DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

dbkick said:

I'd think the AN products would be better than the brewed tea myself but then I don't know. I've been u sing great white up until soon(about to run out) and haven't brewed a tea for over a year and a half or so. But if you'll read somewhere near the first of this thread heisy talks about not really being any benefit in dwc UNLESS you can't control temps.

Click to expand...

i have used all of the an stuff and hiesinberg tea spanks it hands down db

the tea serves the same purpose in the dwc. You just need to replenish the res with it every few days because the microbes will eventually die off without a food source. In doing so, you also keep the leftover tea in the fridge in order to keep it in a state of stasis. The very purpose of the tea does not change form soil to dwc. You are inoculating the roots w/ beneficial microbes either way.

As for the AN stuff, you should keep using it if it keeps you happy but I really have zero opinion on their products.

dbkick said:

I'd think the AN products would be better than the brewed tea myself but then I don't know. I've been u sing great white up until soon(about to run out) and haven't brewed a tea for over a year and a half or so. But if you'll read somewhere near the first of this thread heisy talks about not really being any benefit in dwc UNLESS you can't control temps.

Click to expand...

dbkick said:

So, my question would be, if I implement these into the original tea using the same method would this create a standalone base nutrient or what? what would adding these things do and how would it affect the usage?

Click to expand...

You are better off asking in the organic section. I can really only give advice on synthetic dwc as that is the limit of my experience. GL though.

thanx again for the usfull info it sound like i really did a number on my plants by giving them grozyme when there was arleady a problen next day bang all roots started to get worse. is this the case or am i misunderstanding ??? i am on house garden aqua flakes is there organics in that food or is it synthetic i will talk to shop close by when i can get there but if anybody can give me a quick post and let me know

Aqua flakes are fine, just leave out the enzyme and get some tea in there. H&G makes great quality products.

Heisenberg this thread is awesome it had saved my girls and had gave me a second chance for DWC. Took me forever to read the whole thread though. Other then slime I noticed that you said it would work for PM. I was wonder if I should use pure tea or mix it. Thanks again. Awesome thread. You rule man!

dduong said:

Heisenberg this thread is awesome it had saved my girls and had gave me a second chance for DWC. Took me forever to read the whole thread though. Other then slime I noticed that you said it would work for PM. I was wonder if I should use pure tea or mix it. Thanks again. Awesome thread. You rule man!

Click to expand...

When we spray tea we dilute it 50/50 with pure water, do not PH. Works as a good preventative but for actual outbreaks of PM lemon juice is probably a better choice. (1 part juice, 3 parts water, or 2 parts water for stubborn spots) Remember the best thing to prevent PM is humidity control and air flow. Good luck.

can you put the instructions for the tea up so as i dont have to sift threw all these posts?thanks if you can. just saw the back to the first page and got the answer to my own question

Thanks a lot, I will try both. So far I got the slime under control; however I noticed there are some in my return lines. I change my res every week and I usually shop vac the return lines and there seem to be slime in there. There is no slime in my res or my bucket just in the return lines. Do u think this is normal Heisenberg? Thanks

Dunno if it's the off-brand I bought or just the style in general, but my 4' neoprene hose bubblers are getting extremely clogged within 12 hours, presumably the bennies trying to hog all of the O2 at the source. Anyone have a work around for this or do I just need to get the cheap blue stones instead?

First off great thread! I've been reading in my spare time for almost a week and ordered my AF and mycogrow a couple days ago and should be arriving tomorrow. I wanna give props to heis for staying active in this thread for over 2 years. I've read the first 26 pages and the last 10 pages lol. Like said by many before, "forgive me if these questions were already asked/answered"..

