Without a smell its not likely you had full on root rot.
Try not to peak at roots unless you see your plant suffering.
Keep all nutrients in their original bottles and out of the light and heat.
Never press down on your pod to squeeze water out with dampening off because it will surely die from loosing the bit
of footing it has established. @The_Reverend, in your case it was safe to do so with healthy stalk but you should still try to stay away from the center of the pod.
Looking at your unit it seems to be a bit close to the wall which could cause overheating of the unit, wherever you decide to move it to it should be far enough from wall that the heat is not thrown back at the unit.
I use 3 tsp of hydroguard which is between 14 - 15 ml.
@Joandy93 I had a grow that never made it out of the pod. I cleaned res after but I’m on day 54 now of my first “official” grow, so I think we can rule out any cross contamination.
This raises questions.???
With damping, obviously pod is overly damp, often rectified with blotting, right? Wrong? No? How much of a footing does a plant need to do this? If you HAVE damping, how healthy IS your stalk, really? In my case, it showed dark color, light color exposed when coco pushed down past dark color, but no constriction.
I naively thought damping issues couldn’t affect you once you reached a certain amount of growth.
That’sa 6” level so I’ve probably only got about 9” space. I also have a tower fan aimed behind there as well.
As far as blotting a damp pod while dampening off has occurd its especially impirtant not to push down near stalk so if you must I would stay around the edges or do what my fellow champ @SilverGrobo does and simply lay the paper towel on top of the pod.
You can also just point a fan at it.
Stalks range in color and may appear to have dampening off because of it, if the bottom of the stalk near the pod is very skinny opposed to the top which will be thicker, its a sure sign of dampening off.
The unit is too close to the wall, its a good thing the fan was on or it may have gotten worse.
How to Treat Root Problems:
Step 1: Identify what may have caused the root problem (refer to list of possible triggers above)
Step 2: Address this underlying issue
- Happy temps – Make sure your grow area maintains a comfortable room temperature during the day, and is a few degrees cooler at night. Learn more about how temperature affects your cannabis plants.
- Only water your plants when they need it. How often should I water my potted cannabis plants?
- Make sure potted plants have plenty of drainage, and there must be drainage holes at the bottom. If soil or growing medium holds a lot of water, consider mixing in 1/3 to 1/2 extra perlite to “loosen things up” and improve drainage at the roots.
- Put plants in the right sized container to give the roots the best environment to spread out and grow. You may need to transplant to a bigger container if your plant has gotten too big or its roots are rootbound.
- Brown, smelly roots? Learn how to get rid of root rot
Step 3: (Optional) Provide your plant with a beneficial bacteria like Hydroguard to help roots recover quickly (more info about root supplements below). Hydroguard will help fight root rot by creating a colony of good organisms to outcompete the root rot.
You May Not Want to Use Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2) for Root Problems! H2O2 is temporarily effective at best when it comes to root problems. By it’s nature, even commercial grade H2O2 will be completely gone from a water reservoir after about 24 hours as it reacts with the water to form oxygen (decomposes) until the H2O2 is completely gone.
If H2O2 is added to a water source, it kills most of the bacteria in the water, including any good bacteria, but will not usually be able to kill all bacteria, so some bad bacteria will still be left to repopulate. Because of it’s nature, hydrogen peroxide does absolutely nothing to fix the underlying issue that causes root problems, and it kills any postive bacteria in your soil or water so sometimes it can actually make things worse. I think of H2O2 as a temporary bandaid.
I personally recommend using a supplement called Botanicare Hydroguard for root problems because I’ve used it successfully to get rid of a terrible case of Root Rot
Note: Botanicare used to have an awesome root innoculant called Aquashield, but in our tests Hydroguard works even better to create healthier roots and get rid of root rot!
Hydroguard is also much cheaper than most other similar root treatments and is proven to work well at supporting root health in cannabis. Take a look at our root rot page to see pictures of how Hydroguard was able to completely cure a terrible case of root rot.
Other examples of beneficial root supplements include Piranha, VooDoo Juice, Great White(Great White has great reviews, yet is obscenely expensive), Subculture B, Rooters, and Plant Savers. Most of these can be used with both hydro and soil grows. I personally recommend Hydroguard because I’ve used it successfully to treat Root Rot (and it’s also very affordably priced, you can use it throughout your grow without breaking the bank).
One important thing to note is that after you treat the cause of root problems, the old damaged leaves may never recover! With recovery, you should be looking for the problem to stop spreading, and for new leaves to be growing in green and healthy.
Thanks for the share and info. Always learning something new on here.
Thank you for that!! All of the info, it’s great. It seems like such a silly question now too about leaving things in their original bottles, hearing someone else talk about it.
I appreciate the info about the peroxide as well, very helpful!!
Yes, I’m certain I killed off good bacteria, which I knew ahead of time was going to happen… I just didn’t realize I had such a host of good bacteria in there!
What’s the minimum distance you recommend keeping Grobo away from the wall? 9" is the best I can manage as long as she’s still in my room. The piece of furniture she’s on gives me about 6" to stand behind her if I need to.
I only have about 2 hands width away from the wall you should be good.
if you can get the cocoa pod a little higher up so it’s not so close to the water, that will help the dampening issue too.
Thank you! I’ve been wanting to do that @The_Reverend. I finally did so this morning as the pod was starting to feel pretty wet again after feeling pretty good the last couple of days. I will update pics in a bit. I alternate computer/phone and I tend to keep pics on phone most of the time. lol, right now I’m on the computer. Her leaves are perking up a little more maybe- showing a little more light green, but I had a few dead ones on res lid this morning.
Dead leaves, you say? Yikes…
What is your PH level? And the PPM?
I have done it to all my plants with no adverse effects. I go by if any of the roots have emerged from the pod, it is anchored enough. I press on the edges of the pod, not close to the stalk, and obviously I don’t press too hard. It shouldn’t take much pressure to get a lot it excess water out.
I would never recommend something I haven’t successfully tried myself. You will find many greatly varied opinions on techniques. Stick to the ones tried and true.
I don’t know those answers, I’m sure support would alert me if they were off though!!
You can get one of each meter for about $20. They are worth their weight in gold. You are essentially flying blind without them.
Your not going to like what I have to say… I have saved 2 plants from root rot in the past but I will no longer try to save any plant with root problems… I have found they never seem to be as strong after they recovered… Plus the time it took for them to recover I would have been better off to start a new plant… (and at least it will be 100% healthy)
Just a different spin on the topic
You aren’t wrong.
I have no doubt that pushing down on your pods to remove excess water has worked for you.
@Angiebaby situation is different because her stalk was dying in which I suggest not to push down on the pod.
Not suggesting this method without testing its theory.
I have had dampening off issues and managed to keep them under control by doing this as well as adding a fan blowing directly on the base of the stalk. The airflow might be enough, but if not, then you can always try pressing some water out.
For sure! I just wouldn’t recommend it.