Hey Guys!
I have been trying out the Tea on some Habanero's that I transplanted from tiny soil pots to DWC. Next time I will definitely try from seed to spare the shock and insure no pests, but I really wanted to experiment with DWC so I ordered some plants off amazon.
They were super root-bound but have been transplanted into hydroton and a ~5g tote res. I had no idea they were going to be so old, but the receipt said 95 days post germination and still in 2" pots.. yikes! won't do that again.
I have been making the Tea exactly as instructed, about a gallon, mixing a handful of AF (EWC) into a filtration baggie meant for aquarium carbon, about 1/2 teaspoon MyCoGrow, 1/2 tablespoon of molassas, and putting 2 airstones with my 38lpm Eco Air pump. I let it brew 2 days, then add 1cup per gal to the res. I usually add half of that to the res, and the other half I do one cup or so poured down the roots per plant (two plants).
First off, my pH has been very stable around 5.8 using the Tea. I am running ~1.5 EC so far using Lucas and I've already had one pepper ripen and it was tasty hot. Water level started about an inch below the netpots, but I recently lowered it to about 2" since the plant looked overwatered and the roots were basically saturated.
Plants have been in DWC about 2 weeks now. I am seeing TONS of new root growth, just exploded in the last few days. MOST of the new growth is white...
BUT... several of the roots on one of my plants, the roots coming sideways out of the net pot (the fuzzy looking ones), have a black/dead spot that is very thin and weak, followed by a small section of root that is hanging perfectly lifelessly vertical and then ahother tiny black tip that looks withered.
So I dont see the blackness on any of the roots in the actual water, just the sideways growing roots that are 1-2" long coming out of the netpots. Some just have the black tip on the root, other have the two spots I describe above, where the root after the first bit of blackness is just hanging limp and decaying.
So... Pythium, or some other kind of root rot? I've already cut some of the yucky roots back and they look the same the next day.
I have not yet tried Spraying the roots with Bennes. Today is 3 days since last added Tea, so should I try more direct root contact with the Tea??
If this doesn't improve I will try completely washing the roots in a dilute h202 and maybe seeing if running lowgrate h2o2 is better for me with these plants. I know this is asking alot to transplant such old plants into Hydro, but the sheer amount of root growth is encouraging... now if I could just stop those black tips!
(I do have to be completely honest, I might have slightly goofed on my last tea brew. Forgot to add the molassas until about 8 hours after I started the brew.. but I did it first thing in the morning. could that mistake have allowed the bad guys to take over???? I don't recall seeing any black spots before the last treatment a few days ago.)
Thanks guys this thread has been very interesting to read. I read about 2/3 of it so apologies if similar issues have been solved. Hard to retain all 60 pages or so
fyi here is a thead I made in gardening. pics are old, roots are like 5x that crazy now, but I will try to post a new root shot tonight showing affected areas.
