DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

Heisenberg said:

Great, more success. I had little luck with tea in a bubble cloner but that's probably because I had a slime infection on top of everything else. Good to know it can work.

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention that I had the bubble cloner on a seedling heat mat. I spoke with a major Ebay seller of hydro supplies, dude's supposedly in the cloning biz for 20 years. He's the guy I bought the aerocloner from. He said something that I never heard elsewhere: the warmer the rez temp. (up to about 83 degrees), the faster the clones will root. Conversely, if the rez gets into the low 60s you won't get any roots. I know that D.O. is pretty poor with water that warm, but my previously my only cloning success was with rockwool cubes on a heat mat. So, I gave it a try along with your tea and I'm glad I did. My aero cloner gets to about 82 with the pump running constantly and I'm getting great results. When my cloning rezes water temps were in the low 70s, I got no roots. Go figure...

I was thinking about this being really good for aero cloners.

hornedfrog2000 said:

I was thinking about this being really good for aero cloners.

Click to expand...

Hasn't worked so great for me, personally. The bio accumulation ends up clogging at least one sprayer (I use the red EZ-Clone 360's) after just a few days. Maybe with every other day water changes it would work better, but I like to load up the cloner and just leave it be for a week or so. Wonder why my results are so contrary to Mr. Durden's.

clobbersaurus said:

Hasn't worked so great for me, personally. The bio accumulation ends up clogging at least one sprayer (I use the red EZ-Clone 360's) after just a few days. Maybe with every other day water changes it would work better, but I like to load up the cloner and just leave it be for a week or so. Wonder why my results are so contrary to Mr. Durden's.

Click to expand...

I have my aero cloner on continuously, do you have yours on a cycle timer? I was afraid that my sprayers would clog if the water pressure wasn't on continuously. What is your cloner's rez temp? I don't get roots consistently unless my water is 80-84...

clobbersaurus said:

Hasn't worked so great for me, personally. The bio accumulation ends up clogging at least one sprayer (I use the red EZ-Clone 360's) after just a few days. Maybe with every other day water changes it would work better, but I like to load up the cloner and just leave it be for a week or so. Wonder why my results are so contrary to Mr. Durden's.

Click to expand...

Try using a little non-brewed aquashield only. You can introduce mycos and others once roots develop.

I just wanted to report that I have been using this tea for about a year now and it is the best thing to happen to my garden. The plants love it.

It's hard for me to collect enough RO water and let it sit to evaporate the chlorine before filling my rez. Do you know of any chlorine neutralizer products that would be safe to use with fresh RO water before adding the tea?

seachem prime

hornedfrog2000 said:

seachem prime

Click to expand...

Thank You, I just picked some up.

Goldowitz said:

Thank You, I just picked some up.

Click to expand...

np. I need to get some myself. It's supposed to last quite a while too. It doesn't kill any bennies either.

Couldn't you just feed the bennies with some say fish emulsion, or kelp or something once they are in the res? They use that just like the molasses, so I was thinking that would work. Is there a reason not to do this? That way you could just feed them every 3 days or so right?

tyler.durden said:

I have my aero cloner on continuously, do you have yours on a cycle timer? I was afraid that my sprayers would clog if the water pressure wasn't on continuously. What is your cloner's rez temp? I don't get roots consistently unless my water is 80-84...

Click to expand...

I run 50s on 4m10s off and my temps are probably mid to high 70's as the room is mid 80's. I had rooting problems before I raised the room temp and added CO2, as well.

Heisenberg said:

Try using a little non-brewed aquashield only. You can introduce mycos and others once roots develop.

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, I don't have Aquashield. I have Mycogrow, Ancient Forest, FF KangaRoots, and FF Microbe Brew. I've tried running Clonex, Olivia's, and the "Heisenberg UncertainTea" and everyone ends up clogging one or two sprayers with thick, dark biomass. I will pickup some Aquashield next time I'm at the shop and see how it works.

Hey Heisenberg,

While I can't say that I have read through all 166 pages on this thread, I have read through the first 37 pages and not really found the answer to my question. So i come to you and apologize in advance if it is something that you have answer multiple times.

