wtf is that green stuff? about to give up

zigzag24

zigzag24

Active Member
I had to go out of town for 11 days and come back to this. :spew:

I had mixed some 300 & 800 ppm nutes, ph'd 5.6, for my friend to water them.

They were also dry as a bone when I got back. Although almost a gallon of nutes were used.

They were growing slow before I left, but looked healthy. now just a month old, are dying.

This is my first grow using a medium other than soil. I plan on going to ebb & flow after cloning.

They are fem seeds- ppp & supergirl.

t5 lights.

humidity good, and temps 65-75.

wtf is the green stuff in the rockwool?

THANKS FOR ANY HELP
 
Picasso345

Picasso345

Well-Known Member
I think the green stuff is algae. You could probably save them, but I'm not a rockwool guy so I can't tell you how. They are definitely stunted for their age, but I think they could grow out of it faster than you could get some new seed to catch up, but I guess it depends how easy it is to flush them and get your media squared away again.
 
Skunk Baxter

Skunk Baxter

Well-Known Member
What's the ph of your rockwool? Have you checked the ph of the nute mix to see if it's still 5.6? What do the roots look like that are growing out of the bottoms of the cubes? White and healthy, or dark and soggy? How carefully did your friend water them? From the way they look, i wouldn't be surprised if he let them dry out and then overwatered them. They look like they've had a rough couple of weeks.

Looks to me like you need to do three things - first, flush them with some Clearex to get rid of that nute lock, and second, cover the tops of the rock wool with little squares of tin foil or dark plastic sheeting or something else that will block the light and kill that algae. Then put a layer of hydroton on the bottom of the tray, and let the cubes rest on the bed of hydroton so the roots don't sit in water.

The one on the right is a goner, but the upper foliage on the other 5 still looks healthy. You should be able to save at least some of those, but you'll lose the lower leaves on all of them and you've lost a couple of weeks worth of vegging time. I would definitely not give up on them, but you will have to lower your expectations a bit. Nothing more than that.
 
zigzag24

zigzag24

Active Member
thanks a bunch. I flushed today with water/h2o2. I am going to cover up the rockwool to.

I think my ph meter is fluctuating to. I dont have any calibration fluild left. Need to get another one 2morrow. Its a Milwaukee cheapy off ebay.

Thanks again
 
zigzag24

zigzag24

Active Member
Well, The have some some signs of recovery. :?

My PH meter shit the bed. It started to fluctuate, now ith just reads all over the place. lol my tap water read 2.3.

So I went and bought some test strips until my new meter arrives.

I also grabbed some alga-fix. It said safe for plants and fish, etc. I mixed it lightly with some 5.7 ph'd water and some h2o2. Then I lightly sprayed the top of the cubes where the algae was worst.

I put the girls into pots filled with grodan rockwool cubes. If they continue to rebound, these will go into a flood tray.

I made some light reflectors out of paper plates to help prevent any more algae.

I know they look overwatered, I flushed the crap out of them with water/h2o2 36 hours ago. I will be feeding them with about 600 ppm nutes when the have just about dried up.


The one that was far right didnt make it:cry:
 
notsure82

notsure82

Active Member
how did that algae mix work? i'm starting to get algae on the tops of my rockwells as well.. Also wondering if i should put those algae eating fish in my reservoir to help combat algae.. does that work?
 
Picasso345

Picasso345

Well-Known Member
notsure82 said:
how did that algae mix work? i'm starting to get algae on the tops of my rockwells as well.. Also wondering if i should put those algae eating fish in my reservoir to help combat algae.. does that work?
Click to expand...
Algae requires light to grow. Block the light and your problem is solved.
 
Skunk Baxter

Skunk Baxter

Well-Known Member
notsure82 said:
how did that algae mix work? i'm starting to get algae on the tops of my rockwells as well.. Also wondering if i should put those algae eating fish in my reservoir to help combat algae.. does that work?
Click to expand...
No, don't put fish in your reservoir. That's just going to create fish problems in the reservoir without solving the algae problem in the rockwool. Picasso's right, the way to kill algae is take away the light. I don't know what sort of system you're using, but if you've got the rock wool in hydroton, just covering up the top of the rockwoool with the hydroton pellets will usually solve it. The hydroton blocks the light, but usually won't get algae itself because unlike rockwool, the top surface of the pellets doesn't stay wet enough to allow it.
 
zigzag24

zigzag24

Active Member
The algae is pretty much gone now after covering up the rockwool.

But the algae wasnt killing my plant. It was the ph being off and over watering. The roots all had a brownish look to them, and one cube had some root visible root rot. it was a cluster of dark shit around some of the roots and there were some tiny black/shiny pellets?!?

anyway, after a good flush with correctly ph'd water and h202, they started to recover. Today I spotted some healthy new roots coming out of bottom of the cubes. They also have many new nodes comeing out where the old ones died. They just havent gained any height or size.

I hand fed em with 5.6/ 650 ppm nute mix today- about 1-2 oz each. I just dont think they are ready for the flood tray yet.

I believe most of this problem could have been avoided by using h2o2 from the start.
 
RocketKush

RocketKush

Active Member
Had the same problem. I covered the rockwools with a white sheet of reflective paper with x's cut out for the plants to come out of. All the algee was gone within 3 days
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top