DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

[legallyflying]

I have a question.. how do you identify the good slime vs the bad slime? I'm not new to growing but new to DWC. I guess I'm a little anal about my grows but it pays to be anal. Originally I didn't add anything to my rez and started to get some slimy roots. The roots were not really growing as well. It didn't stink, but it was definately a brownish gook on there. I used the tea and bam it was gone. Then I was having nitrogen toxicity problems, when I had very low PPM... 600. I think I'm pointing the finger towards the tea for adding soluble nitrogen. but at any rate, I cut the ppm to 330 and the problem seems to be going away.

But then on a recent rez change, the roots looked a little slimy again. kind of a clear slime..but nothing is clear as I am using BC nutes and the stuff just has some chunks in it. No two ways around it. I was bubbling another batch of beni tea and there was slime on the airstone line. I thought WTF is this? is this good slime?

I guess the point is, besides the plants collapsing, when do you know when you have an issue or not? To be honest, I am leaning towards just adding zone to my rez, pumping shit loads of air through the buckets and calling it good. The sterile rez is somewhat a seductive option...I mean, you can say fuck the balance, just nuke everything. I realize there are some issues with going this route; mainly that slime may creek in anyways. But in the interest of increasing my knowledge base before hand... I thought I would ask for some assistance dealing with slime and goo and steralizing agents.

 

[Heisenberg]

I have a question.. how do you identify the good slime vs the bad slime? I'm not new to growing but new to DWC. I guess I'm a little anal about my grows but it pays to be anal. Originally I didn't add anything to my rez and started to get some slimy roots. The roots were not really growing as well. It didn't stink, but it was definately a brownish gook on there. I used the tea and bam it was gone. Then I was having nitrogen toxicity problems, when I had very low PPM... 600. I think I'm pointing the finger towards the tea for adding soluble nitrogen. but at any rate, I cut the ppm to 330 and the problem seems to be going away.

But then on a recent rez change, the roots looked a little slimy again. kind of a clear slime..but nothing is clear as I am using BC nutes and the stuff just has some chunks in it. No two ways around it. I was bubbling another batch of beni tea and there was slime on the airstone line. I thought WTF is this? is this good slime?

I guess the point is, besides the plants collapsing, when do you know when you have an issue or not? To be honest, I am leaning towards just adding zone to my rez, pumping shit loads of air through the buckets and calling it good. The sterile rez is somewhat a seductive option...I mean, you can say fuck the balance, just nuke everything. I realize there are some issues with going this route; mainly that slime may creek in anyways. But in the interest of increasing my knowledge base before hand... I thought I would ask for some assistance dealing with slime and goo and steralizing agents.

Slime on the airstone in the tea is fine. It comes from the tea being so concentrated and from organic material being broken down. I regularly move these slimy air stones to my bud buckets after brewing to introduce bennies. I personally have never had any slime after introducing tea, unless I added other stuff like RE or superthrive or an enzyme. The main characteristic of brown slime algae is that nearly all root production stops, and it's usually accompanied by swift PH drift. I have seen an 'afterslime' that sticks around on once infected roots, but it never grows bigger or keeps the roots from growing. It eventually diminishes to a faint spot on the root ball. If you experienced nitrogen burn from adding tea, my inclination is that you are making it too strong (too much AF?) or adding too much. It's also possible that the bennies are increasing the overall nute uptake, as Homebrewer pointed out in his tests with greatwhite. I blast my plants when they are young, and then back way off of the tea when they get to bud. I currently add about 1oz per week to my 5 gal buckets. (it seems this is the minimum amount as I get a hint of slime if I add less or less often) A sterile res is great, but often after someone experiences slime, they find sterilizing products don't keep it from coming back. You will probably need something a little stronger than Zone, such as bleach or physan 20. I know I used Zone at 3 times the 'aggressive' dose and it did nothing to slow the slime.

 

[Heisenberg]

How would you go about solving a bearding issue? it seems i likely have this problem the plants in my setup that are doing well seem to have a strong ball of roots as opposed to the many others that have a beard/net like shape. Im not sure how much of the algae that grows on the clear tubes of my setup or the sediment like stuff that sits in my res and the bottom of my bars is hurting. but either way my plants look starved and the whiteness of the roots has turned yellow.

