DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

CaliMackdaddy

Active Member
Thanks. My plan thus far is that there is so much debris and dead roots floating around that I plan on just doing a complete sterilization and clean out. This includes the roots themselves. What do you guys think about using diluted 29% h202 to spray on the roots and the surrounding hydroton, flushing it out, getting rid of any dead stuff, and them retreating it to the tea. Thoughts?
I do this every 7-14 days when i do a rez change, you want to kill any organic material before putting in the tea. after you use the h2o2 let it sit in plain water for half a day before adding the nutes or tea.
 

TheNewGuyy

Active Member
When I made the tea I got white floating stuff in it. Also it smelt only if I put my nose to it. Does this sound normal?

I use 50ml Aquashield, 4teaspoons zho powder and 4 handfulls of Ancient forest for 4 gallons of tea
I also use 3 tablespoons of molasses. So far I've heard try using less AF. Any input is awesome I need to make a new batch today.
Also I only use 2 small air stones in a 5gal bucket but I also have small fish pumps I could use if thats good??
 

TheNewGuyy

Active Member
View attachment 1990110View attachment 1990111

I am 1 week in to flower and battling root rot finally got some pics up. I couldnt get them right side up

They are mostly green but getting so much eagle claw and thin new leaves and over all dragging. I have zho ancient forest and aqua shield what is my best recipe for a 4 gallon batch?

sorry about the lights making the pics look worse
 

mr.bond

Well-Known Member
Not really. The only real change with those ingredients is to add the ZHO when the tea is almost done brewing.
 

TheNewGuyy

Active Member
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There they are. And I ask because when I make the tea it has white stuff floating in it and it smells only if I put my nose to it so im wondering if im doing anything wrong.

50ml aquashield. 4 handfulls of AF. 4 teaspoons of ZHO and 3 tablespoons of molasses for a 4 gallon batch

only use 2 small air stones in a 5 gal bucket but i have small fish pumps if that will work
 

Heisenberg

Well-Known Member
Hey hiesinberg was wondering if you have seen the vortex brewing station? Aside from the price! Whats your take on this system?
Looks like it would probably brew a great tea, but it seems a bit much considering a bucket and airstone does the same thing for our purposes. I can see it being useful in situations where you need to make huge batches of tea. For outdoor plots, grow stores that sell tea, and large co-ops it's probably worth buying or building.


So after I treated my dwc w/the tea it seems as if it has gotten worse. In one unit, there is now an increased layer of clear gunk/snotty material on the roots where before it was just brown. What has me even more curious is that in another unit which I poured the tea in, there was very minimal slime and it has gotten much worse. I'm preparing to totally clean out each reservoir with bleach and trying again. Also, the hydroton and some of the rockwool now has some sort of moldy blue/green material growing on it. :confused:
As stated, this tends to happen when you have extra organic material in the res during tea treatments. This can be from too much molasses in the brew, organic additives, or even just dying roots. We call this after-slime and as long as you see new shoots forming you are on your way to recovery.

In 156 pages, does anyone mention alternative products which do that same thing? I cant find any of the products listed in the first post and I really need this tea! lol.
Look for any products which contain bacillus, mycorrhizae, and trichoderma. Any earth worm castings will do the trick.

There they are. And I ask because when I make the tea it has white stuff floating in it and it smells only if I put my nose to it so im wondering if im doing anything wrong.

50ml aquashield. 4 handfulls of AF. 4 teaspoons of ZHO and 3 tablespoons of molasses for a 4 gallon batch

only use 2 small air stones in a 5 gal bucket but i have small fish pumps if that will work
I would use only 2 handfuls of AF and add the ZHO near the end of the brew. Sounds like you may need more aeration. I am not the best at diagnosing plant problems so you should post your pics in the problems sub-forum. Remember to tell them your nute line and res/room conditions. It does look to me like there is some heat stress involved near the tops. Looks a bit stretchy.



Someone asked recently about aero systems being clogged. I usually recommend the mycogrow hydro mix for those worried about clogging, as it is only mycos. Spray it directly on the roots if possible. However, so far I have never had anyone report that the tea clogged their system.
 

hellraizer30

Rebel From The North
From what i read the water moving causes the bennys to brew faster and 24hr is all it takes, im going to make a 5gal
Setup just to try it! Il let you all know how it goes!
 

Redoctober

Well-Known Member
Thanks Heisenberg, yeah it was me that asked about aero. I was reading on the fungi perfecti website that the normal Mycogrow has 13 components(strains) to it whereas the Mycogrow Hydro version only has 4. Obviously the regular MycoGrow is superior in this way and would be preferable. Never having used the stuff, I have no idea what happens when you add it to water i.e. does it become sludgy/thick/viscous and so forth? I do have a fine 3 micron screen attached to my pump which may help. I was just wondering of the MycoGrow would clog sprayers (EZ clone style sprayers). I'll give it a whirl and report back.
 

bigtony

Member
mr.hiesenberg i want to ask after you make the tea like i did and use it. I noticed you said to make it with r.o water or nonchlorinated water. I wanted to know after using the tea can you use regular tap water to top your rez off or do you keep using (non chlorinated or r.o. water) ? So basically I'm asking will the chlorinated water hurt the microbes you put in the rez from the start ?
 
