How to Prepare Growool

[Pure]

Ok here is a quick tutorial on preparing growool cubes, the principle applies to both the smaller and larger sizes, the main reason you must do this before adding a seed or clone to the grocube is because the growcubes PH is too high to be used straight away

 

What your going to need:

A bucket or container or sorts

Growool cubes

Ph adjuster ( I use Ph down which is phosphoric acid and available at any hydro shop)

Ph Tester

Water ( if you can’t drink tap water where you are use rain, bottled or whatever

Water you normally drink)

 

 

Ok well first thing to do is get your container, fill it up with your water and leave it out overnight to let the chlorine evaporate ( some don’t let it sit but it is better to have a lower chlorine level from the start so it’s up to you ).

 

After most of the chlorine has evaporated adjust the ph level of the water to between 5.5 and 5.8 using your Ph adjuster, I find it is best to use these gradually and test as you go as many people underestimate their strength and use too much straight off.

 

When your happy with your ph level just put your growool into the bucket of water, the bucket doesn’t need to be full but the growool must be submerged in the water, they tend to float at first and sink as they absorb the water, now you just leave these to soak overnight

 

You will need to drain allot of the water out of the growool before you can put a clone into it, squeezing is not a great option with growool though as it looses it’s shape and in some cases falls to pieces, I find the best way to drain them out there and then is to cup the cube in your hand enough to get a decent grip but not enough to damage it , and shake the bulk of the water out being careful not to destroy the grow cube. If your in no rush you can just leave it to drain and dry though ( an upside down dish washing rack works well to elevate and allow drainage)

 

The final step is not always necessary as allot of grocubes already have the holes in them for the seed or clone to go into if However you don’t see any holes just grab yourself a bamboo skewer or a match and poke a small hole in the cube, just poke it a few cm in there is no need to go very far into the cube. As far as the wrapping goes some leave it on until they actually plant the clone or seed, removing it allows more oxygen to get to the roots but it also allows more light to hit the sides of the grow cubes so it’s up to you ( You should remove this wrapping when planting the growool into your medium though )

 

And that’s it your grocube is prepared for your seed or your clone so go smoke a few and pat yourself on the back

 

This evening I will add a pictures outlining the steps so if you’re a newbie you can get a visual idea of what I am talking about

[Luke Skywalker]

I would only add that in my experience the growool has to be soaked in water with a pH around 5 or so rather than 5.5-5.8. This is because the growool itself, whilst inert, does have a naturally alkaline ph level when fresh. So in soaking in water which is a little lower than what is considered "ideal" for growing in, you set the growool at the correct level. You may find if you are soaking growool with water at the same pH as the nutrient solutions will be, (5.5 or so), the actual runoff and pH level of the stuff will be a little high, nearer 6 or 6.5, for the reason I outlined before.

 

So yeah, IMHO, you should soak growool cubes and slabs first in water of about pH 5.0, and then once soaked overnight and drained, give them a watering with your 5.5 solution with a little nutrient. Omit the nutrients if you're growing seedlings in cubes, as these will be fine without them initially.

 

Growool is a fantastic media, with a lot of useful applications, and makes things a lot easier in terms of cloning, transplanting and starting seedlings. I prefer the Grodan Delta growool cubes for cloning, I find the cutilene just doesn't cut it.

 

Oh yeah, and another small tip. When you're first about to put the growool in the bucket for a soak, make sure you get as much of that shitty binding paper which keeps lines of cubes together off. This can be a potential problem later on, as being made of cellulose, it's an ideal spot for fungi to start. So yeah, pull of the plastic sleeves, and get that paper off before you soak them. Takes care of a problem before it can even start.

 

I would like to note that this is all IMHO, all from my own growing knowledge and experience, and all just the way I do it. :kingnerd

[Luke Skywalker]

Damn, there's always something you forget isn't there. One thing that is absolutely critical in any cloning situation is cleanliness. You should sterilise, either with bleach, pythoff (monochloramine) or h202 at a pinch.

 

Cloning can be a very quick process, but so can pathogens, and the spores for most moulds are everywhere in the atmosphere. So a good start is to sterilise the cloning apparatus, which means the humidicrib, the table/tray you do the actual cutting and sticking process, the bucket you soak the cubes in, and all the containers that cuttings are held in cut within. The water you use should be taken from a sterile container, and the rooting gel should always be poured out into a sterile container for dipping cuttings into, never use the lid to dip cuttings in. You may even want to go so far as wearing some gloves to ensure that acids from your hands don't contaminate the clones, although usually a good wash is all that is necessary.

 

Cleanliness is not godliness, but it does certainly help when taking clones.

[jackfrost]

I usually ph the soaker bucket for cubes down 2 ph 5 then add "microbial" (best fucking shit ever) and soak cubes overnight. never any germs in'em then.

 

Jack

[F420]

I went to get some microbial last week, They only had the big one for $100-00.

I assume they make a smaller one?

[quizywig]

i like to add a little superthrive to the water for seeds or clones, seems to give them that bit of protection and boost at the start