A little background on my scenario...
First dwc grow, cloned for 2 weeks (all healthy), transplanted in dwc with about 4-6" rootmass each. Using fox farms trio nutes (a friend/veteran grower shared his regiment and strain with me, so going off advice handed down), vegged 4 weeks, super growth up top and below, no signs of stress, slime, or disease. Switched to flower, changed res', dunked all roots in fox farms sledge hammer for a quick rinse, changed mh light to hps, and was stoked to finally have big girls in flower from 1 baby clone I received 10 weeks prior. No more than 3 days in to flower, was checking/adjusting ph and noticed roots were slightly darker than usual. 3 days after that, near brown didn't even know what I was dealing with, but noticed my airstones had slowed down air production drastically, so I think that and stress from switch is my motivator. Determined I've got root rot.. No hydro stores within reAsonable distance, and limited 'extra' funds after all I've invested, searched for readily available remedies. Wanted to do plenty of research before i took the plunge on a pricey additive. After a lot of reading and deciphering garbage, i decided i might purchase some hygrozome (right before i found this thread luckily), everyone has different opinions, and seems something different works for everyone and what worked wonders for one, may excelerate illness for others (this too could be from misdiagnosis, who knows, i myself am a noob). Decided to pick up some 3%h202 and superthrive from hardware store. Rinsed with 3%, tugged, untangled, and removed all easily removable roots, rinsed in fresh water bucket (changed and sterilized between plants), and put in fresh res' with new airstones, 3oz per gallon 3%, .5ml per gallon superthrive, ph'd to 5.5. Checked 48hrs later, looked not as bad, so repeated the process. Checked 48 hours later, and didn't look any worse at all (getting some hope now), let sit for another 24 hours and not looking any worse down low, but plants are droopy and hungry i can tell, so i add 1/4 strenght nutes and ph back down to 5.5 (last night), which brings me to tonight, not looking any worse, but not sure if girls are able to get food either. In total between both rinses, no nutes, stress, etc., i've probably lost/removed nearly 1/3 of root mass and want the girls to relax and try to get over some stress so long as theyre not getting worse. Res temps stay between 65-70. Sorry for the novel, just wanted to give a good background..

Now, the questions...
-Is this tea for me? I see mostly referred to treatments for this 'slime', while although i have some slime, i'm fairly certain it's derived from pythium, as i noticed discoloration and lack of oxygen before any slime formed? (regardless i'm trying it, just looking for a little assurance i guess :s)
-I've seen that it's not good to add organic mix/nutes while using the tea in dwc (ff is all i have right now, and unfortunately can't change right now do to 'no extra funds'), are my odds much greater if i'm able to switch my line of nutes from ff while using tea?
-I have 4 dwc sites, and 1 girl in soil, all from the same age (planted 1 clone in soil to experiment), she appear great, but is she in any danger being in the same tent with ill girls?
-with the mycogrow, i saw (heis), you said 1 small zho scoop, i've never used zho and don't know what size that is, could you give an estimate as to how much mycogrow to add per a 3 gallon brew?

'Off topic' questions..
-I don't have running water in my grow room (lol not ideal for running dwc's i know), i've heard tap water that sits for 24-48hrs is the equivalent to filtered tap water. Is there any downside to filling up a 55gallon (or larger) in my room and letting it sit for up to 3 weeks (prolly the amount of time it would take for me to run through that amount of water)? or would it get stagnent or have any other issues (possibly even throw a pump and some stones in to keep it oxygenated)

There should never be slime at all ever. I've never had it in 17 years. If your treating it, you've already lost the battle. Time to go soil.

Obviously there shouldn't be, hence this thread... I'm good on the soil, I like to see an inch of growth a day

William Wonder said:

There should never be slime at all ever. I've never had it in 17 years. If your treating it, you've already lost the battle. Time to go soil.

Click to expand...

This is about the most thoughtless message you could construct. This thread is full of examples of people who treated slime and are doing just fine, and in many cases better than before. If you have never had it, then how do you know treating it is a losing battle? You want us to believe you have never encountered it yet you are privy to information about it? Seems more likely that you are just shallow and pretentious. I suppose it's fortunate that you have not had one problem in 17 years, the least little speed bump and you'd switch to soil. That advice may work for you, but those who want to show determination and perseverance might find the advice in this thread more useful.

clobbersaurus said:

Dunno if it's the off-brand I bought or just the style in general, but my 4' neoprene hose bubblers are getting extremely clogged within 12 hours, presumably the bennies trying to hog all of the O2 at the source. Anyone have a work around for this or do I just need to get the cheap blue stones instead?

