DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

They have a 200 gallon I am guessing vat half filled bubbling with the stuff. When I asked about this weekend the guy told me that it is actually a customer of theirs that brews it and brings it in. (There's an idea for you.) At 6 bucks a gallon, I think I'll stick with this thread.

As we are beginning to get the vegetables outside I plan on using it in the raised beds. Root vegs should go nuts. Also planting some ground cover in the back yard and I am thinking they will love it as well.

Well if they keep it bubbling past two days, as we've learned, the tea will lose diversity. Even if they periodically add more food and microbe powder, they will eventually lose nematodes, certain fungi, ect. So basically, your tea not only costs less, but is superior to what they sell. Be sure to let us know how your veggies respond to it.

Hey guys, been reading and following for a while great info.

Quick Q's Heis. : Is it a good idea to mix mollasses up with water, and pH with vinegar? And how long would you let set before discarding? And would the pH rise or fall if let sitting? Should I aerate with tubing or stones and keep it aerated, or would just before use be o.k.?

I ran out of my pH dropper solution, and won't be able to get a tester until next week $$$.

Thanks.

P.S. for soil

I am a little unclear about what your asking. We don't worry about the PH of the tea. Add some tea to your regular nute/watering and PH it then. If you just wanna add tea then dilute it with a little water first and PH. Vinegar is okay to use in soil, just be sure it is not really old vinegar that has turned to 'mother'.

Generally, bubbling water will cause the PH to rise a bit over time, but it is slight and depends on what's in your air. For example, someone who utilized a sulfur burner would be causing their water PH to drop dangerously low by aerating it. If you are mixing up water and molasses without adding bennies and letting it sit around, you are inviting harmful microbes to move in and eat it. If you must do this, you should refrigerate the mix and then bubble it anytime it is not in the fridge. In the fridge the mix would be okay for a week, give or take. Just do a smell test like with the tea.

Heisenberg said:

I am a little unclear about what your asking. We don't worry about the PH of the tea. Add some tea to your regular nute/watering and PH it then. If you just wanna add tea then dilute it with a little water first and PH. Vinegar is okay to use in soil, just be sure it is not really old vinegar that has turned to 'mother'.

Generally, bubbling water will cause the PH to rise a bit over time, but it is slight and depends on what's in your air. For example, someone who utilized a sulfur burner would be causing their water PH to drop dangerously low by aerating it. If you are mixing up water and molasses without adding bennies and letting it sit around, you are inviting harmful microbes to move in and eat it. If you must do this, you should refrigerate the mix and then bubble it anytime it is not in the fridge. In the fridge the mix would be okay for a week, give or take. Just do a smell test like with the tea.

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Thanks,

Yeah I haven't asked about any tea's yet, but I was just mixing up mollasses and water I had pH'd with vinegar. It has been sitting so I will throw it out now.

You may hear from me again about the bennies, but I will spare at this time, and do more research first and maybe get a book on brewing before I ask any of those questions. But you did answer my questions above. Thanks again

Heisenberg, I am also curious to hear how your experiment works out when applying the tea + DM LL to tomato plants. Let us know when you've got somethin!

Cheers, Mr. Bond

Wife used all the EWC in the vegetable garden. I tried making the tea by substituting Flora Plus for the "sock" as it is basically concentrated ewc. Am I missing anything? Didn't seem to foam very well.

BendBrewer said:

Wife used all the EWC in the vegetable garden. I tried making the tea by substituting Flora Plus for the "sock" as it is basically concentrated ewc. Am I missing anything? Didn't seem to foam very well.

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Nothing matches the diversity you get from ancient forest. Still, your tea is probably great for the plants, it just wouldn't be the best disease fighting brew you could make.

Thanks again for the reply. Thought I would show the efforts of the tea. This is the same plant 10 days later.





Cheers!!!

Hey Heisen, would you mind recapping the basic formula just so I don't have to go back over this now very long thread? I have a pound of FP's mycogrow soluble and a quart of blackstrap molasses, so was it about a tablespoon of each in a 5gal bucket of water, so about 4gal actual water, and aerate to the max at room temp for how long? Do you think RO water or my hard well water is better? Am I missing any major developments or details?

I tried adding the mycogrow directly to my rez's instead of making the tea and saw no benefit from it and kinda lost faith in the stuff, but it sounds like the tea preparation makes a big difference so I'm gonna finally give it a shot.

Thanks!

