I have two five gallon buckets and a 5 gallon reservoir setup as dutch buckets. I’m growing Zkittlez autoflower. I germinated two seeds, put them in net pots and in the bucket. There are 4 spray nozzles in each bucket spraying around the bottom of the pot. I’m maintaing pH between 5.5 and 6.5, usually pretty close to 6, nutrient levels as indicated on the FoxFarm website, and temps have been a max of 75f. Up until a week ago (week 4) both plants were doing fantastic. Suddenly one plant started looking bad with a few leaves having spots and turning a bit yellow. I checked the roots and they didn’t look great on this plant but the other one was fine. I put in Hydroguard hoping it would help and after a few days it looked even worse. I flushed everything out and started with fresh clean water and nutrients with hydroguard. The plant never came back to healthy looking so I have now removed it. The other plant looks perfect and is growing like crazy with lots of little “budlings” everywhere. So, my very long winded question is how can one plant in a connected system like this get such bad root rot and not the other? I’m brand-new at growing, these are my first two plants, and I’d like to avoid this in the future if possible.
Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!
If the plants still alive. Take the plant out of tge bucket. Make a solution of hydrogen peroxide and water mix. For this method i would do like a cup of hydrogen peroxide and 2 gallons of water or so maybe 3. Then soak all the roots rockwell cube the plant is in and all in the mix for 10 mins or so. Take plant or and hose off the roots real well not breaking them but let the water beat on them good to take the slime off. U can clean alot of the roota off this way and maybe bring her back. Keep bucket water temps under 70 and should be ok. Do u use hydroguard in the res. If not after all the cleaning and res refil get hydroguard and add that to the res will help keep all in check a bit more. Good luuck. Keep me posted
Thanks for the quick reply! I’m pretty sure it’s dead and at this point I’m afraid to put it back in with the other plant and I have no other way to grow it on its own. I may stick to growing one plant at a time and if this happens again I’ll follow your advice. Any thoughts on why just one plant had problems and not the other? This was actually the healthier of the two and was growing a bit taller before this happened.
Put up a pic. We will tell ya. @Nicky @Not2SureYet @kaptain3d @Hydro921 @DefNSmokn i believe all but kap.do hydro style or did atleast. Ur in good hands bro. Slap up a pic. Might be salvageable for u. I saved mine took alot longer to finish but she finished with good buds too
Do u have it where the sprayer is always running?? I notice hooming a timer to the pump works better i have mone spray for 15 to 30 monutes every hour. I start off all time til i get roots then back off time running as roots grow. By flower it runs for 15 min every hour. Keeps roots wet and keeps them getting good oxygen. Also make sure u have an airstone in the bucket pumping bubbles under the roots for them to get oxygen that way also.
It is running 24/7 and I do have airstones in the reservoir, it looks like boiling water! The buckets they are in only have a 2-3" of water in the bottom before it drains back into the reservoir. No airstones in the individual buckets. I can post pics tonight after I get home from work.
So is it autopots
Not sure what autopots is?
It auto feeds the plants
Just googled it - no, not autopots. I have a 5 gal. reservoir with a pump and airstones, the plants are in their own 5 gal bucket and I have sprayers inside fed from the pump. At the bottom of the plant buckets is a return line going back to the reservoir. I have the return line setup so that when the water gets to about 3" it siphons back to the reservoir leaving about 1/2" in the bucket.
@Nicky runs autopots. He is a super guy to learn from. Hebgot me a bad ass bubblegum auto plant on my very first run.
Sounds kinda like rdwc
This is all pretty new to me and I’m trying to learn the language as I go! I designed the system myself not really knowing what anything was called, I just knew what I wanted to have a single reservoir to monitor nutes, pH, temp, etc., and still feed multiple plants. For better or worse, this is what I came up with!
Well seem like ur on the right course. The guys will ring in as they wake and arrive here. Ur in good hands.
Just IMO, seeds are like people. They all grow differently. “75 max” if that’s what you recorded, what about all the other hours that you weren’t checking it. You will face challenges without a chiller in a system like that. You can try the frozen water bottle to help with temps if necessary. But even that can be a pain.
Like @Mark0427 stated, pictures if you have them.
That’s what I did. Mine was custom built to fit my area to grow in.
Good luck! 
Thanks for the reply! Although it’s possible it got above 75 at some point, it’s unlikely because of where I have it. I measured the temp as the room was cooling down for the day so it should have been at the max - “should have been”… My next project will be a DIY chiller, I have a spare small fridge and a friend that’s a plumber that can coil up copper tube for me so all I really need is a pump and thermostat controlled valve that I can run with an arduino board and a few sensors. I just have to decide if I want to run the nutrient solution through the coil to cool it or have a coil in the fridge and reservoir that I run antifreeze through to cool the reservoir.
Sounds like you got a good plan. Good luck. If you decide to do a journal, tag me in if you would.
Check pump filter and clean all sprayers. One pail is most likely a low flow situation. Also check return lines for proper flow.
Check water temp. Stay 70f for best results.
Root rot is brown and slimy. It takes a few days to fix if you just added hydroguard.
I think you nailed the cause. After I pulled the plant I sanitized both buckets and ended up putting the good plant in the other bucket and when I turned the pump back on the flow was definitely lower than the other one. I did a quick rebuild and it’s now working well. I think my temps are slightly on the high end but I’m hoping it will hold out for 2-1/2 weeks when I hit the 8 week mark. I’ll put building the chiller first on my list of projects so it’s ready for the next grow! Thanks for your reply!
It’s happening again with the remaining plant and I’m taking some drastic action - sprayed with H2O2 and I’m deep cleaning both buckets, the pump, tubing, and sprayers.
Low flow was the cause of the root rot and little bits of root & debris was the cause of the sprayer not putting out what it should. Any suggestions on what type of sprayer I should use that might not clog as quickly as these? I’m using an ActiveAqua AAWP250 and these sprayers https://www.homedepot.com/p/Rain-Bird-180-Degree-Threaded-Microsprays-2-Pack-MSH2PKS/202078391
I had 4 of them all pointing at the bottom part of the net pot lid and when they were spraying fully it kept the net pot as damp as it should be, but when they clogged a bit the spray was barely reaching it. I added 4 more sprayers tonight so that, hopefully, if any of them clog the rest might still work. I can clean them in the morning and at night but I’d rather find a better solution so I can scale up to 3 or 4 plants and not spend all of my time cleaning sprayers!
Any suggestions would be appreciated!