Black roots: color from nutes?

K, so I have a small mother in the making. 5 gal dwc. Yesterday I gave her nutes for the first time. The roots were pristine white. Today I went toncheckbher out and the roots were straight up black. No unusual smell or bad odor at all. Is this dark coloration because of the dark colored nutes? I am pretty new to dwc. I always have roots go a little brown b/c of dye from nutes but not this dark. The plant came from a previous plant I grew myself from seed and it had no diseases or anything like that. The plant itself looks fine. Yesterday the leaves were yellow be for feeding thats why I added the nutes. The leaves are greener now just with black roots?

Thanks for any help guys.

It woud appear that You have been slimed.

Like fun family double dare slime or deadly not good slime?

What does it mean to be slimed?

Hey man similar thing happned to me not long ago. Have a look through my latest thread and have a look at my pics my roots got almost black like that too.

Quickest way to tell is run your finger down the root gently, how does it feel? If it's slimy then you have an issue, if it's just wet you're fine. What kind of nutes are you using? Organic ones can usually discolor the roots.

slimed most likely due to organic nutes or additives. i would prob gently clean the roots and change nutes within the next day... need to run bennies in dwc.

I use the techna flora recipie. Its your basic 3 part nutes plus several additives. It hasn't does this to em before but that wasn't a dwc setup. No slime feeling or funky smell. They r just wet feeling as usual. Will this hurt the plant? And I'm sorry to bother but why bennificials in a dwc? What's the difference in dwc from other hydro setups as far as nutes go?

Also, I havent dealt with bennies before, what is a good company that makes em. Do I need to change all my nutes now?

U need to make sure the nutes u are using don't have organics.... I never used technaflora but they probably have some root booster bs that is organic or something.. Dwc is diffrrent because the roots are constantly in the res nute solution 24/7 so any buildup in the res will cling and attack the roots easily. It is a lot more sensitive to what u put in the res. In systems like ebb n flo the roots are only flooded periodically. I just use fish bacteria from my aquarium filter but I know a lot of ppl use pondzyme or great white or aquashield.

K, so I looked at the great white made by a company i guess called plant success. This looks like an additive. Does this mean I should switch my basic nutes and just use it as an additive?

I got some looks like that. I got sloppy adding some ph down & wonder did that do it
I had a small plastic bag that had a little of that mixture in it & it looked a lot like it.
They not slick,don't smell,been like that at least 2 weeks.
Is it possible you got some ph down on the roots?
Good Grows & Heavy Yields to Ya! GL

Just to confirm do you have an airstone?

jpbeach28 said:

K, so I looked at the great white made by a company i guess called plant success. This looks like an additive. Does this mean I should switch my basic nutes and just use it as an additive?

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Can you get pondzyme? I found great white to make the problem worse.
The pathogens in the rez thrived on the bacteria in the great white.

I have two of the 4in cylinders that are 2in diameter. They look like little baby coke cans. So should I go back to using just the grow and get a beneficial bacteria in there, or do I get all new nutes that aren't organic in any way and then add benificial? I know this is a broad spectrum question but would cheap nutes like gh3 part series be fine, then add great white or something like it?

Im finding several of these bennies nutes, which one is best for dwc? Since great white isn't best?

jpbeach28 said:

I have two of the 4in cylinders that are 2in diameter. They look like little baby coke cans. So should I go back to using just the grow and get a beneficial bacteria in there, or do I get all new nutes that aren't organic in any way and then add benificial? I know this is a broad spectrum question but would cheap nutes like gh3 part series be fine, then add great white or something like it?

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I use GH Series in my Aero. I also add in Kool Bloom, Floralicous Plus, Flora Nectar <---In flower only though. Not sure how it translate to you but I have had success. I am also recirculating. Also, I don't use any bacteria.

Take a look at my sig.

jpbeach28 said:

I have two of the 4in cylinders that are 2in diameter. They look like little baby coke cans. So should I go back to using just the grow and get a beneficial bacteria in there, or do I get all new nutes that aren't organic in any way and then add benificial? I know this is a broad spectrum question but would cheap nutes like gh3 part series be fine, then add great white or something like it?

Click to expand...

The gh flora 3 part is good... aquashield (hydro store), pond-zyme (pet store), mycogrow soluble (fungi.com) are all good. I would just stick with base nutes and bennies and if you still have problems after that switch to gh or dynagro base nutes. Double check res is light proof. Lots of people have good results with pondzyme and a little goes a long way.

Yesterday I switched to just water then today just went with base nutes plus cal/mag. Also added two more airstone so now it has four big a irstones for a LOT of oxygen (can't hurt). Ill be purchasing the other products soon.

Thanks for all the info. Will update soon.

I2icho said:

Hey man similar thing happned to me not long ago. Have a look through my latest thread and have a look at my pics my roots got almost black like that too.

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Thank You! I looked back in your threads you described mine & then showed me pictures. I was fixing
to go take care of them until I saw that now I'm going to march them outside.
Saved me some time & money,TY