Stubborn root rot recovery

Hi,

I had some root rot problems a month ago and I killed off the rot. I have since had a hard time getting them to grow new roots. The plants since have gotten worse and worse looking. I am growing RDWC. I cut most of the roots off except for about an inch two weeks ago. I have been running them since with low ppm and a bit of B1. I have been cleaning out the system and sterilizing it about every four days. When new roots start to pop, they turn brown after a few days. The plants look sickly. Not drooping, just sick looking.

I have been using H202 and 1 ppm of bleach for recovery, but I think the combination is too much for them and oxydizing the new roots. I have just cut it back to 1 ppm of bleach, which I have used to recover with in the past with good results.

Here is what I am thinking of doing:

1. Cut all the remaining brown roots all the way back to the netpot.
2. Start to foliar feed the plants to bring them back to health, I have read that pythium loves sick plants.
3. Run them at 1 ppm of bleach until they start to recover new roots.
4. Put some B1 in the solution to ease shock

Don't freak out at the bleach, this is what Pythoff contains and it is used by commercial greenhouses for the food we eat.

I think the H202 was just too strong for plants that are this sick.

Any advise is welcome.

View attachment 2455989View attachment 2455991

a good beneficial bacteria would do better at this point.

I shaved all the dead roots off all the way to the netpot all the way around. I raised the water level til it was barely touching the bottom of the netpot and changed out the water again. I brought it up to about 200 ppm and PH'd it. I gave them some B1. I brought the solution temperature to 67 degrees. After all that I added about a tsp of bleach. I tested for chlorine and it is at about 1.5 ppm. I am running 60 gallons of solution.

When I shaved off the roots, the center of the root mass right up against the netpot had that funky deteriorated root odor. Not a root rot odor but that earthy smell that bad roots have. I think there was a mass of root that the bleach and H2o2 weren't penetrating. Now it is a wait and see proposition.

Once I have the roots popping again, I will lower the water level about an inch and start giving them 1 ppm of bleach every other day. I will also start foliar feeding. Will report what happens. Once I have everything up and going again I will start researching beneficial bacteria.

Any thoughts or advise are welcome.

once you have it you will always have it...

beneficial bacteria, like SS said, more frequent res changes.. keep water cool.

and plan properly for the next batch

oceangreen said:

once you have it you will always have it...

beneficial bacteria, like SS said, more frequent res changes.. keep water cool.

and plan properly for the next batch

Click to expand...

Pythium sucks. I have had to toss out quite a few plants myself the last year. I think it's time for me to go aero next grow.

You are right. Once your system gets infected, it's hard to shake it. I went with rdwc problem free for a couple years then bang got rot on one plant. Since that there has been one here and there. Never a problem before that first time.

The mythological fatman used bleach in his systems. Definitely the way to go if you are doing a scorched earth pythium holocaust. H2O2 is a very strong oxidizer, for sure.