Need some advice - DWC root issues?

[HappyHemper]

Hard to say @Esrgood4u.

Light leak did not help one bit. I am 100% positive that algae growth was concentrated at the white bulkhead fittings. But then again, shit grew in the airlines too, and they were in black buckets, with reflectix over top of them, so really blacked out to boot.

The pH never got above 6.2-6.3. Whereas not ideal, should not have caused a growth that bad. Plus I was doing h2o2 regularly.

The nutrient I cannot blame, because there was a brief comeback of slime after I flushed it out. Although it could have been just dead slime getting caught in the roots, suffocating them.

Overall, I guess I’d say light leaks and not sterile enough. Maybe if I ran bennies they would have taken care of it.

Another thought - the feed was upped to about ec1.8 when that happened. Maybe too hot? I’m running ec 1.0 - 1.1 now and the plants look better

[Magicm2]

Hello HappyHemper, i have experienced this exact problem in my rdwc when trying to run sterile. After a few lost crops i started running a beneficial tea & have not had a problem since. Hydrogaurd ,greatwhite or ogbiwar should help. Check out hiesenburg teas they hhave bbeen a game changer for me.

[Cobra50]

@Magicm2

Hydrogaurd ,greatwhite or ogbiwar should help.

@HappyHemper, I’ve been using HydroGuard in my grows for about a year and a half. I’ve had NO root problems since. I use it with every feeding. It is a beneficial bacteria, bacillus amyloiquefaciens, and is referred to as a root inoculant by Botanicare.

[HappyHemper]

@Cobra50, are you in dwc? what are your rez temps with hydroguard?

I’ve been away from home since Friday, so will be curious to see how they did. If this effort at sterile fails, I will be trying bennies.

@Magicm2, thanks, I will look into the tea too. I did ask my local hydro store about bennies, and they do not carry any popular beneficial that you listed. They had Orca at $300/quart… that’s right, because apparently in Canada it’s hard to get them. Tbh I did not look into it much further, because I really want to exhaust the sterile route, but they seem to be right as even amazon Canada are stupidly priced.

[Magicm2]

Im in B C Canada and everything here is stupid expensive & very hard to get but you can buy direct from ogbiowar or get great white from amazon. Get the biowar root & foliar packs, they have everything you need. They will last a long time. Well worth the money.

[Cobra50]

@HappyHemper

@Cobra50, are you in dwc?

No, I grow in coco, so I water them manually. This publication about roots is from Botanicare. It mentions using HydroGuard in hydro systems.

[HappyHemper]

So here’s a wild idea…

Check out what UC has to say:
ESPECIALLY the sidebar note

I am pushing 1.8L/min per gallon.
So that means that I am literally at least 2x the EC that they would recommend.

Gonna try to drop her down to EC 0.6 combined between calmag and nutes and see what happens…

[sk1]

That makes sense, I had to lower my EC after I changed the pump/stones. Not half, more like from 1.6 to 1.0 in my case, that is a near perfect equilibrium here.
Just find the sweet spot when they start to drink water/nutes in a balanced way

[HappyHemper]

this is a little more work than i thought dialing in lol

But, I’ll keep at it. Hopefully in the end i will not have to deal with a bag of coco or sneezy perilite ever again

See, I thought I would see burn, but they dont burn, just stop growing. What’s up with that? Happy in their own filth?

[anon32470837]

@HappyHemper

I am pushing 1.8L/min per gallon.

What is that? It cant be liters/minute/gallon? That makes no sense, so it has to be something else?

By the way, if you do decide to try the benies rout, you can save a bundle over the cost of HydroGuard by buying this stuff.

Amazon.com : Southern Ag - 05171 - Garden Friendly Fungicide - Fungicide - 8oz :...

Its the same active bugs that HydroGuard uses, but its somewhere around 1 million times more concentrated. That makes it a tad cheaper

Also, what exactly did you do? Trim the roots? Added more chlorine? How much, and how often? Im keeping notes for future reference

[Dee.S73]

In Dwc you can / should keep pH much lower… around 5.2/5.4 gives the best nutes intake.
Ill try to find the original paperwork that back this up in the vintage backup disks as it was on OG1
DS

[HappyHemper]

@anon32470837

It cant be liters/minute/gallon?

Yeah that’s the unit of measurement that UC uses. Pump is rated in litres per minute, we divide that into the capacity of the system.

My pump is 1700ci per minute, so 28-ish L to a roughly 60L/15gal system capacity. They call it hyperoxygenated.

