Is this one a lost cause?

sven_lordy said:

Pool shock is what I was recommended, and as weird as it sounds, I always struggled to find Bleach that was just Bleach. In the UK it always seems to contain fragrances/parabens, non-ionic surfectants and thickeners.

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Simple is easiest and usually best in hydro

Well, I followed the advice and have gone back to sterile.... made a dilute SB roots bath this morning, left the roots to soak for a few hours, and added approx 3ppm pool shock to the res. I didn't go so far as a full change as it was only changed a couple days ago, and I wanted to make sure it was worth my time/effort before repeating the tedium again. Given how much mass there was to support up top I thought I'd also give the plant more of a fighting chance if I did some premature topping to minimise the amount of plant the roots needed to support.

12 hours later, this seems to have been a great success. Some vitality is slowly coming back up top but more importantly, there's lots of signs of fresh white roots emerging both straight from the pot, but also in and amongst the sludge. It's early signs, but I'm shocked how quickly it's re-rooting. I know it's going to take a week or two to recover, but I feel it's still going to be quicker to rescue this and run with it than start again from seed. (Besides - with the work I've done, I should now have 8 colas and a nice even canopy if the resurrection continues).

Couple of questions... I've got some Cannazym. I'm thinking this could be the quickest way to clear the sludgy roots without damaging the delicate new ones that are emerging. Does this sound like a bad idea?

Secondly, I'm currently running at 260ppm. If I add the zym, this will undoubtedly rise. I'm wondering which is the best idea - to add the zym now, then res change and dial back the nutes in a few days (after all, nutes will still struggle to reach what's left of the plant til the roots are more established), or whether I should dial back the nutes with a fresh res now, then add the zym and re-shock? My basic understanding is that enzymes are proteins as opposed to being 'living' so may be compatible with pool shock, but I have no experience to confirm this.

Thanks to all again for all the advice. Fingers crossed the recovery will continue

Why would you dial back the nutes

I run GH flora trio at full or close to full strength, much more than 260ppm

What I've done for roots is a quick soak in h202 solution..kinda to rinse them off.

But , if yer getting good new growth I'd just move forward myself

You sounds like you have a lot of fancy things you want to throw in there still.

Gh trio and sterilizer agent. That's it.

If you want to clean and sanitize, bleach or H202.

After you get acouple successful grows under that formula, then feel free to play with it and experiment.
But you need a successful baseline first

I will note, GH trio with RO water, occasionally will need calimagic supplement. But other than that, you should have 0 issues

Thanks. What's left up top is little more than a stump. Most of the large leaves were crispy and dead - there was no way back for them. I've cut back basically to the stem, with just the small internodal leaf sets left off each branch... this is what will form 8 colas - 4 from 4th node, 4 from 5th node.

There really isn't a lot of plant left, and once the sludgy roots have been taken care of, there'll be very little fresh roots too. That's why I was wondering if 260ppm may be a bit much (look at pic on first post for idea of how small this was - it had only been in the tank for 2.5 weeks - placed in tank once 3rd leaves appeared with a good showing of roots out the rockwool)

My worry is - that sludgy root stuff is going to rot out. If the pool shock is enough to stop that turning back into rot which affects everything else again, I'm happy to live with it. If it's better to remove with enzymes so all potential future issues are removed sooner, I'll do that instead. I don't know - that's why I'm asking these questions believe me I want to make life as simple for myself as possible.

sven_lordy said:

My worry is - that sludgy root stuff is going to rot out. If the pool shock is enough to stop that turning back into rot which affects everything else again, I'm happy to live with it. If it's better to remove with enzymes so all potential future issues are removed sooner, I'll do that instead. I don't know - that's why I'm asking these questions believe me I want to make life as simple for myself as possible.

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Don't add enzymes.
Pool shock or bleach will destroy any organisms in the water, good or bad.
I wouldn't worry about root rot if you are using them in addition to cool water temp and air stones.

Thanks... I just wondered whether proteins counted as organisms, enzymes being proteins

ÒÒlegilizeitÒÒ said:

You sounds like you have a lot of fancy things you want to throw in there still.

Gh trio and sterilizer agent. That's it.

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this right here. more crap=more troubles

trio (maybe cal/mg if needed), sterilizer. done.

sven_lordy said:

Thanks... I just wondered whether proteins counted as organisms, enzymes being proteins

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May be OK, may not be.
Worry about it after you've had successful run

I agree

Yer trying to much crap

KISS

Simple as that

sven_lordy said:

Couple of questions... I've got some Cannazym. I'm thinking this could be the quickest way to clear the sludgy roots without damaging the delicate new ones that are emerging.

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That stuff is also known as cana slime, I don’t have experience with it but steered clear after all the negative reviews. I would research that a bit before making a decision for what you’re trying to achieve. Just run sterile and don’t worry about the old root, whatever comes of with a tug is garbage.

Thanks all. Have a cupboard full of crap I've bought in the last 8 months. Regen-a-root (am pretty sure there's nothing in it, despite hydro shop guy assuring me it was amazing. 1ml/l adds exactly 7ppm, and no perceivable difference to root health). Fulvic acid, which from what I can tell is useless if your nutes are already chelated, canna rhizotonic, which is a really expensive way to make your pH constantly rise, cannazym, which I've never used, canna boost, which I've never used (never made it as far as flowering), orca (no comment needed on bennies), flora klean (stupidly over did nutes once... Am sure it'll come in handy again at some point), and plant magic evolution 2.0 (foliar spray... Have since read foliars can cause issues in hydro).

Yup... I've been that sucker. Think the most useful thing I can do is throw most of it away. The

Will manually remove any rot if the pool shock doesn't take care of it, once these new roots have properly taken hold.

Don't know what's worse... Nute companies or hydro store owners complicating things for newbies trying to get going. Wish I'd found this place much earlier in my journey.

BobThe420Builder said:

No, I know what it is, I have a pool...lol

I don't use bleach either

Hydroguard and z7 for the win

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What is Z7?

BobThe420Builder said:

Never heard of pool shock before

I'll pass on that one

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It's calcium hypochlorite. It's cheap and does a great job. Used it in NFT rails (and my swimming pool)