Wtf is wrong with my roots??

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daddytalltees

New Member
My roots JUST dropped less than 2 days ago and now they look like this!!! Wtf is going on???!!! Im freaking out and this is my second attempt at DWC.

nutes: Prescription Blend
Bennies: Southern AG GGF (diluted 1:20 mg)
Water Temp: 70-73 max (no water chiller)

the whole bucket is wrapped in foil to preserve temps, so there cant be any light leaks. Just changed water for the first time a day ago. Washed the bucket, air stones, and tubing with hot water (no bleach/soap). Any help is appreciated


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Treesomewanted77

Well-Known Member
daddytalltees said:
My roots JUST dropped less than 2 days ago and now they look like this!!! Wtf is going on???!!! Im freaking out and this is my second attempt at DWC.

nutes: Prescription Blend
Bennies: Southern AG GGF (diluted 1:20 mg)
Water Temp: 70-73 max (no water chiller)

the whole bucket is wrapped in foil to preserve temps, so there cant be any light leaks. Just changed water for the first time a day ago. Washed the bucket, air stones, and tubing with hot water (no bleach/soap). Any help is appreciated


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Looks like slime or root rot. But maybe it’s the Southern ag colonizing but whatever it is it doesn’t look good. I would do a res change and try running sterile (Bleach or Pool shock) and see how it reacts. Maybe someone that has seen this before can help better.
 
Lenin1917

Lenin1917

Well-Known Member
Root rot. Toss it and start over. You’ll lose weeks clearing it up. Lemme guess single plant single bucket? Pick a different grow method. Dwc seems cool and can be but it’s a giant pain in the ass and not worth the trouble/money in most cases. Get something going in soil or hempys /coco. That’s not to say there’s not places where dwc is your best bet. If you’re in as or nm or some other shitty chronic drought spot yeah that’s gonna conserve water but most places it’s more trouble than it’s worth.

and I ain’t knocking ya. I started out eager af in dwc ready to grow that dro lmfao.
 
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Delps8

Well-Known Member
Sorry to see that. That looks like root rot and you can get it if your water temp is high enough that bacteria can grow. You might try cleaning the roots and sterilizing or adding "bennies".

Hydro is a great way to grow but it also requires more from the grower because the grower is responsible for creating and maintaining the entire grow environment. If you're not a detail person, you might hit some bumps.

To avoid root rot, either keep your water temps < 70° F use "bennies" (beneficial bacteria such as HydroGuard) or run "sterile". I have a 2' x 4' tent with a 35 gallon res and water source is a cistern in my garage that I fill with RO water. When I do a res swap in the summer, the water temp is mid-70's and it takes a few hours for my water chiller to get temps into the safe zone. My res runs at 68° which is a happy medium between a good level of dissolved oxygen (colder water holds more DO) but not cold enough to impair nutrient uptake (I think K uptake slows down at 64°F). Even though my res will be at 68° in just a few hours, I add HydroGuard.


Oh, no need to wrap the bucket in foil. Tin foil has zero insulating ability. The the tin foil wrapped bubble stuff is, in practical terms, useless as well. :-(
 
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hotrodharley

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
What is this Southern AG crap? They specialize in insecticides and fungicides? What exactly is the stuff you added if not one of those?
 
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daddytalltees

New Member
Treesomewanted77 said:
He used the garden friendly fungicide. It’s same as the hydro guard but million times more concentrated.
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I thought i wouldnt be experiencing this issue with how concentrated Southern AG is supposed to be.
Switching to a sterile DWC with bleach to see how that works. Does anyone know how many mg of bleach to add to 3 gallons of water??

if this doesnt work I’m switching to Promix HP and saying fuck hydro. It shouldnt be this hard. Im growing in a tent in the basement. My air temp is only 75 max in the text. Water temps only 3-4 degrees high which is why i used the Southern AG in the first place (according to forum research)
 
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Delps8

Well-Known Member
daddytalltees said:
I thought i wouldnt be experiencing this issue with how concentrated Southern AG is supposed to be.
Switching to a sterile DWC with bleach to see how that works. Does anyone know how many mg of bleach to add to 3 gallons of water??

if this doesnt work I’m switching to Promix HP and saying fuck hydro. It shouldnt be this hard. Im growing in a tent in the basement. My air temp is only 75 max in the text. Water temps only 3-4 degrees high which is why i used the Southern AG in the first place (according to forum research)
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Hydro is more involved than soil - the grower has to provide everything for the plants. I've seen people do really "bad" things in soil and the plant keeps chugging along. One good thing about hydro is that it's quick meaning that if you make a change in something, you can see the impact of that change in minutes or a few hours. Soil acts as a buffer.

Soil is cheaper to set up, too.
 
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daddytalltees

New Member
Delps8 said:
Hydro is more involved than soil - the grower has to provide everything for the plants. I've seen people do really "bad" things in soil and the plant keeps chugging along. One good thing about hydro is that it's quick meaning that if you make a change in something, you can see the impact of that change in minutes or a few hours. Soil acts as a buffer.

Soil is cheaper to set up, too.
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Thats exactly why i chose DWC. For the amountnof control im able to have. Besides the water chiller (not like my temps are that high anyways), everything is dialed in perfectly from sterilization, nutrients, to no lights in the bucket….so im not sure how this root rot is even happening especially with the addition of Southern AG.
 
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daddytalltees

New Member
Ive washed the roots with clean tap water and let them sit in a small pot of 3% h2o2 while i sterilized the bucket and made new water. The bottom half of the roots fell off. I then poured the h2o2 over the hydroton in attempt to clean them and any roots than havent dropped, and rinsed that as well with tap water over my sink.

i added tap water,nutes, and 1mg of bleach to the bucket and added the plant back.

Anyone know how often i should add bleach to my res if im gonna be switching to sterile??
 
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Delps8

Well-Known Member
daddytalltees said:
Thats exactly why i chose DWC. For the amountnof control im able to have. Besides the water chiller (not like my temps are that high anyways), everything is dialed in perfectly from sterilization, nutrients, to no lights in the bucket….so im not sure how this root rot is even happening especially with the addition of Southern AG.
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Good to hear. Kudos for the planning and tenacity. "Who dares, wins". :-)

I get your point. You've taken steps to make sure this didn't happen and yet, here we are. That sucks. My grow last summer got hit with thrips in late flower. That's not as bad as root rot but it's damned close.

Back to your situation - if you've added a bene, that should held this off. Could it be from the water supply or perhaps something in a water line?
 
xtsho

xtsho

Well-Known Member
I ran about 10 DWC buckets for years and never had problems with root rot even when temps got a little high. I used sodium hypochlorite aka Clorox Bleach. Easy peasy. People use all kinds of products and many have issues. Household bleach or pool shock aka calcium hypochlorite if you're worried about the small amount of sodium in bleach and you shouldn't have any issues keeping things in check.

You might think about a different growing method. Coco is less hassle and just as good as far as plant growth as DWC. I'll never bother with the hassle of DWC again. I still have all my net pots and most of the buckets and I can't give them away. If someone asked me which way they should grow DWC would be on the reject list. It can be done but it's not worth the hassle. That's just my opinion and many are extremely successful with DWC. I was but coco is just as good.

My net pots are just taking up space these days.

 
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