DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

usblues420 said:

Hey Heisenberg I am so glad I just found this thread. I have the brown slime algae starting to develop on my 2 week old plants in DWC. I am sorry if this question has already been asked, but the ancient forest EWC is that the alaskan humis stuff made by general organics? Also will the tea still do the job if the ZHO is missing. Im not quite sure if the local hydro shop has it in stock. THanks

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Ancient Forest is Alaskan humus combined with EWC and marketed by Gen Hydroponics/Organics. Without the ZHO you still have an excellent chance at beating the slime. The ZHO simply ensures you have disease fighting trichoderma. Your local shop should have something with trichoderma, ask them.

Meanwhile the tea I was hesitant to use because of the mucus covered air stone is working just fine. In fact I stuck the air stone, mucus and all, into one of my budding buckets and the next day it was clean again. Looks like although the tea was really thick with microorganisms, none of them were harmful, and by the time it's diluted in the res things are fine.

Excellent thread Heisenberg. I use 5 gallon "Bubble Buckets" in all my grows and run 3 gallons of nutrients in each one. I change the buckets each week and top off with ph corrected water only when needed through the week. Would you recommend 1 cup of the "Tea" at bucket change and then 1 or 2 cups during the week?

BloodHoundsRule said:

Excellent thread Heisenberg. I use 5 gallon "Bubble Buckets" in all my grows and run 3 gallons of nutrients in each one. I change the buckets each week and top off with ph corrected water only when needed through the week. Would you recommend 1 cup of the "Tea" at bucket change and then 1 or 2 cups during the week?

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Yep exactly. Leave out the bennies during the final flush.

Edit* This is exactly what I do because I am trying to prevent slime, not purge it. Someone who is fighting disease should feel comfortable using the 1 cup per gallon at initial fill up.

everyone send some rep hesinenbergs way for all his hard work, great thread man. one of my favs!

Heisenberg said:

Yep exactly. Leave out the bennies during the final flush.

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Thanks again + reps. Picked up the last few things I needed today. Start the brew tomorrow.

i've been using floralicious plus, to get more fungi, and was wondering how much you would recommend. its the really concentrated stuff, and has a NPK of like 2-.01-.2 or something like that

killakron said:

i've been using floralicious plus, to get more fungi, and was wondering how much you would recommend. its the really concentrated stuff, and has a NPK of like 2-.01-.2 or something like that

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1 teaspoon to 5 gallon of water is what that is labeled.

so finally i have my first 'hydro' grow on its way. I went with one single plant for the first round, and if all goes well, ill absolutely add a few more buckets and pumps. had it not been for the slime busters thread, i would not have given it a whirl. so be proud Heisenberg, if you arent already. you said post some pics, so i might as well. some poo brew, an ak47, serious seeds. Looks like the plant is young, but not really the case at all. I first tried the sure to grow, and well, for a beginner, its not a sure thing. The plug would be too wet, or not wet at all. Just couldnt find a happy medium. actually cut the little lass out of the s.t.g., and transplanted to a root riot, later to the hydroton. so she is around 21 days from germ. FYI- the brew works great in soilless as well. couple ak in promix- 10 days flower. little light burn.

- I was wondering if it would be ok to post some general dwc q's in this thread. ive looked elsewhere for answers, but not all conditions are the same. since we are using the brew, figured this would be the place to get answers for this particular 'style'. and seeing most have overcome the slime, it seemed fitting that you all were probably the 'go to' people.
- Ive got some singed tips, as you can see in the picture. little to high ppm? 700.
-so i understand the air gap, once the roots are in the water. I have 8in net pots (i now see i should go 6inch, for space reasons.) so had the water almost 2 inches up the pots. it was necessary at first, but I now the water is just touching the bottom, with about a dozen 'rope' roots hanging plenty far in the water. the fuzzy roots just started today. the roots were only an inch yesterday. so i quit top feeding. Soooo When should one start considering lowering the water level, to create an air gap. the pics of the plant drooping a bit are from the water level just at the bottom. too low/ high?
If i shouldnt post these, just let me know. once again, thanks all for your time, and knowledge.

just curious- ive heard of outstanding yields in hydro- dwc especially. what are some yield benchmarks you all have personally grown? I impressed myself with several 7 oz plants in soilless, white russian. so i hope to 'blow it outa the water' no pun intended.

*hash picture not intended...

Looks like a little nute burn to me. May want to back off a little. As far as the water level goes, I run the same system only I use the 4 inch net pots. Had to raise the water level in the beginning also but just started lowering the water by a half gallon with each weekly rez change until I hit my mark of 3 gallons in the bucket.

