Roots turned brown overnight (SOLVED: kelp in Floralicious Plus)

These pics are 36h after the previous… 48h since first water change w RO water and GH Floraseries nutrients
In the past 36h,
the roots are almost double in volume… still brown, but no odor or slime.
the veg has grown 4-6"
At this point, I think the brown color has come from the nutrients.
Thanks for all the support with this. I plan to keep turning to overgrow.com as more questions arise and will share my progress on this new journey!!

4 Likes

Now the mystery is fixed ( :green_heart: OG), i can pollute ^^

Cut the sound (in French), i found the demonstration very clear and fast with simple stuff we can adapt easily.
Not disagreeing with the more fine bubbles possible at all, but the venturi have the advantage to maintain the solution uniform and the tank less dirty after two weeks.

666x500

It work even for low rider setup (ebb&flow in the photo) with short solution cycles (1week).

1 Like

Just wanted to share my experience with Hydro Guard… I understand there maybe some other factors contributing to the issues. Hydro Guard dose work well when used as intended. Hydro guard has a shelf life shorter than most hydroponic additives. Also the distributor you purchase your hydro guard from matters. It must be with in the use by date from the manufacturer. This can be difficult to locate at best or simply not actually listed clearly. The other important thing to remember with Hydro Guard is it’s only good for 6 months after the date you open the bottle. Write the date on the bottle when you first open it. That starts the clock ticking. 6 months later anything remaining in the bottle is trash unfortunately. Also I like to run 3 mil hydro guard per gallon of water for every resivor change. On resivor changes I like to add it last after nutrients are added in correct order and PH is set to 5.8 then add 3 mil hydro guard per gallon of water and in between resivor changes every 3 days I add 2 mill per gallon of water straight to the reservoir to help keep the hydro guard numbers up high enough to fight of everything. Other factors are very important water temps and desolved oxygen. I tend to find people use Hydro guard incorrectly or it was no longer a viable quality product when they received it.

3 Likes

Hypochlorous acid can be added to reservoir. In the correct ratio will keep lines clean and sterile

1 Like

Pics of my current bottle of hydro guard. This is a pic of the back of the bottle on the very bottom is ink stamp that’s basically impossible to read has the manufacturer use by date on it. Good luck reading it lol.

3 Likes

The nutrients can stain the roots. I’ve had brown roots many many times and no issues. I’ve had clones with pink roots ( clonex stained) No smell or slime is a good sign. If you have no other issues than brown roots I wouldn’t worry. Now I may catch some grief for this, but I don’t do regular reservoir changes … there are a few others here that do the same . I do one reservoir change through my entire grow and that when I switch to flower . Never had any issues. Now I’m not claiming this is the way to go. But I’ve had great luck and cut down on water usage and have been doing this for years . Just my thoughts :v:

4 Likes

Also I noticed you may or may not be using Floralicious plus. I do not like to run this in RDWC or DWC. It has a tendency to exacerbate resivor issues as it has small quantities of kelp ect. and these help feed the funky stuff to grow. Try removing it if you’re adding it. Also, if you’re adding it in larger quantities, it could be the culprit.

3 Likes

The kelp will stain roots. I’ve experienced this with a mycorrhiza additive I used to use. Kelp was a main ingredient :v:

3 Likes

My experience with minimal resivor changes is plats hate change. Changing the resivor completely is very upsetting for them. I always mix fresh water and nutrients completely in a separate mixing reservoir before i even drain the old nutrients in the resivor. This is so I can quickly get the swap done with as little disturbance as possible. Keeping any changes in ph or ppm very minimal throughout its life. I think if you monitor your nutrients your adding correctly and accurately and consistently the plants would appreciate not going through the shock of a full reservoir change.

1 Like

When you see healthy fine white feeder roots, your roots are growing healthy. If any new growth you see is tan or brown it’s unhealthy.

What are you using that should stain your roots like that? Blackstrap molasses? Didn’t you say your nutes are orange? Not brown?

1 Like

Exactly, that’s the way I do it. I only add , except Change over to flower. I scrub out my reservoir to remove salt build up , set ph back to 5.8-5.9 and over the next week slowly bump it up to around 6.1 and continue on :v:these are the kinds of result I get doing this. :grin:

4 Likes

That’s a level of commitment I’m not comfortable with lol. I figure every 7 days I get a chance to correct everything. There is definitely a learning curve or an art if you will to this method. I spent all my time perfecting the change but either will work well if you are a student of your plant lol… cheers !!!

3 Likes

For this water change I used these nutes:
image

1 Like

Draining nutes and doing a full res swap are the same effect. The only difference is one moves the plant and the other doesn’t. If there was an easy way to do that without moving everything it definitely would make my life easier, but I don’t have that luxury right now. It’s absolutely something I’ve been trying to plan a build for, though.

But yeah, we’re all just doing full change of all fluids. That’s all we’re saying here by saying “res change”. Some people like to scrub things so buildup doesn’t form. For my setup, if I don’t clean my stones and snip an inch off each end of the air lines things just don’t bubble right. The hoses get loose, and air leaks from the fitting. Gunk builds on the stone surface and it clogs the air flow. So I need to have some movement, even if I’m not entirely removing the reservoir.

Another thing is, like I mentioned above, having a backup for every single reservoir is a huge part of it. I can mix everything and get it entirely adjusted, and ready to roll, then move the plant to the new reservoir in under 5 seconds. Minimal shock.It takes a few times, but everyone figures out a system. This is pretty intuitive, really.

3 Likes

That would for sure give your rez a disease.

I’ve never used it, but sounds like the Florilicious is making them brown.

They are growing and looking fine, just covered in kelp.

Eta: I also only do a full change at flower. Nothing much happens in veg and they drink soo much in flower you’re in there refilling all the time anyway.

If something looks odd, or I suspect an issue I’ll do a full change but that’s usually because I did something stupid.

YES… I think this is the answer!

Can anyone recommend a nutrient regimen that WON’T stain my roots?
Maybe it’s just a matter of pride… but I want my roots white as can be.

2 Likes

I think you’re right. I did not have any Floralicious Plus in the first water, but I used it for the first time in the most recent water change.
Is there a good substitute for Floralicious Plus that won’t stain or leave kelp on my roots?

1 Like

All of the nutrient lines have there hiccups if you will light root staining or unstable PH. Lots of options out there. I would say pick one nutrient line and stick to it till you figure out how to properly use it to suit your environment and strains. General Hydroponic 3 part system is widely distributed and used. It’s some what ph stable but the Micro in the 3 part recipe will lightly stain your roots. Stay away from anything with kelp if your system is RDWC or DWC so no floralicious it has kelp. To be honest some guys run floralicious in full hydro with success. But they are more of hybrid style of hydro. We try to run it clean meaning transparent water. Not so cloudy and full of nutrients. Mixing to half strength on the bottle helps the water start cleaner and stay cleaner. Mix should look like this.

Simple General Hydro mix half strength on bottle
Cal mag
Micro
Grow
Flower

Below optional
Koolbloom
Moab on week 6 only

PH adjust to 5.8

Hydro guard or whatever resivor protection you use

This is a very common mix used by many with great success

1 Like

What do you mean “half strength on bottle”?
Flower = FloraBloom?
What is Moab?

1 Like