Hi Heisenburg,

I just wanted to say thank you very much for sharing this info with us, as it saved my patients crops from certain death and allowed the plant to finish a full 10 weeks. I setup this account really to share pics that it worked and to really thank you from the bottom of my heart. I read the entire thread from start to finish and I picked up a lot of good tips. I currently run the entire H&G line and have been for about two years. Everything was hunky dorey until one day I noticed a few gnats coming out of my flowering buckets. Naturally I wanted to head them off at the pass so I happened to have some Azamax and applied it according to the directions in the instructions for Hydro... FATAL ERROR.

This is what happened:



Apparently the Azamax got so thick and sludgy it clogged up my airstones and this is what I got. Of course I freaked out and scoured the 'net which led me to your thread. These plants were about 4 weeks in and my patient was counting on the harvest. I cut off what I could which was a wee bit much, and doused the rest of the root mass with a really weak H202 solution and let it bubble in plain water until the tea was ready.

I initially used random EWC, GreatWhite, Molassaes every 3 days at about 3 cups per 5 gallon bucket, kind of excessive but I was desperate. About a week later I got this:



First signs of new growth! I was really excited and pumped up to see it working. Around week 6 I found some Ancient Forest locally and used that in place of the EWC. There IS a difference to me. The roots really seemed to explode with growth and the upper half of the plant while in rough shape, was continuing to fatten up and coat with trichs. This is what it looked like day of harvest:



Simply amazing in my book! I have continued to use it in all of my DWC buckets flower and veg and I feel like the roots exploded even moreso than using Roots Excellurator alone. Here is a veg plant about 3 weeks:


I am only using base nutes, your tea, and silica with none of the H&G additives as I fear the problems may return, that maybe a unfounded fear though. I have also looked at Dutch Master nutes & am currently testing the LL/Saturator foliar spray with amazing results. I hope to pick up more gems from you in the future! :leaf:

Three cheers for the Heisenburg Tea!!!

-P215

PS: To anyone reading, Mosquito dunks kick ass against gnats and no issues using them in DWC with airstones! :weed:
 

Heisenberg

Well-Known Member
mr.hiesenberg i want to ask after you make the tea like i did and use it. I noticed you said to make it with r.o water or nonchlorinated water. I wanted to know after using the tea can you use regular tap water to top your rez off or do you keep using (non chlorinated or r.o. water) ? So basically I'm asking will the chlorinated water hurt the microbes you put in the rez from the start ?
Make the tea with pure water and add to a well aerated res. Adding tap water to top-off the res will kill some bennies, but most will survive.
 

Heisenberg

Well-Known Member
Hi Heisenburg,

I just wanted to say thank you very much for sharing this info with us, as it saved my patients crops from certain death and allowed the plant to finish a full 10 weeks. I setup this account really to share pics that it worked and to really thank you from the bottom of my heart. I read the entire thread from start to finish and I picked up a lot of good tips. I currently run the entire H&G line and have been for about two years. Everything was hunky dorey until one day I noticed a few gnats coming out of my flowering buckets. Naturally I wanted to head them off at the pass so I happened to have some Azamax and applied it according to the directions in the instructions for Hydro... FATAL ERROR.
Wow, thanks for sharing your experience with us. It's so satisfying to see the slime get eradicated and to see bennies helping sick MJ plants, and such a dramatic difference. I am glad your patients could benefit from our experience here.

Also, new users should note that the second pic still has some slime. The important thing is the new shoots forming, not that your roots should shed all traces of slime. You can see in the later pic, the slime spot diminished and became benign. Too many people panic and assume the slime is still growing (because that is what they have seen it do in response to sterilizing treatments). If your res smells okay and you see new growth, stay the course.
 

Tmac4302

Well-Known Member
I am a firm believer in the science behind beneficial microbes and have seen it work for hydroponics. Like you said Heis, every second the roots are exposed to water, they're at a chance for some type of disease, infection, ect. So I like to take a preventative caution so nothing has a chance to go wrong. I normally run Voodoo Juice from AN for ben. bac. and Great White. Both seem to work well for the root zone as far as keeping foreign invaders out by being constantly colonized in my root zone. I figured nothing bad can get in if its already taken over by beneficial bacteria from the get go. My question is, would it be possible for me to replace my current regiment of bennies for your microbial compost tea?
 

bagada

Active Member
Saw this and made me think of this thread.
I was wondering if you can use aqairium external pumps that pump the water through a tray that you can put subtrates in that add beneficials to the water and supply a place for them to live. would the be better than just using lava rocks in the net pot? the reason is because i heard that it is better to have the water level lower to allow arial roots and prevent mold at the stem. but in order to make a place for bacteria to colonize you would need to keep the water always touching the net. Im thinking the FLUVAL filters are cheap and effective.
 

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