first hydro grow (aero/nft); root rot and rust brown spots!

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larus

Member
A few weeks in veg, and now my plant is dying! Rust brown blotches started forming on the older leaves first, and the root system is turning a dark brown, which I know means root rot... What the hell?

The reservoir temp is in the mid 80's and it's around 90 degrees or so under the lights. I know this is a little warm, but this has always been the case and this problem only started showing up about a week ago. I am using the following botanicare nutes: pure blend pro grow, cal-mag, and liquid karma, and the EC was around 0.6 when the problem showed up. The pump is on a 1 minute on/5 minutes off cycle. I thought the rust colored blotches meant potassium deficiency, so I increased the EC to 1 a few days ago. I've also periodically checked to make sure pH is between 5 and 6. The plant is still growing, but if the root system is jacked up and all the leaves are going to turn rust colored and die, it seems kind of pointless to keep trying.

Any ideas on what's going on here? Thanks!

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SableZen

SableZen

Well-Known Member
Just wanted to chime in that Liquid Karma will normally stain the roots to that degree...

I'm not a growing guru but one thing you can try since you are already suspecting potassium deficiency (and that does fit with the older growth being effected)... might consider cutting out the Cal-Mag supplement and see if the damage progression stops. [excess calcium and magnesium can both lock-out potassium]
 
UrbanAerO

UrbanAerO

Active Member
the roots dont get brown from nutrients not when they' re that young anyways, its your reservoir temps. guaranteed. look at my roots, week 3 veg and no staining. I use over 15 different nutes in my nutrient "soup of the day" mixture including H&G root excell which will stain anything. keep some nutes in your fridge and cycle them out once a day, or use the frozen coke bottle, regardless those reservoir temps are way too high, try 63*F-68*F, Ive been battling this issue for a long time now. keep it up with those reservoir temps and you will hermaphrodite when you go to flower or get very little yield. spots on the leaves is probably some kind of defiency, and its because the roots cant absorb at those high of temps. The "root rot" is a bacteria in all root systems will have that becomes active at greater than 70*F and attacks weaker plants. Recirculating systems spread this disease faster than the US government gives out flu shots.lol. anyways heres where your roots should be
 

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larus

Member
Thanks SableZen and UrbanAerO... VERY good info. I read somewhere that you can safely increase up the cal-mag to any level, but I never considered that it would cause lockout of potassium, so I probably added too much. And the frozen coke bottle is an awesome idea! Where I'm at, the AC would stay on all day if I set it below 80 degrees. Such a simple solution, I just hope it's not too late.
 
roc Eazy

roc Eazy

Member
im about a Month in growing now (hydro).. just started using maxi grow on my plants.. they LOVED it.. but now.. some brow spots came.. i also started using cal-mag same time as the maxi .. the temp has been the same since birth75-80.. so idk if thats a problem.. am I using TOO MUCH nuts.. should i tend to it MORE FREQUENTLY now that its growin bigger... PLZ PLZ HELP.. im confused... but i KNO i can fix this.. my BABIESS =[
 
4tatude

4tatude

Well-Known Member
UrbanAerO said:
the roots dont get brown from nutrients not when they' re that young anyways, its your reservoir temps. guaranteed. look at my roots, week 3 veg and no staining. I use over 15 different nutes in my nutrient "soup of the day" mixture including H&G root excell which will stain anything. keep some nutes in your fridge and cycle them out once a day, or use the frozen coke bottle, regardless those reservoir temps are way too high, try 63*F-68*F, Ive been battling this issue for a long time now. keep it up with those reservoir temps and you will hermaphrodite when you go to flower or get very little yield. spots on the leaves is probably some kind of defiency, and its because the roots cant absorb at those high of temps. The "root rot" is a bacteria in all root systems will have that becomes active at greater than 70*F and attacks weaker plants. Recirculating systems spread this disease faster than the US government gives out flu shots.lol. anyways heres where your roots should be
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larus
urban aero is spot on. u using the orig sb formula? i know that mix, it shouldent color those like that. keep under res temp under 70 and no prob. if you cant u need a chiller or go to ground/soil
 
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BwrHIGHt

New Member
This thread looks dead, Im running the SB system with botanicare nutes and a warmer for my rez because the water temps will quickly dip below 60 in my basement with pumps on constantly (got an aquarium heater set @ 72) , and my first run of clones I transplanted into my flower system last all got root rot. This is my first time with this system. Is there a im thinking of cycle times to better aerate the roots as well as adding some small holes with mesh into the rails. Ive just added hydroguard today in with fresh nutrient solution. Anything I can try or stop trying to avoid this it was a pain to scrub all of those rails clean lol
 
L

Larry3215

Well-Known Member
SableZen said:
Just wanted to chime in that Liquid Karma will normally stain the roots to that degree...
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UrbanAerO said:
the roots dont get brown from nutrients not when the
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Exactly right - nutes dont stain roots. Anything other than pure white is a bacterial infection of one kind or another.

By the way, Liquid Karma is an organic based nute. Thats why the brown. Algae/bacteria will grow like crazy with organic nutes. They love that crap.

I also agree about the rez temps. Organics plus hi rez temps is a double hit for bad bacterial growth.
 
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Larry3215

Well-Known Member
BwrHIGHt said:
This thread looks dead, Im running the SB system with botanicare nutes and a warmer for my rez because the water temps will quickly dip below 60 in my basement with pumps on constantly (got an aquarium heater set @ 72) , and my first run of clones I transplanted into my flower system last all got root rot. This is my first time with this system. Is there a im thinking of cycle times to better aerate the roots as well as adding some small holes with mesh into the rails. Ive just added hydroguard today in with fresh nutrient solution. Anything I can try or stop trying to avoid this it was a pain to scrub all of those rails clean lol
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Dont know what an SB system is, so cant say about that.

Check the label on those nutes to see whats in them and the source. Anything that comes from a plant or animal is bad in hydro. I recommend Jacks 321 hydro.

I would lower the temp in the rez to no more than 68F.

If possible, dump it and rinse with strong bleach, then start back up with 4 PPM of chlorine.

To be honest, your going to have a hard time coming back from that infection. I have never managed to kill of root rot once it got a good start = even with very strong bleach. Its probably still worth a try though.

I have had exactly zero luck with benificial bacteria.
 
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