Root Emergency - PLEASE ADVISE

First time grower.


DWC - 5 Gallons Bucket Per Plant


1 air stone (7.8L) 2 outputs ---> T-splitters ----> 3 x 6" air stones
Bubbles vigorous and present in all systems


Air temperature - Conditioned @ 75F constant
Water temperature - Cool to cold to the touch. Unknown value, but relatively low due to reflective system and excellent air flow in grow room


Plants have been through HELL and back:


Started in rockwool
Went to soil
Cleaned roots of dirt
Went to DWC tote
Room temps hit 90F and system developed a truly horrible rotten egg smell
Many many hours of bleaching EVERYTHING in sight
Each plant sat in its own isolated 250 ppm solution for 4 hours
Plants sat in net pots in straight air for 12 hr to maximize oxygen root penetration
Rinsed each plant with tap water for 2 hours
Transplanted to sterile hydro system


Just today, new roots have started to appear.
The lower leaves that began to yellow have been chopped off with a sterile blade when they became fully yellow.


Plants have been on the verge of death many, many times. I am 6-7 weeks in to veg.


3 buckets 5 gallons each.
Light proof, Mylar wrapped, Checked as best as I could.


330 PPM General Hydroponics Flora Nova GROW
3 mL / gallon BLEACH (50% sodium hypochlorite / 50% NaOH solution) = 15 mL per 5 gallon bucket ADDED 5 HOURS BEFORE PICS
pH is > 7.0 as we speak. Plants seem to not care as long as I spray them.
3 mL / gallon SM-90


150 mL lemon juice was added 3 days ago to lower pH. "pH down" is on its way. I plan rez water change within the next 12-48 hr.


I have no idea wtf to do now. My mind is in rewind. Any and all comments appreciated.


PLANT 1 BELOW





PLANT 2 BELOW





PLANT 3 BELOW

Ph is the single most important factor of hydro and you have what appears to be no way to measure or control it. Make a decision on what you want to do to the poor girls and stay with it. Consistency is key.

Bummer dude! Those are some mighty fine developing beauties- hate to seem em' so down

I'm not an expert, but what pops into my mind is, that it looks like root rot. I've had similar issues in the past... with PH being the monster

Well, been there done all that, and actually got a decent yield.

Basically, you have put your plants through a ton of different shocks capped by too heavy concentration of bleach

I use a 45 lpm air pump with 4 outlets, I use 2 per 3g bucket. For now, raise the level of the nutes to ~ 1/2-1 below the netpot.

Follow my grow for how to care for the roots once they clear the net. Hint, I waited too long to begin trimming, but all roots have had tips trimmed

Will be posting root pics after 1-2 more trims in a few days

Sas you can see, plants are doing fine. More improtantly, by forcing more root development, I will get a bigger yield

Here's a couple pics View attachment 2684132

This usually happens when transplanting from soil to hydro , especially when you stuff the roots in the little net pot..
Take most of the clay pebbles out so the roots can breathe , only leave enough to keep her upright....
And you may have to water her through the net pot with h2o2 aerated water untill her roots hang through..
I have done this many times , with great success. She'll be fine..

Thanks for all the suggestions!!


BTW NEVER USE MIRACLE GROW!!!!!!!!!!
Miracle Grow = It's a Miracle if it grows!


--------------------------------------------


I'm going to keep my eyes on Regen-A-Root. It seems very promising. I am going to hold off on Rhizotonic for now because I have read many posts recommending H2O2, which sterilizes the DWC AFAIK.


IIRC, anaerobic (bad) organisms use metal ions instead of oxygen as final electron acceptors in cellular respiration. I haven't heard of sulfur causing problems, except perhaps competitively inhibiting oxygen update due to its similar electronic orbital structure. Again, I have not reviewed the literature regarding this.


The bleach is gone. H2O2 obtained. pH meter is here and pH will be corrected to 5.5
DWC buckets flushed and sitting out to dry. Will remain out of service until the situation improves.


I plan on not using water in the reservoir.
In essence my DWC has become an AC (air culture)


I will be spraying the top root zone with a spray bottle mix of:
Nutrients (250 ppm) + H2O2 (3 mL/L) + SM-90 (1 mL/L) @ pH 5.5


@cocakola:


I'm taking your word on keeping them all up in the air for now.
I agree with you because I do not want another 5 gallon solution to become a bloody breeding ground for whatever the hell is attacking my roots. Pure genius.


The clay pebbles are going to stay in there. The plants fall over very easily. Good thing is they are packed in there very lightly so they have decent aeration.


@PetFlora:


I'm going to stick with the net pots in the buckets, but the buckets will remain empty for a sort of "drain to waste" bucket system.


I'm going sure how trimming the roots is ever a good idea, but I'll take your word for it and look more in to it.


@Constiello:


Bro thanks for the support. I took a few clones and hopefully something will pull through.
AFAIK pH has almost no effect on root rot though. Strictly an oxygen deprivation/light issue IIRC.


@superstoner1:


I have a comprehensive pH measuring kit now with pH up/down. I'll make sure to stick within the recommended range.