So yes,

1. trimmed the roots of all the slime
   1a. Scrubbed the system of all the slime and sanitized with dilute bleach
2. Shocked the system with 0.5g/60L of 48% chlorine shock on a fresh nute change, about 3.6ppm free chlorine. Maintenance dose every 4 days is half that so far.
3. Dropped EC down to 1.0-1.1 from 1.3-1.4. Will be dropping further
4. Used aluminium tape to block the white PVC fittings

[HappyHemper]

@Dee.S73, that sounds hella low… you sure? Curious to try but dont want to stun them for another two weeks… everywhere I’ve read so far has been either between 5.8 and 6

[SuperiorBuds]

@HappyHemper

@Dee.S73, that sounds hella low… you sure? Curious to try but dont want to stun them for another two weeks… everywhere I’ve read so far has been either between 5.8 and 6

I was about to ask the same thing. In your system does the ph drift up or down? Whichever direction you are drifting should determine your starting point so that you aren’t having to micromanage your ph.

There’s plenty of these charts around but here’s a good one showing what ph is good for which nute and can help identify what you’re missing if you aren’t “riding the drift”.

I find myself referring back to these charts all the time as I make changes to my system and things react differently. Nine times out of ten any issues I’ve had in hydro have been solved by simply flushing and resetting my ph based on the drift.

[Dee.S73]

@HappyHemper and @SuperiorBuds you guys didn’t even have a look @ the growFAQ, right?!?!

What should the pH of the nutrients be?

The nutrients should be kept between pH 5.2 and pH 5.8 with pH 5.5 being optimal. After mixing your nutes,check the pH with a good pH pen or meter and adjust the pH of the final solution accordingly. Your nutrients should be checked on a daily basis to maintain the proper pH, making adjustments accordingly. A hydroponic grade pH meter is a MUST in any hydroponic system to accurately measure pH. When pH is too high or too low, some nutrients become unavailable to the plant causing an inabilit…

DS

[SuperiorBuds]

@Dee.S73

@HappyHemper and @SuperiorBuds you guys didn’t even have a look @ the growFAQ, right?!?!

Sure didn’t. But after 20 years of hydro I also don’t agree with it entirely.

While the FAQ is correct, 5.2 - 5.8 is what hydro needs – I’ve never had a system that didn’t drift up or down at least a bit over the course of a few days. So while 5.5 does allow the most nutrient uptake it doesn’t cover everything. For example, if you stay as low as you suggested (5.2 - 5.4) then your plants will not be able to take in mag. You need to hit 5.8 for that to be an available nutrient. So for me, riding the drift has always been critical.

In the end the meters always tell you what to do.

[Dee.S73]

in my experience ,started back in September 2000 the best pH value with the nutes I do use (advanced hydroponics of Holland) works best @ 5.4 , when I let pH drift over 5.8 problems starts…
in the nutrient uptake chart I’m using the 5.4/5.6 is the most complete area…
anyway, you asked if I was sure of the low values I gave… I am, the FAQ is… starting a discussion on the “rightness” of the FAQ or comparing our findings is offtopic IMHO
Better start a different thread…
DS

[anon32470837]

@Dee.S73

starting a discussion on the “rightness” of the FAQ or comparing our findings is offtopic IMHO
Better start a different thread…

I dont think its off topic at all. He is having issues that may well be PH related, so any discussion about the “correct PH levels” is on topic, and potentially valuable to the OP - and everyone following along.

Its not possible to stay 100% ON TOPIC when the subject matter is a complex subject that has many different, highly interactive, and inter-related parts.

[Dee.S73]

Sorry but I have to courtesily dissent here…on topic is what is related with his roots… Not if 5.2 is better of 5.8…
My suggestion is 5.2/5.4, yours is higher… he will choose what to try… There we are on topic… But if we start a discussion on the merits of different pH levels Vs growing media Vs nutes, we are cluttering the thread… that’s not gonna help him…
For that, let’s open a dedicated thread, if that’s important to you guys and we can go on there…
DS

[HappyHemper]

@Dee.S73, @anon32470837, I truly do value all input from experienced growers, especially in a medium that I have less than 6 weeks experience in, so thank you for bringing both points of view to this discussion.

I did a res change today and went halfway - 5.6. If the plants seem better, I will lower, if not, I will resume my course of 5.8. I will update the grow log once kid is in bed and link here.

The chart from UC says higher kn veg and lower in bloom, they may have a reason, but that is for their own nutrient line.

The root rot has not been back, and the roots growing out are pearly white with excellent branching.

I shave also lowered feed down to EC0.66, 0.06 of which is mag sulf, since I had to cut calmag down to 1/4 dose to keep the feed proportion at this low of an EC.

Also started dropping the hypochlorite dose; last time I dosed with 0.3g/66L, this time only 0.18g/66L.

Gonna find that line and toe it.