I have been fighting what I think is root rot for a long time. I am using Hydroguard, I have lowered my res temp to 60F, I have sanitized the system many times, done H202 bathes, run H2O2 in the system, wasn't working so went back to hydro guard. When I clean everything and change the res, the plants momentarily recover and start growing new white healthy looking roots, but In a week or so my ph starts rising rapidly and those roots turn light brown and mushy like the rest. I am thinking about trying a different beneficial microbe additive other than Hydroguard, like maybe voodoo juice. I have also looked at teas, but they seem like quite a hassle. Is this not Pythium, but some other super root rot that can survive at 60F with no light getting at the res and plenty of water circulation? Any info or recommendations would be helpful, thanks.
How much air are you pumping into the water? How often are you flushing and cleaning you pumps, res and other components? It sounds like typical algae growing. I clean min once s month and use bleach to sanitize and kill the anything left behind. Sounds like the lack of air in the solution is the cause of the issues. I have yet to develop any issues and keep my water temps 72 and lower. I use 4 stones in a 60 gallon res. I have a high power air pump powering the 4 stones and keep the stone spread out. Oxygen is vital in the growth and health of roots. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
I'm using wilt guard in my system and touch wood I've not had any root issues dodgy smells etc as of yet. Sent from my iPhone using Grasscity Forum
Hi... Earth worm casting (EWC) tea is not that much work. Order some MycoGrow from fungi.com and get a bag of EWC and some molasses. There are a couple of tutorials on how to make it. I have had problems with root rot occasionally and using an EWC tea, I can run my nute temps at 70F (21C) and have zero problems. I have a bucket brewing the tea all of the time. Having root rot is a lot more of a hassle than brewing EWC tea!
i have ordered an air pump. because there is quite a lot of water movement in my nft system, i thought that i did not need an air pump. i have heard that an air stone raises ph very quickly and that is why i did not want to use it. as for tea, i don't understand why i should need microbes made with tea while i am using bottled beneficial microbes. also the tea requires molasses, which i have heard feeds anaerobic bacteria more than beneficial microbes. the researchers at botanicare did a 4 year study where they discovered that in all beneficial microbe mixes, one species of microbe out competes the rest and it is the only one that survives after some time, so they made hydroguard which has only that single species. makes sense to me but its not working. maybe my supplier stored it for too long or in a hot area and it has been spoiled (unlikely since they have a high ebay rating), so i have switched to voodoo juice. I have also added sensizyme to help eat up the dead roots what do you guys think about these three points?
Hi... I can talk about the molasses. The reason it is used is to give the beneficials something to eat while you are brewing the tea. It is only enough to last them about two to four days. You are supposed to brew the tea for 48 hours before use. By then it is a foamy, bubble brew (kinda like making beer!) and the beneficials are hungry and ready to attack the nasties. I would pour a cup or two directly into the buckets (Waterfarms) and a couple cups into the resv. You are correct about not wanting the molasses in your system, although some growers use it directly in their nute solution... In my previous grow, I had my nute solution too warm and had a terrible case of root rot. I used GH Subculture-M and Hydroguard but couldn't get rid of it. I did the h2o2 rinse and all (or most) of the recommended procedures for getting rid of the rot.....I finally broke down and brewed some tea and that finally got rid of the root rot. Unfortunately, the plants were stunted and too far gone and I decided to restart the grow. Another benefit about EWC tea, besides that it works, is the extremely low cost. A bag of Earth Worm Castings and 1oz of MycoGrow is cheaper than a small bottle of Hydroguard (and Hydroguard is one of the more reasonable priced beneficials product) and will make many many gallons of tea. Good luck!
What is the layout of your NFT? Have you ever had a successful grow? Just because you say the res temp is @ 60F, what are the temps @ roots? IMO you are over complicating the "cure", if you are actually averaging a below 70 degF state, you should not have a problem. I suspect you are pooling soup in places where the crap can grow.
this is my first grow. i have a 22 gallon reservoir and an 8 foot long, 4 in wide channel that fills to about an inch high water that the roots float in as the stream drags by. someone told me this is a water culture system since the stream is an inch tall and it should be much shorter. in addition, the pump stops and empties for 3 minuets, before turning back on for 6 minutes. so it is also technically a flood/drain. i have a home made humidifier made out of foggers and a window fan that puffs about 22 gallons of water into the room in about a week, keeping the humidity at about 70. i recently learned that pythium is airborne so i put some voodoo juice in the humidifier as well. im beginning to think that it might be algae that i am dealing with, although the entire system is light proof. everything is made out of food safe plastics. i have 2 $10 battery powered tds meters and 2 $60 tri moniters. the strange thing is that the 2 $10 tds meters agree with each other and seem accurate based on how much nutrient solution i am adding to the reservoir, and the 2 $60 tri-moniters agree with each other, but read 2x as high as the accurate $10 units. very strange.
Different meters have different conversion factors when converting EC into ppm. Some use a .5 conversion and ours use a .7. This could be e reason that they differ from each other. It is also important to calibrate your meters with 7.01 and 4.01 calibration solutions. I do this on a weekly basis. EC is a better number to use when monitoring with different meters. Hope this helps!
Go take temperature readings along the tray. Obviously if you have not had a successful grow, the design is amiss. What and where is the chiller? I very much doubt you have 70 deg F range temperatures. read this: Simply Hydroponics - Nutrient Temp
thanks to your earlier advice i lowerd the water temp with the chiller to 60F 1 week ago. I only have a 330w (advertised at 1200w) led lamp, so the water in the channel is probably about 61F. ambient room temp is 67F, so when it drains for 3 mins it is probably at 66F.
Ok, so you have not measured the temps @ root so you really don't know. Go take data, or you are just playing a guessing game. Get one of these: BENETECH GM320 1.2" LCD Infrared Temperature Tester Thermometer -50℃ - 380℃ - Orange + Black