DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

Senn said:

Definitely good advice.

As I mentioned briefly this is far from my first dance. I'm an old timer who has never seen it this bad in over a decade of rdwc. I started 20 yrs ago, fumbled along w/o the Internet. Ebb/flow, sog in promix, seen thrips, spider mites, battled root rot before, but this is a new trip for sure.

I blame complacency, I stopped learning, and it bit me hard. When I found rdwc it was heaven, and has done well for me, more or less for a long time. Constant tweaks, but never total failure. That's a kick in the gut, and humbling. Thanks to this great thread I have hope, a plan, and some explanations for the how.

Will update will my progress. First inoculation tonight.
Big thanks to Heis!

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Well, if you are re-ciculating like I am, things are different somehow. I didn't dose this week, roots are fine, but that myco smell is back, so probably in the pipes i exposed when I pumped out. This does work.

Tell us how it goes. Cheers!

BTW, I'm also running 30ml of Excleurator in 20 gals. I should have never stopped that.

I bought Wiggle Worm Earthworm Castings instead of AF, it was alot cheaper. I hope it works as it is all I can afford right now, I also picked up the mycogrow to make the tea.

Funny I has this stuff pop up and kill my last grow, I cleaned the everliving crap out everthing no brown build up untill I decided to check the PH it was high so I add some of the general hyrdo- ponics PH down and bam 2 day later brown crap.....I considered changing mediums but I have 50-75 bucks tied up in hydro nutes ph, res, air stones ect....

Doer said:

Well, if you are re-ciculating like I am, things are different somehow. I didn't dose this week, roots are fine, but that myco smell is back, so probably in the pipes i exposed when I pumped out. This does work.

Tell us how it goes. Cheers!

BTW, I'm also running 30ml of Excleurator in 20 gals. I should have never stopped that.

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Thanks again man.. this has been a mind bender.. good to see folks who can relate.

I am seeing positive signs, so wanted to check in.

It has been about 36 hours since my initial treatment.

I have two rooms, 2x600W in cooltubes in each. Six 5gal buckets, recirc via 1/4 inch tubing and 1/2 drains to res.. 16-20 gallons in each area.

Room A, has ladies that are 2 1/2 weeks into flower, they had stopped growing, yellow roots below the waterline, some whiteness above, but bud formation and stretch are seriously bad. They will likely get yanked as soon as clones are ready for that area, but I'm seeing how the tea does just the same. I don't think they can be salvaged to a reasonable finish.

Room B, has rooted babies that hit the room a week or more ago, they also had seemed to stop growing, until I started dosing with h202, abandoning my use of 'Hydro Sparkle', as it clearly wasn't working anymore. New shoots, were extremely slow, and variegated with clear signs of lockouts. As you examine the lower leaves now, signs of all the major lockouts on different leaves are visible.. some look N def pale, some are mottled with mg def, and others are browning severely from the edges due to all of the above. I had cleaned things for this run, with everything except bleach.. h202, iso.

However! New growth is coming in a more even GREEN! Some of the shine, I associate with cell turgidity is coming back. Previously leaves were dull, and I can imagine on a cellular level, wrinkled, stomata closed to preserve what little water she could suck up. New shoots of white roots from the netpots, but still early to say I'm out of the woods. By end of light cycle today, they are a bit limper than I like.. I prefer fans at 45 degrees, slightly cupping up from the centerline of the finger.

I wanted to add.. I am tracing my problem back to the initial slime infestation of last summer. Hydro Sparkle, did help rid me of it, when h202, couldn't even put a dent. But that fooled me as I'm pretty sure the brown algae never quite went away, caused pythium, which got stronger and stronger. My PH, in two previous runs had crashed, nightly.. from 6.1, to the 4's.. I can't believe I got them to finish at all. So to be clear for later folks, my issue now is clearly pythium, but brought on by the brown slime, IN MY VEG AREA, and clone dome likely. I had added a pre-veg stage to let the netpots get full of roots before the big rooms.. trying to speed things up.. that was the change that sealed it for me. I haven't shocked my well water in some time either.. so. and also lost my source of isopropyl, to clean, around that same time, since replaced. There ya go if that helps anyone sort out just wtf is happening to their plants it was worth it.

