Drainage pythium prevention Ebb Flow

Hi,

I wanted to know some techniques to prevent root bourne illnesses such as pythium in an ebb and flow system. After suffering from this problem a few times I am sure poor drainage caused much of my problems, coming from NFT, where this was never a problem, I am having a tough time with ebb and flow and pythium.

I am using flexible plastic pipes to drain the nutrient soup from my tray to my reservoir. Problem is, sometimes the pipe goes below and than above the reservoir in height before ending into the reservoir, thus every time a fill and drain occurs, some fluid is left in the flexible drainage pipe. If my timer is filling and draining only twice a day, I am concerned pythium might grow in the warm fluid stuck in the pipe. Is this a real concern? My last 2 failed grows I am thinking were due to left over fluid left in the trays from poor drainage, I plan to fix this promptly, but I am now concerned about the drainage pipe.

ebb and flow, if done right, is less prone to root diseases, but as you said, the drainage must be good. The drainage pipe should be okay imo as long as the bottom of the tray where the roots are sitting is perfectly drained. if you are concerned about it, then find a way to drain it. h2o2 can help clean your system every now and then

zem, thanks for your insight. why do you think the drainage pipe is okay to still have return fluid coming back? Could you give me your reasoning for this?

What would happen is the drainage pipe would be backed up until the next flood cycle in say 4 hours or even 10 hours since it could be after a dark period, and then the new fluid would take place of the old stuff in the pipe, so the pipe would be completely exchanged with fluid every few hours but I'm afraid this might be just enough time for pythium to proliferate.

zem said:

ebb and flow, if done right, is less prone to root diseases, but as you said, the drainage must be good. The drainage pipe should be okay imo as long as the bottom of the tray where the roots are sitting is perfectly drained. if you are concerned about it, then find a way to drain it. h2o2 can help clean your system every now and then

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well Ekhart, I happen to have many res's of different sizes all in this system, different crops veggies and such, some are even exposed to light leaks and minor algae, and none has any airpumps in it, and i leave some pumps 12 hours off, and still i do not get pythium in any of my crops. If you have good drainage in growrocks, the roots are practically growing in air, so you will have hard time trying to induce pythium if you wanted to