I think one of these may be your problem:
Water is too warm
Too high of water level
Not enough air bubbles

also get rid of that reflective thing covering the base of your plant.. it is preventing some air flow.

you need to get that temperature down below 80 degrees

you could also invest in a water cooler

http://www.marinedepot.com/CoolWorks_Ice_Probe_with_Power_Supply_Micro_Nano_Aquarium_Chillers-CoolWorks-CW1111-FICHMC-vi.html

if you have more than 1 DWC then you might want to looking into an air conditioner

@BeastGrow

I have an air conditioner - set to 75 degrees. It deviates +/- 1 degree.
Air flow is no longer a problem, but it definitely caused the issue in the first place.

How high should I set the water level?

Someone recommended I flush for 48 hours but I have no idea if I should just let it flush for 48 hr or what?

I'm going to stick with the net pots in the buckets, but the buckets will remain empty for a sort of "drain to waste" bucket system.

You should definitely check out my thread before you do this

Ideally, you want a 10 degree difference in your water to air temp. i.e. if your air temp is 80F your water temp should be 70F. Good luck! Keep em vertical!

Amas said:

How high should I set the water level?

Someone recommended I flush for 48 hours but I have no idea if I should just let it flush for 48 hr or what?

Click to expand...

i try to make it about 1/4" below the net pot

150 mL lemon juice was added 3 days ago to lower pH. "pH down" is on its way. I plan rez water change within the next 12-48 hr.

Click to expand...

Stop putting 'organic' shit in your buckets unless it's bennies. Pretty much guaranteed slime to explode in your buckets. We use synthetic nutes in DWC.

Amas said:

330 PPM General Hydroponics Flora Nova GROW
3 mL / gallon BLEACH (50% sodium hypochlorite / 50% NaOH solution) = 15 mL per 5 gallon bucket ADDED 5 HOURS BEFORE PICS
pH is > 7.0 as we speak. Plants seem to not care as long as I spray them.
3 mL / gallon SM-90

Click to expand...

Flora Nova sucks balls in DWC. It's muddy and shitty. Someone is going to pop in and say it works great for them... just take my word for it and use something cleaner, like the GH Flora 3 part or DG or something.

PH is most likely no where near 5.8. A ph meter is a required up-front investment for DWC systems. You can't eyeball your ph; you can't dip your finger in and guess.

I believe you are beyond the help of sterilizers like bleach, h202, zone, sm-90, etc etc etc. They might work. They might not. You might kill your plants overdosing them, they might recover. You might waste your money and time, or you might be alright to continue abusing those girls and dragging them through bloom. Just brew up some bennies and don't fuck with the dumb shit. Stay away from enzymes... hormones... vitamins... all that shit until the slime is under control; many of them (ie: superthrive) are known triggers of slime. Skim Heisenberg's sticky thread, just read his posts.

It looks like you have new root growth though, so you could be on the road to recovery.

After much thought and consideration,


I present to you all the MICRO WATER CULTURE





Bleached this morning for 12 hours @ 250ppm (still TONS of bacteria)


But now the slime simple washed away when sprayed with a solution of GH FN Grow + SM-90 + H2O2


Cups were washed with Isopropyl Alcohol and net pots rinsed 5x with tap water, for a total of 15 minutes each. With the spray bottle I spray-injected the GH FN Grow + SM-90 + H2O2 solution into the bottom of the net pots while holding them over a catch pan.


Once I was satisfied with their cleanliness, I paper towelled them as best I could to clean them up, then put them in my little MWC system


pH 5.5


This allows me to rinse many many times frequently with minimal waste!

Listen to Malevolence, I was about to say everything he did. I had the same problems you had, maybe worse. I had sludge, clogged pumps, pipes, and root rot. I was away for days, plants wilted from not being watered. I ended up cutting out and changing my res nutes to just using GH 3 part Flora series, Diamond Nectar and Liquid Kool Bloom, it made all the difference. I also used way to small of a bucket 2 gal, bucket in a bucket, not a net pot, the roots filled the plants bucket and hydroton to the point that air from the stone in the lower bucket couldn’t even come up through; I had to shut that air pump down because the air bubbles would bring water up and out onto the floor making a mess. I added that air pump to the res with the two stones that were already there making 4 stones and a craze bubbling action, and just cycled the flood times more often. I never had another problem after I got the res nutes right. I turned things around and was able to pull over 9oz a plant.

There is enough information in this one to confuse the pope. Both good & bad.PH,PH,PH,is the most important thing in hydro.
First thing when I got a problem I check PH it can cause everything else to be off.
Water level-keep the roots covered up to the base of the plant-I got that from Heath & it works.
Take what you want leave the rest ( as for info).
GL

Malevolence said:

Flora Nova sucks balls in DWC. It's muddy and shitty. Someone is going to pop in and say it works great for them... just take my word for it and use something cleaner

Click to expand...

I run floranova and it does Brown my roots but they still look song and healthy. I chose this over the 3 part was the ease of use and I'm pleased as of now. https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/663060-rp-sour-diesel-rp-headband.html