Guide to Getting Rid of Root Rot

FeFiFoFUM said:

i dont know why your ph dropped instead of rose, but I know what brown slime algae looks like and you for sure got it... I had the same thing and now its totally gone.

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can you post pics? i want to see what i can hope to recover to

TaintMonger said:

can you post pics? i want to see what i can hope to recover to

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yeah sure, when I caught my slime My girls were between one and two weeks old, Three NYPD and one Blackberry were two weeks old, and two Barneys farm Blue cheese were one week old, so the root base is no where near as established as yours are now



these pics were taken about three days after innoculation


It has been one week and two days since I first innoculated my res, that growth as mentioned above was three days ater the first innoculation, and the growth has continued at that rate until now, Ill go and take some pics of the roots now and post those later

but the evidence is in the pics, I went from ONE slimey root that could be seen and a root ball inside the net cup and was covered in slime, to all that new root growth, in three days, and man they have exploded in this one week alone, my Barneys farm blue cheese for example have tripled in size this week after being innoculated... this stuff is the truth I tell ya what ( in hank hill voice)

please tell me what all is in the nutrient solution you use. Besides the tea, which I know about. Thanks

TaintMonger said:

please tell me what all is in the nutrient solution you use. Besides the tea, which I know about. Thanks

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I use General Hydroponics 3 part.
I use Seaplex as a foilar spray
I use The bennies as a foliar spray.

thats all I use for veg.
When I flower Ill use the same nutes, but I might use bushmaster to stop stretch.

OK guys I am brewing the tea. My local store which had the Ancient Forest did not have ZHO powder or aquashield. So I am bubbling a 5 gallon bucket (with maybe 4 gallons of water in it) with a sock with a large man's fist sized amount of the ancient forest inside of it. I gave the thing about 12 ml of great white. The great white container says you're supposed to use 5 ml for 2 gallons, so I followed the label's instructions and then gave it a pinch more. For appropriate tea action, my preference is for strong tea

The great white label lists the following :
CONTAINS NON PLANT FOOD INGREDIENTS:
2% Vitamin B
Mycorrhiza (131,326 of viable organisms per cc)
Ectomycorrhiza/cc
Pisolithus tincorious - 112,500 spores per cc
rhizopogon luteolus - 3,125 spores per cc
rhizopogan fulvigleba - 3,125 spores per cc
rhizopogon villosullus - 3,125 spores per cc
rhizopogon amylopogon - 3,125 spores per cc
scleroderma cintrinum - 3,125 spores per cc
scleroderma cepa - 3,125 spores per cc

Endomycorrhiza/cc
Glomus aggregatum - 13 spores per cc
glomus intraradices - 13 spores per cc
glomus mosseae - 13 spores per cc
glomus etunicatum - 13 spores per cc
Glomus clarum - 6 spores per cc
glomus monosporum - 6 spores per cc
glomus brazilianum - 6 spores per cc
glomus margarita - 6 spores per cc
Contains 269,786 CFU's per CC of each of the following 11 species:
bacillus subtillus
bacillus licheniformis
bacillus azotoformanas
bacillus megaterium
bacillus coagulans
bacillus pumlis
paenibacillus polymyxa
streptomyces grisees
streptomyces lydicus
psuedomonas aureofaceans
psuedomonas florescence
trichoderma konigii-93,750 spores per cc
trichoderma harzianum-93,750 spores per cc
97.9% inert ingredients

ok i typed all that out to ask if I'm going to be ok without zho and aquashield and you'll have the information you need to say yes no maybe

ok, with the sock in the bucket and with the airstones bubbling good and strong and with the great white in their brewing it all up, and with the 5 ml of unsulffered mollasses. I've got this stuff in a 5 gallon bucket in a cool room. Should I move it into my grow room so it will be warmer? I've got a lid on this bucket so there is no light getting in.. thats correct, isn't it?

Thanks guys

Room temp is fine for the tea. Light is not an issue while brewing. Great white is like aquashield and ZHO powder in the same bottle, and then some. You should be fine.

looks like I'm in good shape. I haven't given the plants the tea yet. The great white appears to be working its magic already. The tea will have been 48 hours brewing in about 18 hours, so I'm going to wait until then. But it looks like I don't need it.

