DWC Root Slime Cure aka How to Breed Beneficial Microbes

[Heisenberg]

I can take pictures. Like I said, the slime is real bad on some of the net pots, but on others, its almost non noticable. The "tea" im brewing is nothing like the tea Heisenberg suggested (cuz we couldn't find the materials). But the BIG question I need answered now is this

Is it safe to remove all the hydroton from the net pots and completely change out the hydroton with a good rinse of the pots?

I only ask this because I talked to another 1 of my friends that grows in an under current but uses NO growing medium. So I just want to know if this is safe or not, if it doesn't screw the plants up or shock them, because thats what my buddies are leaning towards.



I've poured bennies in the hydroton twice. There is absolutely NO MORE slime build up in the buckets, just the leftovers in the net pots, but the leftovers are still pretty bad themselves. I would say all in all the bennies (Subculture-B & Mykos) have helped a good amount.

Are you noticing new root shoots and tip growth? If so, you are seeing after-slime. It can be alarming but should be ignored. Keep true with tea treatments and watch for stunted root growth. The hydroton does not need removed.

 

[RobertInAz]

Mr. Heisenberg,
I may be taking a thought to an absurd conclusion, but consider this: Since the idea behind keeping a batch of tea in the frig is to slow down the microbes' activity, which allows you to keep the tea longer, would freezing the tea allow you to keep it indefinitely? If so, you could make up a batch of tea, freeze it in an ice cube tray, and pop a tea cube in the res every day as a preventative. What do you think?
Thanx again, Bob

 

[Dustybowlz]

I am noticing my brown after slime is worse than my origional slime. If I didnt have faith, id be alarmed.

Heres a question.

*If my slime is mainly on the main root stem and inside the root ball now, should I spray it off? Or are there too many beneficial bacteria colonies that im hosing off and I should just sit and wait it out?

Heres what it looks like before I spray it off, it really is dark inside, even though you cant see it on the photos.

Here is after

This is whats left in the bucket.

HEIS,
I noticed way earlier in the thread that you said the brown at main root stem you get never goes away. Is your brown that never goes away about the same hue as mine? I "am" getting new growth so I want to wait it out. Just wondering if I should put more tea in, flush again and spray the after slime off and then reinoculate?

 

[Heisenberg]

Mr. Heisenberg,
I may be taking a thought to an absurd conclusion, but consider this: Since the idea behind keeping a batch of tea in the frig is to slow down the microbes' activity, which allows you to keep the tea longer, would freezing the tea allow you to keep it indefinitely? If so, you could make up a batch of tea, freeze it in an ice cube tray, and pop a tea cube in the res every day as a preventative. What do you think?
Thanx again, Bob

The bennies can only survive freezing in spore and cyst form. When you wake them up, you cause them to leave this form, so putting them in the freezer would then kill them. Some of them might manage to revert to spore form and so survive, but then they would need woken up again before adding.

I am noticing my brown after slime is worse than my origional slime. If I didnt have faith, id be alarmed.

That is exactly what after-slime looks like after the root ball grows around it. It will remain there until harvest, diminishing slightly and appearing to shrink as the root ball grows. Just keep adding tea.

 

[ramen86]

Hey Heis, appreciate all the help you've given me so far. Now I want you to know that our "tea" isnt the same as the stuff you said in the original post. It's not Aquashield, AF, and ZHO. It's just that Subculture-B and Mykos stuff (no Great White added to it yet). What you're saying is as long as I keep pouring this tea into the hydroton (and buckets) that I should be good? I mean for the most part, the slime is no longer in the buckets at all, just on the bottom and around the edges of the net pots. There is still bright white roots on all the plants though, its just they are so small for being in 2 weeks veg. Thanks dude.

 

[Dustybowlz]

This thread rocks...Im hoping for big roots this go around!

 

[Lanternslight]

I have been seeing a noticeable increase in my ladies since I started the tea. Thank you again, Heisen-san.

 

[legallyflying]

I too have been slayin the ladies all around town since switching.

I think chicks just don't like the smell of chlorine or bleach. Now there like "wow, you smell......? Beneficial?

 

[natethegr8t]

What a great thread! Heisenberg, thanks for providing all of this valuable information... there is just a couple things i am confused about:

- have you changed the original recipe for your tea at all since the first post which is just:
Aquashield, ZHO Powder, and Ancient Forest EWC??

- how does this work for aerogardens? I have an aero setup and i use all PBP nutes, i have tried all sorts of methods to get rid of this stuff with no luck... pyhsan20 works well to keep it at bay but i would rather not resort to that. IS there anyone in this thread that uses a stinkbud system? If so, what is your recipe? Or does it really matter?

