bennies 'v' sterile 'v' nothing

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
No it doesn't. It comes down to having enough oxygen in your nutrient solution.

Knowledge fail. Not all harmfull bacteria is aerobic.

here is an idea for you Internet interactions..have a clue what the fuck your talking about. It just makes things better for everyone.
 

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
Ive only ever tried bennies and always failed.

I tried once with roots excel, roots were amazing white but the system failed. The next go i failed as high res temps, i wasnt using EWC i was adding a benifical bacteria powder similar to great white to the system which didnt seem to save the plants but the temps were top 80's. Then i made the tea wrong, i followed the recipie but i brewed at only 60oF and the bennies didnt wake and eat the mollasses, so when i added it into the system i caused myself the problems..

The last attempt, i am sure it was adding too much bennie powder as the roots were rotted when leaving the rockwall and a little slimey roots in the water, i think adding too much powder to the roots every few days caused it. I didnt use any tea, just a very strong mix of benifical poweder...

I am having one more attempted sticking to the RichRich/Heisenburg recipe, brew exactly as they say with the exact ingredients. I have a UV sterilizer on the water butt, the water comes out the RO filter into the water butt and a pump recirculates the water into a large 36w UV sterilizer for a few days before adding into the RDWC system

So this is my last go at bennies, then its going to be the HTH pool shock...
Perhaps you are using too much molassis? Tea or not your water HAD to be cool. 67 is ideal, we go down to 60 the last couple days
 

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
I still have no idea what you guys are talking about but it sure sounds complicated. I just mix some GH in some tap water in 5 gal DWC buckets and the weed grows like weeds. Slimy roots?? It must be a problem in the envoirnment, good nutes and water shouldn't cause slime. Whatever works I guess, but I still prefer the KISS method.

Sometimes I play with my roots and massage them. The coarse texture reminds me of rinsing my thick hair in my hippie days. The dynagro plants have super white roots. The GH roots can take on a little color but when I massage them it rinses right off. It's just the roots absorbing the nutes out of the nute solution. I would be bummed if they were slimy. Maybe it's a temperature thing? I still don't get it.
I don't get it either... I think they're all crazy.
 

mainliner

Well-Known Member
iv havent been getting alerts for this thread lol and its mine ha.

its a never-ending battle between the topic imo
there's people with good water and some with bad

there's people who swear by bennies and people who swear by a dead res.

personally i think bennies are a waste of time when all they do is kill bad ones ..... If they don't have any to kill they sit domant or die until you feed them or top them up..... Leaving dead bennies floating around your res.

bennies are for soil for the roots and nutes connection and hydroponics should be clean and a straight nuts to root uptake without the need for bennies Imo .


i may be wrong :)
 

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
or u could have good water lol

* jelous*
I just think most people fucked something up in the past, ended up with a rotting plant, and blamed it on the infection rather than the poor immune system. After improving their growing skills, they stop getting root rot, and attribute their success to whatever they did different. If that meant removing the aluminum foil off their walls, then aluminum foil must be evil from that point forward. (i'd argue that aluminum foil is somewhat harmless, but is a good sign of a new grower, and thus correlated with failure, but is never the reason for failure. When was the last time you saw a plant burned up by hot spots and thought 'that's what you get for using aluminum foil!!')

Would you expect your hand to rot off because you touch bad water? Would you expect a corpses hand to not rot off with sterile water? Unhealthy and dead tissue is prone to rot. Unhealthy roots are what I think are the case of root rot 95% of the time. It's dead tissue that leads to infection, not infection that leads to dead tissue most of the time.
 
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mainliner

Well-Known Member
people spray a cutting of a cactus with a weak chlorine solution and it stops infection or rot. If they left it unsterile there's a chance it will rot
 

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
Sometimes the rot just happens, I guess more so in a dwc set up. I've yet to have root rot in anything except a cloner, and I guess that's technically not root rot since there are no roots yet, so stem rot? That was gross and messed up a lot of cuttings for me and wasting a lot of time getting a grow going. It makes sense that bacteria only infects unhealthy roots, just like when you cut your finger and if you don't clean it, bacteria could infect it. There will always be a single root somewhere in the root mass that isn't in the ideal health, so I think that's why root rot can happen even when people think their roots are healthy. I think taking precautions is ideal, it's like putting your seatbelt on before going on I-5
 

gand3r

Active Member
I have had continual root rot, i mentioned this earlier when using bennies. I kept thinking it was various things bad tea/light/etc etc, the system is top spec using a chiller.

I think i now have an answer to my misery.. I noticed my roots always come out the hydroten rotted, taking AGES to show out the bottom and when they leave the hydroten they are brown, which means the rot is starting in the hydroten.

I have always put my stones in the dishwasher.... I never used any tablets but the dishwasher uses salt, it must be the hydroten absorbing the salt thus killing the roots.

What you guys recon???????
 

tekdc911

Well-Known Member
I have had continual root rot, i mentioned this earlier when using bennies. I kept thinking it was various things bad tea/light/etc etc, the system is top spec using a chiller.

I think i now have an answer to my misery.. I noticed my roots always come out the hydroten rotted, taking AGES to show out the bottom and when they leave the hydroten they are brown, which means the rot is starting in the hydroten.

I have always put my stones in the dishwasher.... I never used any tablets but the dishwasher uses salt, it must be the hydroten absorbing the salt thus killing the roots.