I think maybe this Great White product is really great. I have continued to remove the brown slime with my fingers but am finding trouble locating any any more. I feel like something has been eating it up even if I can't see it happening. there was a goop of the gunk circulating around in my soup which I noticed yesterday. Pretty sure it was brown and shitty yesterday. Today I reached in and pulled it out and it was all grey and dead looking. Yipee. One more thing: new white roots and definitely present...

Here's pics:


worth noting guys.. Heisenberg is telling it like it is when he says don't feed em any organic anything (especially molasses) cuz I know that I'll have slime goop everywhere if I use that stuff.. I know it for sure, these pics will go right back to looking like the ones I posted earlier...

OK guys I gave them the tea about 36 hours ago. My last post was about 50 hours ago. Here are fresh pics, snapped from 5 minutes ago. Compare them with the pics from the above post, which was 50 hours ago. I cannot find any slime any more. The roots have been growing like crazy. I think all is well.

TaintMonger said:

OK guys I gave them the tea about 36 hours ago. My last post was about 50 hours ago. Here are fresh pics, snapped from 5 minutes ago. Compare them with the pics from the above post, which was 50 hours ago. I cannot find any slime any more. The roots have been growing like crazy. I think all is well.

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So glad to hear the tea worked yet again. I've developed such a disdain for this slime that i'm thrilled anytime I can help kill it. Hope your grow continues without further problems.

I am using a 5 gallon bucket to brew the tea. When it gets low I add more water. I also feed it 5 ml of molasses every 3 days. And I don't use it for at least 24 hours after the molasses has been added. I know I just pulled through this problem and feel I am out in the clear and I am keeping a very close eye on things. I see how the tea is better than just feeding it straight great white. And if I keep a bucket brewing this up perpetually, then I'll be able to conserve the small amount of great white that is in the 4 oz bottle that cost $40. Question for you.. do you see a problem with keeping this thing going more or less forever using the system I'm describing? You may be tempted to point out that if I'm going through all this I may be bordering on using too much (although I've also read posts of your's which said it really is very hard to overdo it and even then you really only cause a very subtle secondary infection that is quite well benign), I should ask you to hold up there and explain that I have a 9 gallon, 2x 4.2 gallon, 2x14 gallon, and 2x 1 gallon soil planters and I've had to do multiple res dumps over the past week on some of these reseviors.

Thanks Heisenberg, you're alright mang.

Hrmm well i'm no microbiologists, but from what I have read, the longer the tea brews, the more diverse and different the micro life becomes. Eventually you get some organisms which take over the brew; however I have no idea if this would have any adverse effect at all. In the first 48 hours the tea is like a kind of play, with each actor waiting for it's cue to come on stage. Once things are the way we want them, putting the tea in the fridge puts everything into a sort of stasis. Then once introduced to the res things can continue to unfold. The person who taught me to make the tea told me to never brew it for more than 48 hours, but he never really explained why.

If you make several gallons and keep it in the fridge, and just plan on day 8 to start a new brew, wouldn't that be a ready supply for you?

You pretty much can't overdue it with the tea and the slime I spoke of isn't really an infection, it's just an over population of fungi which won't hurt anything. Some people see it and assume it's an early sign of the brown slime returning.

Anyway if you continue to do a perpetual bubbling brew let us know the results. Good luck!

Interesting thread guys can someone tell me what bennies is though i'm confused.. is it beneficial bacteria?

bigsyko75 said:

Interesting thread guys can someone tell me what bennies is though i'm confused.. is it beneficial bacteria?

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Yes, bacteria and fungi.

I need some help guys, I keep running into root rot problems and its getting to the point now that im seriously considering dumping the entire hydro setup ive used and going back to soil!

I keep being hopeful that im seeing root stain instead of rot but the growth halts, dark gross clumps always appear and need cut out. Ive used h2o2 successfully in the past, then got a bigger air pump and thought I cured it finally, but rot just sprung up on me AGAIN! setting my schedule back even more.


Problem is, I can only band-aid the problem with h2o2. Cant figure out the total cure.

res temps: 65-68
9.7 LPM airflow per bucket via 2 6" blue air stones (19.4 LPM in one bucket, same results)
black buckets with black lids, as light proof as I can get them
ph around 5.8


What else can I do? The only thing I could possibly think of is micro-pore air stones, but im not sure that would really fix anything, and i would have to get about 20 of them which is expensive.

generalchaos said:

I need some help guys, I keep running into root rot problems and its getting to the point now that im seriously considering dumping the entire hydro setup ive used and going back to soil!