Click to expand...

The best stones to use with tea are bonded glass beads, however the cheap blue ones work great for me. I buy them by the case and pay about 70cents each. The last me 2-4 months, rarely get clogged.

Projekteg said:

Now, the questions...
-Is this tea for me? I see mostly referred to treatments for this 'slime', while although i have some slime, i'm fairly certain it's derived from pythium, as i noticed discoloration and lack of oxygen before any slime formed? (regardless i'm trying it, just looking for a little assurance i guess :s)
-I've seen that it's not good to add organic mix/nutes while using the tea in dwc (ff is all i have right now, and unfortunately can't change right now do to 'no extra funds'), are my odds much greater if i'm able to switch my line of nutes from ff while using tea?
-I have 4 dwc sites, and 1 girl in soil, all from the same age (planted 1 clone in soil to experiment), she appear great, but is she in any danger being in the same tent with ill girls?
-with the mycogrow, i saw (heis), you said 1 small zho scoop, i've never used zho and don't know what size that is, could you give an estimate as to how much mycogrow to add per a 3 gallon brew?

Click to expand...

The tea will prevent/cure pythium as well, if you correct res conditions of course. You are likely to always have problems with organics, but if you must use them, you need to add bennies anyway. Slime does like to transfer to other buckets, especially in younger plants, but the tea will stop that from happening. I use 1-2 tsp of mycogrow per gallon.

-I don't have running water in my grow room (lol not ideal for running dwc's i know), i've heard tap water that sits for 24-48hrs is the equivalent to filtered tap water. Is there any downside to filling up a 55gallon (or larger) in my room and letting it sit for up to 3 weeks (prolly the amount of time it would take for me to run through that amount of water)? or would it get stagnent or have any other issues (possibly even throw a pump and some stones in to keep it oxygenated)

Click to expand...

If you oxygenate the water, keep it lightproof and covered, you will be fine, and if you can set up a carbon filter like in a fish tank that's even better.

Heisenberg said:

The best stones to use with tea are bonded glass beads, however the cheap blue ones work great for me. I buy them by the case and pay about 70cents each. The last me 2-4 months, rarely get clogged.

Click to expand...

Thanks, Heisenberg. Got 4 cheapies to replace the hose and they are both creating much better bubbles and staying clog free.

This is my results using subculture b, aqua-shield, and frozen water bottles. Notice i still have the rot but white roots are exploding. these pics where taken 2 days apart.
BEFORE



AFTER

Heisenberg,

Thank you for this thread! I'm about to start my first batch with GH AF and mycogrow after realizing my last grow likely suffered from slime algae.

I'm also thinking about setting up a hobby aquaponics cloner and was wondering if you know if the tea would be:

1) safe for use in water with fish
2) a reasonable jumpstart to developing an aquaponic ecosystem.

I'm new to aquaponic literature but it seems really interesting so I'm just going to start experimenting and see what works.

William Wonder said:

There should never be slime at all ever. I've never had it in 17 years. If your treating it, you've already lost the battle. Time to go soil.

Click to expand...

doucheeeeeeee *sound of toilet flushing*

Projekteg said:

First off great thread! I've been reading in my spare time for almost a week and ordered my AF and mycogrow a couple days ago and should be arriving tomorrow. I wanna give props to heis for staying active in this thread for over 2 years. I've read the first 26 pages and the last 10 pages lol. Like said by many before, "forgive me if these questions were already asked/answered"..

Click to expand...

just a note in case you happened to skip over it, if you are battling slime, keep the Superthrive out of your mix. and of course the Hydrozyme as well. contrary to what others may say, zymes will take a small slime issue and turn it into a disaster. superthrive has a similar effect, as do all organics, as they are a food source for the anaerobic (bad) bacterias. and in my opinion, superthrive is really only necessary in Veg. anyway hope you are winning your silme battle!

cheers,
mr.bond