Cleaning Hydroton Clay Pebbles

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hell just take the tiger torch to em..
LOL
LH
:D
 
I just started my grow, so I cant right now.
 
Just in case, someone is in the habit and does this automatically, remember. DO NOT PUT SOAP in the dishwasher if you use it for pebbles....I doubt that dishwasher soap is good for cannabis grows and probably does have a filmy effect...
 
IMO best way is not by boiling them, you dont want them soaked in water you want them dry, i tell ya try put em in the oven dry the roots will become ashes and the root balls will become stiff and just can be removed in one piece, iused to shut off the gas to my oven wait a bit till they cool down then just empty them straight in the pots, any big root pieces can be taken by hand as i empty them then a rinse would remove all ahses away, that is the easiest way and i tried many ways :p worst way by far is bleach and water it used to take me hours to do that lol
 
zem, I can see how that would work to clean the outside, but how would it work to remove the salt build up inside the hydroton. Salt is a hard mineral, heat alone I dont think would remove it. I think it would bake it on even harder. I might be wrong, though.
 
DLM3 said:
zem, I can see how that would work to clean the outside, but how would it work to remove the salt build up inside the hydroton. Salt is a hard mineral, heat alone I dont think would remove it. I think it would bake it on even harder. I might be wrong, though.

thats why boiling it is the best method.. after its so bloody hot i rinse it with hot water drys in about 15-20 min.. if you spread it out..;)
like washing the dishes and rinsing them with hot water after they air dry quick..
LH
 
Hmm. I like the boiling idea, some turkey fryer pots w/inserts over a flame. Couple of them. How long in the boil for a pot. say 50qt? I guess I pick a day, nobody comes over on a hot summer day on the tarp. Ha, what would it look like from the air? ideas?
 
nouvellechef said:
Hmm. I like the boiling idea, some turkey fryer pots w/inserts over a flame. Couple of them. How long in the boil for a pot. say 50qt? I guess I pick a day, nobody comes over on a hot summer day on the tarp. Ha, what would it look like from the air? ideas?

i boiled mine for 20-30 mins a batch.. as far as the tarp and from the air you could be doing land scaping.. the tarp is a barier for weeds and what not.. lol woldnt worry to much on that part lol.. turkey frier would work..
if your gonna do it in big loads i recomend the way pieRsquared mentioned .in a water basis and over a fire.. beable to get 150L hydroton boiling at once easily..
LH
 
cmd420 & nouvellechef,

Check out SuterToGrow dot com for a substitute for clay balls. They have something that seems to work excellent in place of either Hydroton or rockwool. It is kind o hard to find and probably pricey, but it is PH neutral, requires NO presoaking or rinsing. I'm not sure how reusable the loose fill/hail would be.

I was hoping that CaliWildViolet420 had found a substitute for clay balls instead of switching away from hydro. Has anyone used coco chips? If so how do they work and what is the drawbacks?


Great smoking.
 
Sorry, if I did not post what I am using. I may have and may have deleted. We do not do, ebb and flow currently. When we used the clay hydroton, we had a full tray system, somewhat graded set up, with a perimeter or parameter..I forget which word..and I am tired...and t barred feeding tubes for nine plants..., as can sort of be seen in my grow shed thread. We filled the trays with the hydroton and of course, placed the rock wool plants in that...

I use Sunshine #4 currently, all soil and I clone in the EZ Cloner. We use all 'Cutting Edge' products......we will be going out doors this year...and that is going to be a master mix..using a local and the principles of SubCool's ethics in terms of organic....

Hey DON....take a look at the sheds on my grow thread..We are Hydro, currently...but the cost is killing me...so, hopefully we will turn the grow sheds into dry sheds....I have very happy patients...so I want to keep them medicated...

Trust me..I have cleaned so many pebbles in my life...the past three years...I really do dislike pebbles...really a lot....

I have the worst hiccups right now...and I am hiccup ing on two forums...yipeeee.....
 
CaliWildViolet420 ,

I see, by hydro you mean dirtless potting soil type mixture, which I presume is somewhat like black gold.

Do you drain the runoff back inot yur reservoir, or do you keep the watering/feeding slow enough that there is no runoff to get rid of?

I'm wondering because I have been considering trying something like that using a water farm setup, but haven't figured out how to keep the black glod from washing through the net pots and contaminating the reservoirs.

Also, how long do keep the solutions in the reservoirs before changing them out?

Do you aerate the solutions in the reservoirs?

Thank you for your help.

Great smoking.
 
