I dont fucking get it. If I had something besides my smart phone I'd upload some pics.(I'm paranoid about that kinda shit) From above the DWC lid everything looks fine. But from below, my roots won't stay white, and they won't grow worth a fuck. It's getting a little ridiculous. I've had 2 harvests now, and I'm just getting pissed that I can't get them to take off all of a sudden. All my grows, the roots had a "browning" but it never stalled them from actually growing like nowadays. I grow from clones from my mother, they will do fine in dirt, but fuck dirt. When I put them in the DWC hydro buckets, they go good for a little while, they develop roots a little bit, then they start turning brown and get all soggyish, and the roots just stop growing. I use the lucas formula nutes (General Hydroponics), mild strength, a little cal mag+ and some superthrive along with H202. I have two 127 GPH elemental air pumps ( 2 hoses per pump), that I have 1 for each bucket. 2 buckets, two pumps. so there's plenty of air. I SCOLD THE LIVING SHIT out of my buckets every change out. The water is so hot that it would melt the skin off your hands, surely this should be killing anything that could be growing on my buckets, right? I haven't used any kind of chemicals to clean them out, because I'm afraid of that shit and dont know what I could use that is safe. I re-use my hydro-rocks from before, but never had a problem with this before. I plan on getting some new grow rocks, but have never heard of this causing an issue because I always rinse the shit out of them before going into a new grow. I have water chillers in use. bad ass water chillers, $300 units one for each bucket. my water is ICE COLD at 68 degrees. My PH is 5.8- 6.1 I maintain this at all times. I just don't get it, WHY would my plants just not be growing? There NO pests/diseases or anything like that. my room is kinda hot its been getting up to 85-90 occasionally but am usually able to get it cooled down with the A/C. regardless of temps, my roots are 100% of the time at a temperature of 68 degrees. Has anyone ever had a similar experience? I've had 2 successful grows and I always scrub and clean out my buckets so I just don't get why the roots won't grow anymore. It doesn't add up, the browning roots and root rot are why i got the chillers, so I'm really fucking frustrated.
I'm on my first DWC with Advanced Nutrients Base, and Voodoo Juice which was supposed to help prevent the nasty root slime but alas everything is turning brown (rootwise)
I've heard great white or hydro guard are the way to go. Haven't tried yet but I sure as hell will next grow.
The smartphone pics are ok brotha, I just always keep my location off, and delete them from the forum once I get the point across. It sounds like you're doing everything right, apart from sterilizing the buckets - hot water isn't enough. I use bleach myself, but you could get away with some straight peroxide as well.. With the bleach I just fill the buckets about a tenth of the way, add back some hot tap (half full or so), and give them a good scrub.. Be sure to rinse them well, and you're good to go. It's a good practice to let them dry completely before you put them into use. Also, drop the h202 in the res, not necessary by any means.. I used to use lucas myself, what ec are you maintaining? What does your bucket setup look like, are there light leaks? Also, what is the strain you're working with? The same as the previous grow? I noticed you said you have a mother, it may be a weak pheno causing the issues.. If it is the same genetics I wouldn't write off trying another strain..
Don't be too alarmed, this is very common with certain nutes, supplements, I totally recommend Botanicares Hydroguard and SilicaBlast, I have used them for 6 years and have never had any root problems. Some suppliments such as Liguid Karma, some Earth Juice products, various micro nutes will stain the roots and cause slime to form. Hydroguard and SilicaBlast are the first to go in my buckets, I start with a ml per gallon for seedlings and increase to 2ml after a few weeks.
I have this problem, I have tried great white, I use a chiller and still I get brown roots unless I use H2O2, how often are you adding it to your system? I add about 5ml every other day and it keeps it clean. I haven't tried hydroguard, heard good things about it.
I dont think you should need any chemical additions to prevent root rot given the system conditions youre describing. Roots are brown, but are they slimy? If yes bad, if not then maybe just stain from micro nutrient. Is there any light getting in to the roots? Do you have a little airspace between bottom of netpot and water? Is your rockwool cube wet? 68 should be solid, but I like to keep my water closer to 64.
