DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

Heisenberg said:
Did some reading today...

If you are adding ZHO or some other fungal inoculant (not those mixed with bacteria) add it at the end of tea making, or add it directly to the res. We already knew mycos do not activate in the tea, and it seems most other fungi do not have time to multiply in 48 hours. Some fungi like trichoderma will germinate and grow bigger in the tea, but not reach fruiting stage. The more time myco spores stay in the tea, the more likely they are to be destroyed or eaten. You can encourage more fungi (and feed bacteria) if you add a little fruit rind to the tea.
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Interesting, how does this change your original recipe? I have been using half great white, half zho.
 
Heisenberg said:
Did some reading today...

If you are adding ZHO or some other fungal inoculant (not those mixed with bacteria) add it at the end of tea making, or add it directly to the res. We already knew mycos do not activate in the tea, and it seems most other fungi do not have time to multiply in 48 hours. Some fungi like trichoderma will germinate and grow bigger in the tea, but not reach fruiting stage. The more time myco spores stay in the tea, the more likely they are to be destroyed or eaten. You can encourage more fungi (and feed bacteria) if you add a little fruit rind to the tea.
Click to expand...

Does this also apply to mycogrow soluble? If so then the procedure would be to bubble Ancient Forest (and aquashield if you have it) for 48 hours, then add ZHO/Mycogrow and apply as usual?
 
georgeforeman said:
Interesting, how does this change your original recipe? I have been using half great white, half zho.
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Just use the ZHO at the end of the brew.

mile.high said:
Does this also apply to mycogrow soluble? If so then the procedure would be to bubble Ancient Forest (and aquashield if you have it) for 48 hours, then add ZHO/Mycogrow and apply as usual?
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It applies only to inoculates which contain fungi and nothing else, such as ZHO or Sub-m. The original tea recipe works just fine, so you can ignore this if you want. Some of us just like to play around with the microbes. If you have a powder which contains only fungi spores and nothing else, brewing them does little good. Those powders generally have a mix of mycos and trichoderma, neither of which will increase their numbers in the tea. You can add them into the tea at the end of the brew for inclusion or just add them to the res, preferably directly on the roots. We do get a variety of other fungi from the ancient forest soil amendment, and you can encourage those to grow, and possibly multiply, in the tea if you add a bit of fruit rind.
 
Heisenberg said:
Did some reading today...

If you are adding ZHO or some other fungal inoculant (not those mixed with bacteria) add it at the end of tea making, or add it directly to the res. We already knew mycos do not activate in the tea, and it seems most other fungi do not have time to multiply in 48 hours. Some fungi like trichoderma will germinate and grow bigger in the tea, but not reach fruiting stage. The more time myco spores stay in the tea, the more likely they are to be destroyed or eaten. You can encourage more fungi (and feed bacteria) if you add a little fruit rind to the tea.
Click to expand...

Good research Heis, thanks for the heads up. Cheers-
mr.bond
 
wow what an amazing thread hiesenberg, i was told to come read this from another thread, im a dwc grower,who had his first experience with pythium last grow!! im now doing a RDWC grow, i have purchased great white as i was planning on running a bennie enviroment in my res/nutes, after a bit of reading i see that in rdwc systems its best to apply these powders of great white direct to the roots? my seedling are only 12 days old and are in rockwool, they have roots showing but i dont know if these are to young for application of stuff to the roots??
there going into drip fed 220mm net pots filled with hydroton. i know from reading that these rocks do not give the bennies a ho,e to breed as there not porus enough, and for my next run il be using lava rock as they give the BB a home,

i think il try making the tea, with the great white, im in the uk so some of the stuff you mention is hard to get,

can you make a suggestion on the whole application to roots method if its worth it? or if im best just adding the tea to my res as a way to prevebt any build up of bad bacteria, much thanks for this amazing thread and all your replys mate!

sqydro
 
sqydro said:
wow what an amazing thread hiesenberg, i was told to come read this from another thread, im a dwc grower,who had his first experience with pythium last grow!! im now doing a RDWC grow, i have purchased great white as i was planning on running a bennie enviroment in my res/nutes, after a bit of reading i see that in rdwc systems its best to apply these powders of great white direct to the roots? my seedling are only 12 days old and are in rockwool, they have roots showing but i dont know if these are to young for application of stuff to the roots??
there going into drip fed 220mm net pots filled with hydroton. i know from reading that these rocks do not give the bennies a ho,e to breed as there not porus enough, and for my next run il be using lava rock as they give the BB a home,

i think il try making the tea, with the great white, im in the uk so some of the stuff you mention is hard to get,

can you make a suggestion on the whole application to roots method if its worth it? or if im best just adding the tea to my res as a way to prevebt any build up of bad bacteria, much thanks for this amazing thread and all your replys mate!

sqydro
Click to expand...

hey sqydro,

hydroton works just fine as a home for the bennies. as for your great white, brew a tea with that using the instructions on page 1. you could also mix some distilled water and great white in a spray bottle and spray it on the roots if they arent long enough to touch water. although it would be better to brew the tea, and it will make it even more effective. add the tea brew into your system, and pour some thru each netcup. this will inoculate each plant site and its roots at the crown. if you have a healthy set of bennies in your system, it will help keep it disease free. you'll have to top up with new tea every few days though. good luck!

cheers,
mr.bond
 
mr.bond said:
hey sqydro,

hydroton works just fine as a home for the bennies. as for your great white, brew a tea with that using the instructions on page 1. you could also mix some distilled water and great white in a spray bottle and spray it on the roots if they arent long enough to touch water. although it would be better to brew the tea, and it will make it even more effective. add the tea brew into your system, and pour some thru each netcup. this will inoculate each plant site and its roots at the crown. if you have a healthy set of bennies in your system, it will help keep it disease free. you'll have to top up with new tea every few days though. good luck!

cheers,
mr.bond
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Thanks for the reply mate, ik get on the web and hunt down the stuff, are you in the US? alot of this stuff is american i think, do i replace the aquashield with the great white then mate? Thanks again, great thread, my GW is due delivered by friday so il get on the case of makin some tea!!
 
