Roots covered coated in slime snot

Hi, I just made my first rigged up deep water culture bubbler system as an experiment. I've heard hydroponic gardening will grow your plants faster than soil so I wanted to give it a try.

Day one:

I removed the seedlings from their soil germination trays and cleaned the roots free of soil under running tap water. I then cut drinking straws down to size to thread the roots for the seedlings through and insert the straws into a Styrofoam float.

I filled the clear container with 1 gal of tap water, as that's all it will hold; and mixed in with the water 1/2 tsp of water soluble miracle grow tomato food (the 15-30-15 pink stuff) and set the plants to float and soak up water and light under some CFL veg lights.

Day two:

I added an air stone and air pump that's designed for a 10 gal tank.

Day three:

The entire length of the roots hanging in the water are covered with a thick translucent gel or slime or snot.

I'm thinking I'll just go with the "clean and sterilize everything" method using bleach water, and then cleaning the snot off with the 3% hydrogen peroxide mixed with water. Not sure offhand, I'll have to look up a good ratio for that need.

Anyone know what this crap is or where it came from? I'm thinking it might be a side effect/defense of the plant if you're over oxygenating the roots by having your damned air stone too close to the roots and flowing way too fast. This is just my conspiracy theory though as that's the ONLY thing that changed. Air stone cranked on full speed for a bubbler that's only 6 inches deep with the roots damn near dangling and touching the air stone.

I looked at it and there was literally foam on the sides of the Styrofoam where it didn't quite seal with the sides of the container.

you got a bunch of issues here. water temp, nutrients, clear container. Thats just the obvious ive only grown soil

oh Earth xum,
(sorry, had to do it)

You have not grasped the method you are trying to use,,,,

like heywhatshesmell says, light , water temps, ph, nutes ppm. man the list goes on.

grrrr,,

how bout some pics of yer setup. it's ok. you can show me. i won't tell anyone else,,,j/k, but pics would be good,,,,,,,,

do it quick, i'm tiring out here and have to get up early to start cropping,,,

crap, boomerb is,
bombing out,,,,,


ftp

Are you adding youre peroxide?Got to have the H2O2 to keep the slime away.If you have anything green in youre tub then you have light leaks.

hydrotech364 said:

Are you adding youre peroxide?Got to have the H2O2 to keep the slime away.If you have anything green in youre tub then you have light leaks.

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i had what sounds like the same slime as you have in my aerogarden, not sure what started it, but 4 flushes and cleanings later it seems to be gone, i got h2o2 now as well to keep it from coming back. if you can get the 35%, mines 29%, apparently theres additives in 3% to increase the shelf life or something, and a 1L bottle was 12$ here and you add 1.5ml-4L so its dirt cheap, so far so good!

hydrotech364 said:

Are you adding youre peroxide?Got to have the H2O2 to keep the slime away.If you have anything green in you're tub then you have light leaks.

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Not true. I do NOT have any root rot issues whatsoever. I do not use H202. It is simple. Lightproof tanks lead to clean rez's. Most algae and fungus need a light source to grow. Make sure your air stone is clean or get a new one and light proof the tank. Clean all the crud out or get a new dark tank.

DWC also requires PH and EC readings to do well. Without that it is hard to learn what the plant is needing when those times arise.

I thought this stuff was easy to do when I first started, but there is a bigger learning curve without the proper tools. However learning without those tools leads to better/expert plant growing in the long run. GL

you are on the right track by cleaning and sterilizing with a root wash of H2O2. You can constantly add H2O2 or you can use DM zone every 3-4 days and it will keep the slime away. I just got done battling the same thing. Rez temps should be 65-72F and light will definitely help feed the slime. ALso if you were using any enzymes like hygrozyme or cannazyme they will feed the slime. Rez temps and pre treatment are key to keeping it away.

SIV3L said:

Not true. I do NOT have any root rot issues whatsoever. I do not use H202. It is simple. Lightproof tanks lead to clean rez's. Most algae and fungus need a light source to grow. Make sure your air stone is clean or get a new one and light proof the tank. Clean all the crud out or get a new dark tank.

DWC also requires PH and EC readings to do well. Without that it is hard to learn what the plant is needing when those times arise.

I thought this stuff was easy to do when I first started, but there is a bigger learning curve without the proper tools. However learning without those tools leads to better/expert plant growing in the long run. GL

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I wasnt talking about root rot.Since you know everything Ill just unsub from this thread good luck.

Haha, dude unsubscribed from my thread because somebody else wants to start arguing about his situation with root rot. Oh well.