If i remove the yellow/brown roots with a slight (and i really do me slight) tug. the plant still grows nice healthy white ones. but the foliage doesn't seem to be getting fed properly. im getting droopy red stems on my leaves and this is after the new air pump. My next solution is to get a timer to do 15/15 on/off intervals. & replace the broken humidifier (RH typically 30%)

Recently to reduce the overall particles ive been filtering though a carbon filter mesh b4 adding to res. (its actually the filter that covers the pump in tube)

Bearding is only seen in areo setups, and it is most often caused from the mist or fog being too fine. If you have something resembling bearding in a DWC it's is probably something else. Do you see new white root tips? It sounds to me like the roots are suffocating and dying, in which case almost nothing will stop root rot from setting in. Some pics might help us to diagnose.

 

[Heisenberg]

First off, thanks to Heisenberg and everyone else for this excellent thread! I'm brand new to hydroponics, and I've been plagued with problems since the first time I filled my DWC rez. I stumbled on this thread last week and read the entire thing over the course of a few days.

After reading this thread I decided to scrap my entire project, clean my rez, and start over using Heisenberg's tea to supplement my rez. I started out with clones that barely had root tips popping through the bottom of the rockwool, and in about 6 days, I had nice long white hairy healthy looking roots.

Unfortunately, my power went out for about 48 hrs this weekend. I knew the roots couldn't survive without the air pumps running, and with my limited knowledge and limited resources, the best thing I could come up with was to get the roots out of the water and manually mist them every few hours to keep them from drying out. When the power came back on, the roots still looked pretty healthy, though a few of them had started to shrivel up a little. I checked the vitals on the rez and everything seemed to be in check so I added a cup of Heisenberg tea and put the plants back in. When I woke up this morning, there was a little bit of clear gunk starting to build up on the roots =/ As the day has gone on, it's gotten worse pretty quickly and started to tint brown in some places. Not sure if it's the brown slime or root rot or what, but I need some advice as how to proceed. Would a rez change with some fresh tea and some cleaning/trimming of the infected roots be enough to keep going? Or since this grow is only a little over a week old, am I better off just scrapping and starting over again?

Start from square one. Clean up as much as possible, and make some fresh tea. If your res set for 48 hours without bubbles it became anaerobic and was likely harboring pathogens. When you placed the shriveled roots into the water you provided food. The pathogens already had a head start so they outgrew the bennies. The cuttings being so young made it even easier for the slime to take hold. Level the playing field and start over and you should be okay. As long as there is still some white roots coming from the base of the cutting you should be able to recover. If the roots have turned yellowish all the way up to the stem, you need to get new cuttings.

 

[Lanternslight]

I have just started reading the thread, I am down with the info in the first post. Should I read the 22 pages?

Thank you, Heisenberg-san.

 

[hellraizer30]

Hey lantern theres been some changes to the formula sinse the start, i use 1) humbolt myco madness 2) worm castings
3) molassis and lots of air

 

[Lanternslight]

Is that a good mix for a drip ring system?

 

[hellraizer30]

Hmm i dont see why not might ask the hiesinberg though

 

[disposition84]

I've recently tried pouring the EWC directly into the brew, I'm curious how everyone is filtering
theirs? I tried a finer strainer, but I still get some of the EWC in my nutes, and coffee filters didn't
do the trick as the tea wasn't able to get through them.

Thanks

 

[Heisenberg]

I have a large aquarium net meant for catching fish. I pour the tea through this. If this isn't enough try the sock method.

 

[mr.bond]

I've recently tried pouring the EWC directly into the brew, I'm curious how everyone is filtering
theirs? I tried a finer strainer, but I still get some of the EWC in my nutes, and coffee filters didn't
do the trick as the tea wasn't able to get through them.

