I will be using lava rock that I got from a hydroponics website

The water will touch the bottom of the basket, and the lava rock will wick up to the roots. Eventually the roots will be long enough to go through the bottom into the water. Just make sure your rocks are like...1/8 of an inch inside the water.

excellent, thanks for the fast response, how deep should my peat pellet be in the lava rocks, like one layer of lava rock, then the pellet, and then lava rocks on the side of the pellet?

umm... I haven't read anything about using peat pellets in hydro setups, but if *I* were doing it, I would do it that way. You definitely want a good size layer of the rock so when the plant roots it has something to grab to support itself, and then I would add the pellet in the middle and surround it with rock.

I have more book knowledge than hands on at this point, so I just go by what I read and what others tell me they have done.

Hope that helps a bit!

@lucas.w, don't let the surface of the water touch your net pots. Instead, leave an air gap around 1/2" to 1" between the top of the water and the bottom of the net cups. The air bubbles from the air stones will pop and provide the right amount of water and air to your plants, for optimal growth. I know this sounds like it will dry your plant out, but it won't. If you choose to submerge your pot in water, especially before it establishes roots, it will most likely die. Hope this helps.

I'd stick with urbangardenfarmer's advice. That's how it is done by the book, so to speak. Well, you may watch your plants condition closely when transplanting to ensure that the air humidity and the misting from the air stones' bubbling really does the deal, though.

I wash the peat off the roots. I do this by setting the water temperature in the sink facuet to room temp. I then remove the netting and put the peat pellet under the facuet and wash off the peat.

I then transplant the plant into the media. I use a 1" net pot upside down. I cut out the middle round part of the bottom of the net pot leaving a hole just big enough for the roots to dangle down inside the net pot (and below it), which as I said is upside down.

I then place this upside down net pot with the plant in it into a 4" net pot with a hole cut out of it, the same as the 1" net pot.

Basically I put the 1" net pot inside a larger net pot (upside down) (typically a 4" one). I first cut a hole in the center of the bottom of the 4" net pot the same size as the diameter of the 1" net pot. I then use some plastic zip ties to secure the 1" net pot to the 4" net pot. I then fill the larger net pot with the grow rocks until the plant is well supported.

Basically the upside down 1" net pot exposes the roots to the water and allows the roots to hang down further.

I wash as much of the peat off the roots as possible without damaging the plant.

I know this sounds crazy, but I have never lost a plant doing this. (washing off the peat and transplanting).

Also, although I know it is not necessary to fill the water up above the bottom of the net pot, it does not hurt the plant to do so, provided that you have enough air bubbles directly under the net pot where the roots are. If you do not have enough air, the roots will turn brown and rot.

You can always do things (successfully or not) in a hundred different ways and there is nothing wrong with all of them that work, but the question is if the 98 others are necessary.

Example: A while back I had quite an disagreement with a "participant" that used a very personal technique by increasing nutrient strength by (what was it again?) 0,025 mS/cm (which is a minimal increasement step indeed) every couple of days. Well that is surely working and doing any harm, - but is it really necessary and is it something you should recommend to others?

I mean, I am actually testing quite a bunch of rather uncommon and perhaps somehow crazy things with hydroponics. But I don't actually tell or show those in public - and in case I do, I always differentiate and don't recommend to do those "at home"... ;-)

WOW! I had NO idea!! I've always heard you let the water up about 1/8th of an inch!! Thanks for clarifying that, I just adjusted my water level! Mine havent actually germinated yet, so I think they'll be fine!

I'll just tag something extra on here.

I grow lettuce using the floating 'raft' type system - basically a styrofoam platform with holes for net baskets cut in.

Lettuce seeds are planted direct into rockwool, then into 2" net baskets and surrounded by hydroton before placement in the raft. The whole lot floats, with the net baskets pretty much submerged to the top, in nutrient rich airstone oxygenated water - the seeds do not die and the plants flourish.

OK, if I was doing DWC I would have my water about an inch below the baskets as urbangardenfarmer said.

Just to say that you can grow seeds immersed in water, as long as you aerate.

I have something weird to add here that happened to me yesterday. When I planted my seeds in my DWC system, my 4 yr old son was helping me and, well, lets just say we had three seeds fall into the water. As I was checking my EC and PH yesterday I happened to glance down into the water, and I'll be darned if there weren't three seeds down at the bottom of my container! I thought that was pretty amazing. The cucumber seed was already sprouting the first baby leaves! SO I planted them and so far they seem like they're going to grow fine!