Guide to Getting Rid of Root Rot

[TaintMonger]

I thought root rot was pythium which is a brown slime. Before thoroughly cleaning my res I could see little clumps of brown algae/slime, very small. Can't see them under halogens, but when the water has the HID light shining into it I could see them. So maybe I have brown slime, which I thought was the same thing.

Anyways, I bought sm-90 and more h2o2 today. I also bought great white, which I was told by the hydro shop guy that this was the best ben. bacteria. So when I got home I treated my unaffected stuff with great white (followed instructions on container, 3 ml per gallon) and I did add the sm-90 at 3 ml per gallon to my stuff that is infected. Yesterday the stuff that was infected got 5 ml per gallon of h2o2, so I didn't re-treat with that. But in 2 days I'll do the h2o2 again, and in 3 I'll do the sm-90, this is to the infected stuff. I guess in 5 days I'll dump the resevior and switch to just great white and drop the h2o2 and sm-90. Does this sound like a good plan?

Thanks

 

[FeFiFoFUM]

I thought root rot was pythium which is a brown slime. Before thoroughly cleaning my res I could see little clumps of brown algae/slime, very small. Can't see them under halogens, but when the water has the HID light shining into it I could see them. So maybe I have brown slime, which I thought was the same thing.

Anyways, I bought sm-90 and more h2o2 today. I also bought great white, which I was told by the hydro shop guy that this was the best ben. bacteria. So when I got home I treated my unaffected stuff with great white (followed instructions on container, 3 ml per gallon) and I did add the sm-90 at 3 ml per gallon to my stuff that is infected. Yesterday the stuff that was infected got 5 ml per gallon of h2o2, so I didn't re-treat with that. But in 2 days I'll do the h2o2 again, and in 3 I'll do the sm-90, this is to the infected stuff. I guess in 5 days I'll dump the resevior and switch to just great white and drop the h2o2 and sm-90. Does this sound like a good plan?

Thanks

that depends, if it is pythium (root rot) that you have yeah I think thatll will work.

If its actually brown slime algae, well what you just did will make it a lot worse, check your res tommorrow and see if its gotten worse, a pic would be helpful too in identifying what it is that you have, Ive had both pythium and brown slime algae before, so I know what they look like.

 

[TaintMonger]

Well, if conditions go bad again (right now everything looks good) then I'll take pics. Right now all ur gunna see is the bottom of 3 net pots that basically only have a small amount of roots hanging that all look good (i ended up removing a lot when I tried to clean the roots by pulling the brown shit off with my fingers, if you were to look at older [past 2-3 days at most] posts that I made in this thread you will see that described in detail).

 

[FeFiFoFUM]

Well, if conditions go bad again (right now everything looks good) then I'll take pics. Right now all ur gunna see is the bottom of 3 net pots that basically only have a small amount of roots hanging that all look good (i ended up removing a lot when I tried to clean the roots by pulling the brown shit off with my fingers, if you were to look at older [past 2-3 days at most] posts that I made in this thread you will see that described in detail).

Yeah I read that , still a pic would be help, Just trying to help man thats all.

 

[TaintMonger]

Yeah I read that , still a pic would be help, Just trying to help man thats all.

What the hell kind of a fool would I be to resist such an offer, posed in such a magnanimous way.

 

[FeFiFoFUM]

View attachment 1202889
What the hell kind of a fool would I be to resist such an offer, posed in such a magnanimous way.
View attachment 1202885

So like you said these must be the pics of them now, the roots look pretty good and white except for a couple of brown one that I cant really tell if are messed up or just stained from nutes. I see 4 net pots, the one to the left closest to the front there , there is a patch of roots that I cant tell if they are just wet with water dripping off of them, or if there is a little bit of slime.

its easy to know if you have been slimed, it literally looks like mucus, snot hanging from your roots, its kinda brownish yellowish in color and its clear. the shit sticks to your airstone and kinda looks like a clear jelly like mucus membrane. it floats around in your ressy too. just wait a day or so, if you were slimed and used H2O2 and SM90 it will be back hardcore. IF it was pythium you were fighting youll see it get better with the H2O2 and SM90.

 

[TaintMonger]

So if its slime, and it sounds likely that it is, wtf can I do to treat that?

 

[FeFiFoFUM]

So if its slime, and it sounds likely that it is, wtf can I do to treat that?

