DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

I added the tea to my system and my roots are loving every moment of it. BTW my rez temps are 77f. I cant afford a chiller right now but I can afford to brew up some tea. fungi.com for the mycorrhizae soluble= $8.54 shipped, Ancient Forest= $13, Molasses=$14 the last 2 items I purchased at my local hydro store. So for $35.54 and no slime... I will take it anyday

mr.bond said:

Hi TCM,

Although the Great White should help you out with it's varying mycorrhizae, bacteria, and trichoderma, I question the use of the Mighty Crobes instead of the Ancient Forest EWC. Although it is a diverse ingredient containing thousands of bennies (according to their website), the Mighty Crobes doesn't say anything about including any beneficial fungi. It also states that... "Mighty Crobes adds not only organic material to the soil but it adds macro, micro and trace nutrients as well." Adding nutrients might mess with your grow a bit. If I recall correctly, organic material can cause the slime problem to escalate quickly. It says it works with hydro, but I feel this is really more of a soil additive. You could always try to make a tea with these ingredients and give it a run, the worst that could happen is you'll get some nute burn, a slime explosion, and be mixing up a fresh rez again right? How valuable is your time? If you want to save yourself some potential hassle... just get some Ancient Forest. It's only like $12... (and get some Aquashield while you're at it too, another $12! thats it!)

Cheers!

Mr. Bond

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Yea that makes sense. My time is something I really value right now (main reason I'm looking to the tea). I had a little brew of it going overnight and it just didn't see to be as active as described on here. So I scrapped that and now have what I think should be the proper ingrediants: AquaShield, EWC liquid form, Great White, and a little molasses. Should be good, just wanted to make sure though. Thanks for the help bond.

Again thanks for the information heisenberg this is some really good stuff.

After initially inoculating the system on my second go at this I have absolutely beautiful roots with no further treatment.

If I were to eliminate the EWC from the recipe, would brewing up the remaining ingredients make my Powder and Aquashield last longer by having them multiply as it brews or is the EWC key to this process somehow?

Cheers!

BendBrewer said:

After initially inoculating the system on my second go at this I have absolutely beautiful roots with no further treatment.

If I were to eliminate the EWC from the recipe, would brewing up the remaining ingredients make my Powder and Aquashield last longer by having them multiply as it brews or is the EWC key to this process somehow?

Cheers!

Click to expand...

The EWC is optional especially for a slime free system. Once the slime takes hold, it is extremely tenacious, and therefore we hit it with blunt force by making a very concentrated and diverse tea. One the problem is eliminated, you can approach the tea treatments with more finesse, and tailor it to your liking. Some people have figured out that a certain strain of beneficial fungi may compete with other strains, and attempt to use the ones with the most benefits, or create a more symbiotic community. For our context we do not care which beneficials take over, as long as the diversity ensures that no one organism grows out of control. Without the slime, the bennies will regulate themselves. So in short, yes you can drop the EWC and brewing the other products tea style will make them last longer. You could just use aquashield by itself without brewing if you wish, and if the slime manages to take hold again, you know a quick and easy cure.

Thanks so much for the info, I really want to try this but cannot find all the ingredients locally so I will have to wait and order online. But while searching I found a product that seems to have all the bennies you named but not as many as Ancient Forest might have. It's called "MycoMadness" it's only $14.95/2oz at my local hydro-store. Here's a list of it's microbes,

Mycorrhiza:
Endomycorrhiza/cc
Glomus aggregatum 8 spores per cc
Glomus intraradices 8 spores per cc
Glomus mosseae 8 spores per cc
Glomus entunicatum 8 spores per cc
Glomus monosporum 2 spores per cc
Glomus deserticola 2 spores per cc
Glomus clarum 2 spores per cc
Tricoderma:
Trichoderma koningii 187,000 spores per cc
Trichoderma harzianum 187,000 spores per cc
Bacteria:
Bacillus subtillus 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus licheniformis 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus azotoformans 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus megaterium 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus coagulans 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus pumilis 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus polymyxa 50,000 cfu/cc
Sachromyces cervisiae 50,000 cfu/cc
Streptomyces griseus 50,000 cfu/cc
Streptomyces lydicus 50,000 cfu/cc
Pseudomonas aurofaceans 50,000 cfu/cc
Pseduomonas fluorescence 50,000 cfu/cc

What do you think will this work for my slime? The direction say to mix 1/2 teaspoon per gallon but if used like a tea recipe then they should multiply right? Well I think I will try this and I'll let you all know the results. I have a bad case of slime with hardly any roots hanging out of the basket at this point so any improvement will be noticed right away.

