First time grower!

[thefunkdrspot]

[thefunkdrspot]

So I was trying to leave the reservoir alone and the water looked and smelled fine but I starting noticing a thick cream colored slime on the hoses so I figured time to change out the water. Long story short I changed the water and nutrients and used hydroguard and everything looked fine. Fast forward to the following night and I notice my roots covered in some brown crap. They didn't feel overly slimy but they were clearly clumping together with what I assume is root rot. So I drained everything again. I sterilized the res, hoses and stones with bleach. I rinsed the roots as best I could while blotting with paper towels. Then I sprayed them with bleach and water and let it sit for about 1 min then rinsed thoroughly. I filled the res and added hydroguard then ph'd. My goal was to kill everything then establish the beneficials before root rot could return. I didn't add nutrients at first just to see how it went an also to avoid feeding the root rot. Later I added light nutes and another round of hydroguard. Today the roots look the same as they did yesterday. No better but no worse. The plants are wilted and look terrible. Dunno what else I can do now except to wait and see. Hopefully they pull through because I'm getting frustrated and losing my plants to root rot on my first grow would be a tough pill to swallow.

[farmerjim]

whatup funkdoc. what are your res temps? roots getting enough air (gap between water level and net pots and stones putting out a lot of bubbles)? do you have multiple reservoirs or just 1 for each set of plants? I would maybe try getting backup reservoirs, rinsing the roots thoroughly before putting them in the new res with hydroguard and let them hang there for a few days. In your existing res, sterilize like you did previously but then allow it to air dry. Thinking that this way, if you miss anything during the sterilization process, it will essentially dry out and you can always re-rinse/sterilize before using that res again.

I'll do some more research and see what i can find unless someone wants to chime in that has actually finished a grow! I'd be curious about what others think about spraying the roots directly with your bleach mix. Did you read that somewhere? I would think the bleach would cause additional stress on the plants but am just learning.

http://www.growweedeasy.com/marijuana-root-rot#solution-root-rot

[alltatup]

hi drspot: I think you may have killed your plant by spraying the roots with bleach. You can read the following and see what applies and what doesn't to your grow environment:

http://www.growweedeasy.com/marijuana-root-rot

Here's an old grow journal of mine and what I went through with root rot. Start at the bottom of this page:

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/completed-marijuana-grow-journals/24917-alltatup-s-hydroponic-grow-journal-400w-mh-hps-multiple-cannabis-strains/page3

[thefunkdrspot]

Hey jim, root temps 65-69. Plenty of bubbles with a one inch gap from the water to the netpots. I have two reservoirs. One with three wonder woman plants and the other has four ice plants. I only have one backup res that ive been using to do pretty much what you described. Both reservoirs had the cream colored slime build up that prompted the res change. After changing them both only the ice had the brown rot and only the ice got the bleach. I knew bleach would be a shock and probably kill them but i figured if i did nothing they were as good as dead anyways. The ice are struggling and i doubt they will make it. I still dont see any new root growth. Wonder woman is struggling and the old roots look rough but one plant in particular has a whole bunch of new roots growing out from the bottom of the netpot.

[Aloner]

Maybe alltatup could weigh in... she's got mad experience dealing with similar res issues.

[alltatup]

I know root rot well!!! :-}