DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

HPac said:
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!
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So glad you got yourself on the right track. I am pleased that we could offer assistance. Death to slime!!
 
After 10 months of the battle ive found this thread and am 24 hours into my brew.

I have been on an h202 regemine for 6+ days. The slime isnt subsiding. The roots under water look good but the ones above. Water and in net pot are tan/slime still.

What is a safe water/h202 level up the net pot for eradication?
And
If my rot is in my net pot. How should i get it out? Will the bennes make there way up there?

I am going to be inocliating the root zone with bennes tomorrow.

Cant wait!
 
You probably already know this..but if your going to add bene's then be sure to change your water out. Putting beneficials in h2o2 is like kind of mixing a big batch of nutes...and then pouring it all in the toilet.

I know is sacriligous but I actually switched to h2o2 and then zone. My roots look a he'll of allot better. I think I was mixing the beneficials to strongly or not filtering the worm casings enough. Something has made them go nuts and the only thing different is no liquid karma
 
legallyflying said:
You probably already know this..but if your going to add bene's then be sure to change your water out. Putting beneficials in h2o2 is like kind of mixing a big batch of nutes...and then pouring it all in the toilet.

I know is sacriligous but I actually switched to h2o2 and then zone. My roots look a he'll of allot better. I think I was mixing the beneficials to strongly or not filtering the worm casings enough. Something has made them go nuts and the only thing different is no liquid karma
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Yes I know you cant add h202 and bennes. Thanks for the heads up as im sure some dont know.

Well im not running the DM line. Im alo not running liquid karma. I was really hoping my problem was lacking efficient bennes.

Im torn because I was either going to try ZONE first before the bennes but there was such good reviews on the bennes I figured it would be a sure thing. Plus I cant figure out what ZONE really is.

Thanks again.
 
legallyflying said:
I know is sacriligous but I actually switched to h2o2 and then zone. My roots look a he'll of allot better. I think I was mixing the beneficials to strongly or not filtering the worm casings enough. Something has made them go nuts and the only thing different is no liquid karma
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The tea is meant as alternative to sterilizing for those who do not want unnecessary chemicals or for the cases when sterilizing does not work. If you are getting good roots with Zone I am glad for you.

We know two things for sure. The slime will always overtake the bennies if you feed it, and Liquid Karma is slime food. What's not clear is why LK feeds slime. The organic compounds are suppose to be completely composted, so those shouldn't be a problem. The only other suspicious ingredient is 'soluble plant vitamins'. I am not sure why vitamins would feed slime, however we do see vitamins as a common thread in some cases.

I was given a bottle of florablend a few months ago. I began using it at 5ml per gallon on top of my normal nutes. I see a slight difference in plant vigor, and also notice the roots seem to be more stimulated than before. I have began thinking of it as liquid light that goes into the res.
 
We are currently in the process of completely sterilizing the system. We took all the water out, put a TON of bleach and there and let it run for a few hours. We then took out the bleach water, put the clean water in and put some of the Subculture B stuff in every bucket. We're going to let it run for a few hours before putting the nutes in (like you said)

My only question now is when we go to clean out the buckets in the near future, how do we go about cleaning the buckets? I heard it is not safe to set the net pots directly on the ground or any hard surface (because of the roots). So they have to be dangling 1 way or another right? Just would love to know the facts on that, and if they have to be submerged in water AT ALL TIMES.

If the slime DOES return (and I'll let you know if it does), I think we're just going to get the great white stuff and combat the slime with that rather than change out all the water again because lemme tell ya... changing out 117 gallons of water isn't easy or fun. Thanks again.
 
ramen, just have some empty buckets or a customs tray if you have allot of plants. The roots are just fine hanging in the breeze so to speak for several hours. Less than 2 would be ideal. Roots don't like light, and they certainly don't like dry wind.

Couple days ago I left a hose laying on the floor and it siphoned all the nutes out of my buckets. So the buckets were DRY for several hours..if not about 8. Filled them up, no negative effects.

Heis, liquid karma definitely has some chunky organic stuff in it. Was doing more research last night and at the time I was also using roots excelerator, which I realize that you now know includes microorganisms, anaerobic ones to be specific. So things tends to gunk up with airstones, this likely added to the "something is not right" in these buckets feeling I had.

