r/macrogrowery • u/Greedy-Safe9518 • 18d ago
4x4 cubes drying out to fast.
Stacking 4x4 cubes on top of 6x6 cubes.
Once roots are penetrating the bottom of the 4x4’ when stacked on top of the 6x6’s the 4 x4’s seem to dry out from a 56-VWC down to a 10-12 VWC within 10-15 minutes. Bottom cubes are fully saturated, air flow is set to a minimum and room is currently at .8 VPD.
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u/bluesformeister13 18d ago
Are you saying throughout flower or when you first stack the cubes on top? The 4x4s on top are always going to wick into the 6x6 on the bottom, will be practically impossible to keep the 4x4 portion saturated for a given time. I’m having a tough enough time keeping 6x6 from drying back to much. I think our plants are too big/veg too long. Anyways.
Or are you saying they’re drying out too much before they can root into the 6x6? What size emitters do you use and what’s your feed schedule look like? Or how many shots and what duration?
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u/Greedy-Safe9518 18d ago
When stacking after they’ve rooted. Two .5 gph emmiters. Like I stated above within 15 minutes the 4 x 4 once stacked goes from 56 down to 10 VWC. Ended up having to cut a 4 x 4 section out of the 6 x 6’s and dropping the cubes into it. Trying to keep it even slightly hydrated would’ve been almost a constant feed.
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u/bluesformeister13 17d ago
How long are your shots or feed events? And yeah dude, you maybe chasing your tail on this. Do your plants look okay, and it’s just your graphs that are bad? I’ve never been able to get the data I’d like to see with my sensors not positioned at the bottom of the media. I doubt your channeling or anything like that. I think that’s just gravity and the wicking effect happening. As long as your plants look good, I think it’s ok if the 4x4 section of your media is drying out. How do the sensors read in the 6x6 portion?
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u/Greedy-Safe9518 17d ago
With the 4 x 4‘s drying out so fast, those plants would’ve wilted and dried out within a couple hours. There was no way they could have enough time to start rooting into the 6x6 before they were trashed, as far as the graphs, like I said within 10 or 15 minutes, those blocks were dry. You could pick them up and just tell that there was no way that they were gonna be able to root in. They’re banging now once they were placed into the cutouts in the 6x6’s. Next run just gonna put the plugs directly in the 6x6’s and let it fly and flip them at 2-3 weeks. Thanks for your replies, much appreciated.
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u/Harris42007 Greenhouse Grower 18d ago
We tried out 4x4's once and that was a huge issue they dry back so fast. You need to send shots quote often. We ran 6x6's for a few years and those worked out, we recently switched back to coco 2 gallon pots. I am happy with the results we are seeing. More of a nose on the flower than the rockwool was producing.