Nope...Not dirtless potting soil. We have hydroponic sheds. We grow greenhouse style, without the glass...
We use pots in trays...that have to be scrubbed clean just like every tray grow should..Look at the post on my grow thread...
We grow in Soil...Sunshine Soil #4. This year we will grow in soil that is being mixed by a local nursery owner, who makes master soil mix with proper PH considerations, and all the additives necessary, similar to that which SubCool has on his organic soil thread.

We no longer use Pebbles...Because it was over a year of incredibly hard, time consuming work...We cleaned the pebbles thoroughly each grow, just as we do the trays....
We change our nutes with each change of tray. We do not keep old nutes in any resevoir.
The trays have a tubing frame around the borders of each tray. Each larger tubing has a small feeding tube coming out of it, nine feeding tubes, with the stakes to put into the soil.
They are all t-bar sealed in place with pieces that you would use in something like a drip system, which is basically what it is...The longer feed tube, feeds the middle plant in the center.
There are three trays on their own tables in the flowering shed, each has its own res and each resevoir has a pump in the tub....Other than that...we do not put any other aeration into the res itself.
We use RO water only for all the plants and plant sheds and cloner.
If it is time to flush a tray, that nutrient tub is dumped.

With your soil...like I said,,,we are in pots in the tray...You could also use smart pots..the smaller ones....

I am going to post a smart pot for you....on the next post here...

Read about these pots and you might be wanting to get them...

Okay so back to the soil....We have very little dirt get into the tray...but some does...and we brush that out...but it does not get into any of the tubing....
Since your soil should be sterilized..it should not be an issue of contamination in any way.....No soil ever got into our resevoirs...
Does this make sense..Don...cause I am doing my best for ya here....just let me know....

What I may think is simple is not always...even if you have grown forever..

You can purchase all the tubing and tiny joint pieces at a sprinkler type of store...that sells watering systems for gardening or stuff like that....and you can get all the tubing by the inch...or foot....and all the proper fittings...

The trays have a screened drain in them, so the dirt does not really pass thru in drainage into the resevoirs....
 
I have corrected as many typos as I could....I am so happy I went to college and studied English..LMAO...if my typing could keep up with my typos...yipppeeeeeeeee


If you take your tray and draw up a square or rectangle..this is what my boyfriend does...plan it out....and do a grading like a graph of sorts...drafting plan.
Using the cross section lengths, you can determine how much tubing you will need...so you won't have unnecessary expenses....

Like each cut section may be three feet and you need about ten of these three foot sections...
Get extra....just in case...Cause an exacto can slip..and you do not want a leaking hose..cause then your plant will get cheated on the nutes it gets...the tray will get fed...however large potted trays unless they are flooded are not going to absorb enough thru the bottom, such as some flowers might do in a house plant situation....African Violets like to be fed from the tray and suck it up in the bottom of pots...

With your drawing,,,you can figure out how many t joints you will need, or any extension pieces...with those get a few extra and keep in a zip lock with your supplies...they can get lost and are tiny....

You will need coupling pieces to join hoses for the corners of the tubing...corner joint couplings...It may sound complicated...but it is easy...just tedious...
You absolutely need the little spikes unless, you are planning to tie the tubes to the plant netting or pot..which is kind of a ridiculous thing to do...but to each their own....

The shed feeding is set up on a timer...We had Intermatic expensive timers..but this year..>Two of these broke and we decided to go with a cheaper one...The better the timer, the less work you have to spend on this....for both lights and feeding....


THIS WHOLE FEEDING IS THE SAME ONE USED WHEN WE HAD HYDROTON CLAY PEBBLES ..and while off topic...was asked here...probably should be moved to soil growing...if anyone wants to do that...go for it...thanks
 
Best way is to chuck them in the trash can and buy some new clean ones.

I dont mean to be a SA but the hassle of cleaning them just isnt worth it tbh unless i suppose you have a quite a few hundred litres of the clay pebbles then it would be even more intensive to clean.

t4
 
A good way to stay chemical free, as BLEACH and peroxide are hazardous and should not be used.

A product HOME DEPOT carries is "SIMPLE GREEN PRO 3" for institutions such as hospitals... they use it. It's about 15 a gal, and can be diluted, used full strength, is BIO-degradable, non-toxic and non hazardous and cleans anything. I use the same bucket method described here, but ONLY with the simple green as it's a viruscide,fungicide and kills everything!

I still use gloves with it., but it's non toxic so you wouldn't have to use gloves. its safe to go down the drain. I cant' say enough about it.
 

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