The only thing that worked for me was benneficial bacteria. SM90n and H2O2 failed,.
Check the brown slime algae thread in the DWC forum for heisenbergs recipee.

It shows you how to brew up your own benneficial bacteria, and innoculate your res.
The shit works too, I have personally decided not to use H2O2 or SM-90 for sterilization any longer and just use Bennies from now on.

 

[TaintMonger]

The only thing that worked for me was benneficial bacteria. SM90n and H2O2 failed,.
Check the brown slime algae thread in the DWC forum for heisenbergs recipee.

It shows you how to brew up your own benneficial bacteria, and innoculate your res.
The shit works too, I have personally decided not to use H2O2 or SM-90 for sterilization any longer and just use Bennies from now on.

Do you think I should dump the res and re-do it with fresh nutes, no h2o2 or sm-90, and some of the Great White ben. bac. product I bought earlier today? Supposedly real good ben. bac. product. Maybe this would be plenty effective even if I really had pythium? either way?

 

[FeFiFoFUM]

Do you think I should dump the res and re-do it with fresh nutes, no h2o2 or sm-90, and some of the Great White ben. bac. product I bought earlier today? Supposedly real good ben. bac. product. Maybe this would be plenty effective even if I really had pythium? either way?

benneficial bacteria are effective againts pythium. but I dont know anything about just adding the bennies out of the store bought package.
the tea I made from heisenbergs recipee is beneficial bacteria, beneficial fungi, and ancient forest humus you need all three
for the beneficial bacteria I use Subculture b (aquasheild per recipe), I think great white is the same thing just more expensive, for beneficial fungi, I use plant for sucesss ( ZHO powder per recipee) its the same thing as subculture M and ancient forest Humus ( worm castings)

what you do is get a bucket put two gallons of non chlorinated water I use r/o water, put a scoop of the beneficial bacteria, and a scoop of beneficial fungi, ( ammount doesnt matter to much cause youll be breeding the bacteria and fungi by the billions, then get an old sock and put two handfuls of ancient forest in it then tie it off, set the sock on top of a good airstone, and then add a table spoon of NON SULPHERED MOLASSES (I bought mine from walmart neighborhood market for 2 bucks) then bubble for 48 hours. its good after 24 hours of bubbling but is better after 48

once you get your bennies brewed up at ressy change add 1 cup per gallon of water, then every three days add one cup per ressy. I also use it as a foliar spray too.

thats the recipee as I know it, for better explanation of bennies, how to make them, why they work, etc etc check out the brown slime algae thread in the dwc forum, i posted on it yesterday so it should still be either on the first or second page.

 

[Heisenberg]

Root Rot (pythium) causes the PH to drop while brown slime causes it to rise. Pythium stinks, the slime is odorless. Rot responds well to cooling down the res and adding more bubbles, the slime doesn't care. The slime will start out clear and your plants will appear healthy for quite some time, they will just stop producing roots. Eventually the slime can turn yellow, and after strangling the roots it turns brown because true pythium sets in, and it finally gets an odor. There are several root conditions which can cause slime, doesn't mean you have the dreaded brown slime. If you do determine you have brown slime algae, forget the sterilizing products. They simply will not work. Beneficial microbes are the answer.

Great white is fungi, and is indeed the best on the market, however ZHO powder is a fraction of the cost and does an excellent job. You will also want some bacteria with the fungi, so pick up some aquashield. The ancient forest EWC is really the magic ingredient here, be sure to pick some up. A bag lasts a year. Follow the tea recipe and instructions and you will never have root problems again, no matter what condition you have. There are several reason to make the tea and use it instead of just adding the great white directly to the res.

How to breed beneficial microbes

 

[FeFiFoFUM]

Root Rot (pythium) causes the PH to drop while brown slime causes it to rise. Pythium stinks, the slime is odorless. Rot responds well to cooling down the res and adding more bubbles, the slime doesn't care. The slime will start out clear and your plants will appear healthy for quite some time, they will just stop producing roots. Eventually the slime can turn yellow, and after strangling the roots it turns brown because true pythium sets in, and it finally gets an odor. There are several root conditions which can cause slime, doesn't mean you have the dreaded brown slime. If you do determine you have brown slime algae, forget the sterilizing products. They simply will not work. Beneficial microbes are the answer.