For aerating water/rez's I've been using needle-wheel pumps with a venturi, the kind used with aquarium protein skimmers, which make a lot more and much finer bubbles than air stones, and figured they may work well with microbe tea, just wondering if the little microbes would mind for any reason passing through the pump impeller? Can't imagine they would but figured I'd mention it.....

poindexterous said:

Hey Heisen, would you mind recapping the basic formula just so I don't have to go back over this now very long thread? I have a pound of FP's mycogrow soluble and a quart of blackstrap molasses, so was it about a tablespoon of each in a 5gal bucket of water, so about 4gal actual water, and aerate to the max at room temp for how long? Do you think RO water or my hard well water is better? Am I missing any major developments or details?

I tried adding the mycogrow directly to my rez's instead of making the tea and saw no benefit from it and kinda lost faith in the stuff, but it sounds like the tea preparation makes a big difference so I'm gonna finally give it a shot.

Thanks!

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I have noticed the same thing. The mycogrow powder added directly to the res seems to do nothing at all. Remember Great White has bio-stimulants in it which the mycogrow powder is lacking. That is a fancy way of saying food. So I think to get the powder to work you would also need to add a bit of molasses to the res, but of course in a slime prone system this is a no-no. Incidentally, aquashield works right away if added directly to the res and will offer partial protection until the tea is finished.

I have been planning to start a second thread consolidating all the tips we've discovered in this one, but for now I don't mind repeating directions.

The tea recipe hasn't changed that much. First off remember that none of the ingredients need to be precise. I now use about a half handful of Ancient Forest per gallon of water, and a half scoop of mycogrow per 2 gallons. I use a scooper I got from the ZHO powder, it is probably about the same amount as you would get if you emptied out a pixy-stick onto the table; so not very much. You could double the amount if you want, but don't go crazy with the powder. Anymore I just add the dirt directly to the water and do not filter the tea before use. If you have the need to filter because of pumps and what not, or you just don't like seeing bits of detritus in your roots, use a sock, hosiery, or a paper towel. I take a typical plastic spoon and add two full spoonfuls of molasses, and then I get a third spoonful and just toss in the spoon and all. (per two gallons) Lately I have been adding a pinch of table sugar as well. I use two 4 inch bubble stones with a separate dual-port pump feeding each stone. At first the brew will smell like feces because of the mycogrow powder, but it will eventually develop a nice earthy moss smell. The change in smell and foamy water will let you know the brew is working. You also might notice a thick 'slime' on the bubble stones after a day; this comes from the tea being so concentrated. It is nothing to worry about and doesn't happen once in the res. Bubble the mix at room temp for 48 hours, in light or in darkness doesn't matter, and then place in the fridge. Throw out when you detect a foul odor, even a faint one, or after 10 days.

Your needle-wheel pump sounds interesting, and shouldn't hurt the bennies at all.

BendBrewer said:

Thanks again for the reply. Thought I would show the efforts of the tea. This is the same plant 10 days later.

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Cheers!!!

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Wow what a come back. I always love seeing how the tea kicks the slime's ass. People who are considering the tea should realize that the above pics are quite typical of the teas performance; it's a magic bullet for brown slime. Thanks for sharing the pics. Hope the veggies turn out good as well.

So I live in a swampy area, and it has rained steady for about two weeks now. My house has recently become lightly infested with fungus gnats. This happens particularly bad in the springtime about every 5 years. I began to notice larvae in my yeast bottles which sit around my garden among the plants, as well as the garbage pail, the litter box, ect. In a matter of days they seemed to be everywhere. Everywhere that is except for my DWC buckets. Larvae are almost impossible to spot among roots with their translucent root colored bodies and tiny black heads, but some will always crawl onto the net pots or the sides of the buckets. With such a problem around the house I figured my buckets were infested. But after careful examination I see no sign of larvae or damage, and my plants show no signs of stress. I figured this must be due to the tea and discovered that the great white/mycogrow powder contains Bacillus thuringiensis. It seems that this bacteria prefers to eat the guts of caterpillars, maggots, ect., so it sits in the res water and waits for opportunity. Once inside the the larvae, it eats and produces toxins which perforate the stomach. Considering that the gnats were laying eggs in my yeast bottles, which are scattered among my reservoirs, they almost certainly laid eggs in my buckets. So yet again, the tea has saved me from potential disaster.

As for the rest of the house, some well placed sticky paper and elimination of breeding areas have gotten things under control.