So I have / had the dreaded slime and have done just about everything to get rid of it (bleach, H2O2, chiller, bubbles, ect...) And just like most people, this did pretty much nothing. I made up a batch of your tea this weekend with similar products (Wiggle Worm EWC, Aquashield, Subculture-M), left it to brew for 48 hours, then at the end strained through a tea strainer and added 3 cups to my 3 gal res.

Here is where my problems? come in. So it is now 20 hours after initial inoculation and I have the black slime gunking up all my roots. I have been reading that this happens in some of the more extreme versions of the brown slime being treated with the tea and to stay the course as it is somewhat normal and will eventually clear up and I guess thats not a big problem. But my main concern is since adding the tea my pH has really been jumping up up and up. I adjusted pH to 5.7 at 10pm and by 8am it was at 7.3! I don't want to shock my plants or cause lockout. Should I keep adjusting hourly? Should I use vinegar instead of GH pH Down (I've been using the GH), should I just let it go and have the beenies do their thing?

I have a 5 gal bucket with 3 gal of filtered tap water which sat for 24 hours before use. I added 3 cups of your tea through the top of the net basket. I added nutes at a seedling rate (plants are a little over a month old). Here are some before inoculation / after inoculation pics:

After cleaning with bleach and H2O2 (2 days before the tea treatment)


8 Hours after initial inoculation


20 Hours after initial inoculation




So what are your thoughts? Will this new slime be ok? Are the pH fluctuations normal for a badly infested system? Should I give up and start over from scratch? Thanks buddy. Your thread has helped so many, I just hope that I can be a success story as well.

cliffe5 said:

Hey Heisenberg,

While I can't say that I have read through all 166 pages on this thread, I have read through the first 37 pages and not really found the answer to my question. So i come to you and apologize in advance if it is something that you have answer multiple times.

So I have / had the dreaded slime and have done just about everything to get rid of it (bleach, H2O2, chiller, bubbles, ect...) And just like most people, this did pretty much nothing. I made up a batch of your tea this weekend with similar products (Wiggle Worm EWC, Aquashield, Subculture-M), left it to brew for 48 hours, then at the end strained through a tea strainer and added 3 cups to my 3 gal res.

Here is where my problems? come in. So it is now 20 hours after initial inoculation and I have the black slime gunking up all my roots. I have been reading that this happens in some of the more extreme versions of the brown slime being treated with the tea and to stay the course as it is somewhat normal and will eventually clear up and I guess thats not a big problem. But my main concern is since adding the tea my pH has really been jumping up up and up. I adjusted pH to 5.7 at 10pm and by 8am it was at 7.3! I don't want to shock my plants or cause lockout. Should I keep adjusting hourly? Should I use vinegar instead of GH pH Down (I've been using the GH), should I just let it go and have the beenies do their thing?

Click to expand...

The ingredients you have for your tea sound like a good mix. Often with after-slime there is some sort of culprit such as roots excellurator, liquid karma, superthrive, and occasionally even left over molasses in the tea, but new root tips is what you'll be watching for. An organic additive can also cause the PH swings as it gets broken down, as can dead roots, but PH is about eating, and your plants aren't doing much of that just now. Generally we expect the PH to stabilize and normal feeding resume after a few days. In the mean time do not adjust PH more than twice per day, unless it is at dangerous levels. Chasing the PH dragon will cause more harm than good. Definitely do not use vinegar, it is organic and has triggered the slime for me in the past. The pics look okay to me at this stage, keep a close eye on the roots for new tips. Also, when you are aging your water do you pre-Ph it? Tap water can have 'buffers' in it that need to be saturated. You could make a control bucket without plants you can observe.

hornedfrog2000 said:

Couldn't you just feed the bennies with some say fish emulsion, or kelp or something once they are in the res? They use that just like the molasses, so I was thinking that would work. Is there a reason not to do this? That way you could just feed them every 3 days or so right?

Click to expand...