Great white is fungi, and is indeed the best on the market, however ZHO powder is a fraction of the cost and does an excellent job. You will also want some bacteria with the fungi, so pick up some aquashield. The ancient forest EWC is really the magic ingredient here, be sure to pick some up. A bag lasts a year. Follow the tea recipe and instructions and you will never have root problems again, no matter what condition you have. There are several reason to make the tea and use it instead of just adding the great white directly to the res.

How to breed beneficial microbes

what he just said !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! lol

 

[TaintMonger]

My PH has been rising in this bucket for a couple of weeks. I just keep using the PH down, over and over and over and over... checking it like 3 times or 4 times a day and every time I did it needed the ph down. The slime never really stunk. It put out a little bit of an odor when you got right on it, but even then, it really wasn't offensive. I did recently optimize my room and got the temp down to below 80 (mostly, occasionally it might get up to 82 or so). Before that it was up to 94 on occasion. Also I fixed very minor (maybe I should say "possible" light leaks). So basically I really think its brown slime. However, I think I caught it fairly early, and my trimming combined with my steel wool scrubbing of the bucket, I think is what resulted in the clear pictures I showed you a few posts up. I also treated the net pots by letting them soak in a fairly strong h2o2 solution in my bathtub, lifting the lid up and out of the solution and dunking it and letting it float on top of the water for a few minutes. I cycled this a few times, maybe 4 or 5 dunk/float/lifts (didn't dunk the whole lid, just the bottom portion of the net pots, I guess the trapped air under the convex curvatures of the lid caused it to float on the water)

Today, at my disposal, I've got this great white product. I did read your thread, Heisenberg. Great thread. I just don't have the means to follow your advice exactly, and certainly not in any timely fashion. And time is of the essense.

I did see that some of the bacterial strains you mentioned are listed on the label for my great white. The label also lists a lot more. It also lists some of the fungi strains you've listed in your thread. The label, again, also lists a lot more. I have confidence that this stuff is near as good or better than zho + aquashield. It was $40 for the 4 oz bottle, which I thought was high, but shit... its $31 on the internet.. + shipping... In the future, dude, please be aware that this product IS ben bacteria, and in addition to that it is also ben. fungi.

I dumped my res and made fresh nutes (no sm90 in it, or H2o2), and added 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of the great white. My drain valve is at the bottom but not allllll the way down so I still had a little of the old solution in there, maybe 1/8 a gallon. So about 8 7/8 gallons of the new stuff and 1/8 of the old stuff. The tiny amount of old solution of h2o2 + sm90 and isn't going to have any noticable impact on the ben. bacs and fungis, is it?

Also: I am going to buy the blackstrap mollasses later today when I go to the grocery store. I am going to start using that on all my plants (been hearing about this stuff for a long time now).

 

[Heisenberg]

OK cool, I was actually not aware the great white had bacteria as well. In that case it's probably all you need as far as base population. I hear nothing but great things about it so it might do the trick by itself. It really depends on how bad your slime situation is. It can be quite tenacious. If you still have problems pick up the ancient forest. It's still a good idea to breed the great white tea style to make it last longer, really depends on the size of your garden though.

H202 looses most of it's reactivity in just a few hours, and breaks down into pure water after a day. I am not sure how long SM-90 is effective. I don't think it would be much of a problem since it very diluted at this point.

Careful with the molasses. It is a huge trigger of the slime, which is why we use it in the tea and not the res. Molasses is organic, which means it must be broken down by microbes before it can be available to the plant. Once broken down it becomes chemical fertilizer, so it is essentially the same as just adding more nutes. If you put it in the res, even with bennies, the slime is likely to take over. Better idea is to use bud sweeteners formulated for hydro.

 

[TaintMonger]

OK cool, I was actually not aware the great white had bacteria as well. In that case it's probably all you need as far as base population. I hear nothing but great things about it so it might do the trick by itself. It really depends on how bad your slime situation is. It can be quite tenacious. If you still have problems pick up the ancient forest. It's still a good idea to breed the great white tea style to make it last longer, really depends on the size of your garden though.

H202 looses most of it's reactivity in just a few hours, and breaks down into pure water after a day. I am not sure how long SM-90 is effective. I don't think it would be much of a problem since it very diluted at this point.

