DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

Great thread.

so i was wondering if you know where i could find an nitrogen fixation bacteria inoculation im growing peas out doors and it would be nice to be a 100 percent sure there doing what the should be doing any products that you have hered of

You'll want to get one of the more complete products like great white or mycogrow soluble from fungi.com. Brewing them tea style is optional but recommended. The simpler products like ZHO do not contain decomposers, which is what you want.

My herbs (basil, thyme, rosemary, lavender) all responded very well to the tea. I even use the old stuff on them that has a bit of a smell.

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so been running tea for a week my roots now look like this the brown spots actually seem like clumps of dirt almost it wipes of very easily usually leaving the roots behind (although the root hairs seem fragile)
the temps of the room stay at around 73-75

fallinprince said:

so been running tea for a week my roots now look like this the brown spots actually seem like clumps of dirt almost it wipes of very easily usually leaving the roots behind (although the root hairs seem fragile)
the temps of the room stay at around 73-75

Click to expand...

hey fallinprince,

your plant is looking great. dont worry about the brown gunk left behind... it looks like its the dead slime, tinted by the tea. also seeing nice lateral branching on the roots and new white shoots. the foilage is looking very happy. if you keep your ph inline you should see some great growth in the new few weeks. and if you can keep your temps in that range and continue use of the tea, you can pretty much kiss your slime problems goodbye. ok well maybe dont kiss them, considering the slime and all........

cheers mate... good recovery!!!

mr.bond

fallinprince said:

so been running tea for a week my roots now look like this the brown spots actually seem like clumps of dirt almost it wipes of very easily usually leaving the roots behind (although the root hairs seem fragile)
the temps of the room stay at around 73-75

Click to expand...

fallinprince,

I thought that this form of root rot (brown slime algae) was only a DWC thing? How are you getting it in aero? Do you have a shallow bed of water under your net cups? I'm curious because I'm building a couple of aero setups (one of them like yours) to test out. Before I discovered the compost tea I thought switching to another method was the only way to get around the horrible slime.

Also regarding a question you asked a couple of pages ago, my aeorcloner loves the tea. I'm getting roots faster and they are strong and white.

Olympus Mons said:

fallinprince,

I thought that this form of root rot (brown slime algae) was only a DWC thing? How are you getting it in aero? Do you have a shallow bed of water under your net cups? I'm curious because I'm building a couple of aero setups (one of them like yours) to test out. Before I discovered the compost tea I thought switching to another method was the only way to get around the horrible slime.

Also regarding a question you asked a couple of pages ago, my aeorcloner loves the tea. I'm getting roots faster and they are strong and white.

Click to expand...

yeah my roots lay on the the bar.Due to the drain cap having a small lip on it. the setup cannot actually drain the last MM of water. so yes it sits in about a second knuckles worth of water but theirs actually a small amount of sediment that builds up so every couple days i swish the tubes back and forth then hold it so it drains completely. as for my setup i recommend having much larger drain tubes W/o the lip that doesnt allow my tubes to drain fully. maybe dumping directly into the res so the roots can come too ((for when you eventually run out of room in the bar))

PS on continued thought its not such a terrible thing because i always have some water in the tube to prevent the complete drying of the plant

If you check my Journal I've got a post at the beginning about a fogger that youtube video shows how to make the bars my setup uses(i didnt make them).

Hey there new to DWC. Currently growing in a recirculating 5-gallon DWC bucket w/ an external 5 gal res for easier maintenance. I've currently been brewing some bene tea for 34 hours and gettin ready to do a res change. I'm using heavy-16 veg a&b, Floralicious plus, zone, and bud candy. Should I eliminate the zone when adding the bene tea? Also, is bud candy good to use to feed the bennies? Or should I eliminate that too?
My res temps range from 65-72. My pH rises on average .2 every hour

G37Kush said:

Hey there new to DWC. Currently growing in a recirculating 5-gallon DWC bucket w/ an external 5 gal res for easier maintenance. I've currently been brewing some bene tea for 34 hours and gettin ready to do a res change. I'm using heavy-16 veg a&b, Floralicious plus, zone, and bud candy. Should I eliminate the zone when adding the bene tea? Also, is bud candy good to use to feed the bennies? Or should I eliminate that too?
My res temps range from 65-72. My pH rises on average .2 every hour

Click to expand...