Yes I am in the US. Many of the ingredients come from General Hydroponics or Botanicare, so if you know of any UK distributors that sell those lines, you might find what you are looking for. Just brew up some great white and molasses. If you can't get the aquashield, ZHO, Sub-M, Sub-B, Ancient Forest, Mycogrow, etc. then just use what you have in it's place. Without the Ancient Forest you won't get the massive diversity useful for disease fighting, but it doesn't sound like you are fighting slime. If you just use it as a preventative tea it will hopefully keep the slime away. Cheers and good luck. Make sure you brew for 48 hours.

cheers
mr.bond
 
Can someone please help me out here??? I am begging for help. I am a nOOb to DWC growing. I did a res change 2 days ago and these is how they look right now. Is there hope or should I cull it? Is there anything I could immediately? Please PM if you can help a DWC nOOb.... Thanks

PB020364.jpg

Peace

BKB
 
Help!
I have been battling this slime for months. I was in RDWC and it was horrible, I had inch thick layers of snot like jelly growing on everything. So after battling it forever in DWC, I switched to ebb and flood. I cleaned my system with Physan 20 and I dipped roots in physan 20 for a few hours and then rinsed them and ran the Microbe Tea for a day before adding Floranova grow to 400ppm and some cal-mag. That was two days ago.
So I just looked in the res and there is Slime growing in the res on the air stones and the sides. WTF? I've done everything I possibly can. Right now I have some seedlings and few clones in there the plants are healthy but have almost no roots. I've heard that the bennys can make a little slime is that true? Help!!!
 
echlectica said:
Help!
I have been battling this slime for months. I was in RDWC and it was horrible, I had inch thick layers of snot like jelly growing on everything. So after battling it forever in DWC, I switched to ebb and flood. I cleaned my system with Physan 20 and I dipped roots in physan 20 for a few hours and then rinsed them and ran the Microbe Tea for a day before adding Floranova grow to 400ppm and some cal-mag. That was two days ago.
So I just looked in the res and there is Slime growing in the res on the air stones and the sides. WTF? I've done everything I possibly can. Right now I have some seedlings and few clones in there the plants are healthy but have almost no roots. I've heard that the bennys can make a little slime is that true? Help!!!
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Any biological life can create a biofilm, which may or may not be similar to slime. What are your water temps like, and what ingredients are you using for your tea?
 
water temp is 70F and I'm using Mollasses, aquashield, zho, and EWC. This is more than a flim it is THE SLIME!!! Apparently the tea does not always work?
 
The tea works almost always if it diverse enough to dominate the anaerobic (bad) bacterium. Although I question why you have slime in the first place if your water temp is around 70F. Were any organic compounds introduced into the rez? How long did you brew your tea for, and did you use distilled/RO water? What nutrients are you using?

Also, if you are using ebb & flow, since there are no roots harboring bacteria in the rez, you might want to put something in there that will give the microbes something to latch on to. Some lava rocks, hydroton, etc.

cheers
mr.bond
 
No organic matter in res other then what is in floranova
Tea brewed for 48 hours
RO water
Floranova
I guess I could toss some hydroton in the res but wouldn't the airstones have been a good place for them to latch onto.
 
echlectica said:
No organic matter in res other then what is in floranova
Tea brewed for 48 hours
RO water
Floranova
I guess I could toss some hydroton in the res but wouldn't the airstones have been a good place for them to latch onto.
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I don't know your exact situation, but one thing that a lot of people don't do is thoroughly clean and disinfect before starting a tea regimen. You need to dump the water, break everything apart, clean with bleach and just scrap all of that slime out. If any of your roots are infected then you need to either kill those plants or spray all the of slime away with H202 or Physan. Then start a fresh res with your nutes and tea in there before adding the plants.
 
Olympus Mons said:
I don't know your exact situation, but one thing that a lot of people don't do is thoroughly clean and disinfect before starting a tea regimen. You need to dump the water, break everything apart, clean with bleach and just scrap all of that slime out. If any of your roots are infected then you need to either kill those plants or spray all the of slime away with H202 or Physan. Then start a fresh res with your nutes and tea in there before adding the plants.
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Yeah I did all of that. no corners cut.
 
And I thought that physan 20 kills everything on contact so after thoroughly cleaning the roots with h202 they sat in physan 20 for 3 hours. I read a whole bunch of this thread before I did any of this. I'll do it all again but killing these plants is NOT an option.
 
Just curious about using h2o2....does it needed to be diluted prior to using? Or just pour straight h2o2 on the roots and through the net pot?

Peace

BKB
 
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