, 2009)

this definitly is not my main grow,im just doin this to learn a few things,if i get an oz,then ill be happy,im not seeking anything serious as far as yield goes.more less just growing it to sample a few nutes i plan using for my main garden


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## Tater (Jan 30, 2009)

Yes you need to soak the rockwool in a ph buffered solution of 5.5 for at least a few hours then soak it in a solution of 5.8 for optimal results.  The previous is for optimal results, you could always just wing it and see what happens, but I've personally seen seedlings fry and fail because of improperly prepared rockwool.  You CAN NOT GROW HYDRO without a ph meter.  Also how exactly do you plan on transfering the seedlings from peat pellets to rockwool?


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## TURKEYNECK (Jan 30, 2009)

failure to plan is planning to fail... You just cant cut corners with hydro my friend.


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## garden_engineer (Jan 30, 2009)

im gonna put the pellet in the hole in the rockwool,and then i plan on just putting a layer of rockwool over the pellet.i know the peat will dry out at a much faster rate but ill keep a close eye on them.


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## garden_engineer (Jan 30, 2009)

i mean,thats true,but i used to have a friend that used nothing but tap water and lemon juice as ph down,along with his nutes and his plants were always nice big bushes. each rockwool cube sat in a bowl and thats how he did it.


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## yumyumbubblegum (Jan 30, 2009)

garden_engineer said:
			
		

> im talkin about preparing the rockwool so i can put my seedling  in it. im starting my seeds in peat pellets,then im just gonna throw them in the rockwool and do it this way. i just have to soak the rockwool before doing this. see what im sayin?



*Aren't peat pellets soil (or whatever it is) I did not think you could put those in rockwool  . What do you plan to do when the roots start showing? Like Tater said you might be better off going organic if you are not planning on buying your basic supplies for Hydro.

How do you know if you have never had a PH issue without a tester? (even a dropper test) I have to adjust my PH EVERYTIME! Playing the guessing game with PH will lead to problems IMO - specially in Hydro*


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## garden_engineer (Jan 30, 2009)

ive always grown outdoors (besides my last grow that i had to abort due to women drama) but for the most part never had ph problems. i guess ill go grab up a ph meter and see what happens.ill come back with some pics to show you how everything goes. im gonna be growing some hash plant,black queen,and some aurora indica or some g13 x haze  within the next couple months,i was gonna be flowering these plants i have now while im vegging my ones in my main garden.


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## garden_engineer (Jan 30, 2009)

what i meant by that was i never had any yellowing leaves leave during veg.only during flowering when the leaves start to fall off.but besides that,ive never had a ph problem and all i use if regular store bought distilled water


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## garden_engineer (Jan 30, 2009)

ive just never grew in rockwool before,i figured as long as i soaked the rockwool  correctly and used distilled water then i shouldnt have problems with ph...i guess time will tell though.but anyways,ill get a ph meter and see what happens.like i said though,im not expecting anything serious.i grow so i dont have to buy my bud,but besides that,i just love the hobby.i have a good time with it.


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## Tater (Jan 30, 2009)

Of course you don't have ph issues outside, the soil and the natural bacteria and fungi and etc in it act as a buffer protecting your plants from nutrient lockouts.  So you want to put soil into a rockwool cube and then into a hydro system.  This has disaster written all over it.  If you have no problems with having a failed grow by all means follow the course of action you have laid out, but at this moment it is clear to me that you don't have even a basic grasp of how synthetic hydroponics work.  I mean beyond the nutrient, water, air understanding.  The plan you have outlined above is not a very good one and you can expect your results to pretty much be on par with the amount of planning you are putting into this.  Hydro has the steepest learning curve with the most rewarding results.  What you are doing is purposefully making mistakes that you don't need to make because MANY MANY others before you have made them already.  Why not learn from that and instead of flying off into a project half cocked put a bit more forethought and research into what you are doing so that you can exponentially increase your chances for success.  Just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should.


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## Tater (Jan 30, 2009)

Please don't take the above as me trying to dissuade you from attempting hydro, its just that a lot of preparation needs to take place before you are ready to begin.


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## HydroManiac (Jan 30, 2009)

by some pH down and work on holding your pH city water differces from once place to another this is a big topic most do not like handling


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## NorCalHal (Jan 30, 2009)

I would, and do, just soak my rockwool for about 3 minuates, to be honest.
No PH up or down. When I feed with my nuit solution, that is what needs to have the correct PH.

Mind you, it has to be good water, do usuing distilled will work. BUT, if your tap water, or whatever water you are going  to feed with needs to have a low starting ppm and a starting ph of 7.0


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## Medman (Jan 30, 2009)

Hydro ain't that hard guys. I did hydro for years before soil without any serious issues. Always had a successful harvest and have never in my life even thought about checking the ph. Not saying its not important if your starting with bad water. I have never used a resesvior tho so that may be different then. I just manually watered the trays when the cubes got light. Also always used soil plugs too, they fit perfectly in the rockwool hole. Used nutes every watering too btw garden__engineer. Good luck man, you'll do just fine. Hydro is easy peasy compared to soil imo.


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## Tater (Jan 31, 2009)

NorcalHal, same deal here but only when I'm cloning.  If I'm starting seeds I give them a good soak and make sure they balance out, I hate losing seedlings and they can be easy to kill at times.  For example this last batch I lost almost half because I had a little "sleep over" downtown and couldn't check them.  They dried out before I got out...errr home the next afternoon (don't worry it was all non-violent crap, just outstanding fines) and I lost a few.  To bad so sad, good thing I got friends with great genetics who likes to keep his cloning skills sharp lol.  He's got 16 Alberta Sweet Skunk (have no idea where this came from, it was a single bag seed he grew 15 years ago and has kept the strain alive, to this day the best dope I have yet to smoke, I'm going to self it and make seeds whoa end rant lol) and 8 or so white widow sitting at day four.  I can't wait to flip the lights in my room in a month or so its going to be magical!!


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## Vegs (Jan 31, 2009)

Dude you'll be fine using distilled water....that's all I use. I'm not going to argue with any previous comments about knowing what you're doing, checking Ph, planning, proactive this and that, etc. But to be perfectly honest, I use distilled water and 3-part mix General Hydroponics nutes and never check Ph ever. Heck, I don't even change the rez water (not unless I burn the kids too badly). I also only use about 70% less then what the manufacturer recommends and I do just fine although I do tier the nute schedule starting from very light to a good level. Then again, if I was more critical about those parameters I would have a bountiful harvest.


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## Tater (Feb 1, 2009)

Do you still check your ppm?  If it works for you and you are happy with the results thats great.  Some ph drift is good, thats why I disagree with the steadfast 5.8 it helps with nutrient uptake.  To much and I've personally seen the disaster it can cause in a hydro grow in a relatively short period of time.


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