Thanks for the chloramine link. I have terrifically clean water (16ppm out of the tap) but it does have chloramines in it. Now I'll just route my water hose around my $150 chloramine filter.
 
ramen86 said:
We are currently in the process of completely sterilizing the system. We took all the water out, put a TON of bleach and there and let it run for a few hours. We then took out the bleach water, put the clean water in and put some of the Subculture B stuff in every bucket. We're going to let it run for a few hours before putting the nutes in (like you said)

My only question now is when we go to clean out the buckets in the near future, how do we go about cleaning the buckets? I heard it is not safe to set the net pots directly on the ground or any hard surface (because of the roots). So they have to be dangling 1 way or another right? Just would love to know the facts on that, and if they have to be submerged in water AT ALL TIMES.

If the slime DOES return (and I'll let you know if it does), I think we're just going to get the great white stuff and combat the slime with that rather than change out all the water again because lemme tell ya... changing out 117 gallons of water isn't easy or fun. Thanks again.
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You put the sub-b in the buckets without brewing tea? This might work, as the mycos and trichoderma could latch onto the roots, but without activating the microbes in a tea first, you are taking a chance.

I have no need to clean my systems. I add water daily and change the nutes out every 10 days by using a pump. I pump the water out into the sink, flush with a couple gallons of plain water which is also pumped out immediately, and then add new water and nutes+tea, without ever scrubbing. My buckets stay active for 8 weeks in bud, and get a good scrubbing in between uses.
 
Heis,

Is beneficial bacteria still your primary line of defence, or have you switched anything up since the OP?

If my rot is primarly in my net pot and not in my water, do you have any suggestions before I inoculate? I can flush and flush and flush the buckets and somewhat spray the sides of the hydroton, but cant take to sink to rinse out.

Im just not sure if the bennes will travel up there to fight the rot?
 
Dustybowlz said:
Heis,

Is beneficial bacteria still your primary line of defence, or have you switched anything up since the OP?

If my rot is primarly in my net pot and not in my water, do you have any suggestions before I inoculate? I can flush and flush and flush the buckets and somewhat spray the sides of the hydroton, but cant take to sink to rinse out.

Im just not sure if the bennes will travel up there to fight the rot?
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Just pour some tea through your netpots and get all the hydroton nice and wet. I will always use bennies in my DWC system because I see how much more robust the root ball is. When I used Zone (before the slime) I had nice white roots and big root balls, but compared to the bennies it was below potential. BTW Zone does not affect the taste of your dried buds, no worries there.
 
Heisenberg said:
Just pour some tea through your netpots and get all the hydroton nice and wet.
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How many applications do you think if im in the "eradication" phase?

Only reason I bring it up is because ive been on an h202 flush for 6 days. First 3 days went great. 4th day i added 1/2 strength nutes back (before I found your thread) and the crap was back just as bad as before. Even with the h202. So I went back to h202 and then I found your thread. Im doing a drain and fill with a flush in between. Then adding the bennies on the fill up.

I cant wait to have control of my ph....
 
You put the sub-b in the buckets without brewing tea? This might work, as the mycos and trichoderma could latch onto the roots, but without activating the microbes in a tea first, you are taking a chance.

I have no need to clean my systems. I add water daily and change the nutes out every 10 days by using a pump. I pump the water out into the sink, flush with a couple gallons of plain water which is also pumped out immediately, and then add new water and nutes+tea, without ever scrubbing. My buckets stay active for 8 weeks in bud, and get a good scrubbing in between uses.
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I tried to talk my friends into "brewing" the tea, they didnt think that would be neccessary. I mean, if all else fails, and we do see the slime come back, the Great White should do the trick right? I completely forgot to take pictures but there is root growth on every single net pot, and the roots are bright white. Tell me what you think about adding Great White on top of all this even now. Thanks.
 
ramen86 said:
I tried to talk my friends into "brewing" the tea, they didnt think that would be neccessary. I mean, if all else fails, and we do see the slime come back, the Great White should do the trick right? I completely forgot to take pictures but there is root growth on every single net pot, and the roots are bright white. Tell me what you think about adding Great White on top of all this even now. Thanks.
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It may and probably will be an improvement doing it the way you are, it really depends on the tenacity of your slime, and the composition of your products. The thing is, how will you replace the bennies when they starve and die after a few days? Adding more powder every few days would seem overly expensive, and it not guaranteed to activate all of the bennies. Now, the mutualistic fungi is fed by the roots, so they will not starve, but all of the bacteria and other types of fungi will. If you try to add food to the res to feed the microbes, you will feed the slime. Considering this, and considering that great white will only offer more bacteria (your products already have the fungi needed) it doesn't seem prudent to add great white.

