DWC root rot... Pulling my hair out!

420insane

Member
Hey guys whats up?! I am new to DWC and started my first one on the first of this month. 3 plants in 3- 5 gallon buckets... I started seeds in rockwool cubes and have been fighting root rot on the daily ever since roots touched water. I have plenty of air in the water and my res temps never get above 72... I have tried using things such as hydroguard, Regen a root, Wilt guard, and Great White bacteria... None have helped. I just tried using a cap full of 3% H2O2 in each rez. Every time it comes around i change the rez and it gets MUCH MUCH MUCH worse in the course of a few hours. but once it gets to the point where the entire rootball underwater pulls off and its just fresh white roots from the net cup they are fine for a couple weeks until the rot slowly starts again or I change the rez and BAM! Rot. I am really at my wits end and am about to shove these things in the buckets with Oceans Forest... Please help... Anyone....
 

neved

Well-Known Member
Hi budd
Give more info?
What’s your ppm/ph meter!?
Actually Dwc is not recommend for begginners , Have you grow hydro before?
Give me more details :
Your water(base)
Your ppm?your ph?
If you set your ph on desire range how much it would change during one day?(goin up or down)
Not recommended to seeding in rockwool (better for clone)
Have you prepared your rockwool first?
Picrures will help alot if you wanna qquick prescription
 

420insane

Member
I cannot say PPM since i do not have a meter and have been going off of how the plant reacts(sketchy i know but that wouldnt be my issue would it?) but ph holds pretty stable between 5.8-6.1 i havent had to re-ph anything after the initial one during rez change. it stays right around 6.0...
the plants are a month old at this point and the rockwool is not affecting them anymore but i ph'd distilled water to 5.5 and soaked the rockwool cubes overnight in it before planting pre-germinated seeds.I shall go take some pictures right now. though the root rot is on its way out(untill i change res or breath the wrong way lol)
 

70's natureboy

Well-Known Member
Weird, my res temps get around 70-72 at times and no sign of root rot. I even have one air pump that pumps out some hot air and never any sign of it. I better stop talking before I jinx myself.
 

420insane

Member
Plant root pics go from largest plant to smallest. The root rot is sort of calmed down after the H202 but i guaruntee you it will probably come back... both the bigger plants have already had their entire root balls rot off 3x this grow with the last one being 3 days ago...
 

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420insane

Member
Weird, my res temps get around 70-72 at times and no sign of root rot. I even have one air pump that pumps out some hot air and never any sign of it. I better stop talking before I jinx myself.
Please dont jinx yourself!!! haha I did that to myself as soon as the roots started poking out i was like "hell yeah i can do this! Dwc can't be THAT much harder than soil/soilless!!!" 3 days later i was scraping what looks like pumpkin guts out of my rez.
 

neved

Well-Known Member
Too much N
Decrease your ppm by addin Ro water .
I couldn’t run Dwc without having Bluelab,
Keep it under 70 not 72
 

420insane

Member
I am trying my best and I definitely noticed the N claw taking shape yesterday.. I cant afford a ppm meter at this time or I would definitely have one.. The bottles in the pics are my res "chillers" i swap out 2 frozen bottles every 3 hours. So my rez temps should be way lower than 72.. i was saying 72 because thats what my tent is at usually. I appreciate the help sir!!!
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
PPM meters on Azon < $20

and you need to supplement that blue light with WHITE, probably NW or WW

On the cheap get 2 @ 2 bulb vanity fixtures from HD/Lowes and use screw in bulbs

That's how I did it in the old days, sans the blue light of course
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
I am using LED lights that ive used for many grows here. Trust me its not as blue as the shitty pics make it seems
go to ebay. get a bottle of southern ag garden friendly fungicide (similar to hydroguard but a hundred thousand times stronger). use about a tsp per 5 gal bucket and it will go away for good. make sure you get the whole root ball up to the stem soaked in it really well.
 

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
Thats one thing I havent tried. I shall try that as soon as the bottle gets here!! Ordered PPM meter as well
and the N clawing you are seeing could be too much N or could be the root rot. fix the rot first then see what happens. if you change everything at once, you'll never know what really fixed it.
 

420insane

Member
Ended up throwing the one girl into dirt last night just to have some insurance for this grow.. Hopefully she takes to her new home. That will be the route for all of them if I can't solve the problem in a couple weeks. If its this bad in early veg I can only imagine flower. Also brewed a Great White tea and am trying that with one of the plants... So peroxide in one and innoculated bennies in the other... We shall see if either helps until the fungicide gets here!
 
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