Definitely drop the zone. Save it for sterilizing equipment and washing walls. It lasts for years. You can use the bud candy/floralicous in the tea to stimulate the bennies, or you can add it to the res as directed, but be sure you have established microbe colonies first and robust, healthy roots. If you see any slime start to form, stop adding the bud candy and floralicious to your res, and add them to the tea instead. It wont be as effective because you will use less, but it's better than throwing them out. Ideally you will find that you can use both as directed without fear of slime, but that isn't always the case.

I thought I remembered reading about the tea being ready at peak foam. Is that true? I seem to get the most foam in 12-24 hours than it seems to die down.

Heisenberg said:

Definitely drop the zone. Save it for sterilizing equipment and washing walls. It lasts for years. You can use the bud candy/floralicous in the tea to stimulate the bennies, or you can add it to the res as directed, but be sure you have established microbe colonies first and robust, healthy roots. If you see any slime start to form, stop adding the bud candy and floralicious to your res, and add them to the tea instead. It wont be as effective because you will use less, but it's better than throwing them out. Ideally you will find that you can use both as directed without fear of slime, but that isn't always the case.

Click to expand...

Oh ok thanx Heisenberg. Today when I do a res change I'll just be adding the tea at cup/gallon. Then just heavy-16 veg A&B. I'll start to add Floralicious plus and bud candy once I see the roots return to normal. I've been also spraying seaplex once a day every other week. I didn't use any foliar sprays during my last grow. Any suggestions on foliar sprays or is it better to just tune in my dwc first?
I'll post pics later when I get home

G37Kush said:

Hey there new to DWC. Currently growing in a recirculating 5-gallon DWC bucket w/ an external 5 gal res for easier maintenance. I've currently been brewing some bene tea for 34 hours and gettin ready to do a res change. I'm using heavy-16 veg a&b, Floralicious plus, zone, and bud candy. Should I eliminate the zone when adding the bene tea? Also, is bud candy good to use to feed the bennies? Or should I eliminate that too?
My res temps range from 65-72. My pH rises on average .2 every hour

Click to expand...

hey g37,

in addition to what heisenberg said, once you inoculate the roots with the tea and have the tea going for a little while, the roots should be colonized effectively. when you switch into flower you would probably be alright adding the bud candy and floralicious back into the rez, hopefully your roots are robust and strong enough. and really if you keep your rez temp in that range, you shouldnt have any more slime issues.... cheers mate

mr. bond

BendBrewer said:

I thought I remembered reading about the tea being ready at peak foam. Is that true? I seem to get the most foam in 12-24 hours than it seems to die down.

Click to expand...

the foam is a sign of bacteria doing its thing, but ive noticed the same thing. my first grow there was foam everywhere, subsequent brews, not so much. mine also seems to have almost no foam by the time the brew is done now. but it still works!!! cheers

mr. bond

G37Kush said:

Oh ok thanx Heisenberg. Today when I do a res change I'll just be adding the tea at cup/gallon. Then just heavy-16 veg A&B. I'll start to add Floralicious plus and bud candy once I see the roots return to normal. I've been also spraying seaplex once a day every other week. I didn't use any foliar sprays during my last grow. Any suggestions on foliar sprays or is it better to just tune in my dwc first?
I'll post pics later when I get home

Click to expand...

hey g37,

foilar is really useful if your plants roots are choked out by the slime. just checked out that heavy-16, looks like a pretty complete nutrient line. even if your roots are pretty good, i find that using Dutch Master Liquid Light & Saturator is an awesome foilar combo. In flower, I also add some Humboldt's Own Snow Storm Ultra to the Dutch Master mix for extra trich production. its killer...

