Root rot in aeroponics; do solutions even exist?

Alright, so what do you do about root rot in aeroponics?

I have two aquamist systems (2'x4', 32 plants suspended above the reservoir) which I fill with about ten gallons, each has it's own 20lpm air pump.

I've done a lot of research on this, and it appears that while there are lots of effective solutions for DWC, the best they seem to do in aeroponics is slow it's progression. H2O2 was largely useless, fresh brewed microbial tea/beneficial mycos have been fairly worthless; B-1 was great as an additive, but did nothing for the rot; frozen bottles brought the res temps down (they hit 72° or so before), but that only slowed progression.

I have noticed that roots which are long enough to drop into the reservoir look good where submersed, but they appear to continue rotting above the water line. The one solution I have yet to try is bleach/chlorine, but maybe I'll try that later tonight... :/

I just put botanicare zho all over the roots a couple times a day for 2-3 days and your problem should be gone.


or you could make a compost tea with zho and earthworm castings

NightOwlBono said:

I just put botanicare zho all over the roots a couple times a day for 2-3 days and your problem should be gone.


or you could make a compost tea with zho and earthworm castings

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bibbles said:

fresh brewed microbial tea/beneficial mycos have been fairly worthless

Click to expand...

Yeah, I've been doing that; no dice.

Not even worth running this system without a chiller. Period. Learned that the hard way. You're right: H202 is useless. Teas are beneficial but will be futile if you can't keep your temps down.

Yes, there are solutions! First of all, bennies usually are problematic with aeroponics because there is really no medium for the biological processes to take place. Whatever you do, stay away from carbohydrates like Sweet or Carboload. They are made to nourish beneficial bacteria but will also feed the nasties as in root rot. In aeroponics a sterile reservoir works best. I have used several things over the years to keep my my res nice and clean. Calcium hypochlorite (pool shock) works very well at a concentration of 1ppm, up to 3ppm to treat root rot. Dutch Master makes a product called Zone that works well too. Zone is Chloramine which is another form of Chlorine. It costs a lot more than pool shock but it's easy to apply because it's already mixed. If you buy pool shock, make sure it's calcium hypochlorite because there are a few different types of pool shock. I also use 1 tsp/gal of 29% H2O2 daily into the res to keep the nutes highly oxygenated but not when treating for root rot. When treating root rot I temporarily discontinue the H2O2 because the nasties love oxygen too. H2O2 is great stuff but it may make a case of root rot much worse under the right conditions. I hope this helps you.
Mech

for bleach i hear clorox @ one cap per 5 gallons is what people run in aero.
but before that make sure you've been cleaning your aero setup weekly with bleach+water and a drop of soap. the soap helps remove scale and bleach kills.
If i were you id buy a toilet wand and a spray bottle, and go outside with a hose and scrubthe fuck out of everything, flush it all out (even airstones and shit, make sure theyre soaked and then rinsed really well, perhaps pushing air through em here and there while cleaning)
since the scale is all gone the source of rot would be the roots which are infected. Now you run fresh water and see if that works, and if it doesn't you need to follow the sticky on "the cure to root rot--microbe tea"

I know a few people that had no choice but to recut the plant , clone it. let It regrow roots, or cut all the dead roots off rotted ,, get water chiller, change water every 5 to 7 days

Bleach can work but it's not ideal because it's Sodium Hypochlorite. There are better forms of Chlorine, like pool shock (Calcium Hypochlorite) and Cloramines (Dutch Master Zone). They don't break down (offgas) as quickly as household bleach and don't load the plants with sodium. Calcium is used by the plants as a micro nute. Chlorine is also used as a micro nute in much smaller amounts. Sodium should be avoided if possible.

Just get u some hth pool shock. Worked wonders in my cloner. Calcium hypochlorite is great for plants. They love it.