Rockwool = root rot?

looks like a little salt (calcium) buildup on the inserts.

It's a given! I had salt and chlorine build up all over mine but not usually in the container though? Although pwm spores get everywhere from my experience they don't colonize inert material just the plants.

You need it to be much warmer when it's in the cloner.

Is the pump on a timer or 24/7?

Are you running a sterile cloner?

No where in this thread does the "Friend" of the op state the water temps in the rez or buckets... With temps from 75 to 80 in the tent you will definitely have to keep the water temps in check.. under 70 is what "they" say. I run much cooler to avoid all risks of pythium (root rot). Considering there are over 125 different types of pythium, I'v managed for years without any damage from the little beasties. Currently my cloners are running about 76 which is acceptable with pure white roots established. Normally I run the cloner about 78 to 80 degrees. Need higher temps to produce roots but once produced then you need to keep water temps cool.

shawnery said:

build up all over mine but not usually in the container though?

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Only where the water sat and dried or evaporated.

shawnery said:

It's a given! I had salt and chlorine build up all over mine but not usually in the container though? Although pwm spores get everywhere from my experience they don't colonize inert material just the plants.

You need it to be much warmer when it's in the cloner.

Is the pump on a timer or 24/7?

Are you running a sterile cloner?

Click to expand...

You think it's salt? He had to cut some leaves off because this white stuff was on the ends of the lowest leaf tips and along the stalks. Yes the pump is on 24/7 -- only goes off to change the res. Maxigrow powder nuts are used, no organics (ie: seaweed), and hydroguard is added. Hydrogen peroxide and powdered calicum hypochlorite are on hand however. What do you think?

NrthrnMichigan said:

No where in this thread does the "Friend" of the op state the water temps in the rez or buckets... With temps from 75 to 80 in the tent you will definitely have to keep the water temps in check.. under 70 is what "they" say. I run much cooler to avoid all risks of pythium (root rot). Considering there are over 125 different types of pythium, I'v managed for years without any damage from the little beasties. Currently my cloners are running about 76 which is acceptable with pure white roots established. Normally I run the cloner about 78 to 80 degrees. Need higher temps to produce roots but once produced then you need to keep water temps cool.

Click to expand...

That's good info. In my previous post I listed temps at 67.5 degrees F. It's so frustrating... grrr. There also appears to be white build up in the tray now of the greenhouse container too. That kind of looks like salt build up I suppose -- it was just cleaned out 24/48 hours ago with dawn soap water.

My friend has new fem seeds started. [See photo's] Their growth is starting to slow; I think they need transplanted, but my friend is afraid... LOL. This will be the third run of healthy unique fem strains... ahhh. The previous two were basically killed off by root rot or whatever else... Can my friend transplant these into the greenhouse container? Maybe turn the heating pad off, put 1/2" of 100-150ppm nute solution in the bottom of the container and then once larger roots begin to show, move them to a DWC? Thoughts... ahhh...

Just read part of a UMass study that stated,

Powdery white mildew can only colonize plant tissues. If what is on your greenhouse and growing medium is mold there are two others it might be. I can't find both of them now but one is called grey mold.

some people just Shouldn’t grow. I think your loving them to death.Best of luck.

myke said:

some people just Shouldn’t grow. I think your loving them to death.Best of luck.

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@ myke -- I don't mean to be insulting, but there is a newbie forum section. If you have something of value to add from your experience growing, I appreciate the input. That said I've been around over 10 years as a member (March of 2008. It appears that you joined last week -- welcome to the forum's. Also, root rot if you've ever had it, doesn't occur from loving a plant to death.


@ Shawnery -- I think you're right that this is salt build up. After a number of recent bouts with rot root, it becomes scary! Haha!

No offence takin, but I think one can love plants too much. With that said could the small net pots be a cause of the root rot? Small area containing the heat? I’ve only used bigger ones so just a thought.
You also need to run a res with dwc. Simple return/ feed line.Keep the res outside of the tent.

With all these problems I would also consider the environment. Something has to be a miss. Remember ,it’s a weed.

There also a product called Enzymes Komplete. This works well for people that like to boil there roots. The stuff foams like dish soap When in contact with air bubbles. It completely foams the pail so it gets into every nook between the rocks and the media.

Yes root rot can be from too much love.Most new growers can’t resist looking ,touching, constantly lifting the lid to check the roots. Raise lower the light 4 times a day. Check Ph 12 times a day. You see what I mean.

myke said:

No offence takin, but I think one can love plants too much. With that said could the small net pots be a cause of the root rot? Small area containing the heat? I’ve only used bigger ones so just a thought.
You also need to run a res with dwc. Simple return/ feed line.Keep the res outside of the tent.

With all these problems I would also consider the environment. Something has to be a miss. Remember ,it’s a weed.

Click to expand...

It's a weed, but with indoor hydroponics there a lot more things to go wrong too I find until you get everything dialed into a new environment and new equipment. I humbly appreciate everyone's help - there's always a lot to learn from one another. I find however that with a soil grow, there's a lot less to worry about, however your growth rate and yields are affected. With this system there's four tents setup and one more pending -- (1) veg tent, (1) flower tent, (1) mother tent, and (1) harvest tent. Another veg tent will be added for max. perpetual efficiency. So soil is not a viable option long term.