Just a little tip for ya, and future readers.. taking your water temps below 65 begins to limit nutrient uptake.. 65-67F is optimal.. Updates OP?
sorry guys, haven't had a chance to respond. by E.C are we talking PPMs? or is that related to PH? I can't remember. regardless I always keep my ph between 5.8-6.2 and I don't really like it at 6.2 try to keep it at 6.1. PPMs are depending on age and size of the plant. I try to keep them around 400 during the early stages. The buckets I have are the ones that are pre-made that are sold off amazon. I keep the net pots of the plants completely submerged in the res water. I only add h202 during the change-out 5 tsp per 5 gallons and just let it sit until the next change-out. When I got the chillers, I had to cut some holes myself in order for the 1/2 inch tubing to go through, the tubing goes through the holes VERY snugly, but I am not sure if there is any light coming through. I don't believe there are light leaks, but I cannot be 100% sure. So I need to use something to clean out my buckets, I will do this next change out but bleach has me a little nervous, just don't really want to use that, will check out some other options. Roots are not slimy. they just turn brown, and they are so SLOW to grow, I can't emphasize how slow my root growth is. So, would re-using my grow rocks over and over cause a problem? Perhaps some sort of salt build up is affecting my plants? I will take a few pics soon. The strain for my mother is Old Time Indian Bubblegum I would have to check which seed shop sells them, I know they are on seedboutique.com she pops out good clones that root quickly so I've never questioned whether that was part of the problem. I've had a bad mother before that wouldn't produce healthy clones, but it was a different strain and a very unhealthy mother. I will try to get over my paranoia and upload some pics soon
Don't want to invade, but I have exactly the same thing. It sprung up on me in a mere 3 days. One day they are fine and clean, few days later I've got this totally nasty stuff in my roots. Like, real nasty. Not slimy but in huge mass. I am in RDWC, 4 plants in flower, 2 Northern Lights, 1 Lemon Haze, 1 Chronic, all from clone in SCROG under 600W HPS. Res temps are 65F, perfect, nutrients are 250ppm advanced nutrients calmag and 400ppm combined of Adv. Nut. PH perfect G-M-B. I even use RO water! Buckets are light sealed. I have the big boy 110-LPM Active Aqua Commercial Air Pump running 2 airstones in each bucket so it's not lack of oxygen. It was really hard to get off the roots too. It was like bound to them. More like a super thick oil than slime. It didn't really seem water soluble. Got off as much as I could (practically all) and threw in some beneficials, both Orca and Great White to try and give whatever that crap is some competition. I'm an experienced grower and have kicked root rot before but am honestly stumped. Not fully sure why this is happening. As you can see, it's pretty bad, I'll let you know what works for me because I will beat this. Any input GREATLY appreciated. What is this? And once everything was cleaned off
Temperatures between 60 & 68 utilizes the oxygen much better, my roots usually look an off white, and as I stated in a earlier post, suppliments and some core nutrients will stain the roots. I would highly advise against using h2o2 as it will kill the good bacteria as well as the bad, I only use it in between grows to clean and sanitize. What roots suppliments are being used? And at what point do you start using them? In my case, Hydroguard and SilicaBlast, it's the first thing to go into my buckets, 1ml per gallon the first 2 weeks, then bump up to 2 ml. per gallon. for the entire grow. Be sure the air stones and or air pump is putting out enough bubbles, I have discovered that some air stones are crap, it can be trial and error with them, also they do clog up. And as a reference, my water temps range from low 60s-80s during a typical 24 hr day. And while we are discussing roots, those that use a recirculating system, be prepared for clogged bulkheads from root mass, so a screen system is needed as well, I made a snorkle out of 3/4 inch pvc pipe. A pic included of my current grow.
As I said, I'd let you know when I figured it out- and I did! Solution..... start growing in Coco. The only thing that showed to work was micro organism tea (Heisenberg variant) but the levels had to be perfect for it to do good and without maintaining that, it kept aggressively coming back. My diagnosis was cyanobacteria as it wasn't phased by H2O2, bleach, some physan 20, loved nutrients, and didn't care if water temps were low. Also didn't matter how oxygenated the water was. So ya, ditched DWC and went to Coco and all is good now. Happy plants, happy harvests. Better late than never