I bought a 9 L cooler for $10, and a little bottle of fungicide for aquariums. It says to use 5 ml per 10 gal, so simple math says .5 ml / gal.
I added the fungicide and within 10 minutes it seems like the snot's easier to wipe off of the roots. I'll let that run it's course until tomorrow when I'll hopefully figure out a way to suspend the plants in the new LIGHT PROOF cooler's lid. Easiest I suppose would be to go buy some 2 inch net pots and some of those clay pellet balls I suppose.

Thanks to all of those who've given me input! I figured the light was the problems after a little reading, but I kind of just hit the ground running on this one.

Must've been another stoned moment of mine.

I remembered I had some of that Roots XL Oregonism stuff, so I threw some of that into the cooler also. Judging by the packaging, that should be the end of all of this bullshit. Cleared all the snot, and used a hospital strength disinfectant/fungicide/tuburclicide/viricide spray on everything and let it all soak. Physan 20 has nothing on what's under my kitchen sink!!!!

hydrogen peroxide 3% will get rid of this shit

Hydrogen peroxid will only slow it down, Physan 20 will eliminate it.

Physan 20 will create a lot of foam in the reservoir, but that's a good thing. .5 ml per gallon, run anywhere from 1 to 24 hours, depending on your comfort level. Then clean out your reservoir and put 2 to 3 cups of EWC tea with beneficial bacteria into reservoir for about 2 hours with your plants, then add your nutes.

There are sevedral different EWC teas recipes out there, I like using Ancient forest for my EWC or if I can get earthworm castings, I use them cause it's cheaper. I use ZHO and Aquashield. Great White is the best, but kinda expensive @ $40.00 for 4 ounces.

I have found that air stones and lotz of bubbles cure most water issues. My AeroGarden and planters got squeeky clean sides. Getting some grit though in the planters??? Washed and soaked the Hydroton real good too???

Peroxide and Physan are merely bandaides. You are probaly experiencing water temperature problems as a driver to your problems. Peroxide will do the same thing as Physan as long as you correct the water temperature problem. In fact, if you simply change the res and keep water cool the problem should go away... Notice I say should because if you have more than just slime (actual root rot) then you probaly will have to fight this problem through the rest of the grow... Does it smell really bad yet? if not your probaly ok, and if so act fast...Also, keep in mind that Peroxide will raise PH and unsure about Physan.....

The slime in your reservoir can pop up at any time and physan20 is the only product besides pool algaecide that will remove it completely, but the phys an 20 will not keep it away from your reservoir. You must add beneficial microbes to combat algae. If you don't, the slime will continue to return, causing nute lock up. You will experience nitrogen deficiency, your lower leaves will turn yellow and the disease will progress through the entire plant. Physan is only used to sterilize your reservoir, you cannot leave it in as a permanent treatment, a max treatment of .25 teaspoon per gallon in your reservoir for a maximum period of 24 hours.

An EWC tea added to your reservoir is the only known way to successfully combat Brown Algae, slime (not it's scientific name). UV light has also been used with some success, the problem with UV sterilization is that it only sterilizes the water and not the roots or anything not under water, so if your net pots are contaminated then....

Water temps have no bearing on the slime, light has no bearing, oxygen has no bearing, none of the forum ideas that you read can stop this plague. It does not need light, low temps will not stop it, extra air bubbles are not effective. It is bacteria that has been around long before we even existed, it is a single cell organism that can be in your water, in your air, there is no known cure except beneficial bacteria that eat it's food source, therefore starving it.

Look up Brown Algae in icmag.com, there is a 4 year thread on this subject. Also look into aquarium websites for input there too, they deal with this issue as well as hydroponic growers, and they are much more informed about it than most weed growers.

I lost half of my crop to this problem, well I didn't lose it i put the infected plants from the infected reservoir in soil, but I've done extensive research on the subject. I have two DWC reservoirs and only one was infected. I used the same water and everything else in both but only one got slimed, so it is very random in its attacks. You can recover, but it takes a coupla weeks for the plants to come back. And the slime has no smell at all. Please read the information at icmag.com so that you can be well informed, its a very long read, but worth the information to save your crop.

Well post us that link please!!!

Not all root slime is the "brown slime algae'. It's when you are doing everything right and still plagued that you should suspect this problem. Most root disease will respond very well to proper res maintenance, but as sguardians said, once slimed, the traditional cures will at best slow it down. You can sterilize and scrub and be meticulous about temps, oxygen and light leaks, and in the end it will make little difference to the slime. Fortunately the EWC tea squardians mentioned is a cheap, easy and extremely effective cure. Practice proper res maintenece, keep organic material out of the res, and use this tea a couple times a week, and you'll have no problems with root disease.