I believe you're thinking of RDWC. These are self made DWC buckets -- the res is the unit. There's experience using these in the past. I find that even with mild root rot, plants tend to be more forgiving the larger they are. Getting over that hump with seedlings is the issue. Also, minimizing the source of issue at hand is the secondary concern. Temps aren't an issue as they're running under 70 degree's F. And Shawnery advised adding additional light proofing to the lid top (Thanks Shawnery!).

The 3" net pots shouldn't be the issue. Have used 1.5" before. The size of the net pot helps with stability.

myke said:

There also a product called Enzymes Komplete. This works well for people that like to boil there roots. The stuff foams like dish soap When in contact with air bubbles. It completely foams the pail so it gets into every nook between the rocks and the media.

Yes root rot can be from too much love.Most new growers can’t resist looking ,touching, constantly lifting the lid to check the roots. Raise lower the light 4 times a day. Check Ph 12 times a day. You see what I mean.

Click to expand...

Hydroguard has been being added to the res. It doesn't foam. Also have some OreganismXL which does foam in the res. I don't believe that these are supposed to foam into the root zone though. That's the issue that there was before, you don't want your res line too high I feel. I'm not really sold that good microbes will destroy bad ones in the root zone. I believe good microbes can help reduce bad microbes from multiplying, as good microbes may out compete the bad ones in the res, but once bad microbes are into your root zone, I feel it's rough to turn a corner especially if the plants are young.

Are you growing from seed or clones.? I've heard it said, root rot is systematic.
I grow with Rockwool, but it is bottom fed nutrient film/ebb and flow hybrid.
Growing in the normal way you do with rockwool, you need to make sure it dries out well between pouring on the juice.

jjng5 said:

Hydroguard has been being added to the res. It doesn't foam. Also have some OreganismXL which does foam in the res. I don't believe that these are supposed to foam into the root zone though. That's the issue that there was before, you don't want your res line too high I feel. I'm not really sold that good microbes will destroy bad ones in the root zone. I believe good microbes can help reduce bad microbes from multiplying, as good microbes may out compete the bad ones in the res, but once bad microbes are into your root zone, I feel it's rough to turn a corner especially if the plants are young.

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Yes u want foam everywhere,you can’t control the foam regardless of how much water is in the bucket. If your buckets don’t overflow a little foam then you don’t have near enough air then.

Just throwing this out there, i started growing as a teen with my buddy and his dad. His Dad ran a small 3-4 plant dwc setup. We never controlled temps and let algae grow on rockwool cubes. Changing out water in buckets only happened when flipping. We would just top up the rest of the time. I dont think root rot was something we even knew existed. We very rarely killed plants, yields sucked(didnt even know it then)but plants didnt die. We did not own phmeters or ppm pens(we did have a crude system for ph adjustment)

My advice, don't even look at the roots. Ph every 3 days and only if outside 5.6-6.3 otherwise leave it. Seedlings will only need 50-100ppm nutrients above whatever your water starts at. Ditch the bleach/hydroguard/bacteria(they are fine but we want them out of the equation right now)Buy some kelp, i use the stuff from remo nutrients in my buckets. This will turn your roots/water green...dont freak out.
Dont spray anything on the seedlings. Dont cut them or touch them. Dont change out the water for atleast 2-3 weeks. The white buildup on the foam is nutrient salt, totally normal. Ditch the piping/pump in your dwc container and just go with 6” airstones(no pump to clog and less water disturbance for tender seedling roots). Follow this advice until the plants get established.
Dont mind my crispy clones, they were all cut later in flower and took awhile to root.

You can't judge anothers root rot,which is a generic term by the way, by the root rot you have or haven't dealt with. I'm still 2 years new to this with only my third grow and I wouldn't ever imagine not looking at me roots.

For instance, for the last two grows before my current one I lost both to "root rot". I did everything right even though the know it alls always said, your obviously doing it wrong. Every enviroment is different and for me my water was a great source of issues I finally found out.

There's all sorts of issues that could cause problems in a dwc system in an imperfect system which may or may not be the growers issue. There's a chance, depending on enviroment, that your airstones could be the method of infection. They have tiny hepa filters you can put on them to help with that possible issue.

I used to be told, by a real *** all the time that I was this and that and that I shouldn't grow but the whole time there was an issue that a certain know it all didn't even consider. I kept at it figured it out and now try to help where I can and still grow from the information I continually get from the back and forth experience of being an active member in this group.

I think a lot of people just make it much more difficult by adding tons of shit. All I use is dry ferts, calnit, epsom and h202 for sterility.


You'll get it sooner or later but the question is do you have the money to afford the lesson? It cost me two months of electricity to figure out mine and my electricity here is awful!

“Once root rot is suspected, he immediately breaks everything down, sterilizes everything and cuts away any unhealthy looking roots”

That’s what’s killing the plants, if there was root rot it never had a chance to kill anything

Shawnery - your water was the problem? What happened?

This,

First two pics are of my 50 Micron inline filter which is after my cooler but right before the sprayers in my Epi Center. The third photo is of my white sediment filter from my RO filter. No matter how much chlorine no matter how much H2O2 no matter how much hydroguard dish it would kill my plants every freaking time