I wanted to ask about slime in the tea itself. I was looking in the tea (its been about 24 hrs) and there was a good amount of clear kinda slime on the airstone in the tea. I also noticed that my airstones that weren't in buckets that had roots directly in them had a little clear slim on those. The airstones in buckets with roots were fine. I have Great white+aquashield+ewc+molasses. Am I doing something wrong causing this slime or is it natural?

Riven67 said:

Thanks so much for the info, I really want to try this but cannot find all the ingredients locally so I will have to wait and order online. But while searching I found a product that seems to have all the bennies you named but not as many as Ancient Forest might have. It's called "MycoMadness" it's only $14.95/2oz at my local hydro-store. Here's a list of it's microbes,

Mycorrhiza:
Endomycorrhiza/cc
Glomus aggregatum 8 spores per cc
Glomus intraradices 8 spores per cc
Glomus mosseae 8 spores per cc
Glomus entunicatum 8 spores per cc
Glomus monosporum 2 spores per cc
Glomus deserticola 2 spores per cc
Glomus clarum 2 spores per cc
Tricoderma:
Trichoderma koningii 187,000 spores per cc
Trichoderma harzianum 187,000 spores per cc
Bacteria:
Bacillus subtillus 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus licheniformis 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus azotoformans 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus megaterium 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus coagulans 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus pumilis 50,000 cfu/cc
Bacillus polymyxa 50,000 cfu/cc
Sachromyces cervisiae 50,000 cfu/cc
Streptomyces griseus 50,000 cfu/cc
Streptomyces lydicus 50,000 cfu/cc
Pseudomonas aurofaceans 50,000 cfu/cc
Pseduomonas fluorescence 50,000 cfu/cc

What do you think will this work for my slime? The direction say to mix 1/2 teaspoon per gallon but if used like a tea recipe then they should multiply right? Well I think I will try this and I'll let you all know the results. I have a bad case of slime with hardly any roots hanging out of the basket at this point so any improvement will be noticed right away.

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mycomadness is good stuff, you should see some def improvement. Let us know.

Tcm04 said:

I wanted to ask about slime in the tea itself. I was looking in the tea (its been about 24 hrs) and there was a good amount of clear kinda slime on the airstone in the tea. I also noticed that my airstones that weren't in buckets that had roots directly in them had a little clear slim on those. The airstones in buckets with roots were fine. I have Great white+aquashield+ewc+molasses. Am I doing something wrong causing this slime or is it natural?

Click to expand...

Slime in the tea is actually a thick biofilm that comes from the intense concentration of microbes and because there is organic material (molasses) being fed on. You wont see this in your buckets, in fact you can safely move this airstone to a live bucket to provide bennies.

Right on so I'm headed down the right path it seems. Thanks for the response and the tip. Again big ups for such great info.

Tcm04 said:

Right on so I'm headed down the right path it seems. Thanks for the response and the tip. Again big ups for such great info.

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Remember the smell is the biggest clue. Earthy, mossy and even swampy are all okay smells. Smells of decay, gym socks, or feces is not okay. The tea often starts out with no smell, or rather it smells like sweet water, then it develops into earthy, and by 48hrs it gets a little swampy. After 10 days the fecal smell develops, and it's time to start over.

Note that the mycogrow powder from fungi.com has a fecal smell on it's own and when you first put it in the tea. It is a fleeting a negligible odor.

Lower leaf margins are curling in, like an upside down canoe. Then leaves wither and die. This starts on the bottom of the plant and works its way up.