Brewing the tea couldn't be easier or more appropriate in your situation. It's your call and you may be fine, but the attitude of cutting corners in any aspect of growing often leads to reduced yields and wasted time in the end.
 
Heisenberg, your the most patient man ever...or your a heavy indica user. Everyone saying..but or what if...

Just follow the recipe people. What is the issue? You can't afford a bag of worm casings or a jug of Aquashield? You don't have a spare 5 gallon bucket? It doesn't really get much easier folks.
 
I agree. I attempted to read this whole thread. It didnt take but a few pages to realize the efficiency of the tea.

I kept seing people deviating from the origional and asking questions like why no bio film or why no foam or well i couldnt wait, dropped them in early only to rebuttal with, why this no worky?

Only difference with mine and Heis's tea is the brand of castings. My local store sold out so i called a local-ish castings farm and the wife and I spent a day around it. The owner of the castings farm was soo cool. He brews his own tea and even showed me his set up. I spent an hour chatting with him. Ill keep going back!

It only took 24 hours before I had some nice foam going. Im looking forward to seing what it looks like when I get home!

If u toss stuff in the tubs, you do a little. You brew these bad boys and your making an ARMY!
 
Heisenberg, your the most patient man ever...or your a heavy indica user. Everyone saying..but or what if...

Just follow the recipe people. What is the issue? You can't afford a bag of worm casings or a jug of Aquashield? You don't have a spare 5 gallon bucket? It doesn't really get much easier folks.
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It's not that legallyflying, its just we went to every hydro store possible and no one had the Aquashield in stock, and no one had ever even heard of Ancient Forest (believe it or not).

It may and probably will be an improvement doing it the way you are, it really depends on the tenacity of your slime, and the composition of your products. The thing is, how will you replace the bennies when they starve and die after a few days? Adding more powder every few days would seem overly expensive, and it not guaranteed to activate all of the bennies. Now, the mutualistic fungi is fed by the roots, so they will not starve, but all of the bacteria and other types of fungi will. If you try to add food to the res to feed the microbes, you will feed the slime. Considering this, and considering that great white will only offer more bacteria (your products already have the fungi needed) it doesn't seem prudent to add great white.

Brewing the tea couldn't be easier or more appropriate in your situation. It's your call and you may be fine, but the attitude of cutting corners in any aspect of growing often leads to reduced yields and wasted time in the end.
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We still do have the Subculture-B, the Mykos, and Great White, if we were to apply this to the tea rather than what you reccomended in the original post would it work the same? Me and my friends doubted it, thats why we just added the powder to the res. We CAN still make the tea because we still have a ton of that stuff and extra buckets/airstones laying around. Only problem is we dont know how many ml/gal of each of THAT stuff we should add. If you could calculate that and tell it to us, that'd be amazing.
 
Heisenberg said:
Now add 15-30ml of aquashield and about 1/4-1/2 scoop of the ZHO powder. You will be breeding these into the billions so it doesn't really matter how much you start with. Now take an old sock or pantyhose and fill it with about 2 handfuls of EWC. Tie off the sock and place it in the water above an air stone, or better yet, feed an air stone down into the sock itself. If you want, you can just throw the EWC directly into the water and strain it out later with cheesecloth. Next add about a tablespoon of molasses to wake up the microbes and give them something to eat.
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Heisengerg?
If you now recommend Mycogrow soluble in place of aquashield which is a liquid, how much of the powder should I be applying to your original 2 gallon recipe?

Thank you for all your time and dedication to this subject, I'll be starting a UC system and will be using your tea from the start.
UCDWC~
 
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