Rx for root rot?

B

budculture

New Member
Need some help with some plants in a DWC under CFL's. I've recently moved (transplanted) them three days ago from one DWC holding 4 plants to individual bubblers w/ a controller & reservior. They are under the same lights as before. Plants were very healthy until the move and now two of them are showing signs, I believe of either nute burn, or nute lockout on the big fan leaves. New growth looks ok, but now I've noticed that some of the roots are looking a bit brownish on some areas. The water temps are in the 60-65 range, and I have a heater although it may be too small now for the additional solution.
I'm using a BC grow & boost and small amounts of Thrive alive B-1 and Dark Energy at half strength which should be about 350-400 ppm. I'm guessing since I don't have a meter. I only add ph adjusted water to top off with, no added nutes. I'm misting with ph adj. water at lights out and before lights on.
The temps daytime are 70-80 and night time 65-70. Humidity is around 45-50%, sometimes lower. I have fans for plant stems and to pull air out the top and in the bottom.
I was going to flush with just ph adj. water and then new nutes. I also was thinking of changing nutes since I have some GH stuff that I haven't tried yet. Growth has been very good so far and since only two of four are sick, I don't know if a change will help much.
I don't want to buy any kind of fungicide or anything like that, but I've read that H2O2 can help with root rot. If so, is that the hair salon type, or can I use the drug store 3% solution?
The roots looked very fine and white when I did the move, and now they are not looking so good, although on one sick plant the new roots look very good. No sign of any pests by the way.
Is this all just from shock or something? I just changed the lights to 12/12 and I'm hoping the sick ones turn out to be male!
Not sure of the strain, just grew from bag seed and this is my first time hydro grow indoors.
I'll post some pics of the damage and I appreciate the help and advice.
Left out some info. I've been very diligent on checking ph levels daily, again using simple solution test, no meter, but usually around 6-6.5, but after the transplant, the ph was a bit higher and I had to correct, but it was high for 20-24 hrs or so. Maybe 7-7.5 or so.
My photos are in the gallery. I don't know how to load them here yet. Sorry.

Peace :peace:
 
Man you guys are fast! I've looked over *****'s tutorial on sick plants, and it's really good. I wasn't sure on the type of H2O2 to use, if that's the way to go. I'll check out the other stuff though too, if you think it's the way to go. I thought if you guys could see the damage, it would make diagnosis easier. I posted at the member gallery, since I haven't read how to post here yet.
The water may have been a bit cold when I transplanted as well, since I didn't have the time to heat it in the sun or anything.
Thanks again for all your excellent help.

Peace :peace:
 
OK, here's some photos I hope...
DSCF00201.JPG

DSCF00102.JPG

DSCF0024.JPG

DSCF00121.JPG
 
Are there any specific recommendations on the strength of the H2o2? I know you can buy several different concentrations, some of which will burn the skin off of you if you make contact! I'd like to be able to use the drug store 3% stuff, if someone knows a good ratio to mix. I have no ppm meter so, I'd have to go with a ratio.
I think once I know what kind of peroxide to use, I'll treat it the nutes and rez, then change nutes out and clean all containers up good. I also used distilled water for some of this nute mix and the rest was rainwater from my rainbarrel.Much to my dismay, I looked in the tank of the dehumidifier that I took the water from and found some kind of algae growing in there! The machine is brand new, so I never thought to look out for that. Sonofabutch. I hope that didn't screw me...
Also, on the subjct, rainwater comes out very well ph wise out of my rainbarrel and I figured I wouldn't have to condtion it, but do I need to maybe add H2o2 to kill any algae/fungus? Filter for pathogens? The water comes off an asphalt roof if that matters...
Any suggestions on what to do with the plants during cleanup? I have the four hole bubbler that I could fill up with water to hold them while I clean up. Does that sound like a good idea?
Thanks again, you guys ROCK, and happy 420!
 
Also, I have some GH FloraShield. Is this something I could use to disinfect my system? Use for clean up? Tank treatment? I'm hesitant to use anything for my plants that hasn't been proven by successful cannabis growers....you know, like the ones on this forum ;-)
Thanks...
 
Yeah Boss, you know I'm a cheapskate, so I've been buying equipment on an "as needed" basis, but I guess some of these tools are needed! A ppm/ec meter would be helpful. Anyone have a suggestion on a good meter that's under $200? I do suspect that the water temps may be getting low, mostly at night. I have a small heater, but I'll need a larger one to handle the extra gallons. I don't know if I posted my photos correctly, but I'm using a Mac now and forgive me, it's a bit unfamiliar after years of PC...
Thanks again:Rasta:
 
Stop using the rain water from the asphault roof. The oils from the asphault are bad for the plants. Asphault contains petroleum oils and such that are released when it gets hot and rinsed off when it rains. It's a never ending cycle. Try the 3% peroxide at 1 teaspoon per gallon. You can go stronger but the peroxide can damage as much as it helps. Root rot is a direct relation to how much disolved oxygen is in the water. You need to keep temps between 60 and 70 and add as many air diffusers to the nutrients reservoir as it can handle. Make the water look like it's in a constant boil.
Why did you transplant from a working system to a unknown one?
You need meters. Without knowing the PPM and PH of your system it's impossible to diagnose at 100% accuracy.
 