Here is a post detailing how I make my tea. How to breed beneficial microbes.
https://www.rollitup.org/members/sguardians2-165038.html

Sguardians2,
This is very odd, I lost about 18 plants to root rot and slime at the beg of the summer as I was new to the true "Power of the heat" in this area, but I am happy to say (with fingers crossed) - since I have purchased a water cooler and keep temps between 68-70 degrees constant (I previously used 67-69, but changed for some reason or another) - eitherway, I have not had absolutely any problems with any root issues, in fact I am a bit exited because I thought that all roots had some coloring, my roots are only growing in big hairy spider web like balls and the only real change is my water cooler. I use to get slime always and fight with peroxide, hygrozyme, and etc but I assure you that the the $300+ dollars on a water cooler is well well well well worth it. I run a small res but the water cooler I use can be found on numerous websites for about $325 and cools up to 40 gallons JBJ mini chiller I think (and don't add the $18 dollar pump as it is not special and completley trash) the website I used gave the installation kit for free but honestly I don't think that it is needed. Some say water chiller is expensive but I literally leave my set-up for weeks at a time unattended due to business trips (again fingers crossed no power outages or etc.) and these little nano chillers REALLY WORK..............My res is clear as drinking water at 1000ppm A and B envy with Fox farm and AN admendments... 6XX gph pump - 20 plants per tray - 40-60 plants at any given time on a 12 gallon res -------with no root problems yet, not even one (fingers crossed)

Right Back At IT!!! said:

Sguardians2,
This is very odd, I lost about 18 plants to root rot and slime at the beg of the summer as I was new to the true "Power of the heat" in this area, but I am happy to say (with fingers crossed) - since I have purchased a water cooler and keep temps between 68-70 degrees constant (I previously used 67-69, but changed for some reason or another) - eitherway, I have not had absolutely any problems with any root issues, in fact I am a bit exited because I thought that all roots had some coloring, my roots are only growing in big hairy spider web like balls and the only real change is my water cooler. I use to get slime always and fight with peroxide, hygrozyme, and etc but I assure you that the the $300+ dollars on a water cooler is well well well well worth it. I run a small res but the water cooler I use can be found on numerous websites for about $325 and cools up to 40 gallons JBJ mini chiller I think (and don't add the $18 dollar pump as it is not special and completley trash) the website I used gave the installation kit for free but honestly I don't think that it is needed. Some say water chiller is expensive but I literally leave my set-up for weeks at a time unattended due to business trips (again fingers crossed no power outages or etc.) and these little nano chillers REALLY WORK..............My res is clear as drinking water at 1000ppm A and B envy with Fox farm and AN admendments... 6XX gph pump - 20 plants per tray - 40-60 plants at any given time on a 12 gallon res -------with no root problems yet, not even one (fingers crossed)

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Good work!

This is a little more info on the slime issue:

Even very clean hydroponic systems and grow rooms
which are isolated from the outdoor environment will have some Pythium present as these fungal spores are naturally
present everywhere on a world wide scale - in the water, soil, vegetation, carried in the air and in dust, so its difficult to
eliminate the source of this disease. However, one way we can reduce the `spore load' is to sterilize any water supply
which may be contaminated with high levels of pythium - water from dams, and streams should always be sterilized​

before use for this reason if Pythium is a problem.
http://extremegrowing.com/web - Future Harvest Development Powered by Mambo Generated:12 September, 2010, 08:22

Although high water temps and low oxygen levels can and do make the problem worse, they alone are not responsible for the infection, keeping your levels at the right temps and oxygen help to avoid the infection, but after the invasion occurs, the only solution that always work is sterilization with physan 20 and introducing beneficial microbes in the form of an EWC tea. And that won't work if you don't catch it early enough and the plants are too damaged, at that point transplanting into soil is probably the only way to save them.

I agree. If caught early enough, i've actually seen brown roots that looked dead sprout new shoots. If it seems they are too far gone, transplanting in soil, or even into a hydroton ebb-and-flow set up, will save the plants.

Pythium is still a concern in an ebb-and-flow, however I have seen my res get the brown slime and my plants aren't effected at all. I flood for 15 min every 2 hours. The results are comparable to DWC, but it's not as streamlined, or as fun.