cross posted from roll it UP, full original text follows been growing for a few years at a novice level, rarely checking pH, ppm, etc. Just following the directions on the bottles, same setup, homemade aero bucket. Just recently started checking pH and ppms with only a very minor adjustment to pH in the last res change. about 24 hrs in and I checked and the pump is frozen, with visible root tissue floating freely, assuming the tissue has clogged the pump. I changed the bucket out with a fresh setup (new pump and nutes) and while handling I could wipe away masses of roots with my hands, like running your hands through your hair and coming away with half of your head of hair. the ONLY thing I did differently from the last few years was adjust the pH of a large res from which I fill my individual aero buckets. about a 50 gal res, and approx 3 gal per bucket. the pH was a tiny bit low and I had to pull it up less than half a point. at least I am pretty sure, I have a veg res and I am pretty sure I had to pull it down a little, but I may have the up and down reversed. Regardless, i do know for a fact it was less than half a point, about three tenths or so, very little in the grand scheme of things. every other root mass I have dealt with takes a chain fucking chain saw to remove from the net pots if I try to recycle them, most of the time it is too much trouble to cut away roots, they are fucking a tough, hard, strong. this is my first attempt with this strain, an unknown from a variety pack from Ace seeds. Other than that, nothing real different except the pH monitoring (and subsequent adjustment). the plant herself still looks strong and healthy as of now. I will keep a very close eye on her now. any thoughts?
Sounds like your pump went out for a period of time and started to kill your girl. What is your setup is your pump in the bucket/Rez/root chamber. Is this low pressure aeroponic or high pressure aeroponics?
Sounds like a low pressure aero / dwc hybrid. If the roots are brown, slimey and falling apart its root rot.
I have 5 gal self contained buckets. The pumps are 264 gph with a pvc manifold and the little red 360 degree sprayers. The pump quit BECAUSE the roots clogged it up. Maybe it's the differences in strains or something but I have never not once ever had an outage kill a plant. I have had pumps die and go unnoticed for almost 2 days with no apparent negative effect. I have had power outages that have lasted anywhere from 12 to 72 hours and still never an issue. This seemed to have manifested in less than 24 hours after I changed my routine. I have been assured numerous times by several people that it was not my routine change that caused the problem. I wouldn't say the roots are brown and slimy, but they are definitely falling the fuck off in wads. They are definitely not slimy, but they aren't bright white either. I am proceeding on the assumption that it is pythium and treating. It is only one bucket right now. My big res is completely separate and by itself. I change buckets with refills. I changed everything out and set the old solution out on the porch a couple days ago. It has been foaming and bubbling ever since exactly like a bucket full of acid acting on a wad of organic material.
I think it's definitely root rot. Do you run hydrogard if not I think it will help and help with future prevention
I had never heard of it until I started chasing this issue. I will look it up. I try to stay away from organic because in my aero buckets anything organic just causes more problems than it solves. If it's not organic I may get some. Right now I am using h2o2 and treating with a few dunks in chlorine daily and washing and trying to sterilize everything with chlorine rinses. If the pythium is the cause of that bubbling, wouldn't killing it stop the bubbling? I have put a massive amount of chlorine in that bucket experimenting trying to kill it before I dispose of it. It is still foaming and bubbling after a day or two doused with pool shock chlorine so potent you can smell it like an indoor olympic pool that burns the shit out of your eyes.
I don't believe hydrogard is organic. I have a lettuce in a bubble bucket outside with hydrogard in it and never changed the water. It's bin out there over a month. All the roots are wight and no algae. I totally believe it's due to the hydrogard. Chlorine is definitely not good for plants.
chlorine isn't good for humans either but........ it is a stop gap knee jerk trying to kill the pythium and will be d/c'd either as soon as it serves its purpose or fails to do so in a timely manner. I am just trying to save the one so far along in flower, I don't have any that are completely ready to switch over just yet.
High doses of chlorine or peroxide can lead to phytotoxicity. Hydroguard does seem to work well with aero but i cant vouch for it personally cos it isnt available here Running clean, fresh nutes drain to waste and keeping the root temps in check works for me.
that's why am definitely not running high doses of either. I did kill a few tomato plants recently with h2o2 and won't do that with babies. I imagine I will have to mail order from ebay or elsewhere in order to get hydroguard. I have to drive 150 miles to find a grow shop
I am also not using chlorine in my nutes, I make a bucket of plain water and dose it and a couple times a day I dunk and wash the roots a little vigorously and then rinse in a separate bucket of plain water before returning to the aerobucket. It seems to be working, the rotted roots are slowly disappearing due to attrition and I am seeing new white root growth coming in.
Success!!!! we have the sweet sweet embrace of death to all things pythium! I mean in this bucket anyway. experiment is fruitful and promising.
