Despite reading (and searching!) the forums I have not found any particularly conclusive information in terms of how easy it is to save a plant once it gets the "falling over" pythium disease. I had the plants on MG soil (impulse grow). Since the last month and a half they have been in FF- happy frog soil with 50% perlite mixed into it. Nutrients I have been feedidng Peters 10-10-10 as well as supplementing that with fish emulsion. The plant that seemed to be doing the best exhibited the fatal lateral movements and falling over. I was unable to save it successfully with H202, transplant or anything. From the time I noticed to the time my baby died: 1 week tops. After that I researched more. From looking thru the forums I saw that SM-90 and Hygrozyme can be used to help. I have both of them and have been applying them for the last few days as recommended. I hear that fox farms soil has predictable drying times. On average (for anyone that uses this soil) how long does it take for a 3 gallon pot to dry? What typical watering schedule would you use late vegetative state? I've tried the lifting method as well as the finger method and despite that I'm pretty sure that I overwatered earlier on resulting in the pythium *sigh* Also, I was wondering if it's true that over-fertilization or "hot soil" can lead to overwatering by retaining the water in the medium and making it unavailable to the root mass? Something about the cation exchange rate being diminished making the soil also more acidic. Any information on that would be appreciated! Thanks so much!
Well if it is indeed pythium root rot, the chances of it recovering are very slim. As for the pot drying question it is almost impoosible for US to tell YOU because humidity, conditions etc are so different from place to place and room to room. Best thing to do is stick your finger in and when dry at least an inch deep then its time to water or at least getting close.
Plants saved! Was quite disheartened at the possibility of losing an entire crop so I headed to the hydro store and picked up some SM-90 & hygrozyme. I flushed the plants as the problem for the pythium was caused by watering every 3 days instead of 5-6 (despite 50% of the mixture being perlite). After pouring 3x the volume I left them to dry approximately 6 days and not only have the grown another 7-10 inches in these last two weeks but they no longer "wiggle" in their pots and have recuperated root mass. Perhaps it's just beginner's luck but the combo really did work for me, in soil.
Glad they lived. Since they did my guess is it was not pythium root rot because according to the litterature it is almost 98 percent fatal. But whatever glad you got it licked.