Starting seeds in DWC

I am currently preparing to begin my first DWC grow and I am not finding alot of information on starting a seed when using this process. This may be a dumb question but how once i place the germinated seed in the rockwool material does water need to be filled up to the point where the rockwool is just barely sitting in water? I know to put the rock on the bottom of the net pot and set the rockwool on top of it just need to know about the water level. Thank you for the help in advance

when i was using rockwool i waited until there was a good amount of roots poking out the bottom of the cube and put an inch layer of hydroton on the bottom of the netpot and place the cube on top of that and filled in the sides.

Top fed for a few days until I saw a root sticking out the bottom. I would water the surface around the cube. Rockwool gets highly saturated to the point where no oxygen is left in the cube.

What did you do with the rock wool while you were waiting for the first roots to appear?

If you are going totally media free, use vermiculite. A user on here suggested it. It works great, I use Solo cup half full(then you can bag them to keep humidity up, remember to poke some holes and bottom water), you can grow it in cup for quite a while then just dip in water and wash off the vermiculite when ready to put into DWC.

And no, if your rockwool is sitting in water your seedling will die, the water inside the rockwool cube has no way to get oxygen, you must let it dry out and water it again, which is another problem, letting it get to dry. I found vermiculite method easiest and use it for taking clones sometimes also.

Good advice....ive done it 3 ways....now...first with peat pellets...germinate, poke it into pre moistened pellets place in tray under dome, mist daily, let pellets dry a little, wait for multiple roots then plant in net cup with media ass mentioned above under low light.. I DONT RECOMMEND BECAUSE THEY HOLD TOO MUCH WATER....but good for dirt planting.

Rockwool....soak in phd water overnight or 24 hours...germinate seed...squeeze out rockwool slightly if saturated, poke root end of popped beaner into the rock wool and place in humidity dome and tray as above. Works good BUT I found it tends to grow a lot of algae and crud if exposed to light...and can hold too much water and rot the stem.

I use a bubble cloner to root my clones and once they have good multiple 3-6 inch roots (depending on my timing) I just carefully drape them in the net pot and carefully fill in with hydroton or whatever. I find if I can wait for 6 inch roots, i can put them straight down thru the bottom of the net cup and fill with hydroton.

That being said...I havent tried it with a seedling yet...might try to dangle one in the cloner and see if it roots or the vermiculite ane hand water idea is good.

My very fiirst dwc grow....I took 4 dirt planted seedlings and rinsed them really well soaking in a sink then planted em in hydroton....not recommended tho.

Ive rambled sorry.

Everyone makes this process more work than needed. I have my water level 1/2-1" below net pot with water bubbling, put seed in moist rapid rooter, set rooter on 1/2-1" of hydroton(fill remaining hydroton in net pot around rooter). Bubbles will wick water thru hydroton to rooter to stay moist. If you use a hot light that drys the rooter more than your liking remoisten. All done, let it grow.

No seed soaking, no papertowel, no transferring from place to place.

I just learned this on a practice run. Threw two test seeds in the rapid rooters w ph water, dropped em in the net pots w hydroton, wet the rooters every so often, and saw some nice lil roots develop in about a week.

I start in rapid rooters them bury them in the net pot once i see roots poking out. I always wondered if wrapping the seed in paper towel and burying in the hydroton would work. I would think as long as it was only getting damp it would, but it would be hard to control the moisture.

I use to use the rapid rooters myself, now i do the paper towel method and once the seed pops a little tap root then she goes into the hydroton by herself. Seems to be working better than anything else ive tried. I liked rapid rooters but wanted to quit spending money on them.

I wated about 10 seeds in one month trying to start my first DWC from rockwool. What I found is that a heat source underneath the rockwool substancially aids the process. I just put my RW on a warm computer tower, cover with plastic box and spray from time to time inside to ensure high humidity. That really helped me.