Was doing my water change today and noticed a brown spot on the roots. Is this something to worry about and if so what should I do?
single dwc buckets
Heater
Humidifier
Dehumidifier
950 gph air pump
2”x4” air stone in each bucket
12” oscillating fan
1200w king plus led 24” from canopy
2-HLG Quantum 288 boards
6” 400 cfm exhaust fan and filter
General hydroponics maxi series
Ph level 5.78
PPM 1078
Water temp 70.1
Air temp 75.11
RH 47%
How frequently are you changing oput your nutes? Do you feel a a lot of slime on the walls of the bucket? Surprising since you have decent air flow. It should be rumbling with the air.
You might need a good bucket clean and good rinse of your roots. Use bleach or Ajax/Comet on cleaning of bucket. Make sure you wash out the bleach well before your immerse the roots.
Is the sludgy looking spot on the roots actually sludgy? Is it slimy to the touch?
Is that part of the root generally not under water?
If it is slimy like mucous then I would expect it’s pythium, and we will need to go through possible ways to remediate.
If it isn’t slimy, it could be something in your nutrients that is staining the roots at/around the water line. I use GH nutes but not the Maxi series. I think maybe @Grandaddy013 is using the Maxi series?
GH Floroliscious plus and Flora nectar is not good for DWC. Any organic is a no-no. Are you using?
That’s nute dyed roots
I use both Floroliscious plus and Flora nectar, I love FP, the FN i’m looking for a replacement but never have a problem with either
Holy crap… I used Floralicious Bloom on a couple grows last year. That’s an organic supp too right? Oops.
Well… I didn’t seem to have any issues with it.
I used FloraNectar on a couple grows too… no issues there, but decided I wasn’t a real fan.
Yes I was using floralicious plus the chart showed for recirculating I just assumed it was ok for just dwc as well. I’ll check for the slime and sludge when I get back home. Yes I believe the brown part is not under water
I use floralicious plus and one or two different microbes in my RDWC with no cloudiness to the reservoir
The way the floralicious plus makes the buds smell is unreal
@peachfuzz thoughts here.
I know they anything organic will cause a bloom of bacterial growth. Several product GH has are really not compatible with DWC. Pulled above from another thread.
Just went down and felt the roots and where the brown is does not feel slimely at all brown did not rub off roots when touched. Kinda felt “dry”
I found out when I started to work at a whiskey distillery that bleach is a bad thing. The industry actually uses paracetic acid which isn’t really readily available to us but hydrogen peroxide is. The nice thing about it is it “goes away” rapidly and the peroxide can be sprayed directly on the plant and the roots. A straight 3% sprayed on the roots will nuke anything bad on it but it will remove all beneficial bacteria too. So a reintroduction of hydroguard and/or mykos is necessary.
Continuous bubbles splashing on the root above the water line dyes them
Bleach is fine on plastic, but will etch commercial stainless vessels making them rust. That’s why they use peracetic acid which is very powerful oxidizer also. Alternatively they also use >0.1M NaOH solution (pH 11) to sanitize and then use steam to sterilize in closed systems.
I think adding the organic’s make it EZ to see when things aren’t right. If my water pump goes off I can tell within 24 hours by how the nutes look
@fluffy so if no slime on roots or bucket maybe no worries then. Your roots below the waterline look nice and white as the should.
So it’s ok?
If you had a root problem it would look like a plant that’s been over watered and yours “Looks Marvelous”
That’s for larger distilleries lol. We used an H.D. “Brute” for Brew’r’eez and Paracetic: dunked all our stuff in those and used the solutions to pump through the pump hoses. Only a 550 gallon still and 1,000 gallon cooker.
And the main reason to not use bleach was how difficult it is to dissipate. Paracetic is fast; immerse and let dry.
So whats in bleach that wont leave, The chlorine evaporates out but theres still a coating from it?
It also makes silverware “tarnish” so in the kitchen they avoid it. Bleach, hypochlorite does leave a residue; peracetic, like acetic(vinegar) evaporates.