I tried the sock trick and the paper towel trick but they were both kind of a hassle for me so I also started pouring the EWC straight into the tea brew. I noticed the foaming action largely subsided without the sock, but the tea was fine functionally. To filter the particles out, I use a fine-mesh filter bag meant for a submersible water pump. A few bucks at your hydro store should get you a decent one. If that's not small enough for you then the sock trick is your ticket...

cheers and good luck
mr.bond

 

[farkface]

quick question for anybody here.I've never done hydro, but might try DWC in the future. Interested in trying a tea to keep the slime out. I notice you guys check the roots out alot while trying to solve these issues. I also notice you guys go to great lengths to keep light from getting into cracks in the resevoir. These two things seem counter-intuitive... if you are cracking open the resevoir to inspect several times a day, aren't you potentially letting in enough light to start something photosynthesizing in the res??????Is that a non issue I invented?And also, does it not stress the roots of the plant if you keep lifting the net pots out of the res... or do you guys suggest some other way to check out the roots, like possibly cutting an inspection hole in the lid or something?This thread went crazy long... is the original recipie still whats recommended?? Anybody try with only mycogrow hydro? Read elsewhere you can make a tea with just that for much less cash.Thanks!

 

[Heisenberg]

quick question for anybody here.I've never done hydro, but might try DWC in the future. Interested in trying a tea to keep the slime out. I notice you guys check the roots out alot while trying to solve these issues. I also notice you guys go to great lengths to keep light from getting into cracks in the resevoir. These two things seem counter-intuitive... if you are cracking open the resevoir to inspect several times a day, aren't you potentially letting in enough light to start something photosynthesizing in the res??????Is that a non issue I invented?And also, does it not stress the roots of the plant if you keep lifting the net pots out of the res... or do you guys suggest some other way to check out the roots, like possibly cutting an inspection hole in the lid or something?This thread went crazy long... is the original recipie still whats recommended?? Anybody try with only mycogrow hydro? Read elsewhere you can make a tea with just that for much less cash.Thanks!

I personally do attempt to cover my flowering buckets so the roots are in darkness, but I in no way attempt to make the buckets light proof. I have uncovered netpot holes, cracks, tears in the covering, ect. I have never had the slightest hint of algae in my bud room. Veg seems to be a different story, and I assume this is because the plants and root systems are young. In veg I do not cover my tubs at all, they are transparent. This is because my plants spend so little time in there. I have at times let these tubs go without a change for several months, and algae sets in around week 7 or 8. Normally these tubs get cleaned and changed well before week 7. So in short, I believe roots prefer darkness, but bennies make lightproofing unnecessary.

My buckets are set up so that the lids just sit unfastened to the top. I can move them aside or even raise them if I need to glance at the roots. My veg tubs are clear so I can always see the roots, and I can easily lift the net pots out for further inspection.

If someone wasn't using bennies and therefore was concerned about algae, would lifting the lids as much as a few times a day be a problem? No, because it is not enough light for sustained growth. If someone does see algae in thier system, they can be sure it is due to a prolonged source of light.

We do indeed recommend the mycogrow product for the tea now, (in place of aquashield and ZHO) but get the soluble version instead of the hydro. It is much more diverse and suited for disease prevention. Everything else is the same.

 

[ramen86]

Ok, here is my deal guys. I am BRAND NEW to this forum but not to growing mary jane. Me and my buds went out and purchased a undercurrent system which we are all new to (the Under Current XL UC8XL). It is 8 buckets at 13 gallons each not including the main res (another 13 gallon). We got 8 1000W lights hanging above every single one of these buckets(1 light per plant, tell me what you guys think). We figured for vegging we would only use 4 out of the 8 lights until we began to flower. It's only been 9 days. The room temp is always between 75-79 deg. The humidity is always at around 41-45%. We have a 1/4hp chiller that tells us the water is at 68 deg. A few days ago we noticed the slime on the roots and all on the base where the hydroton is (I will post pictures later). It is a clear white color, not brown, not green. We emptied out the water (all 117 gallons of it), cleaned it using a shop vac and towels, basically sucked the thing dry of any slime (although there maybe might have been a little bit left in the pvc pipes). We also took the net pots, put them over the sink and sprayed it down so pretty much none of the slime was visible. We put the water back in, put a bit of H202 in there with the nutes and everything seemed fine again... for the first 2 days. We go down there yesterday and low and behold, the slime is back with a vengeance. All in the water, around the PVC piping, and on the base of the net pots just like last time. Me and my buds are baffled, we dont know what we have to do until we stumbled upon this thread. Now what this thread is suggesting is we make up this BM tea and add it to our system at 1 cup per gallon, only problem is we have 117 gallons. Even at 1 cup per 10 gallons that would still be damn near 11 cups, and I just dont know if that is safe or not (for the plants). 1 of my buddies is telling me its got to be the res temps because we now put black trash bags over them and that dropped the res to 63. My other buddy is telling me it has to be the Dutch Master Gold nutes that we are using because he has his 3 bucket homemade system under one 1000W light in the same room (using sensi nutes) and has not had this problem AT ALL. The slime honestly looks like semen just floating in and around the bucket. We purchased these plants as clones and they are only 9 days old with visible white roots coming off the bottoms and the sides of the hydroton. Despite the amount of slime and the terrible smell in all the buckets, the plants still look very healthy and the water still looks very clean and clear. We are just stuck now and dont know what to do, which brings me to the series of questions that I ask you guys (the experts). Ive been trying to find this Ancient forest and Mycogrow stuff but I cant seem to find it ANYWHERE.

