DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes
- Thread starter Heisenberg
- Start date
sqydro
Active Member
so used my tea of just great white, molases, and EWC, bubbled for 36 hours, roots seem to love it, there out the bottom of my net pot from a 1" cube already its a 210mm net pot after only a few days of drip feed with this and a EC of 0.5, only using as a preventative but it also has bennifits if your roots dont have slime i take it? my brew didnt have a head like most do, like a good pint of lager, is this cos i didnt use all the stuff you listed on page 1 hiesenberg?
i brewed mine with ewc in a sock but i think il do it all in one mix next time and strain after, ive seen you say thas ok on first few pages, this is prob the best DWC thread ive seen on any forum, thanks to all involved, alot to digest~!!
i brewed mine with ewc in a sock but i think il do it all in one mix next time and strain after, ive seen you say thas ok on first few pages, this is prob the best DWC thread ive seen on any forum, thanks to all involved, alot to digest~!!
mr.bond
Well-Known Member
sorry fritz, but its not the same. while those products may contain bennies derived from EWC, there is no way a bottled product can match the diversity of a freshly brewed compost tea. for slime fighting, diversity is key. in fact, those products are comprised of organic matter, which we know to easily exacerbate any slime problem by providing that organic food source.
I had a problem in my last round with brown slime, then after moving everything I had a few weeks where the DWC wasnt being used and it was cleaned out. When I finally had new additions to put in, which were clean and good to go, I added my nutes (H&G WK1 Flowering) some Superthive and SOS (http://www.strata-intl.com/SOS/Hydroponic-Treatments-p-78.html) in first 24 hours I had significant brown slime. I quickly removed all the plants, cleaned the roots as best as possible, flushed the whole system multiple times with bleach water and then fresh water and then replaced everything with new nutes, SOS and Superthrive (Yeah the same thing I did before) I have a 4 in disc with ample air and again, in less than 24 hours slime is back, not as bad as the first time. Also ph the first time was very low 4.5. Today the ph is fine at 6.1 I tend to notice that very low Ph happens in concert with the slime but i didnt see the ph drop this time around. Not sure what to do next as I am in wk 1 flowering and want to get this resolved. any help would be appreciated.
medicine21
Active Member
umm, brew some tea??? oh yeah, and cut the superthrive.
legallyflying
Well-Known Member
LOL. seems pretty obvious, brother needs some tea!
VERTmcGirt
Member
Hey guys! Great Info! I work at a local hydro store in Pasadena and this is the first I've heard of using the tea in a DWC. GENIUS!
Heisenberg, have you ever used the Progressive Earth - Earth Compound and Tonic- http://www.progressearth.com/index.php/products/detail/3/earth_compound ??
We brew this at the shop and been having stellar results. Haven't tried it against the brown slime though. However, my lucky self was able to get some in one of my buckets (hence me on this site looking for alternatives to h2o2). The tea brewed with Progressive Earth is mainly a microbe tea, but I will see if boss man will let me throw some great white in the mix.
Sorry if Progressive Earth was brought up before, but I got to page 63 and gave up. hahah
Thanks again for the info.
Heisenberg, have you ever used the Progressive Earth - Earth Compound and Tonic- http://www.progressearth.com/index.php/products/detail/3/earth_compound ??
We brew this at the shop and been having stellar results. Haven't tried it against the brown slime though. However, my lucky self was able to get some in one of my buckets (hence me on this site looking for alternatives to h2o2). The tea brewed with Progressive Earth is mainly a microbe tea, but I will see if boss man will let me throw some great white in the mix.
Sorry if Progressive Earth was brought up before, but I got to page 63 and gave up. hahah
Thanks again for the info.
Heisenberg
Well-Known Member
I have never heard of Progressive Earth, but I must say it sounds like an excellent product. Should do fine against the slime. What is the price for the 1 gal bags? The earth tonic also sounds interesting for tea making. A sort of super diet for the microbes to eat. However, I doubt the need for it in a synthetic DWC. We really don't care how healthy the microbes are once they get into the res, in fact we expect most to die within a week. (aside from the ones the plant feeds) As long as they displace the slime and stimulate roots they do their job. I enjoy tea making and plan to play around with enhancments, but anyone who just wants to fight slime can stick to the basic recipe. Some of the ingredients for the tonic are suspect in triggering or fueling slime. We have found that this is okay once the slime has been dealt with, IOW once you have robust roots and established microbe colonies. However if someone was using the tea in a system currently infected with slime, I would recommend leaving out the tonic. Let us know how your situation turns out.
georgeforeman
Well-Known Member
i have been brave enought to bump my undercurrent res temps to 71-72 and the roots still look great. Had some falling ph last week, but i added 1 cup tea per 2 gallons, and that solved it.
Any thoughts on canna boost in the res?
Npk 0-0.1-0.1
Derived from sugar cane plant extract
Derived from the plant using a natural fermentation process
Any thoughts on canna boost in the res?
Npk 0-0.1-0.1
Derived from sugar cane plant extract
Derived from the plant using a natural fermentation process
CaliMackdaddy
Active Member
Just bought everything for the mix, brewing for 48 hours.. The Zho powder was killer tho, 25 bucks for the smallest they had.. Should be worth it tho good stuff right there.
georgeforeman
Well-Known Member
There seems to be a lot of dark build up on my roots. I make the tea with the ancient forest directly in the bucket. Once it is ready, i filter it with a 400 micron filter, but there is still a lot of particles going into the res. It looks bad, but it easily shakes off when i shake the roots underwater. Is this something to worry about? Should i use a smaller filter?
WaxxyNuggets
Active Member
Heis specifically said that the floating stuff can attach to the roots and not harm a thing, your good to go man 
I use a shirt to filter the ewc after brewing, a few particles here and there but no problems.
I use a shirt to filter the ewc after brewing, a few particles here and there but no problems.
WaxxyNuggets
Active Member
but I would suggest a better filter if you dont want to clog any pumps or stones...
georgeforeman
Well-Known Member
How small of a filter would be bad. ie, would a 100 micron filter actually filter out the benes along with the humus?
WaxxyNuggets
Active Member
I'm thinking a shirt you don't care about anymore, I don't go by micron size with tea... and I just checked this batch, no extra ewc and I use ^^
sqydro
Active Member
i filtered mine through a dish cloth, it was absolute fine, miniscule pargticles been in my fridge 8-9 days still smells fresh, i think il brew some more tomorow , not using alot just as seedling are ryoung and in a veg bubbler i built, going into the bigger 150L system soon, the roots are lookin real nice will throw some photos up then!
