DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

so i was wondering if you know where i could find an nitrogen fixation bacteria inoculation im growing peas out doors and it would be nice to be a 100 percent sure there doing what the should be doing any products that you have hered of

You'll want to get one of the more complete products like great white or mycogrow soluble from fungi.com. Brewing them tea style is optional but recommended. The simpler products like ZHO do not contain decomposers, which is what you want.

My herbs (basil, thyme, rosemary, lavender) all responded very well to the tea. I even use the old stuff on them that has a bit of a smell.

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so been running tea for a week my roots now look like this the brown spots actually seem like clumps of dirt almost it wipes of very easily usually leaving the roots behind (although the root hairs seem fragile)
the temps of the room stay at around 73-75

Originally Posted by fallinprince

so been running tea for a week my roots now look like this the brown spots actually seem like clumps of dirt almost it wipes of very easily usually leaving the roots behind (although the root hairs seem fragile)
the temps of the room stay at around 73-75

hey fallinprince,

your plant is looking great. dont worry about the brown gunk left behind... it looks like its the dead slime, tinted by the tea. also seeing nice lateral branching on the roots and new white shoots. the foilage is looking very happy. if you keep your ph inline you should see some great growth in the new few weeks. and if you can keep your temps in that range and continue use of the tea, you can pretty much kiss your slime problems goodbye. ok well maybe dont kiss them, considering the slime and all........

cheers mate... good recovery!!!

mr.bond

Originally Posted by fallinprince

so been running tea for a week my roots now look like this the brown spots actually seem like clumps of dirt almost it wipes of very easily usually leaving the roots behind (although the root hairs seem fragile)
the temps of the room stay at around 73-75

fallinprince,

I thought that this form of root rot (brown slime algae) was only a DWC thing? How are you getting it in aero? Do you have a shallow bed of water under your net cups? I'm curious because I'm building a couple of aero setups (one of them like yours) to test out. Before I discovered the compost tea I thought switching to another method was the only way to get around the horrible slime.

Also regarding a question you asked a couple of pages ago, my aeorcloner loves the tea. I'm getting roots faster and they are strong and white.

Originally Posted by Olympus Mons

fallinprince,

I thought that this form of root rot (brown slime algae) was only a DWC thing? How are you getting it in aero? Do you have a shallow bed of water under your net cups? I'm curious because I'm building a couple of aero setups (one of them like yours) to test out. Before I discovered the compost tea I thought switching to another method was the only way to get around the horrible slime.

Also regarding a question you asked a couple of pages ago, my aeorcloner loves the tea. I'm getting roots faster and they are strong and white.

yeah my roots lay on the the bar.Due to the drain cap having a small lip on it. the setup cannot actually drain the last MM of water. so yes it sits in about a second knuckles worth of water but theirs actually a small amount of sediment that builds up so every couple days i swish the tubes back and forth then hold it so it drains completely. as for my setup i recommend having much larger drain tubes W/o the lip that doesnt allow my tubes to drain fully. maybe dumping directly into the res so the roots can come too ((for when you eventually run out of room in the bar))

PS on continued thought its not such a terrible thing because i always have some water in the tube to prevent the complete drying of the plant

If you check my Journal I've got a post at the beginning about a fogger that youtube video shows how to make the bars my setup uses(i didnt make them).

Hey there new to DWC. Currently growing in a recirculating 5-gallon DWC bucket w/ an external 5 gal res for easier maintenance. I've currently been brewing some bene tea for 34 hours and gettin ready to do a res change. I'm using heavy-16 veg a&b, Floralicious plus, zone, and bud candy. Should I eliminate the zone when adding the bene tea? Also, is bud candy good to use to feed the bennies? Or should I eliminate that too?
My res temps range from 65-72. My pH rises on average .2 every hour

Originally Posted by G37Kush

Hey there new to DWC. Currently growing in a recirculating 5-gallon DWC bucket w/ an external 5 gal res for easier maintenance. I've currently been brewing some bene tea for 34 hours and gettin ready to do a res change. I'm using heavy-16 veg a&b, Floralicious plus, zone, and bud candy. Should I eliminate the zone when adding the bene tea? Also, is bud candy good to use to feed the bennies? Or should I eliminate that too?
My res temps range from 65-72. My pH rises on average .2 every hour

Definitely drop the zone. Save it for sterilizing equipment and washing walls. It lasts for years. You can use the bud candy/floralicous in the tea to stimulate the bennies, or you can add it to the res as directed, but be sure you have established microbe colonies first and robust, healthy roots. If you see any slime start to form, stop adding the bud candy and floralicious to your res, and add them to the tea instead. It wont be as effective because you will use less, but it's better than throwing them out. Ideally you will find that you can use both as directed without fear of slime, but that isn't always the case.