Brown algae (root slime)

[Richard Hard]

i have some seedlings that are 14 days from germination. i keep getting green algae growing on my sure to grow inserts and the seedlings dont seem to be growing at all. also when i changed the res today i placed the barely rooted seedlings in a fresh insert and placed the insert with sterile hydroton. and underneath the netpots and the bucket lid was a mucus like substance guess its brown algae. could this be why my plants arent growing? i have pics but cant upload them for some reason.

 

[Richard Hard]

anyone?

 

[nibec]

yep, thats why my friend.. i have had a rough experience in my first hydro session with slime..

she was about 3 weeks from seed, and got plauged... it took me a full month to get her to recover and start growing properly again, after a painfull time killing the slime.

your best bet, is going to be, kill the seeds, bleach your whole setup, and start over.

when starting over i suggest running a benny tea. if you look at my grow log, i have how i brew it in there, but its also in quite a few other spots on this site.

if scrapping them isnt an option (ie. no more seeds) try with the tea ASAP. And bleach your whole system (with the plants out of it obviously) and get it going again.

you should see them recover (if they are strong enough to survive the stress) within a couple weeks after introducing the tea.

 

[Richard Hard]

i have kangaroots and micorbrew coming in the mail today should i use it right way? im pretty sure its the same as the tea your brewing right? full of all sorts of beneficial bacteria and fungi. also i have grandmas molasses should i go ahead and add a little to the res with the microbrew and the kangaroots its ingredient have bacillus bacteria and myto-fungi.

 

[nibec]

put a little kangaroots in the res right away. however. do NOT i repeat do NOT add molasses to your res.

chances are, the microbes wont be able to wake up and eat it, before the slime eats it.

what i suggest, is get a bucket of RO or distilled water, about a gallon.. add 1/4 str kangaroots to it, and add half a tablespoon molasses to that( no more! .. if there is food leftover after 48 hours, the slime will feed from it too), and let it bubble with an air stone for 48 hours. then dump about 1 cup of that tea into your res, for each gallon of water you have in there.

the whole point to this, is to wake up, and get those microbes breeding.. so when you dump that tea in there, you are dumping billions of bennies , that are fully awake, and ready to fight immediatly. so they dont get overrun by the slime, that is already well established.

keep in mind, for this tea to work its best... you need earthworm castings as well, they carry thousands of different types of bennies as well, and when you breed those with your bennies in kangaroots, you get a HUGE diverse army of bennies, that will slaughter and choke out the enemy.

to add those, put about a handfull into a sock, and drop it into the tea for the full 48 hours as well.

at 48 hours, this is the peak time for your microbes... they are the strongest at this point.

to preserve their fighting power, take the earth worm castings out, and put your tea in the fridge, this haults their activity, ( like putting a wasp in the freezer) and they'll resume at full str soon as you put them in the res.

the tea keeps for about 10 days in the fridge

 

[Richard Hard]

so basically brew my own tea with the kangaroots? what about brewing it with microbrew and kangaroots. that blows mymind because i was using fox farm big bloom in the res before and no algae or fungi was growing and everyone on roll it up and here said absolutely no nutes for the first 3 weeks of life so i added nothing but ph 5.9 water to the rez and bam algae and slime.

 

[nibec]

yep it happens bud. randomly to anyone.

im unfamiliar with both those products. however, i have heard of people substituting kangaroots for the stuff i use with success.

i see no problem with running microbrew in there too, but use 1/4 str or even a little less when starting your tea.. as you will be breeding billions anyways.

i still put emphasis on using earthwoom castings with those too though.

 

[Richard Hard]

thanks man.