Root Rot update: No new growth. Despite the tops still looking good I suspect the plants have been through too much for another recovery. The roots seem to be a little darker tan so I suspect the root rot will re-establish in the next day or two. Damn that pythium! I cleaned everything so well I feel that the source of continued infection is the roots themselves. Bennie products are spore products and just aren't going to be as good as a vigorous live culture of brewed tea. At some point in the future I may get into tea brewing again and be a little more scientific about it. It depends on how successful the cloning tests are at preventing infection.
As I mentioned, I've had mixed results with tea in the past. I think a good way to give the tea a helping hand when infection is already present would be to replace the nutrient solution with plain water and 4ppm sodium hypochlorite and allow it to bubble in the roots for 4-5 hours. This would weaken the pythium at which point the water would be replaced with nutrient solution and brewed tea for the knockout punch. An important consideration, some species of bacteria and fungi don't do well when P levels are over 70 PPM so nutrient solutions should contain low P for at least a week or two while the tea works it's magic.
I have another chiller, it's been soaking in bleach, 30,000 ppm sodium hypochlorite for the last week. I'll switch the chillers out along with new tubes, stones, etc. when I place new clones in the system. The only thing I'll need to clean is the tub itself. I may spray it down with acid.
Clean Clones update: No roots showing yet at day 5. Cubes have been re-dipped. Vent's open half way now. Very little dehydration occurred under the dome, to the point rehydration wasn't really necessary. One of the Root Shield subjects show a slight grey discoloration on top of the rockwool. Whether it's a natural discoloration of the rockwool or trich I'm not sure yet. I've been dealing with trichoderma (as a pathogen) much longer than I've been playing with plants and I know how aggressive it can be so there's some concern the trich will end up eating the cuttings without any competition in the environment.
At this point I will begin checking for roots daily. I'm already thinking about round 2. The top two or three contenders from round one will be going up against Banrot, Daconil and 100ppm peroxide and perhaps the Garden Friendly Fungicide to see how it measures up against Hydroguard. I've looked around for other products and there are several I'm considering.
Great White: 15 different species of mycorrhizal fungi, 19 different species of beneficial bacteria, 2 species of trichoderma, plant vitamins and glycine all in one product
Recharge: Loaded with Mycorrhizae,trichoderma, and beneficial bacteria with Kelp, Humic, Fulvic & Molasses - This is basically a powdered tea. It would be interesting to test it out brewed and nonbrewed.
Ideal cloning temps are around 78 and my environment is around 73. I think I should continue the testing with the same conditions since these lower temps will hopefully produce a wider spread in rooting time and make it easier to pick winners, but I will likely purchase a heating mat at some point and do testing with it as well.