What you guys recon???????
sounds like your expanded clay balls have herpes
 

Tone5500

Well-Known Member
Well your roots are trying to run from your solution , just like when you give a plant to much light t turns over and stops growing . What is your nute solution and type of water @gand3r
 

Rahz

Well-Known Member
If you're running synthetic and have proper temps and oxygenation and get root rot in the first couple weeks the most likely source of harmful microbes is that it's coming from the cloner. If you're getting healthy clones and don't want to mess with the clone setup you have running I would suggest a single inoculation added to the rez during week 1. Some sources of information suggest that such a strategy will result in all the bennies dieing but this isn't true. Once the roots are inoculated with bennies it will stay that way, assuming all your other parameters are good. Simple fact is that without a sterilizer something will be growing in that water. There's no such thing as a sterile rez otherwise. You will likely end up with a mono-culture, but if it's a beneficial mono-culture then that's a good thing. I'm fairly certain that those who don't add anything have an unseen mono-culture helping them out.

I always start week 1 with some tea. I quit using EWC because I got tired of straining out the rocks.
A good simple recipe is: 1 teaspoon of honey, 1 knife tip of some brand of bennies, 1 gallon of water, bubble brew for 48 hours @ 72 degrees. We can call this the KISS tea. Great White or some other full spectrum product is okay, but even myco oriented inoculants like ZHO power will work fine.
 

gand3r

Active Member
Well your roots are trying to run from your solution , just like when you give a plant to much light t turns over and stops growing . What is your nute solution and type of water @gand3r
The water is RO, the nutrients are h&g Aqua a/b, DM silica. The rot is starting up in the hydrogen as the roots are always tinted when leaving the hydroten, it's either adding to much bennie powder or the fact I dishwashed the hydroten.

If you're running synthetic and have proper temps and oxygenation and get root rot in the first couple weeks the most likely source of harmful microbes is that it's coming from the cloner. If you're getting healthy clones and don't want to mess with the clone setup you have running I would suggest a single inoculation added to the rez during week 1. Some sources of information suggest that such a strategy will result in all the bennies dieing but this isn't true. Once the roots are inoculated with bennies it will stay that way, assuming all your other parameters are good. Simple fact is that without a sterilizer something will be growing in that water. There's no such thing as a sterile rez otherwise. You will likely end up with a mono-culture, but if it's a beneficial mono-culture then that's a good thing. I'm fairly certain that those who don't add anything have an unseen mono-culture helping them out.

I always start week 1 with some tea. I quit using EWC because I got tired of straining out the rocks.
A good simple recipe is: 1 teaspoon of honey, 1 knife tip of some brand of bennies, 1 gallon of water, bubble brew for 48 hours @ 72 degrees. We can call this the KISS tea. Great White or some other full spectrum product is okay, but even myco oriented inoculants like ZHO power will work fine.
Thanks for your advice. The clones are in rockwall and have healthy roots.

Do you think it's OK to get the clones grown in coco in a solo cup then once the roots are root bound in the solo cup transfer into the hydroten dwc. The coco shouldn't break away if the roots are fully established.

It just allows the clones to be established with some bennies in the coco cup.

What u guys think.
 

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
Hmm. Are you positive the hydroton was cleaned well enough so no root particles were left on them? If there's any old dead roots, they can cause problems. I've had it happen a couple of times. But after I add the pool shock or DM zone, the roots always clear up. Does the brown wipe off from the roots? Maybe it's the hydroton dust that is discoloring the roots?
 

gand3r

Active Member
The stones were cleaned, they were knew the and the first time they had been used.

The thing is, this has happened about 3 times now. Whenever the roots leave the stones the roots are brown. The only thing i can pinpoint it too is because i dishwashered the hydroten, maybe the stones absorbed the salt from the machine and that's caused the root issues. Or the fact i kept adding benifical bacteria powder.

Im trying again soon, i have cleaned the RDWC system, using physan. Also the hydroten is new, cleaned, i even sterilized the hydroten in a pressure cooker to be 100% sure.

What do you think about the clones started in Solo cup in Coco, then transplanting into the hydroten (including the roots mass in the coco).
 

Twerkle

Well-Known Member
I
The stones were cleaned, they were knew the and the first time they had been used.

The thing is, this has happened about 3 times now. Whenever the roots leave the stones the roots are brown. The only thing i can pinpoint it too is because i dishwashered the hydroten, maybe the stones absorbed the salt from the machine and that's caused the root issues. Or the fact i kept adding benifical bacteria powder.

Im trying again soon, i have cleaned the RDWC system, using physan. Also the hydroten is new, cleaned, i even sterilized the hydroten in a pressure cooker to be 100% sure.

What do you think about the clones started in Solo cup in Coco, then transplanting into the hydroten (including the roots mass in the coco).
I had/am having a similar issue. I finally got the roots to come out white but now they get slimed when I touch the water. If they are at an early stage (no roots coming out of the net pot) try removing the hydroton and giving em a h202 solution dip and put them in new hydroton. My problem was my starting cube was too low in the net pot and was never drying out completely. Roots were dying in the hydroton and I couldn't see them. Still having problems with roots but they are coming out of the net pots at least now. hope this helps some.
 

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
Good tip twerkle, I had that problem too. Getting the water level right is crucial. The roots will dry out and die in the hydroton if not getting enough water (causing dead roots to rot) and the plug can be too wet causing rot as well. Always start the water level 1/2" above the hydroton until roots start growing out. Also, plant the plug 3/4 of the way up the net pot to avoid over watering it. Seems to have helped me doing it this way.

I have no experience with Coco, but I've done it with promix and it works just fine. I try to wash off most of the medium as I can before putting it in the hydroton. Don't just plant the whole thing of Coco because it will stay to wet blocking o2 and rotting the roots
 
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