Found DWC Root Rot Cause - Moldy Window AC

Two years ago I shut down my DWC grow room due to root rot that I could not get rid of. I had tried everything from using distilled water to changing nutes, enzymes, and additives, but it just would not go away. When I called my local grow store they narrowed it down to three possible causes for me - airborne, waterborne, or nuteborne parasites.

So, in late 2019 I replaced the linoleum in my grow room and painted the walls and ceilings. I started out using coco in fabric bags with 70F room temps and all was going well, so I bought some new hydroton, scrubbed my DWC buckets and hoses with bleach, and started eight DWC bucket grows. Sure enough, a month into grow the dreaded brown slimy root rot had taken over the roots in 4-5 buckets! I added a few drops of unscented bleach to each bucket that seemed to help a little over a few days, but the brown slime was still there.

Then one day I realized that I was using the same window air conditioner as before, and when I took a look into the unit I could see black mold in it! So I tossed the window AC in the dumpster, bought a new one, removed the plants, disinfected the room with my ozone generator, and moved the plants back in it. The AC replacement was the only change I made. Guess what? After just three weeks all of the root rot is gone, the ladies are thriving, and the roots are white and shiny instead of brown and slimy!

Hope this helps somebody not lose their grow room like many of us have in the past. The mysterious dreaded root rot always has a cause, but sometimes it can be hard to find. Once it takes over it is nearly impossible to stop. DWC gives better yields than soil or coco in my experience, and I am glad to be back at it with thriving plants.

P.S. - I am using reverse osmosis water with four drops of bleach per gallon (to replace the chlorine that plants need that was stripped out during RO) and only Botanicare CNS17 for nutes. Seems to be working great now so I am not changing anything. Plants are thriving better than ever.