After surviving the aphids and then the mites I was starting to feel pretty good about the way the system was working. Then as I least expect it, Root Rot! Every single plant in the system is now infected with this rot. From what I read, apparently it is still at a fairly low stage of ugly. There is not hardly any "slime" anywhere but it is starting to show itself in very small amounts, and I am starting to see a live stray gnat or two, but their dead bodies are showing up in the rez drain of from the tubs so I know they are in there. I have been forced to do extensive root healthcare ever since the first tub because of the aphids so several applications of Rhizo and freshwater douching and Azamax and on and on. I couldnt figure out why I was getting such explosive root production but then they would turn a bit brown and their tiny little root hairs dissappear they get a bit spongy and then they just seem to go all soft and start falling off. You could see from the pics above the roots were 4 feet long and pretty massive but they die off at an amazing rate! The new growth can barely keep up with the die off.
Then it finally hit me! Although the nute solution is plenty cool temps the pump cycles on for about 30 minutes and then off for about 30 minutes. This was done purely because the timer i got would only allow 20 memory settings for off and on. I thought 30 wet and 30 dry would be ok since there is an abundance of moisture on the roots and the atmosphere inside the tub was staying wet. Then the other day I wanted to look at the root progress in one of the tubs and at the moment of opening the tub I felt this whiff of WARM air and humidity hit my face like opening a window directly in the Amazon jungle. Hmmmm I thought, this could be bad! I immediately took the outdoor sensor of my temp gauge and placed it inside the tub at root level and turned everything back on. Sure as crap, when the misters are on the temps in the tub are around 72 which is what I expected since the rez is about that same temp. But as the misters went off in a matter of minutes the temps inside the tub started to rise and fairly fast. Within 5 or 10 minutes the tub temps were sitting at or near 85 degrees, which means they sit in that 90% humidity at 85 or maybe even sometimes higher for 30 minutes 12 times each day. I'm thinkin I have found the problem! Trouble is at the moment I don't have a solution to it.
I can't at the moment figure out how to inject cool air into the tubs during the mist off part of the cycle without some really convoluted rig. Not that this might not be implemented in my next design revision but for now it isn't practical. I'm already reflecting as much light away from the tubs as possible but they are so close to the lights that they still heat up just from the radiant energy they are absorbing.
My first thought for a simple solution is to reprogram the timer so it will go 50 to 55 on and 5 to 10 off. In theory I suppose the misters could stay on continuously however previously the pump would heat up and shut itself off until it cools down anyway hence the on and off cycle. Now having said that I do now have two pumps. The original one is the one that overheats and is the one that is presently running all the tubs. Since then I got another one from a different vendor and it seems to be a better choice. Not only is it quieter but it is also in a nice housing and it does not appear to overheat. I can say this because it is currently powering the little aerocloner and it runs 24/7 without a problem.
The more longterm answer might be to swap the pumps but the intake and outflow openings on the pumps are in totally different locations and orientations which would require some fairly serious reworking of the plumbing. For now I am going to try changing the timer settings and see what happens at least while I analyze the work required to swap the pumps.
Ok now for the update! All 8 of the mix bag seedlings are doing great and have been switched to 12/12 to get ready for sexing.
The Green Crack unfortunately seemed to be suffering the most from the root rot so they gave up some of their small lower branches to the cloner and then had a full day of root health therapy prior to being transferred to soil. Today is the third day in soil and they are already looking much better. Leaves are lifting up now and are turning darker green and less yellow so I am upgrading their condition from critical to stable but guarded.
The Pure Kush that had been nearly killed by aphids and is now in soil have recovered very well. They are very nice color now and are starting to go through a very fast growth stage. The new branches are shooting out and covering about half the distance to the next opening in the screen every day. If they continue at this rate they should fill their screen in another two or three weeks if there is no other issues.
The Master Kushes are the freakiest things! They are fighting off the root rot themselves by producing roots as fast as they die off but this is slowing the growth of the vegetation. Having said that they are growing but very slowly and they seem to be growing on a high gravity planet! Even the newest growth is the thickness of my index finger and is very stiff. The lack of flexibility is making it almost impossible to train to the screen! If I try to hard to push the shoot under the next rung of the screen it snaps off. I'm not certain these guys want to be screened! I took the screen off and allowed them to grow freely without it and every new growth site turned straight up and the entire plant pushed up almost three inches in one night! I am starting to think I would benefit from allowing them to go the rest of the way without a screen, or at least let them stretch out a little and then attempt to reset the screen but a little higher up. Either way these guys have vegged for about 5 weeks now and seem to be begging for 12/12.
The BlueCross is stable but also growing slow now due to the same root rot problem. The tops look healthy and good color even after the mite attack which seems to be irradicated at least for now and I am keeping them at bay with regular maintenance. For now I'm leaving them as is and wait to see how the new pump cycle affects them.
Redwood Kushes are slow as well but also seem to be fighting off the rot by just growing more roots. They have great color on top and are just now starting to get lots of new growth and branching. I have started early training them for their screen by spreading their branches and tying them down. These will also be left as is for now in hope the new timer cycles will mitigate the root rot problem.
Finally my pride and joy is the single trainwreck! The one plant that was so sick when I adopted it I thought it would not survive it's first week is kicking butt! She gave up 6 clones a week ago and is so prolific she is ready again to give up 8 to 12 more with ease! She is also growing on a screen and the screen is completely filled and is overflowing at the sides with dozens of 3 inch high shoots blasting through every screen opening. The plan for her is to make sure the clones in the cloner are well rooted, take another dozen clones, give her a week to recover and then she is going 12/12.
I think thats it for now. Will post again in a few days when I see if the new timer cycle helps the tub temps and the root rot.