1.Do we leave the buckets the way they are and just add this tea?

2.Do you guys think Dutch Master is the reason this is happening? Would the Sensi products prevent this?

3.Even if there was a little bit of slime in the PVC pipes, would that of been enough for it to have gotten to all the other plants like crazy?

4.Is 1000W per plant just too much even though we are only running 4000W on 8 plants(for now) and have the environment completely under control temperature wise?

5.Is it the way the water is hitting the net pot?

Any help, and advice would be GREATLY appreciated (especially from the orginal poster). I will post up pictures later. Thanks.

 

[Heisenberg]

Ok, here is my deal guys. I am BRAND NEW to this forum but not to growing mary jane. Me and my buds went out and purchased a undercurrent system which we are all new to (the Under Current XL UC8XL). It is 8 buckets at 13 gallons each not including the main res (another 13 gallon). We got 8 1000W lights hanging above every single one of these buckets(1 light per plant, tell me what you guys think). We figured for vegging we would only use 4 out of the 8 lights until we began to flower. It's only been 9 days. The room temp is always between 75-79 deg. The humidity is always at around 41-45%. We have a 1/4hp chiller that tells us the water is at 68 deg. A few days ago we noticed the slime on the roots and all on the base where the hydroton is (I will post pictures later). It is a clear white color, not brown, not green. We emptied out the water (all 117 gallons of it), cleaned it using a shop vac and towels, basically sucked the thing dry of any slime (although there maybe might have been a little bit left in the pvc pipes). We also took the net pots, put them over the sink and sprayed it down so pretty much none of the slime was visible. We put the water back in, put a bit of H202 in there with the nutes and everything seemed fine again... for the first 2 days. We go down there yesterday and low and behold, the slime is back with a vengeance. All in the water, around the PVC piping, and on the base of the net pots just like last time. Me and my buds are baffled, we dont know what we have to do until we stumbled upon this thread. Now what this thread is suggesting is we make up this BM tea and add it to our system at 1 cup per gallon, only problem is we have 117 gallons. Even at 1 cup per 10 gallons that would still be damn near 11 cups, and I just dont know if that is safe or not (for the plants). 1 of my buddies is telling me its got to be the res temps because we now put black trash bags over them and that dropped the res to 63. My other buddy is telling me it has to be the Dutch Master Gold nutes that we are using because he has his 3 bucket homemade system under one 1000W light in the same room (using sensi nutes) and has not had this problem AT ALL. The slime honestly looks like semen just floating in and around the bucket. We purchased these plants as clones and they are only 9 days old with visible white roots coming off the bottoms and the sides of the hydroton. Despite the amount of slime and the terrible smell in all the buckets, the plants still look very healthy and the water still looks very clean and clear. We are just stuck now and dont know what to do, which brings me to the series of questions that I ask you guys (the experts). Ive been trying to find this Ancient forest and Mycogrow stuff but I cant seem to find it ANYWHERE.

The tea will not hurt your plants at that ratio, or any ratio that I have found. In a big system you can get away with using a little less, the important thing is that you inoculate each root system by spraying the tea directly on the root base or pouring it through the net cups. Mycogrow soluble can be purchased here and they have really fast shipping. If you must purchase locally look for an inoculation product or combo of products that offer mycos, trichoderma and bacillus. In place of the AF you can just use earth worm castings though use about half as much as you would the AF, IOW half a handful vs a handful. Bring your res temps up to 68 at the least, and be sure to keep any organic or antibiotic additives out of the res.