To be clear, my tea 'so far', is only my local EWC, and mycos. I'm picking up aquashield and hopefully zho later today, so it can only get better.

Sorry so long winded, and I"m sure the same stuff is covered earlier in the thread, but that is my read on how things went down.
More concise updates as things progress.

Many thanks to Heisenberg.. and the folks who hashed this stuff out way back in this thread.. this was a problem that I never dreamed could be solved this way, but if things continue to progress, I"m sold, its teas from now on!

Senn said:

Ok. Where to start. I've been doing rdwc for over 10 years. Success, moderate troubles but never anything like this.
The last eight to ten months have been hell. I found this thread the other night and signed up just to see the pics.
I had the thick snot last summer. Picked up hydro sparkle a DNF product and things got better for awhile. Previously, h2o2 took care of any root issues.
Until a few cycles ago all hell broke loose, nothing will finish right, healthy leaves become inverted canoes in a heartbeat.
New clones hit the netpots and do badly, hit the big lights and its wilt and mg lockouts like crazy. Until reading most of this thread I was ready to give up. The snot is gone I was doing everything just as I always do, but shit is so not right.
So my local shops don't have the ingredients. I have ordered the ancient forest, and mycogrow from fungi.com.
Until they arrive I grabbed distilled water, molasses, ewc, and since it was cheap some of homegrowns "mycrose pro". A search of the thread revealed no results for that product.
Its all bubbling away with a heater at 73f. I know the ewc are ok for now but any worries with this mycrose pro? No info to be found about it. I just am dying to see if this works for me or else it's drain to waste systems in my future.

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I am afraid i am in the exact same position i have been growing for years then suddenly everything looks messed up, cal mag/N looking defs, pink stems wilting stretching and mutated growth.

Everything i buy dies, even if i keep it stupidly dry in coco, i cant manage to grow or keep any mothers healthy, its all since i moved house and set my friend up with an uc system so im not sure where the bacteria is coming from, i have tons invested in grow equipment so i feel like i cant just quit and keep putting what little i can into a way around this.

Im on the 3rd week of tea usage i got the mycogrow molasses but couldnt find ancient forest so just got sum local earth worm castings, i think the tea is doing somthing the roots seem different im just not having the effects i was hoping for, leaf damage continues while plant growth is still crawling at an increadibly slow pace and developing mutated, no real sign of slime this crop but there isnt enough of a rootball to really guage it by that yet. Im not sure weve ever seen slime, i have had light brown foam in water after using vitalink innoculants and my friends roots just seem to look strange very white but but very thin feeder roots and some light brown patches, again hes not at a stage where theres many roots come out the net pot yet.

I am grateful for this thread and all who try to add to it thank you heisenburg and posters, i would have quit a while bak but im broke and my only hope is to get somthin goin so im not buyin meds at rip off prices, i have so much invested in equipment that i feel i have to give it one last go at throwin money at it.

I was wondering if you guys might think it would be worth investing in an ro machine and sulphur burner as 1 last attempt to hopefully lower the contamination chances incase the bacteria is cming in airborne or in my water supply, if this fails i truely have no idea what else to do, i have tried to reframe from resorting to chemical fungicides as i probably wont even want to smoke the bud if it does work.

I am asking your advice in a bad situation guys, should i spend my last couple hundred that i cant really afford? Ro machine n sulphur burner? Or should i just quit and try ot sell all my grow equipment. I have no idea where this bacteria is coming from

It just doesnt seem like im getting the effects others do with the tea, and its so hard to try to diagnose the problem i have it doesnt seem quite the same as others on this thread but whatever it is it takes hold of my plants and slows them to the point where it costs more to grow than it would to buy rip off meds, ive tried very dry conditions in coco while using tea but they dont grow, ive tried dm zone h2o2 and bleech (accidently overdosed on bleech in my uc system i think when the brown foam appeared and leaf damage increased rapidly plants wud not grow again afterward)

I am going to have one last attempt at flood and drain dwc hybrid i used to run to try n dry up the problem, i will run tea and i was thinking of getting a sulphur burner and ro machine to try sterelize the air, grow space and water more thoroughly this go around, what do you guys think?

