Rock wool cubes for seedlings

I always grow tomato seedlings myself in a nutritious substrate. I have heard a lot about the use of mineral wool for these purposes. I would like to try, but the lack of soil confuses a little. Tell us what it is - rock wool seedling cubes? How effective are they compared to soil mixture?

Usually gardeners grow seedlings in a substrate - a loose and nutritious soil mixture. Recently, however, many use instead of soil mineral wool, in particular cubes for seedlings. The material for them is inert hydrophilic cotton wool with zero toxicity.

Benefits of mineral wool

Mineral wool cubes are very effective not only for growing seedlings, but also for adult plants. With the help of drip irrigation and mineral wool, you can get high-quality, healthy crops and a bountiful harvest. You can grow in such cubes all vegetables that are planted in greenhouses.

This soil substitute is not used for root crops.

Mineral wool cubes have earned their popularity due to the advantages:

1. Reusable. The cubes keep their shape well, and the seedlings are easily removed from them, without damaging the root system.
2. Absolute sterility, which excludes the possibility of disease.
3. Due to the special structure of the cotton wool, the seedlings have the ability to grow freely and better absorb nutrients during feeding.
4. It is easy to monitor the developmental state of seedlings.
5. Plants emerge and grow evenly.

How to use mineral wool cubes?

Seeds can be sown either directly into cubes or into small cotton plugs. There they germinate, and only then the plug must be inserted into a special recess in the middle of the cube. The seedlings now have more room for further growth.

A day before use, the cubes must first be prepared - soak them with a solution. This can be done either by watering from above or by immersing them in liquid.

The "nourished" cube should weigh 580 g, while it will not take excess moisture. In the future, water the seedlings planted in cubes, using from 150 to 200 g of solution for each plant only after the cube has lost the same amount of moisture.

Types of mineral wool

Mineral wool is widely used for growing vegetable and berry crops using the hydroponic method. Depending on the purpose, mineral wool can be of different types:

• corks - seeds are germinated in them before sowing;
• cubes - for growing seedlings (corks with germinated seeds are placed in them);
• mats and blocks are used in large-scale cultivation of cultivated plants (cubes with grown seedlings are placed in them for further cultivation).

Growing plants on mineral wool - video