DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

I also meant to say that I don't think anyone else has said this, if so, i apologize, i read this entire thread so maybe i just forgot, but anyways...

I have been using eight air stones to brew my tea, hooked up to a 15l air pump, so that two air stones run from one outlet. This produces a weak stream of bubbles from each one. My pumps output is adjustable, and i turn it up slowly until i can see a good bit of bubbles coming from each one. I use 4 inch air stones, so even at full blast, i could easily get more air with one stone and a bigger pump. But this is what I want, just so all the air stones have some air passing through them. As the tea brews, the bennies take up residence in them, and I switch out the air stones when i do my res changes. If you can afford to buy an extra set of air stones do so!

I think this really helps the bennies get established in your res after a nute change and scrubbing, and rinsing. I run 10 gallons of bleach water in my rdwc after it has been cleaned and then rinse with ro again.Then drain and dry the system. It's tedious and probably not needed, but i learned my lesson the first time about lettin things go too long. Then i use the tea and my bennie condo's and my roots are amazing now, I use 8 air stones in each system, so the ones that come out get soaked in bleach water, ran in bleach water, then boiled and dried. And they eventually make it back to the tea and a res, I have a lot of extra air stones, and the boiling helps clean them out a bit, they work like new afterwards.

Sorry such a long post, but i'm stoned and it happens. Peace!

Having a win yet bassman? Make sure to get those molasses! Just brew some good ewc with molaases...make sure to gas the chlorine off 12/24 hrs before you brew! pray you havnt got chloramine in your water..no nutes till your roots show recovery, salts can be detrimental to microbial life...your plants will appreciate the molasses rather than raw sugar, the microbes break down the molasses into a wide variety of trace elements that the girls love!

Can i use this tea in my ez cloner?

Yes you can.

Thank you

Only add once roots begin..

Why not right from the start? They shuld keep the water a bit cleaner I think.

Do i still juat add 1on cup per a gallon in my ez cloner

Hies mentioned this somewhere I think? Its wasteful to add tea straight away as there is nothing for it to act upon for a week +... it may even slow the formation of the rhizo..I like to add h202 untill stub shows then add tea for mad roots!

update on the 'saved by Spanky & Co' dwc I have going... hope you like guys!!!

Damn, you should resize those photos

Very nice flowers though.

Hey all. I have a question for i am running the tea with my new mother plants witch are about 3to weeks old i have them in buble buckets my question is can i add roots excelurator with the tea?

DrOfWelshMagic said:

update on the 'saved by Spanky & Co' dwc I have going... hope you like guys!!!

Click to expand...

Looks great; strong and healthy. Well done.

Any tips on brewing through winter?
And how do you tell a bad batch from a good batch or a batch not ready?
I've found out on one girl if you add tea thats not right, its good night irene..

For winter brews you'll want to get an aquarium heater or something similar. I got a room heating thermostat with a probe off ebay, wired it to a small electrical cooker and put the probe and the cooket in a metal bucket with water. I then put bottle in which I'm brewing the tea into the bucket and set the thermostat to 25C.

I tell by the changes that signify good microbe activity. I always brew for 48 hours and then check for signs like "snot" in the brew and on the stones (I don't use a sock to contain EWC but let it float freely so it mixes with the bacterial biofilm creating a kind of gelatin like substance), changes in color (opaque greenish-yellow, like a lime juice), earthy mossy smell, and foaming. If by hour 48 none of those signs are present, I throw the thing away and brew again (happened to me only once).

Thanks mate, what size heater would you say for a 15 ,20 ltr bucket?
Did you say the probe goes in bottle isolated from brew?

I'm brewing 2,5L of tea a batch and am using the smallest imersion cooker (http://profiles.sulekhalive.com/mstore/14053545/albums/default/thumbnailfull/i1.jpeg) I could find. Those things were designed to boil water, so they can easily raise water temperature for just a few degrees. Before that setup I used a 25W aquatium heater directly in the brew. It did OK (although cheap Chinese temperature controller on those things can be criminally inacurate), but I managed to break it.

I'm not sure if I was clear in my description. I take a larger size pot (thing you would cook soup in), put an imersion cooker and a thermostat probe in there (not close to eachother), and then put a 5L plastic bottle in which I brew my tea in that pot inside. Then I fill the pot with water so that both the heater and the probe are fully covered and that the brew is beneath the water level (but the plastic bottle does not start floating and turning over).

Do you think one of those seedling heat mat thingys could work under a bucket?