Careful with the molasses. It is a huge trigger of the slime, which is why we use it in the tea and not the res. Molasses is organic, which means it must be broken down by microbes before it can be available to the plant. Once broken down it becomes chemical fertilizer, so it is essentially the same as just adding more nutes. If you put it in the res, even with bennies, the slime is likely to take over. Better idea is to use bud sweeteners formulated for hydro.

I bought the molasses but did not use them yet. I will wait until my roots are very very healthy with no signs of problems before I start with that stuff. Remember, my grow room used to be way hotter and I feel I'm unlikely to have a return of the same problems once they are cured. I do not have a temp probe in my nute solution, but I know the room goes between 68 and 80 and really not any warmer than that (and cool weather is on the way).

I do like the idea of brewing my own super concoction but after spending the $40 on the great white and the $22 on the sm90, and all the other money I've spent lately, I'm really looking to stop the constant reinvesting in this thing. I've got almost everything I should need for this grow cycle and most of what I need for cycles to come, I really am trying to get through it.

 

[FeFiFoFUM]

I bought the molasses but did not use them yet. I will wait until my roots are very very healthy with no signs of problems before I start with that stuff. Remember, my grow room used to be way hotter and I feel I'm unlikely to have a return of the same problems once they are cured. I do not have a temp probe in my nute solution, but I know the room goes between 68 and 80 and really not any warmer than that (and cool weather is on the way).

I do like the idea of brewing my own super concoction but after spending the $40 on the great white and the $22 on the sm90, and all the other money I've spent lately, I'm really looking to stop the constant reinvesting in this thing. I've got almost everything I should need for this grow cycle and most of what I need for cycles to come, I really am trying to get through it.

I know what ya mean man lol But we gotta do it ya know.

Ill say this Im glad I followed the instructions to the tea, like you I ran h2O2 and Sm90, Hell Ive bought superthrive, bushmaster, two diff types of nutes ( recipee for success) and GH3part, cal mag, seaweed complex, epsom salts, ph up and down, buffer solution ph pens, etc etc, Half of this shit I wont use now that Im doing a DWC with bennies. sucks, but its all part of it I guess, Plus if I ever wanna start something diffrent up, well I got enough to work with ya know?

 

[TaintMonger]

update: I used great white two days ago. After using the great white and being certain of noticable improvements, I fed the plants blackstrap mollasses. Approx 8 hours later (10 minutes ago) I did a root check and I found that the roots were covered in a clearish milky maybe colored gelly sludge.

I took these pictures 10 minutes ago.

Maybe the ben. bac and ben. fungis in Great white product are colonizing the roots? Maybe this is good? Maybe this is not so good.... Maybe this clear/mily stuff is gunna become brown or black stuff.... Talk to me here people.

 

[FeFiFoFUM]

you fucked up by adding the mollasses to the res, NEVER add organic material to the res cause the brown slime algae will overtake everything then. I believe this was explained in heisenbergs recipee, if not there, I believe he said it on this thread.

The only time you would use the mollases is if you were going to make the tea, and its purpose is to feed the bennies, BEFORE you innoculate the res with them, what youve basically done is fed the brown slime algae. and now its taking over your res.

YOU NEED TO START OVER!
1. empty the res
2.sterilize your root zone as best you can, H2O2 is what I used sterilize or replace airstones, buckets, etc.
3.Make the tea according to the instructions, NO deviations , aquashield ( great white, or subculture b), ZHO powder ( subculture M plant for success, maybe Great white has that in it too?), Ancient forest humus in a sock add a teaspoon or tablespoon of mollases and bubble for 48 hours.
4.make up new nutes and whatot and then add the bennies to the res 1cup per gallon , reintroduce bennies to the res every three days at a rate of 1cup per res.


I would go ahead and add the great white to new res too this one time to help fight it off, BUT dont fuck up again and add mollasses or any other organic material to the res.

I also used the bennie tea as a foliar spray also,.. it seems to help a lot as well.

 

[TaintMonger]

Ok, the res is emptying now. I am going to follow the directions and buy the forest humus if I can find it locally. I checked the PH in the bucket 8.5 hrs ago, before I added the molasses, it was @ 6.1 and the current ph of the res that is emptying (right now) is 4.5....... wtf? I thought it was supposed to cause the ph to go up?

 

[FeFiFoFUM]

i dont know why your ph dropped instead of rose, but I know what brown slime algae looks like and you for sure got it... I had the same thing and now its totally gone.