hope this helps,
mr. bond

mr.bond said:

hey g37,

in addition to what heisenberg said, once you inoculate the roots with the tea and have the tea going for a little while, the roots should be colonized effectively. when you switch into flower you would probably be alright adding the bud candy and floralicious back into the rez, hopefully your roots are robust and strong enough. and really if you keep your rez temp in that range, you shouldnt have any more slime issues.... cheers mate

mr. bond

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Wassup Mr. Bond
I had her originally in a 3 gal pot of coco. I switched her over to a 5-gallon DWC bucket and tried my best to wash away most of the coco. I had great success with coco but wanted to venture into the world of hydro for once. I just re-attached my 5 gal coleman to my DWC bucket and I'm keeping the res around 73F with the bene tea in there. So fingers crossed that my temps and pH stays stable with the new additions.
After her roots grow out and she grows a foot or more in height I'm gonna get cuttings from her. By that time I'll have my system fine tuned and expand the grow op to 8+ buckets.

Two Airstones each with an individual air pump connected to the res and bucket.



Primitive OG

G37Kush said:

I had her originally in a 3 gal pot of coco. I switched her over to a 5-gallon DWC bucket and tried my best to wash away most of the coco. I had great success with coco but wanted to venture into the world of hydro for once. I just re-attached my 5 gal coleman to my DWC bucket and I'm keeping the res around 73F with the bene tea in there. So fingers crossed that my temps and pH stays stable with the new additions.

Click to expand...

sounds like things are moving along for you. you should see some nice new root growth soon and increased water uptake. good thing you attached that extra bucket! you should also observe increased thermal protection for your roots. are you aerating both the rez and the extra bucket? cheers mate, ya drop some pics when you have a chance, curious to see your setup.

mr. bond

updated pics

mr.bond said:

hey g37,

foilar is really useful if your plants roots are choked out by the slime. just checked out that heavy-16, looks like a pretty complete nutrient line. even if your roots are pretty good, i find that using Dutch Master Liquid Light & Saturator is an awesome foilar combo. In flower, I also add some Humboldt's Own Snow Storm Ultra to the Dutch Master mix for extra trich production. its killer...

hope this helps,
mr. bond

Click to expand...

Aight ya I might just try it out because I have a pretty big outdoor plant going and I just gave her bloom nutes for the first time today. Showed signs of flowering yesterday. Not sure how big it'll get but I'm excited. In two days when I water again the bene tea is going in and also try a foliar spay also. Those are 3 foot stakes I placed there to open up the canopy. How big do u think she'll get at the end of bloom?

I'll give updates on both grows after a couple days of the bene tea.

Sorry for the poor quality shots

Critical Mass from seed

G37Kush said:

Aight ya I might just try it out because I have a pretty big outdoor plant going and I just gave her bloom nutes for the first time today. Showed signs of flowering yesterday. Not sure how big it'll get but I'm excited. In two days when I water again the bene tea is going in and also try a foliar spay also. Those are 3 foot stakes I placed there to open up the canopy. How big do u think she'll get at the end of bloom?

I'll give updates on both grows after a couple days of the bene tea.

Sorry for the poor quality shots

Click to expand...

Hey G37,

Loving the bushes you got going on in the yard there. I'm not familiar with your strain, but I'd say she'll def stretch a bit from the temps and flower cycle. if those stakes are 3ft high then i'd say its pretty likely she'll be at least 4 or 5 feet high at the tops of the buds. if you are going to foilar make sure you use a surfactant like Dutch Master Saturator or similar products so the leaves dont get burned. Wow, can't wait to see the buds she puts out... sweet!!!!

cheers mate,
mr. bond

Ya its pretty crazy how big shes getting. I used to have another critical mass right next to it but growing in coco I guess it dried up way too fast for my usual feeding of every other day. I was trying to do a side by side grow with coco vs ffof soil. I had previously threw in AN Pirahna a couple weeks back also. Thanx for the help I'll def try that DM Saturator if I can get my hands on some pretty soon.