Well just what you say about retail meds, is the rock against the hard place. I think it is so simple that only humans can screw it up. If you threw a handful of seed out a south facing window, they will grow. It is a weed.

So, to me it is the art of growing and keeping roots. I too have had no problem runs and then slime. But, in the end, if I can get a system with 2 rooms and 2 mothers, I can be self sustaining and it wll be a lot cheaper than retail.

And being a weed, it can get by on very little food and water. In fact the main killer is going over.

That's the dream. It's horticulture hobby...and not the easiest by any means. But, it is just a weed, compared to Orchids for example.

I was just wondering if we could use honey as an alternative to the molasses??? Has any tried it or is that a disaster waiting to happen???

I use both white and brown sugar. As far as I know sugar is sugar. I think the reason molasses is so popular is cause it also contains other things in it that benefit plants. As far as honey goes; I would say as long as you break it down in hot water it should not be an issue. I think honey actually has more sugars than molasses.

SHABOOGY1 said:

I was just wondering if we could use honey as an alternative to the molasses??? Has any tried it or is that a disaster waiting to happen???

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Honey has antibacterial properties. As it gets broken down it forms h202.

boxu said:

I am afraid i am in the exact same position i have been growing for years then suddenly everything looks messed up, cal mag/N looking defs, pink stems wilting stretching and mutated growth.

Everything i buy dies, even if i keep it stupidly dry in coco, i cant manage to grow or keep any mothers healthy, its all since i moved house and set my friend up with an uc system so im not sure where the bacteria is coming from, i have tons invested in grow equipment so i feel like i cant just quit and keep putting what little i can into a way around this.

Im on the 3rd week of tea usage i got the mycogrow molasses but couldnt find ancient forest so just got sum local earth worm castings, i think the tea is doing somthing the roots seem different im just not having the effects i was hoping for, leaf damage continues while plant growth is still crawling at an increadibly slow pace and developing mutated, no real sign of slime this crop but there isnt enough of a rootball to really guage it by that yet. Im not sure weve ever seen slime, i have had light brown foam in water after using vitalink innoculants and my friends roots just seem to look strange very white but but very thin feeder roots and some light brown patches, again hes not at a stage where theres many roots come out the net pot yet.

I am grateful for this thread and all who try to add to it thank you heisenburg and posters, i would have quit a while bak but im broke and my only hope is to get somthin goin so im not buyin meds at rip off prices, i have so much invested in equipment that i feel i have to give it one last go at throwin money at it.

I was wondering if you guys might think it would be worth investing in an ro machine and sulphur burner as 1 last attempt to hopefully lower the contamination chances incase the bacteria is cming in airborne or in my water supply, if this fails i truely have no idea what else to do, i have tried to reframe from resorting to chemical fungicides as i probably wont even want to smoke the bud if it does work.

I am asking your advice in a bad situation guys, should i spend my last couple hundred that i cant really afford? Ro machine n sulphur burner? Or should i just quit and try ot sell all my grow equipment. I have no idea where this bacteria is coming from

It just doesnt seem like im getting the effects others do with the tea, and its so hard to try to diagnose the problem i have it doesnt seem quite the same as others on this thread but whatever it is it takes hold of my plants and slows them to the point where it costs more to grow than it would to buy rip off meds, ive tried very dry conditions in coco while using tea but they dont grow, ive tried dm zone h2o2 and bleech (accidently overdosed on bleech in my uc system i think when the brown foam appeared and leaf damage increased rapidly plants wud not grow again afterward)

I am going to have one last attempt at flood and drain dwc hybrid i used to run to try n dry up the problem, i will run tea and i was thinking of getting a sulphur burner and ro machine to try sterelize the air, grow space and water more thoroughly this go around, what do you guys think?

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Sulphur will get into your water via the bubble stones, wreak havoc on your bennies and cause some nutes to drop out. RO machine will not prevent slime, but you can test if it would help your situation by using one plant and store bought water.