You would be feeding the slime as well if it is present, and giving it a strong invitation to return if it isn't. The important bennies will be fed by your plants via the roots, the others will be replaced. In this way we eliminate the risk of further outbreaks.

tyler.durden said:

I forgot to mention that I had the bubble cloner on a seedling heat mat. I spoke with a major Ebay seller of hydro supplies, dude's supposedly in the cloning biz for 20 years. He's the guy I bought the aerocloner from. He said something that I never heard elsewhere: the warmer the rez temp. (up to about 83 degrees), the faster the clones will root. Conversely, if the rez gets into the low 60s you won't get any roots. I know that D.O. is pretty poor with water that warm, but my previously my only cloning success was with rockwool cubes on a heat mat. So, I gave it a try along with your tea and I'm glad I did. My aero cloner gets to about 82 with the pump running constantly and I'm getting great results. When my cloning rezes water temps were in the low 70s, I got no roots. Go figure...

Click to expand...

Heisenberg said:

Some people, using bennies, run clone water at 80 to encourage faster rooting.

Click to expand...

Gotta pay attention. (apply yourself Jessie)

Gratz on getting cloning down tho. I had trouble as well. But it's one of those things that once you get it, you got it.

Heisenberg said:

You would be feeding the slime as well if it is present, and giving it a strong invitation to return if it isn't. The important bennies will be fed by your plants via the roots, the others will be replaced. In this way we eliminate the risk of further outbreaks.

Click to expand...

Cool, that makes enough sense.

has anyone had experience with xtreme gardening teas? http://xtreme-gardening.com/xtreme-compost-tea/xtreme-tea-brews-products/ im just asking cuz ive had a hella of a time finding ewc where im at. all the local nurseries and hydro stores say they dont carry it because its in all the soil and recommended dr earth but im running a dwc cloner. it shows signs of roots in 4 days using ro water. dip n grow. and about a half cup of veg fertilizer i used dynagrow foilage pro 9 3 6 i had a gallon of it mixed at like a 1/4th of a tsp in a gal. i was amazed to see little white bumps forming after about 4 days i normally dont see them in my aero cloner till about day 7 but on day 5 there was giant ball of slime on each stem. it looked like a bright white thick lugy someone spit. it was so think it choked the cuts out and they wilted and died but it only affected 1 strain my other strain in the same cloner only had a tiny bit of slime.. i checked at like 9 am and there was no slime and by like midnight there was a huge amount. never had the slime as an issue in aero cloner tho i have noticed buildup on the lid i think they normally root and get potted before it really forms. my res temps are almost impossible to keep chilled and prolly stay 70 maybe even 80 and iwas thinking thats my issue. if i brew this micro tea and use it from the start will it keep this slime from forming and give me my quick roots im seeing?

Damnit I seen one of hellrazors posts before the backup saying he doesn't even strain his tea, so I went ahead and not used a sock nor strained my tea and now I have slime.


oops.

my roots also went from white, to a dead looking brown... i have a feeling it is probably from those roots already being dead, and just kept white from h202 in the past, as they rip off with a very light tug.

other than that, its been 3 days since starting the tea, and my PH has been climbing from about 5.3 to 6.1 in a matter of the 3 days... i just knocked it back down a bit..

but alas, i see ONE new root starting to poke out of the bottom of my netpot... something i havent seen in 3 weeks... so... this must be working!

i'v been battling the slime since almost day one... and been burning/stressing the crap out of my plant with loads of h202..

since adding the tea... the slime is retreating back to the hell of which it came... and apart from my old roots looking nasty now, and possibly dead.. i think the new root i see is a sign of recovery... with any luck she'll bounce back within another week!

also, i read you use a 1/4 scoop of ZHO... and said somewhere thats a 1/4 scoop of the small spoon... i think... did i read that correct? i cant find where i saw that now.. if so.. oops... i added a 1/4 scoop of the big one..

for future reference... is it better to use an airstone.. or could i use a 35g/ph water pump shooting into an upside down cup to brew the tea? i only want to make half a gallon at a time, and the airstones i use wouldnt work very well in that amount of water.

Ive Got A Question.Has Anyone Use White Widow In Stead Of Zho Powder??