1.Do we leave the buckets the way they are and just add this tea?

It's recommended that you clean and sterilize your system first, but many just do a quick cleanup and still get good results.

2.Do you guys think Dutch Master is the reason this is happening? Would the Sensi products prevent this?

Nope, Dm gold nutes are just fine and nothing in them would encourage microbe growth. Indeed this is what I use and I have been slime free for more than a year.

3.Even if there was a little bit of slime in the PVC pipes, would that of been enough for it to have gotten to all the other plants like crazy?

Certainly, even if you added a sterilizing product like Zone or Sm-90, it will not keep the slime from coming back. No amount of bubbles, chilling, or sterilizing agent will keep the slime from eventually taking over, with the exception of bleach and physan 20.

4.Is 1000W per plant just too much even though we are only running 4000W on 8 plants(for now) and have the environment completely under control temperature wise?

The question is not the plant count, but the area the plants cover. 1000wt is enough to cover a 4x4 area nicely. So depending on your plant size going into flower, it could take as few as one or as many as ten plants to fill this area.

5.Is it the way the water is hitting the net pot?

Water should be splashing on the net pots to keep them moist, but the water level should be an inch or so below the pot to promote air intake and to prevent standing water that could collect in the pots and go anaerobic.

 

[ramen86]

Wow, thanks for the quick response man. I went to the hydro store and explained to the guy working there my slime problem. He knew right off the bat without me even having to tell him that the slime was white, and not green, because we had not let any light get to it, because had there been light, THEN it would turn green. He said it can be caused by a bunch of things and I just want to go over those with you.

He didnt have the Mycogrow but he reccomended 2 other products called 'Mykos WP' made by Xtreme Gardening, and 'Subculture-B' made by GH. The Mykos WP contains Glomus intraradicies@ 20 spores per g. The 'SubCulture-B' contains a lot of stuff I don't feel like typing out but i see that it has Trichoderma harzianum @24x10^6 prop/gram. Let me know if those are any good or any similair to the Mycogrow.

Water should be splashing on the net pots to keep them moist, but the water level should be an inch or so below the pot to promote air intake and to prevent standing water that could collect in the pots and go anaerobic.

Now about that, The way we have it set up is that the net pots are about 8in long and about 1.5in of the net pot is sitting IN THE WATER at all times. What I am getting from you now is that the water shouldn't be hitting the net pot at all, but rather having the water from the airstones sort of just give it a little splash. If that is the case, I will do that. But on my friends homemade system he's got it the same way and he had no slime building up.

The man at the hydro store also said that it might be an enzyme problem? Give me your opinion on that as far as slime and BM's go.

Another thing I was thinking about is how we put the clones (cloned using rapid rooters) into the hydroton. What we did was we just dropped it on the bottom of the net pot and poured the hydroton all on top of it, making the rapid rooter pretty much soak at all times. I dont know if this is right, wrong, or if it matters at all, I just would like your input on that.

Bring your res temps up to 68 at the least, and be sure to keep any organic or antibiotic additives out of the res.

Now when you said that, did you mean 68 or ABOVE? or 68 or LESS?

Last, I was thinking to myself why his homemade system hasn't had any of the slime build up yet, and maybe it might be because his pump is better than ours?, or maybe its the fact that we have ONE pretty big $5 air stone just sitting by itself in the 13 gallon bucket, he uses 5 gallon buckets. The pump that we use is also 700GPH for 117gallon system. Just wondering if we got a pump that did more GPH if that would help the way the water moved in the system? Or if we should add another air stone to each bucket?

Thanks so much man.

 

[Heisenberg]

Wow, thanks for the quick response man. I went to the hydro store and explained to the guy working there my slime problem. He knew right off the bat without me even having to tell him that the slime was white, and not green, because we had not let any light get to it, because had there been light, THEN it would turn green. He said it can be caused by a bunch of things and I just want to go over those with you.

