AAAHHH Root Rot Help!!

I am in the middle of my very first grow - 4 weeks into veg. I'm doing a deep water hydro in 5 gal black buckets - 3 of them.

After doing some incomplete research, I got the stupid idea of adding a little Molasses in there and within 24 hours, I got a massive amount of brown bubbles. After further inspection, my beautiful long white strands of roots where just completely covered with that awful brown slime.

For the past 3 days, I've been emptying the buckets every 12 hours, spraying the roots to loosen up the slime, putting them into new water solution (ph 5.7) with some hydrogen peroxide and keeping the temp at around 63 degrees. The root rot just comes back like wildfire. On one of the plants, instead of peroxide, I tried using Hydroguard but it still has the rot.

The plants still look ok above the buckets but I'm getting just a little bit of droop in the leaves but corrects itself a few hours after each time I clean. I think I am in a losing battle.

My question is this.... Can I just cut off ALL the roots - right above the base and dip the trunk into clonex and put it back into rockwool? Will my plant grow new roots this way or am I just going to have to resort to cut smaller clones??? My plant was doing so well - nice and bushy + healthy until I got that stupid molasses idea. I'd hate to waste that whole month and start over.

Thanks for any suggestions!

headhoncho said:

Can I just cut off ALL the roots - right above the base and dip the trunk into clonex and put it back into rockwool?

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If you cut away more than about 50% of the roots, the plant will die. "Pyth Off" is a very good product and treats pythium much more effectively than H202.

hygrozyme eats pythium for breakfast, did you put more than a teaspoon per gallon of molasses?

Actually, I put 1 tablespoon per bucket - so less than the 1 tsp per gal. Isn't Hydroguard and Hygrozyme very similar products? This pythium grows faster than anything I have ever seen. If this was like cancer for humans, i'd be dead in 24 hrs.

I've been able to rinse it moderately off and use my fingers to loosen up much of the slime each time but it doesn't look like anything might be able to conquer something that covers everything in 12 hours. The ph is under 6 and its got no effect at all.

hygrozyme eats any infected roots, if using this product i suggest you drain and fill the rez daily for 5 days cus the dead roots in the water gets really nasty, im telling ya h'zyme is the best, hydrogaurd is supposed to be similar, but what are your rez temps?

My res temps are 65 degrees and ph is down to 5.5 today. Because I'm doing so much res changes, I haven't been using any nutrients (they are expensive to use if am changing them 3 times a day now. The roots look like crap but after I rinse them, they look ok (meaning nothing really falls off except the slime). Surprisingly, the leaves don't look that bad - especially a couple of hours after each rinse. I feel like I'm taking care of kids with the attention I'm constantly giving them. You know the funny thing is that the last time I smoked anything was over 25 years ago. I'm just doing this just for the "fun" of it hehe.

I'll try to pick up some hygrozyme when I get a chance.

could the brown gunk on the roots just be the taint the molasses left on them? would think if the roots were rotted the uppers of your plants would be hurting too. all i am saying is maybe all the water changing isn't needed. just a thought. i know nothing of hydro other than molasses is evil in hydro lol.

Definitely root rot. I must of completely changed the res 13 times in the last 4 days and did the best I could in rinsing the slime off of the roots each time. I have read in a few posts elsewhere that I shouldn't have used the molasses in hydro grows. All this started within a few hours of adding a tablespoon of this.

BUT.... I have some unbelievable news. I got desperate this morning and after the changing of the water, I dumped 1/3 bottle (3% drugstore variety) Hydrogen Peroxide. in each bucket. I'm sure it was way more than recommended. I just checked this a few min. ago (14 hrs. later) and low and behold, absolutely no rot in the bucket!!! My roots are glistening white - as if I bleached the hell out of them. The plants look fine (no droop in the leaves) - though right now the ph is all the way down to 4.8. I just upped the ph back to 5.9. We'll see what happens in a few hours.

I can't believe the night and day difference.

I'm still going to pick up some hygrozyme just for maintenance.

tokinman said:

could the brown gunk on the roots just be the taint the molasses left on them? would think if the roots were rotted the uppers of your plants would be hurting too. all i am saying is maybe all the water changing isn't needed. just a thought. i know nothing of hydro other than molasses is evil in hydro lol.

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im happy uou sorted all that out, and yea the molasses is nice in soil but hydro i dont know, im an aero person and wouldnt bring that stuff near my rig, they make all these flavored additives thaT ACTUALLY HAVE RAW CANE SUGAR IN THEM opps sorry caps, flora nectar makes my buds deliscious

Just an update - after a couple weeks of this disaster. I thought I got rid of the Pythium but it just kept on coming back. I then called Foxfarm and told them of my situation (I use Foxfarm nutes). The tech person told me that Hydroguard and Hydrozyme were "watered down fixes"and that I should never use Peroxide as it will kill off any Foxfarm nutes (they are organic). He told me whatever the bottle says (Hydroguard and Hydrozyme), double the dosage. I did that and it definitely helped big time. I saw a marked improvement in the color of the roots as well as new root growth (nice bright white shoots!).

He also told me to use House and Garden's Root Excellurator. It's very very pricey ($110 per 500ml) but I use 1ml per 1 gallon - so it ends up to be quite a bit cheaper than what I was using. Well it took a few days to get here but that stuff is unbelievable. I definitely see a big difference than the Hydroguard and Hydrozyme used together. I lost at least 80% of the roots before starting the Hydro Guard/zyme but now with the Excellurator, in a matter of 4 days, about 50% of the roots (new shoots) have grown back. Also, I was told in doing Deep Water DWC, the bottom of the basket should be about 1/4" above water. That will also help prevent the rot from growing back and make the roots grow faster and seek the water below. It was good advice and my water has been super clear for about a week. I'll always use the Excellurator from now on.