as long as you have lots of air bubbles in the water i'd keep the water line right at the lowest roots, possibly even lower by a tiny fraction. I find this encourages growth as the roots reach for the water. Once the roots reach the water the start growing different, longer and thicker rather than wider and more root hairs. By keeping this water level just below the roots the bubbles exploding on the roots case the roots to grow many root hairs to catch the bubbles, which later become larger and give you more medium sized roots, rather than 4 large rope roots. as far as yield goes, as you probably know, it completely depends all environmental factors, the most limiting of most gardens tend to be the light.. meaning the most general accurate measure you can go by is per watt of light. so if you running a 600 watt light, 1 pound is considered a success, and 2 pounds is more than you probably hoped for as a max so this is a great yield, and some people have pulled off even more, though this is very hard to do.. if your running 1000 watts these numbers are still close, but 1 pound is considered a minimum success and 2 is a fun benchmark to shoot for though still difficult. and if you meant yield per plant, well the max is still yet to be determined, though much roots space is needed and if your running 5 gals you could pull a pound off 1 plant if you do it right. i see doubleleds is trying to grow 10 POUND plants. he's using a 50 gal for each plant and may switch to 100 if its not enough space. i think these will be the largest plants ever grown indoors. good luck, happy growing

thanks for the responses guys. ill keep the q's in the dwc threads for now on. side note, i top fed some tea, and it really encouraged the roots to shoot out of the net cup. I really cant believe how fast they grow in water. a new leaf set everyday. I now have dozens of yard long, white, hairy roots. temps above 75, and she doesnt seem to mind. thanks all!!

Heisenberg said:

The recipe is really simple. Start with non-chlorinated water. I make 2 gallons at a time, but you can easily adjust the additives for whatever amount you wish to make. Now put the water into a bucket and throw in a couple air stones. The more air the better. You want the water to be almost turbulent from the bubbles. Now add 15-30ml of aquashield and about 1/4-1/2 scoop of the ZHO powder. You will be breeding these into the billions so it doesn't really matter how much you start with. Now take an old sock or pantyhose and fill it with about 2 handfuls of EWC. Tie off the sock and place it in the water above an air stone, or better yet, feed an air stone down into the sock itself. If you want, you can just throw the EWC directly into the water and strain it out later with cheesecloth. Next add about a tablespoon of molasses to wake up the microbes and give them something to eat. You could also use any sort of carboload or bud sweetener. We will only be feeding the microbes in this tea; never add food for the microbes to the res itself. It's okay if the bennies in the res starve. You will be replacing them every few days. Now let the tea bubble at room tempeture for 48 hours. It can be used after 24, but will be more active and diverse at 48. You can now store the tea in the fridge where it will stay fresh for about 10 days. Once it starts to go bad it will develop an odor. If you ever detect an odor from your tea, throw it out and make a new batch.

Initially, add about 1 cup to your res for every gallon of water, and then add 1 cup total every 3 days after. Your water might get a little cloudy but your roots will stay white and stimulated. When you use tea and practice proper res maintenance you can feel confident your roots will be healthy. By breeding the microbes this way your products should last about 5x longer.

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Hey man this thread looks like just the info I need, my roots are just starting to hit the water and are getting the clear jizz on the tips that are in the water, you can also see the jizz floating around in the rez.....but I have a question for ya heisenberg.....I dont have any more airline/pump/stones to use in a tea.... anyway I can use your method or something similar without having to go buy everything you've suggested plus a new pump and stones?

Well I decided to just buy another air pump and stones. For my tea Im going to be using EWC, molasses and great white. Hope it helps!!!

crazy4life14 said:

Well I decided to just buy another air pump and stones. For my tea Im going to be using EWC, molasses and great white. Hope it helps!!!

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That should work out well. I use the Ancient Forest, molasses and great white and it works great.

BloodHoundsRule said:

That should work out well. I use the Ancient Forest, molasses and great white and it works great.

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Ya my hyrdo store didnt have ancient forest so i just got whatever kind it was they had in stock. Do you make your tea just how described here but with a scoop of great white instead of the other fungi and bacterial products? Well i hope so thats how i already mixed it lol. Also how long do you brew it for with great white? Still 1-2 days?

crazy4life14 said:

Ya my hyrdo store didnt have ancient forest so i just got whatever kind it was they had in stock. Do you make your tea just how described here but with a scoop of great white instead of the other fungi and bacterial products? Well i hope so thats how i already mixed it lol. Also how long do you brew it for with great white? Still 1-2 days?

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The EWC will be just fine. if you are brewing 1 or 2 gallons of the tea a 1/2 scoop of Great White will be plenty. Brew the tea no less then 2 days.

BloodHoundsRule said:

The EWC will be just fine. if you are brewing 1 or 2 gallons of the tea a 1/2 scoop of Great White will be plenty. Brew the tea no less then 2 days.

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Well my tea is still brewing, I used 1 scoop of the great white for 2 gallons, good to know I can use less next time as it will last me longer....been 24 hours now and it still doesn't have any foam on top. Is that how you know its ready, when it has foam?

crazy4life14 said:

Well my tea is still brewing, I used 1 scoop of the great white for 2 gallons, good to know I can use less next time as it will last me longer....been 24 hours now and it still doesn't have any foam on top. Is that how you know its ready, when it has foam?

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I think the foaming started on mine the last 12 hours of brewing. Don't know for sure. I started mine on a Friday morning and no foam in a day and half. Got up Sunday to start my bucket changes and that's when I noticed the foam.

Right on. Guess I'll just kick back and wait for the foam to begin. One more question....does the bucket I'm brewing in need complete darkness or some light exposure or does it not matter?