Plz help, plants are not healthy!

landin

landin

Member
Good morning all,

Recently I had 6 DWC plants, running the 6 with a very mild nut.

A couple days ago, my local hydro shop gave me a big sample of general organics products. After some research and triple checking the water/ nutes ratio I set it up.

After adding the nutes, the roots became smothered in a slime, the air stones became plugged with the same slime and my plants were not getting any oxygen for some time.

The plants are still green but VERY droopy!!!!!

I have included a couple picks.....>I am thinking of getting some fresh H2o to flush them with (would rather not though). I have taken the roots and cleaned them off, twice, and cleaned off the air stones. its been 24hrs and the roots are no longer gathering mass amounts of slime and the air stones seem to be working fine now....

So the downlow as of now.
I have two buckets, 3 plants in each, one bucket had a mild nut and the other has the full amount of nuts. All plants are at the same stage....Droopy....I am getting nervous about this, if i forgot anything plz just ask

Also, I notice a huge amount of bubbles developing in the bucked with full nuts, is this normal?????? so many bubbles!!! its crazy, and thick bubbles too!
 

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rowlman

rowlman

Well-Known Member
I hate to say this, but you need to dump that shit and start fresh. I grow in ebb & flow, but just recently started some DWC. I use a 2 part nute for my DWC with a little Foxfarm and have never seen foam. Unless someone who uses those nutes tells you different...I would dump your buckets, rinse the roots and give them just water for a few days. Then slowly add your nutes after that. Good luck.
 
W

WSRidahs

Well-Known Member
Stay away from organics in DWC. If you wanna do organic then ask around and see what others are using for organic nutes in DWC that gave them no issues. It's best to stay with chemical nutes. I see you're using Bio Root. That will give you slime for sure. I did a test with it and when adding it to the mix my roots were slimed in less than a day. You're gonna have to sterilize everything and get all the slime off the roots. Also change the air stones and don't reuse them. If you don't get everything clean and get all the slime off the slime could come back. Honestly you should just start over with chemical nutes and new plants. It might even be faster and easier. I've been through the whole slime thing and recovery sucks cause your plant will have to develop new roots to recover completely.
 
Heisenberg

Heisenberg

Well-Known Member
Part of growing organic, in any set up, is feeding and caring for the microlife that must process the organic material before plants can use it. If you chose organics in a DWC, you must populate your water with beneficial bacteria and fungi, or else pathogenic and harmful microbes WILL take over, which presents itself as root slime.

In some environments the slime will show up even if you are using chemical nutes. Most people try to keep things as sterile as possible. I personally use chemical nutes AND inoculate my water with beneficials, and it does a great job of keeping my roots healthy.

Once organic material is broken down and processed by microbes it becomes chemical fertilizer, with the same chemical payload. There is nothing inherently cleaner about organics.

Anyhow if you want to fix your plants follow these instructions. Sterlize the root zone as best you can with something like h202, or a sterilizing product like dutch maser Zone. Rinse the roots really well. Get rid of as much slime and brown roots as you can. Make the EWC tea from the link below and add it to a fresh res. Ensure proper res conditions such as temp, oxygen, light proof, ect.

Its much harder to purge the slime than to keep it at bay. Your plants may pull through, but even if you have to start over, use the tea and you'll have no headaches.

How to breed your own beneficial microbes cheap
 
socalpadawan

socalpadawan

Member
Heisenberg said:
Part of growing organic, in any set up, is feeding and caring for the microlife that must process the organic material before plants can use it. If you chose organics in a DWC, you must populate your water with beneficial bacteria and fungi, or else pathogenic and harmful microbes WILL take over, which presents itself as root slime.

In some environments the slime will show up even if you are using chemical nutes. Most people try to keep things as sterile as possible. I personally use chemical nutes AND inoculate my water with beneficials, and it does a great job of keeping my roots healthy.

Once organic material is broken down and processed by microbes it becomes chemical fertilizer, with the same chemical payload. There is nothing inherently cleaner about organics.

Anyhow if you want to fix your plants follow these instructions. Sterlize the root zone as best you can with something like h202, or a sterilizing product like dutch maser Zone. Rinse the roots really well. Get rid of as much slime and brown roots as you can. Make the EWC tea from the link below and add it to a fresh res. Ensure proper res conditions such as temp, oxygen, light proof, ect.

Its much harder to purge the slime than to keep it at bay. Your plants may pull through, but even if you have to start over, use the tea and you'll have no headaches.

How to breed your own beneficial microbes cheap
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rep added man...
Thats a huge buildup of slime on those roots. its a good idea to replace stones (unless they are pricey ones)and hoses aswell, you should be fine, I just started the whole dwc thing, and wanted to use that line, but the bioroot alone caused a serious bubble problem, read some info off there website, they say stones with smaller bubbles helps... DWC takes some tlc and attention to details, but when they come together the results are simply amazing.
 
J

jblaze221

Member
just had a brief battle with slime in dwc buckets. great white saved mine. since i switched to the coolers everything has smoothed out. imo great white is excellent benificial bacterias and vitamins even though its pricey.
 
Weedler

Weedler

Well-Known Member
I have had complete turn around of my slow growing roots / plants using Rhizotonic by Canna I've heard good stuff about Great White and also Dark Energy but Dark Energy I'd suggest as a foliar spray during veg. I put some in my reservoir and had to dump and go back to original formula its some stinky, overpowering obnoxious stuff and can make your reservoir stink up the entire place!
 
FeFiFoFUM

FeFiFoFUM

Active Member
Im on the good side now of a battle with root rot / root slime, whatever you wanna call it and its a bitch. I tried beneficial bacteria and it made things worse put in some subculture B and superthrive and within 24 hours had some kinda gellatin all over my airstones.

I took everything apart boiled everything and stopped using the subculture B just the H2O2 and SM-90 when I changed everything I soaked the root bases in a 3% H202 solution made from 3ml/gal of 29%h2o2 now im just using the GH3 part Chem nutes and superthrive, H2O2 during res change flushes, and SM-90 for sterilization

I keep my res temps no higher than 72f and I have now wrapped the buckets in Black and white poly

I will probably use3 the subcultre b next go around when I dont have girls that have been infected with anything

If I were you Id soak the root base in H2O2 and use that in concert with SM-90 or any other equivalent sterilizer

I would also stop using organic nutes Im not saying they are no good, but I think loads harder to keep things in check.
good luck and happy growing!
 
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