The toxic crystal Bt protein in commercial formulations is only effective when eaten by insects with a specific (usually alkaline) gut pH and the specific gut membrane structures required to bind the toxin. Not only must the insect have the correct physiology and be at a susceptible stage of development, but the bacterium must be eaten in sufficient quantity. When ingested by a susceptible insect, the protein toxin damages the gut lining, leading to gut paralysis. Affected insects stop feeding and die from the combined effects of starvation and tissue damage. Bt spores do not usually spread to other insects or cause disease outbreaks on their own as occurs with many pathogens.

Larvae affected by Bt become inactive, stop feeding, and may regurgitate or have watery excrement. The head capsule may appear to be overly large for the body size. The larva becomes flaccid and die. The body contents turn brownish-black as they decompose. Other bacteria may turn the host body red or yellow.

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Thanks Heisen!

I only have mycogrow for microbes, so it's just that and molasses in my bucket so far. I put 2oz of blackstrap molasses and a tablespoon of mycogrow in 5gal of RO water in a 7gal bucket with two 6" airstones fed by a 0.6cfm air pump. It's been bubbling away for maybe 6hrs now, measures 72deg and 6.5pH. It was a bit foamy right off the bat as you can see in the picture below.

So about 48hrs is what yours takes to be ready/done? And more foam is what to look for? Anything I'm forgetting?

I just bubble for 48 hours and be done with it. I used to worry about optimum smell and foam and what not, but i've learned that the tea is more than effective without concerning yourself with that. After about 36 hours the smell is nice and earthy, and at 48 it turns just a bit swampy, which used to bother me, but it seems that if you follow the basic directions it's pretty hard to screw things up. The brew may or may not get more foamy, I mainly alert people to the foam so they wont be alarmed when they see it. I have had brews with almost no foam and they still work great.

Heisenberg said:

I just bubble for 48 hours and be done with it. I used to worry about optimum smell and foam and what not, but i've learned that the tea is more than effective without concerning yourself with that. After about 36 hours the smell is nice and earthy, and at 48 it turns just a bit swampy, which used to bother me, but it seems that if you follow the basic directions it's pretty hard to screw things up. The brew may or may not get more foamy, I mainly alert people to the foam so they wont be alarmed when they see it. I have had brews with almost no foam and they still work great.

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I noticed my veg tea never foams and my flower tea always foams like crazy. The only difference between the two is in my veg recipe I use mex bat guano and in the flower recipe I use jamaican bat guano
Iv yet to try any teas in my rdwc system (at the end of my first run) because I want to do a little more reading through this awesome thread.
Ancient forest sounds like the bees knees but I picture the forest getting raped by a logo... I'll admit Im stoned but still. Do you know if they "harvest" this without destroying this vital element in sustaining the integrity of these "ancient forests"? I have good results without it but I would love to try it in good conscience. Or am I crazy to think that this product comes straight from the forest floor?

Thank you for spending the time to post all this great info, Im still working through it.

Hey guys, here is a torrent link to the book, Teaming with Microbes. Got this from another post somewhere here, great read.

Hey Heis. maybe you could answer this question for me. I did post this eelsewhere and I thought you were more knowledgeable at this.

The book I was refering to, is Teaming with Microbes.

Heisenberg,,

So I've been battling slime for a few weeks now and it keeps getting worse. My plants literally havn't grown at all in the past couple weeks, they have just been stagnant as the slime has gotten worse. I have been treating with 29% H202 ever few days and flushing system then re-applying. This hasn't done a thing, my ph keeps rising quickly to about 7.6 and the roots look horrible. This is the first time I have ever encountered this problems in over 2 years or RDWC growing. Its in a new sspot and the room hadn't been dialed in. I was using aquashield and RE, base a&b and magical and my water temps went to about 74 for a week and bammmm, roots have been brown and dying ever since. No bad smell at all, just mushy brown roots. I finally, after much reading am trying ur tea brew. Using aquashield, ZHO, ancient forest and molasses. As I write this a mini split is getting put into the veg room to keep temps down so chillers can run 66-68 and tea is brewing!!!

My question is, do I need to sterilize before feeding my system with tea?? I added aabout 4ml per gallon of H202 today and was going to add another 4ml//glln tomorrow morning...then tomorrow night flush the system, re-fill with ro water, base a&b magical and ur tea. It would be pretty much impossible to get all the plants out and sterilize and deep clean the sstem with bleach. Do u think running the H202 like stated, then flushing and refilling with nutes and tea will give me the success I'm looking for in battling this nasty problem I'm having??