Major Root Problems

I'm not new to hydroponics but I haven't grown since 1999.

Here's my set up. I'm using an ebb and flow table, growing in 6" rockwool cubes, using two 600 watt lights (not flourescents). I used to grow with the clay pebbles but this is my first time with rockwool. There is nothing around the rockwool cubes. They are just in the ebb and flow table. I'm using Dynogrow, supplemented with Hygrozyme. I've also added in some bloom boosters - Tiger Bloom at the start of blooming and right now Advanced Nutrient's Bloom Booster.

I had good growth in the vegetative stage but as time went on growth became extremely slow. I had a major problem with leaves dropping off around the time I switched to the budding lights and fertilizers. Since then growth has been at a snail's pace. Yeah I'm getting buds, big buds even, over 18" in a few cases. But they're not solid feeling. And their growth is S L O W. I started to bud them in July! The trichomes are filling in but have not turned brown, which I'm told is the sign that they're ready to harvest.

Many of the leaves are filled with what looks like signs of being burned - orange spots, tips curled - and some of the smaller branches have actually died though no large branch has. No plants has died. All are budding just slowly as I said before.

I strongly suspect that the problem is the roots. The roots that I see on the sides of the rockwool look small, unhealthy, thin and are slightly tan in color. I have some clone mothers growing really well in a different unit and their roots like fine. (Hooray!) The roots of my budding plants don't look like these at all. The clone mothers are growing well, each in its own bucket, in a small rockwool cube and are watered a few times a day.

I also use Sledgehammer for a complete flush about once every three weeks or so. I've flushed it out with Sledgehammer at least three times but I don't think it did a thing to fix these problems.

I also noticed a bad, acrid sort of smell coming from my troubled plants. I wouldn't call it the smell of decay really. It smelled acidic if anything. This smell has died down somewhat. The water reservoir get some clear slimy stuff in it but I clean that out when I change the water. I have never seen any sort of slime or obvious signs of something growing on the roots.

My guess is that the roots are waterlogged as the rockwool holds too much water. I'm have been using a 1" air stone but I just bought a 12" air stone as I suspect that the problem is lack of oxygen.

What more can I do to remedy this problem? I've heard about soaking the roots in a 3% solution of hydrogen peroxide. I've also heard about using a strong solution of Hygrozyme to clean out the roots. I added a quarter of a cup of 3% hydrogen peroxide to the water today too.

I have a set of clones that is just about ready to go into production so I don't have a lot of time to remedy my slow growing crop. I have 100% success rate so far in my clones so I'm not doing everything wrong. I also plan never to grow in just rockwool again as I'm convinced that it is too easy to get root rot and other problems related to it holding too much water. I plan on growing the second crop in either clay pebbles or in the new glass Growstone material.

Can my roots be reinvigorated?

Thanks!

Calcium deficiency maybe? I run dwc and realized I wasn't using enough cal mag after I read my local water report. I had little dead spots on the leaves, brittle stems, and my roots got a shade more brownish maybe. The cal definitely helped out.



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plants with root rot sometimes show nutrient deficiency; at least every time I've had it they did....

...I've saved plants from plain ole pyth if thats the case) ...that other slime/algae/cyno/fungus or whatever is a different beast

personally I'd try reading up on threads on using either the bennies (Heisenberg) or Bleach/chloramine/pool shock ....

I got a stubborn case of rot now and trying bleach-physan-zone (I'm winning for now, we'll see) .....

Bennies? This is all pretty new to me.

What would root rot look like? Like I said I don't see any obvious signs of an infection in the roots. I don't see anything growing on them, at least not on the outside of rockwool cubes.

From what I understand as a coco grower, it should be pretty much impossible to overwater in rockwool (similar to coco in that aspect), if you are feeding multiple times per day, enough oxygen will be getting to the roots, that is unless your r/w is constantly sitting in a pool of waer, even still with multiple waterings you should be fine. Have you got any bug problems? Fungas gnats? Like you said sounds like a bit of nute burn but obviosuly your aware of that possibility, what EC you running? From the sound of it, sounds like root rot, this is not always caused by waterlogging - once I got it from gnats using hydroton clay, caused a brown, sometimes slimey root system that never really recovered, if it's really bad and recovery is looking grim (in terms of the amount of power your burning) you may be better off cutting your losses and moving on to the next crop. Indeed hydrogen peroxide can help to stop the rot, but recovery will be slow at the stage your at IMO. I'd never use hydroton again as the gnats have no problem getting in really deep, just stick with straight perlite if your planning to go straight hydroton imo, or give gogo a try!

I'm thinking of using Growstones, the recycled glass product for the next crop.

What is gogo?

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gogo is something you do in asia, but coco - is coconut fibre, head over to icmag forums for a dedicated forum

Cool. Coco sounds interesting as a growing media as its close in texture to soil.

This problem has been tough for me because this is my first crop in over ten years and all my old school crops came out fine.

There doesn't seem to be a real consensus on what's the best media to grow in. There doesn't seem to be a consensus on much actually. My guess is that everyone has to find what works for them. I had a great growing experience in the past with something like hydrton. It was called geolite but I think it was very similar to hydroton. Other people tell me that hydroton caused them problems. I've never had a problem before I grew in rockwool but then others tell me that rockwool is the only way they grow. So who knows what's right?

You'll find coco is pretty widely used, similar to soil in terms of texture, retains moisture well (i've had failed pumps and plants in coco still fine after 3 days or so), compacts (plants roots can compact it), is hard to overwater once out of veg, can use standard pots (I drain to waste as waste is minimal, this reduces chances of root rot - one of the reasons I moved to coco), etc etc.. check out the coco growers forum @ icmag for lots of info! However, indeed you are right, it's what works for you, for me low maint and high return is important, coco is piss easy (w/coco specific nutes)!

I use hydroton and coconut fiber in this little setup from seed, and use only hydroton when I transplant clones.









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Cool. So you skip rockwool altogether.

I guess it is root rot, a fairly mild but persistent case if it. I ordered something called Root Shield and I'm going to soak each block of rockwool in hydrogen peroxide first. I've also got some B1 to promote root growth and some much bigger air stones.

Yup. Also, only experience I've had with root "rot" or whatever I had was when I was out of town for a couple of days and the res stayed to warm for too long. Best way to describe it was a grayish slime that clung to the roots and was floating around the res. Changed out the water, soaked the roots in mild h2o2, then added just a couple of drops of bleach to be safe. Now whenever my water temps do hover above 70F for more than a couple of days I'll give it a couple of drops just to be safe. Haven't had any problems since.




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Did you use the commercial product H2O2 or store bought hydrogen peroxide? I've got some hydrogen peroxide from the drugstore but wasn't sure if I should dilute it. It's the standard 3% stuff. Do you just soak the roots in a bucket of it?

Yeah I just used the off the shelf 3 percent. I used a shallow pan, but then again I was only 2 weeks into veg. I want to say even the 3 percent should be diluted a bit. I can't remember whose post I referenced for it though. Honestly I just sat them in water and added just enough h2o2 to see just a very slight reaction around the root system and used a kitchen sink sprayer to gently rinse them afterward.



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