DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

So, if I'm using just a generic EWC and great white (its hard to come by different products where I live), perhaps I should brew with EWC only for the bacteria and add great white directly to the res for the funghi.

Has anyone encountered what appears to be blisters on leaves between the veins. Some leaves also are praying . Nutes are at 1.2 EC and pH is 5.5 and raises to 6.1. I'm running house and garden aqua flakes, Cali mag, dutch master potash and tea . Its happening with my mom's as well as 6 lady's in flower. Along with that is new growth leaf tips that have bright neon yellow leaf tips. Its not nute burn.

I forgot to mention that the bright neon green leaf tips do fill in and the entire leaf fills in nice and green. What happens next is weird. The leaves which are nice and green develope light green specks or spots and then the area around the specs turn a yellow green. All this happens over a 4 day period and nute's and pH remain stable. From all the charts I've looked up it appears to be a manganese deficiency. i added in some Algen Extract to see if that helps

Ok, problems in paradise. Yesterday was day 3 of my plants in a fresh res. I checked the roots (white healthy and growing nice), adjusted pH (form 6 to 5,5) and added some freshly brewed tea. Today I check pH and find it at 4.3. I find pieces of white snot floating in the res, and roots are geting white to brownish slime on them.

I was brewing 2L of tea with 20 mL ewc, 6,5 g od fructose sugar and half a scoop of great white. It was bubling with a 3W bubler for 48 hours. Thing that made me thinking now is that I got no foam and no biofilm in my brew. Could it be that my temps were too low (19C - 66F) and nothing grew on the sugar, so when I put the tea in my res I only introduced food for the nasties?

My res conditions should be OK, it's a dark green thick plastic bucket covered in black plastic sheet with an improvised styrofoam lid again covered in black plastic covering all around the plants so no light comes through the net pots. Teps are at 65 to 68 F. Air is provided by a 18W air pump pumping through 4 airstones. I'm using Advanced hydroponics dutch formula nutes at about 0,5 EC.

I've washed the roots as best I could with a sprinkler and pure water, let them sit in a fresh res with some H2O2, then after 3 hours put them in a clean bucket with RO water and a scoop of great white.

Any sugestions on what I might be doing wrong?

did you try to fix what wasnt broke?

What do you mean? Isn't addding microbe tea every 3 days a recomended preventive routine?

Yes it is.. To me it seems the problem always begins after a res change..? but I guess you've already got your finger on it with the low temp/no bio film comment....

You think once a week res change is too often?

So what would in your opinion be a clear sign that sugars have been used up and tea is ready for use? I've read about biofilm and foam, but have also read others saying both of these are things that don't always show.

What temp would be ideal for brewing?

well like you said cold suppresses... aerobic bacteria thrive in warmer temps
i cant give you a clear answer because i dont brew.. i use aquarium bacteria products soon to be trialing pondzyme...
quick google should help you out mate...

people will always be fanatical about what works for them! wether it be teas, pond cleaners,bleaches ect...essentially your waging a war against this bacteria,so whats needed is something to kill bacteria..when new roots appear, it would be that you are winning the war..the trick is to kill all of it! not just the rhizosphere but the netpot, bottom stem, hydroton shes sittin in ect...when your winning,dont do anything to fuck that up say introducing a new food source for the bad bac...good bac has a food source,decaying root matter and bad bac.... it all points too like you said the sugars not getting used..

Yep, thats my conclusion also.

So, I brew untill I get foam and slime on my airstone to make sure everything is used up?

Update: New batch of tea, new recipe

about 0,6 gal. of RO water
40 mL EWC
7,5 mL (about 6,5g) brown unrafined sugar (I figure that will be as close to molases as I can get for now)
half a scoop of great white

Poured in a plastic bottle and put in a bucket with a heater and a thermostat. Temps are kept at about 21-23 C (72,8 to 73,4 F)

It's been bubbling with my 3W airpump for 24 hours. I had to clean my airstone as it was full of slime. Definately something living in there this time.

Get film/foam this time? Keep us updated buddy? Would pay too scrub everything out with h202 before adding tea..then run straight water for day, remove said water then start with tea...if slime is already there it would pay to get rid of as much as you can...the constant cleaning can get tiring,i know.. oxyplus is a concentrated h202 product great for sterilizing....keep the updates coming buddy, good luck

Thank you.

No faom yet, but the film is there definately, all over the airstone and at the botom. Unfortunately I'm not from US, so I have limited access to prducts you guys have available. I can only get my hands on some 3% H2O2, so I might add 100 mL of that in a 4 gal res. . I'm also considering trying out another product. It's a drinking and pool water sanatizer Sodium dichloroisocyanurate. It slowly breaks down and releases chlorine. From what I hear, it should be safe to run for a day in a dosage for dirnking water.

im in aus mate..oxyplus is made by growth technologies (australian) but sold internationally...another product is pythoff! wich is copper or something..can't remember, its another sterilizer but doesn't fade out of the soup like h202 does..

"sodium" is salt so be careful with that one..

Ah, I see. I'll look for it then.

I know sodium is not wellcome near plants, but this is strong stuff. It's dosage is 2g per 1000L (0,03g in my res).

are you aware that sterilizers kill benifical bacteria? eg h202 and tea dont work together..

Yes, ofcourse.

I'd use sterilizers just when something bad starts hapening to kill everything and give bacterial culture in the res a fresh new start.

If your looking at drinking water sterilizers you may as well just go to aquarium/pond cleaners... Cheaper, more effective... Google "pondzyme" and marijuana should give some good reading fodder..then there is aquarium bacteria wich from personal experience makes short work of those decaying roots