Yep this is true, the slime can be different colors depending on the amount and color of the light it receives. If it receives no light it remains clear until near the end when the roots die and true root rot sets in, at which point it turns brown. I have seen pics of white slime floating freely, but never had this myself.

He didnt have the Mycogrow but he reccomended 2 other products called 'Mykos WP' made by Xtreme Gardening, and 'Subculture-B' made by GH. The Mykos WP contains Glomus intraradicies@ 20 spores per g. The 'SubCulture-B' contains a lot of stuff I don't feel like typing out but i see that it has Trichoderma harzianum @24x10^6 prop/gram. Let me know if those are any good or any similair to the Mycogrow.

The mykos is rather weak in terms of fighting disease because it has no diversity. It offers one type of fungus and nothing more. Glomus do not attack the slime directly, but they are excellent at depraving it of housing (root surface). When you combine it with sub-B you actually have a pretty decent arsenal. The trichoderma will attack the slime directly while the bacillus will starve it and secrete substances which help kill it. You should see significant improvement, if not total eradication, using these products if you follow the tea instructions. If you find this isn't enough, get the mycogrow soluble or great white and brew a more complete army. A soil amendment containing EWC, such as ancient forest, will increase the diversity greatly. I believe it is smart to start with your combo in an undercurrent system because it's simple. UC is a bit more temperamental than straight DWC.

Now about that, The way we have it set up is that the net pots are about 8in long and about 1.5in of the net pot is sitting IN THE WATER at all times. What I am getting from you now is that the water shouldn't be hitting the net pot at all, but rather having the water from the airstones sort of just give it a little splash. If that is the case, I will do that. But on my friends homemade system he's got it the same way and he had no slime building up.

The concern for disease is a secondary reason to leave the water level below the pot. If you have true net pots and they drain or the water flows freely through them, you probably wont end up with pockets of anaerobic water which can lead to root rot. The real reason to leave the gap is for air intake of the roots. They should remain moist but be free to take in oxygen, as the water can never supply enough oxygen no matter your DO levels.

The man at the hydro store also said that it might be an enzyme problem? Give me your opinion on that as far as slime and BM's go.

Enzymes are a no-no in any type of DWC system. They can and often do trigger slime, or if you already have slime they will make it explode. The microbes will produce and regulate enzymes once you get them in there, making an enzyme product dangerous and redundant.

Another thing I was thinking about is how we put the clones (cloned using rapid rooters) into the hydroton. What we did was we just dropped it on the bottom of the net pot and poured the hydroton all on top of it, making the rapid rooter pretty much soak at all times. I dont know if this is right, wrong, or if it matters at all, I just would like your input on that.

It is hard to say without seeing your setup. Generally we do not want the base of the stalk to remain wet because it attracts disease, however I have had many plants who's rockwool plugs stayed really wet and they did just fine. When the plants are young is when you really have to worry about it.

Now when you said that, did you mean 68 or ABOVE? or 68 or LESS?

Last, I was thinking to myself why his homemade system hasn't had any of the slime build up yet, and maybe it might be because his pump is better than ours?, or maybe its the fact that we have ONE pretty big $5 air stone just sitting by itself in the 13 gallon bucket, he uses 5 gallon buckets. The pump that we use is also 700GPH for 117gallon system. Just wondering if we got a pump that did more GPH if that would help the way the water moved in the system? Or if we should add another air stone to each bucket?

68 is the lowest you should go using bennies, 75ish is the highest. More air stones diffusing air among the root systems is always a good thing. You want the bubbles making contact with roots on their way up, and splashing the cups when they burst. The slime is finicky and the most contributing factors seem to be the environment and additives. It is believed once an environmental is tainted with slime spores you can never clean it good enough to rid them. Any organic additives including vinegar can trigger the slime. These aspects of the slime remain a mystery as the only research we are able to do centers around the solution.

Good luck!

 

[ramen86]

Ok so here is what me and my buds have decided on. Either today or tommorow we will change out the water and sterilize it, how do you reccommend we do that without having to take apart the UC?

We have about half a pound of each of those powder solutions I told you we got from the hydro store, would you add them seperatly? Or is it safe to mix them together? How much should we use for each 13 gallon bucket?