Nutes are light 0.5-0.7 EC, pH is 5.8-6.0, DWC. 24-26*C, 40-60% RH. One strain is more affected than the other even though they share the rez. Mothers are really affected, clones are starting to show it after 3 weeks veg. Roots look fine - mostly white with some tan/brownish spots.

After much research, and I hate to say this, I think I have Fuserium wilt. It seems pretty rare, and I cannot find the cure for this. I wonder if the tea can help??? I will have the ingredients next week and brew it up. My last hope...

medicine21 said:

Lower leaf margins are curling in, like an upside down canoe. Then leaves wither and die. This starts on the bottom of the plant and works its way up.

Nutes are light 0.5-0.7 EC, pH is 5.8-6.0, DWC. 24-26*C, 40-60% RH. One strain is more affected than the other even though they share the rez. Mothers are really affected, clones are starting to show it after 3 weeks veg. Roots look fine - mostly white with some tan/brownish spots.

After much research, and I hate to say this, I think I have Fuserium wilt. It seems pretty rare, and I cannot find the cure for this. I wonder if the tea can help??? I will have the ingredients next week and brew it up. My last hope...

Click to expand...

Hi Medicine21,

This seems like an interesting issue you have. According to some basic research, Fuserium wilt is a soil-borne pathogen, controllable with fungicide or resistance, so I'm wondering how you got it. A basic resistance could be built by utilizing the tea mentioned here, both as a DWC rez additive and also some delivered via foliar. Not sure if a proper resistance can be built since you are already infected. You might want to research some fungicides, apply, and then follow up with the tea afterward. In the mean time you might want to try the tea anyway, it won't hurt the plants. Just remember to not use both the fungicide and tea at the same time, as the tea has beneficial fungi in it.

Hope this helps--

Mr. Bond

Made some great Root Balm out of my harvested roots. It has a nice Coconut Earthy aroma. Thanks again for helping me produce strong healthy roots.

ok so i am loving the DWC but i liv in a place where every thing is really not readily available, in this case the missing component is hydro nute, so i have been reading around and asking ques,(that eventually lead me here ) so ad like to make my own nutes and a few people have told me to go with composted (not compost) teas and there is some of that brewing right now and others have told me to mix chem ferts which are abundant here to get the right mix that is safe and soluble. so ad like to see what you guys think about home made nutes, the setup is not gonna be not to big al start with a simple DWC bucket growing a tomato (basically a bubbler) and see which nutes work, the bubble pump al be getting from an aquarium shop far from where i am so that will be like next week so i got time.

So as it turns out my local shop does not have "MycoMaddness" they only sell it out of their warehouse! Crap! I can't wait that long my girls wont last. So I went back to my list of "Benificial Bugs" and bought 2 products that I can use to achieve the same goal. 1-Plant Success Granular (they did not have the soluble version) 2-SOS from Strata International (could not find complete list of bennies in this but some that were missing from product 1 are in here)
Took a 1 gallon jug added 2 teaspoons of Plant Success and 4 teaspoons of SOS (this is double the recommended dose) added 1 tsp molasis, inserted a bubbler and know I wait. I will add a cup or two to my rez tomorrow, I still have to clean it out today and add fresh water so it will be ready for the "CURE" tomorrow. Wish me luck, I'll keep you posted. Oh and I added a couple of drops of SuperThrive hope this doesn't mess things up.

Riven67 said:

So as it turns out my local shop does not have "MycoMaddness" they only sell it out of their warehouse! Crap! I can't wait that long my girls wont last. So I went back to my list of "Benificial Bugs" and bought 2 products that I can use to achieve the same goal. 1-Plant Success Granular (they did not have the soluble version) 2-SOS from Strata International (could not find complete list of bennies in this but some that were missing from product 1 are in here)
Took a 1 gallon jug added 2 teaspoons of Plant Success and 4 teaspoons of SOS (this is double the recommended dose) added 1 tsp molasis, inserted a bubbler and know I wait. I will add a cup or two to my rez tomorrow, I still have to clean it out today and add fresh water so it will be ready for the "CURE" tomorrow. Wish me luck, I'll keep you posted. Oh and I added a couple of drops of SuperThrive hope this doesn't mess things up.