I keep being hopeful that im seeing root stain instead of rot but the growth halts, dark gross clumps always appear and need cut out. Ive used h2o2 successfully in the past, then got a bigger air pump and thought I cured it finally, but rot just sprung up on me AGAIN! setting my schedule back even more.


Problem is, I can only band-aid the problem with h2o2. Cant figure out the total cure.

res temps: 65-68
9.7 LPM airflow per bucket via 2 6" blue air stones (19.4 LPM in one bucket, same results)
black buckets with black lids, as light proof as I can get them
ph around 5.8


What else can I do? The only thing I could possibly think of is micro-pore air stones, but im not sure that would really fix anything, and i would have to get about 20 of them which is expensive.

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Read the last few pages, bennies are the cure. Best thing about the EWC tea is that it actually stimulates roots, which is nice to see after watching your babies struggle. I've tried those air stones, they are great at what they do, but they suck in a DWC set up. Stick with cheap aquairium stones to save money and encourage regular replacement.

Have you tried using Aquashield? It's pretty cheap and you can buy it online or at a hydroponic store. I kept having problems with root rot in my bubbleponics setup, even with controlled temps and huge airstones. I tried H2O2, SM-90, and Subculture B and they all failed. Aquashield was the only thing that worked for me. I actually had pretty bad root rot in my setup when I first tried the Aquashield, and new roots exploded out of the old mushy brown roots. It only took 2-3 days before the root rot was eradicated. I haven't had a relapse since (it's been about two months) so I'm pretty hopeful that I don't have to worry about root rot any more.

generalchaos said:

I need some help guys, I keep running into root rot problems and its getting to the point now that im seriously considering dumping the entire hydro setup ive used and going back to soil!

I keep being hopeful that im seeing root stain instead of rot but the growth halts, dark gross clumps always appear and need cut out. Ive used h2o2 successfully in the past, then got a bigger air pump and thought I cured it finally, but rot just sprung up on me AGAIN! setting my schedule back even more.


Problem is, I can only band-aid the problem with h2o2. Cant figure out the total cure.

res temps: 65-68
9.7 LPM airflow per bucket via 2 6" blue air stones (19.4 LPM in one bucket, same results)
black buckets with black lids, as light proof as I can get them
ph around 5.8


What else can I do? The only thing I could possibly think of is micro-pore air stones, but im not sure that would really fix anything, and i would have to get about 20 of them which is expensive.

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They should not be ran together. One or the other.

r1tony said:

Damn fkn hydro store fu*kers told me opposite. Now I wasted like 10 bucks in GW. Thanks Heisenberg. +rep sir

Should I let them run out or change them again today, since I am seeing bit of snot forming I wanted to control it now.

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Wow that seems like some bad advice. You can still use it as a foliar spray to discourage pest and mold.

If you see a build up on roots you definitely need to get more bennies in there. What is your grow method?

So relieved to have found this thread. After reading through, I think I'm suffering from Root Rot, rather than Brown Slime. But I wanted to ask the community for feedback.

I'm using the CAP EBB and Grow (pretty notorious for its problems with stagnant water. When I lift a bucket it smells a little foul, not terrible but kind of like cabbage that's going bad. My pH is pretty consistent, although I typically experience a small rise ~0.5 in pH/day. I change the reservoir once a week and usually have to wipe out small amounts of brown algae with a paper towel. Some of the leaves are starting to change in color. I've attached some photos. I wanted to ask your feedback on whether you think its Root Rot or Brown Slime so that I can attack accordingly. Expert Advice really appreciated. Not that I don't appreciate feedback from everyone but this is a tough one to crack! Thanks.

That is definitely root rot. The thing with the leaves looks like a general nutrient deficiency, and is probably just a side effect because your plant can't get the nutrients it needs through the roots. I would thoroughly clean your system and see if you can find any rotting matter that got in there, like some leaves that fell in the water or other plant debris. What is the temperature of your water? You get the best results with water that's cooler than room temperature because warm water is a great home for the bad bacteria that causes root rot.

For my plants (in a bubbleponics system), I've had the best luck with using Aquashield as directed to reverse root rot. Aquashield works by introducing good bacteria that outcompetes the root rot bacteria. Because of that, it's important to remember that Aquashield can't be combined with something that kills bacteria like SM-90.