I also saw you talk about that great white stuff. Would it be best to just not use the other 2 and only use the Great White? Or Use all 3 of them all together?

Lastly, I would like to give you a little update on the slime in the UC. We have not touched anything yet but when we go to look in the buckets it almost seems as if the slime is going away from the net pots on their own, me and my friends thought maybe it is because of the extremely low res temps (63 degrees now). Dont get me wrong, there is still a ton of slime floating around in the buckets, that still need to be cleaned, but the only slime we can see now is on the base of the net pot and not around the circumfrence.

Thanks for your time dude.

 

[HPac]

Start from square one. Clean up as much as possible, and make some fresh tea. If your res set for 48 hours without bubbles it became anaerobic and was likely harboring pathogens. When you placed the shriveled roots into the water you provided food. The pathogens already had a head start so they outgrew the bennies. The cuttings being so young made it even easier for the slime to take hold. Level the playing field and start over and you should be okay. As long as there is still some white roots coming from the base of the cutting you should be able to recover. If the roots have turned yellowish all the way up to the stem, you need to get new cuttings.

You're the man Heisenberg! I followed your advice and brewed some new tea, changed the rez, and took my plants to the sink and gave the roots a shot with the sprayer. Initially the slime came back in full force and I got a little worried, but the tea did it's job and after about 3 days my roots looked pretty much slime free and my plants look healthy with lots of new growth. Thanks for the info man, it's really helped me out!

 

[Heisenberg]

Ok so here is what me and my buds have decided on. Either today or tommorow we will change out the water and sterilize it, how do you reccommend we do that without having to take apart the UC?

Running bleach or physan 20 will sterlize everything, but the system would need to be rinsed really well. Physan leaves a bio-static film for a while, as dose bleach to a lesser degree. Bleach takes a few days to break down, physan takes a bit longer. In your situation, I myself would probably just run a mild h202 solution through the system to weaken the slime, and then rinse and hit it with tea right away. Nutes go in a few hours later.

We have about half a pound of each of those powder solutions I told you we got from the hydro store, would you add them seperatly? Or is it safe to mix them together? How much should we use for each 13 gallon bucket?

I also saw you talk about that great white stuff. Would it be best to just not use the other 2 and only use the Great White? Or Use all 3 of them all together?

You are likely to get in trouble if you don't fully grasp the reasons why we make and apply the tea. Never add the inoculations directly to the res. If they have bio-stimulants (food) in them then the slime will feed on it before the bennies. If they do not have food in the mix, the bennies will be very slow to wake up, if at all. Brew these products tea style adding them all together with some molasses. The exception to this is if you have a powder that contains ONLY mycos, in which case just mix them in water and spray directly on roots. Your mykos products contains only glomus, so if you wanted you could mix it and spray right on the roots.

If you are asking if it's okay to mix them while they are still dry, I don't see why not. It shouldn't hurt anything.

The combo you have offers about half of what great white or mycogrow does. If you used GW or MG, your current products would be redundant. However it would not hurt anything to use them all together. For now, try what you have.

Lastly, I would like to give you a little update on the slime in the UC. We have not touched anything yet but when we go to look in the buckets it almost seems as if the slime is going away from the net pots on their own, me and my friends thought maybe it is because of the extremely low res temps (63 degrees now). Dont get me wrong, there is still a ton of slime floating around in the buckets, that still need to be cleaned, but the only slime we can see now is on the base of the net pot and not around the circumfrence.

In my experience chilling does not slow the slime down at all, but I have never had the temps as low as 63. The slime often plays games with you, appearing to retreat or resolve itself only to eventually take over. The slime itself is easy to kill but the spores are nearly impervious. This is one way the slime wasted so much of my time. It's very hard to tell if sterilizing treatments are effective, and you end up waiting days and days only to find yourself back at square one. The important thing to look for is new root tips or shoots. Slime inhibits almost all new growth of roots, which obviously hurts the yield. What you want to see each time you look in your buckets is nothing but explosive white roots. My veg plants produce noticeable root growth within as little as 6 hours. Even the flowing plants constantly show signs of new tip growth.

What's nice about the tea is that you see noticeable improvement in 24-72 hours. You might see what we call an after-slime, but this is noticeably different and harmless.

Keep us updated, and good luck!