Thursday, January 6, 2011

Rockwool Cubes in Hydroponics

Wikipedia on the manufacture of Rockwool.......

"Stone wool is a furnace product of molten rock at a temperature of about 1600 °C, through which a stream of air or steam is blown. More advanced production techniques are based on spinning molten rock on high speed spinning wheels somewhat like the process used to prepare cotton candy. The final product is a mass of fine, intertwined fibres with a typical diameter of 6 to 10 micrometers. Mineral wool may contain a binder, often food grade starch, and an oil to reduce dusting."

On Hydroponic usage, Wikipedia goes on to say.....

"Mineral wool products can hold large quantities of water and air that aids root growth and nutrient uptake in hydroponics; their fibrous nature also provides a good mechanical structure to hold the plant stable. The high natural pH of mineral wool makes them initially unsuitable to plant growth and requires "conditioning" to produce a wool with an appropriate, stable pH."

I currently have 6 lettuce, 2 cilantro, 2 spearmint, and 1 rosemary spreading their little first leaves in rockwool cubes awaiting up-potting to the DWC.

3 comments:

  1. Where do you get the rockwool and silica stone from? Sounds very interesting. :)

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  2. Nicci, I got both rockwool and silica stones at a local hydroponic store. They are both easy to obtain online as well.

    There are several types of "media" such as hydroton, silica stones, lava rocks, coir, etc. Each type have their own characteristics.

    I may publish a post on the different types in the near future.

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  3. Thanks for sharing such wonderful Blog. LED grow lamps and LED technology in general is highly energy efficient. Moreover, LED grow lights do not contain any heavy metals whatsoever. Traditional grow lights, on the other hand, contain mercury and other heavy metals.

    ReplyDelete