 

[mr.bond]

What a great thread! Heisenberg, thanks for providing all of this valuable information... there is just a couple things i am confused about:

- have you changed the original recipe for your tea at all since the first post which is just:
Aquashield, ZHO Powder, and Ancient Forest EWC??

- how does this work for aerogardens? I have an aero setup and i use all PBP nutes, i have tried all sorts of methods to get rid of this stuff with no luck... pyhsan20 works well to keep it at bay but i would rather not resort to that. IS there anyone in this thread that uses a stinkbud system? If so, what is your recipe? Or does it really matter?

Looks like you've got some reading to do... LOL

mr.bond

 

[Dustybowlz]

I lolly popped them two days ago. I also flushed eash bucket and sprayed off the root mass again.

I put it in fresh nutes and fresh bennes. I started at 50% strength at 800ppms (.5 conversion). Next 12 hrs ppms were 780 and 6.1 ph. I noticed rootmass was darker brown then before i rinced off the rootmass. I raised strength to 900ppms and lowered ph to 5.6. Next 12 hours, the plant looks really happy. Root mass is going back to tan color and it is growing in mass. Brown in center will not subside.
Pix coming tonight.

 

[mr. green thumb 01]

what about gh sub culture are both b & m good for dwc? Is gh sub culture better than great white, white widow, or zho? Also do enzymes expire? I added enzymes to my res when my roots were un healthy and slime broke out. (b4 I read this thread) I cleared it up now but was wondering if the enzymes could be expired im afraid to add them again the seal was falling apart and now there is white stuff floating in the prozyme. I dont know if it bacteria in the prozyme or like digested styrofoam seal. I use to use flora nova as a base nute but after reading this i think im going to swtich to technaflora or botanicare because thats what my local store carries. Ill probably go with the bc nutes to keep the rez cleanest. I like the house&garden aqua flakes but would have to constantly have them shipped here because the local store doesn't carry them.The flora nova has been giving me great results for a while now but it seems to require a lot of maintenance and builds up a lot of salt.

 

[natethegr8t]

hahaha i have!!

im just wondering if the original recipe has changed since that post was made over a year ago??

 

[ramen86]

hahaha i have!!

im just wondering if the original recipe has changed since that post was made over a year ago??

The recipe hasnt changed, but if you saw my posts a few pages back, I'm not using the AF, ZHO, and Aquashield. I am just using this stuff called Mykos and Subculture-B, and from what I can see its helped just as much. There is absolutely no slime in my buckets anymore, just after slime on a few of the plants but thinning out a lot. Every 3-4 days I will take a cup and pour it in the hydroton.

Heisenberg. I will post pictures soon and show you the status of what my plants look like now. We are almost 3 weeks along and I want to thank you for helping me out on this.

 

[hellraizer30]

hahaha i have!!

im just wondering if the original recipe has changed since that post was made over a year ago??

theres a few ways to do it now,

mine is humbolt myco madness and anciet forest, and molassis

 

[Dustybowlz]

Well the pythium is for sure coming from my cloner.

Let a friend take a cutting straight from cloner and take and see if it grows at his place and sure enough. Covered in pythium!

Time for better cloning practices and another round

 

[Dustybowlz]

So i use 3% h202, i was told to run it at 3ml per L. I went to get some 29% and they guy said to be careful with it. He suggested 15ml per gallon to run through system, with plants, to kill pythium. Run for 12-24 hours and then flush and fill with nutes. If i were to do the math, id need 150ml of 3% to match his ratio.

Why doesnt anyone have consistent information?

Tine to go look again for the suggested amounts for sterilazation.

 

[Heisenberg]

So i use 3% h202, i was told to run it at 3ml per L. I went to get some 29% and they guy said to be careful with it. He suggested 15ml per gallon to run through system, with plants, to kill pythium. Run for 12-24 hours and then flush and fill with nutes. If i were to do the math, id need 150ml of 3% to match his ratio.

Why doesnt anyone have consistent information?

Tine to go look again for the suggested amounts for sterilazation.

I used to use 10ml per gallon of 35% and run for two hours. Pythium comes from error, correct your error. If there is no error, it's probably slime and you will probably need to change your cloning method.

 

[Dustybowlz]

Hmm, so my H202 amounts were WAY low, I probably never even killed a single spore with my "mild" ratio.

If I didnt kill anything, then the brown im seing probably isnt after slime. It would be the pathogen, right?

Should I try to flush, again with h202, but this time with correct ratio OR just let the bennes try to take care of it them selfs?

ONLY reason I ask is I am worried that the pathogen is still there and very much alive. I really dont like how brown the core of my root mass is. Its very tightly tangled and soo tight I cant spray stuff out of it. Id probably cut it off, but its part of the whole root ball. I dont know if its live pathogen, dead roots or after slime?

 

[Dustybowlz]

Does anyone who uses an aero cloner use H202 in there? How about zone or anything of the like?