Thanks RF. I'll just have to get some larger containers to condition water. The tap here has quite a bit of chlorine. Maybe I'll get a metal roof when we re-roof :)
I'm keeping the water agitated with individual diffusers, but I could get another pump and add more.
I may not have root rot, since I've just realized, doofus that I am, that when I went to individual containers, I had to untangle the roots that had grown together. I did this as carefully as possible , but I still broke off a few roots here and there. The roots that I'm seeing turn brown, could they just be the broken entwined roots dieing and decaying?
I wanted to move the plants to give them larger individual containers thinking more volume is better per plant. The four to a container deal was an experiment since I didn't have the other setup ready yet. It was basically to try to keep up with plant growth and not loose them. I don't plan on doing it again.
I bought a PH/temp meter today and my temps are 64.8F with a PH of 6.42. I'll be getting a PPm meter next. How much should I expect to spend on a reliable/ quality meter?
I'll be looking into a more powerful air pump to handle more diffusers. I have a 600gpm one now, and it's fairly loud. I've done some soundproofing, but does anyone know of a model or type that's quiet and can still push some gpm?
Also, should I remove the large damaged fan leaves? It would let a little more light through to the good stuff, but I don't want to shock the plant more than it has been. Thanks for all your help guys. This is a great resource!
:cool:
Peace
 
You didn't tell me that you tore a bunch of roots up when moving them. It could be dead and dieing roots from that procedure that you see. Watch them carefully because with hydro you don't have much time for treatment as things move a lot faster. I'd get a bottle of two of 3% peroxide from the local store. It's not too expensive and it will be available if you need it.

Your PH is at the high side. I'd set it at about 6 to 6.2 max for the DWC. My first meter was a wand that cost me over $80.00 but my last just as accurate meter was gotten off ebay for $20.00 after S/H.

You need to contact your city water company and find out if they use chlorine or chloramines for disinfection. One evaporates over 24 hours and the other doesn't. If it's chlorine you can just let your water sit out overnight with a aerator in it. The other one(chloramines) needs a chlorine conditioner like what you find at pet stores. Tell the city water company that you have a large fresh water fish tank and want to know what they use before you attempt a water change out. Chloramines kill fish without treatment first.

You might not need more air diffusers if the rot is due to mishandling although I doubt you could get too much o2 to the nutrient reservoir. lol
 
Yeah RF, I think I was celebrating 420 too vigorously and forgot (STML?) to mention the root damage on transfer. Sorry about that.
I'll check with the city on the water thing. The rainwater does seem to be working ok on all my young plants. I was wondering, do you think the oils in the asphalt would wash out over time? My roof is probably 20-25 years old (almost time for a new one...) and seems pretty dried out. Just a thought, since I have a large supply of RW and I know our water supply has other nasty stuff like silicoflourides, a waste product of chemical and aluminum production. Most communities use this instead of the safer sodium flouride.
Any advice on the damaged fan leaves? I don't know if they're contributing to the growth much, but I don't want to shock them any more.
Thanks again for all your help. This hydro thing is a lot more work than soil, but I thought I'd give it try. I've only grown outside in soil before and that's kind of set-it-and-forget-it, other than water. The growth comparatively is remarkable, even against the outside plants in full sun.
I'll keep posting photos of my progress (hopefully...:) in the Gallery.


Peace
 
Thanks for all the help. It looks like it wasn't root rot, just my slightly ham-fisted separation of root tangle and the dead roots turning color in my tank. All the info has been very helpful though and I appreciate it much. I bought a PPM meter and a PH/Temp meter too, so the guesswork is over. I was not feeding them enough which was obvious after I upped the PPM. They took off! I'm keeping the PH around 6.0-6.5 or so. They seem to have recovered well and I've put in my screen for SCROG.
I called my water dept. and they use "pure" chlorine which the guy said dissipates within 24 hrs. More disturbing is the Sodium Silicone Flouride they use. Silicoflourides are the waste product of fertilizer and aluminum production. It costs co.'s about $1.50 a gal to nuetralize the stuff, so it's a lot easier to package it as a water additive and sell it to municipalities. The problem is it contains all sorts of nasty metals and thyroid disruptors and such. NOT GOOD to drink or otherwise. If you don't have flouride in your water, DON'T let them put it in. If you have it already, organize some locals and mount a campaign to get it removed. Studies have shown the communities WITHOUT flouride added have better dental health than ones that do. It's just more corporate pollution that the public pays for with it's wealth, health and well being.
Sorry to rant, need my morning meds! Thanks again for such a great resource.
Peace:ganjamon:
 

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