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Everything sounds good except the superthrive. Leave it out until your roots are well established, or scrap it all together and save it for your soil/house plants.

mugan said:

ok so i am loving the DWC but i liv in a place where every thing is really not readily available, in this case the missing component is hydro nute, so i have been reading around and asking ques,(that eventually lead me here ) so ad like to make my own nutes and a few people have told me to go with composted (not compost) teas and there is some of that brewing right now and others have told me to mix chem ferts which are abundant here to get the right mix that is safe and soluble. so ad like to see what you guys think about home made nutes, the setup is not gonna be not to big al start with a simple DWC bucket growing a tomato (basically a bubbler) and see which nutes work, the bubble pump al be getting from an aquarium shop far from where i am so that will be like next week so i got time.

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I am confused. You say nutes are not available, yet chem nutes are abundant? What is preventing you from placing an order online? I can recommend cheap nutes and pump/equipment if you have online access.

BendBrewer said:

Made some great Root Balm out of my harvested roots. It has a nice Coconut Earthy aroma. Thanks again for helping me produce strong healthy roots.

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Hey BendBrewer,

I've never heard of anyone using post-harvest roots for a balm or anything, sounds neat. What do you use this root balm for? Like topical pain relief or??? Haha... just curious. I checked out your grow thread, and the pic of the roots on that clone is to die for.

Cheers!
Mr. Bond

Heisenburg/Mr Bond, please help!!!! (again)

OK so its been awhile since iv been here, had brown algae infect 2 separate undercurrent veg systems about 2 1/2 months ago. Started treating with the tea and had great results, plants rebounded and are healthy as can be in flower. When i filled up the flower systems, i scrubbed the ish out of the veg systems, sterilized the 2 veg systems (i must admit one was cleaned better than the other) and new cuttings were put in. It has been bout 5 weeks now for the new cuts, and i have been treating with maintenance levels (roughly 1 cup per gallon) of the tea since day 1 about 2x a week. 2 weeks ago i had to leave town for a week and no tea was given to them for 7 full days. It seems as if the brown sludge was starting to make a comeback so i have been giving them tons of tea (3x in the last 7 days) and at a higher dosage, like 3-4 gallons of teac for 100 gallons of water. i went in to the room yesterday and 2 plants looked like they were dying, very droopy like they haven't been drinking any water. I freaked out, drained the system to wash out most of the bad stuff, then put new nutes (a&b base, magical, 80ml of root excel, and about 4 gallons of tea. when i went back their today, the sludge is WAY worse since yesterday, and the 2 really sick plants i dont think are gonna make it.... Soooo what to do???

My thoughts are i never really use root excel, so by using it did it make my problem worse? also, i didnt realize until after i was done that by draining the system and starting over with new fresh nutes and tea i am essentially wiping out any establishment of good bennies that have colonized??

part of me wants to give it a few days to see if there is any kind of response from the tea, and the other want to go the physan20 route or a few days to try and kill it, drain and then re-fill with fresh nutes, new batch of tea and i hate to say it but no root excell.

please chime in with your expertise, you both have helped me so much in the past and now i feel like giving up....this algae seems to never go away!!!!!!!

lastly, what would recommend to sterilize the system to prepare the best for next round?

many thanks~!!!!!

almost forgot...whts ur opinion, if any, on using physan20 and hydro-fungicide or down under-hf? have come across a few people who have had success fighting the brown gunk using tht 1-2 combo. ughhhh i hate this sht

mr.bond said:

Hi Medicine21,

This seems like an interesting issue you have. According to some basic research, Fuserium wilt is a soil-borne pathogen, controllable with fungicide or resistance, so I'm wondering how you got it. A basic resistance could be built by utilizing the tea mentioned here, both as a DWC rez additive and also some delivered via foliar. Not sure if a proper resistance can be built since you are already infected. You might want to research some fungicides, apply, and then follow up with the tea afterward. In the mean time you might want to try the tea anyway, it won't hurt the plants. Just remember to not use both the fungicide and tea at the same time, as the tea has beneficial fungi in it.

Hope this helps--

Mr. Bond

Click to expand...

Thanks, Bond! I will try the tea and report my results next week.