Heisenberg said:

Sulphur will get into your water via the bubble stones, wreak havoc on your bennies and cause some nutes to drop out. RO machine will not prevent slime, but you can test if it would help your situation by using one plant and store bought water.

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Thanks for the help heisenburg, so just to clarify i should not use sulphur burner when pumps are on or not at all?

What im thinking is if i filter water then try sulphur burner and see an effect then it may tell me wether its in the water or in the air so i havean idea of how to go about stopping it.

I tried distilled water from different places for a 2 week test but it was expensive and was 0.4ec so was very poor filtered water. I use this to brew the tea but now im thinking maybe chloramine inthe bottled water is messing with my tea so im gonna boil the next lot for half hour b4 i brew my next tea and c if it helps maybe get it foaming this time.

Basically the tea is doing somthing but stuff still isnt growing at normal pace i think maybe if i just reduce spores contaminating my system via air and water supply it may reduce the bad bacteria count and help my tea work that bit better maybe?

So wot do you think heisenburg? Is it worth trying ro filter and thentrying a sulphur burner? To reduce risk of reintroducing bad bacteria/find where they come from? Or Should i just try to brew better tea or maybe get ancient forrest so im exact in my ingredients? Its the £100+ shipping that kills the ancient forest for me but if you think im better off spending that money on ancient forest rather than ro filter n sulphur burner then i will do it, itll probably be worlds most expencive aact but i dont care if it works lol.

Thank you for the timespent listening to my problem heisenburg i bet it gets annoying same questions asked over agen by different people, ive been reading your thread for some time now n im think iv read it all thats the only reason im asking your advice directly. Thanks man

Does anyone see an issue with how I'm doing this? ; Bubbling tap water(1gal) for 24hrs first. 2ml Orca, 1 cup EWC and .5 cup brown sugar. This should be the same or close to the original right? Thanks.

No, you need RO or distilled. Too much chlorimines.

And you need 2 gals min.

The second 24 hrs is where the action, and not much action in only 1 gal of water.

Those are the original instructions.

How would 2gal make a different over 1??? It's just ratios?

NeWcS said:

How would 2gal make a different over 1??? It's just ratios?

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No, it's not mixing a batch proportional to the water. It's not 5x more for 5 gals. It is an organism bloom. Need room and need dissolved Oxygen and Time to produce it, I would only guess. But, it doesn't seem to work well with low vol of water.

Not enough Dissolved O2, I think.

I am not arguing with you I just don't see the logic in what you're driving at.

But anyways, Are the items I'm using along the same lines as others are using? Each one of my 'ingredients' follow the same line right??? Thanks.

To the sulfer question earlier. Heisenburg has a point. But for those like myself, fresh air from outside the room feeds my airpumps. I designed it this way to prevent CO2 contamination in my res for when I run the CO2 generator. This could solve the issue stated by Heisenburg if you have that option with your pump.

I think I might have root aphids.. Can I use Azatrol while using tea??

Please help me this stuff took a healthy dead rez and gave it slime in 2 days, that was weeks ago. (Rdwc)

My aquashield was new and expired. Physan 20 system cleaning, dm zone, h2o2. Still unhealthy roots.

Can I brew the ancient forest and myco without aquashield? Im scared to try again my first went to hell very fast.

Myco.Ancient Forrest and Molasses

Heisenberg said:

I simply use small lava rocks, the type you can get at walmart in the BBQ area. I drizzle molasses over them and place them into the tea brew. I then place a few in the res of my young plants who do not yet have enough roots to provide housing. For a really large res a koi pond mat works well, however I do not see anything wrong with what you describe. Should work just as well.

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Hi Mr Heisenberg,

After brewing the tea for 24 hrs, the lava rocks have a coating of slime on it. Is this normal? I used your exact formula (aquashield, zho, ancient forest, ewc, coco coir). I drizzled the molasses over the rocks and put them into the bubbling water mixture. The water doesn't smell mossy yet -- it still smells like molasses. Here's what the rock looks like after 24 hours: http://i.imgur.com/i8XJkcz.jpg

Is this normal, or did my brew become contaminated?