Roots turning dark brown

Leafy271 · March 7, 2020, 1:21am

Could my water level getting low have possibly have caused the brown roots on my plant. I have not changed mine out since a week ago and when I check today it was low

Leafy271 · March 7, 2020, 1:26am

How much water did you mix with the hydrogen peroxide? And how long did you let it sit ?

vegetato · March 7, 2020, 2:01am

@Leafy271 when I did this cleanse my intent was to kill everything living on and around the roots, which can leave the roots vulnerable. Be aware that h2o2 doesn’t discriminate, it will affect/kill good bacteria along with the bad.

Also note that mixing h2o2 with tap water has a reduced effect, it reacts with chlorine which leaves less available to go after the bacteria. I was using tap water, if distilled/RO water is used then less h2o2 can be used.

The cocopod is also a place where the rot can hide/come back, which is why I soaked it too.

If you have something like recharge to add afterward it’ll help to replace the good bacteria that were killed.

I also cleaned out the grobo reservoir as per cleaning instructions while letting the roots soak in the little container/bucket.

If doing a clean mid-grow make sure to unplug all bottles before draining/filling/cleaning the res to keep them from being added to the water/vinegar/etc. I forgot to do this once after adding the 50/50 vinegar/water and it looked like I had 200 airstones running in my res (think baking soda volcano), that’s something I’ve not repeated since.

Here’s the relevant part from the post I linked earlier:

3rd grow - AK x Critical Mass (Auto) - HARVESTED

So she went back to the ER to sit in a bath of hydrogen peroxide (250 mL @ 3%) mixed with water (650 mL) for about 1.5 hours:

Before:

After:

Pics of the roots a couple days later, still nothing to write home about. Those bubbles are the result of 2 added air stones powered by 2 separate pumps on top of the grobo’s default air stone, so even if a pump dies there’s still 2 air stones running - there’s definitely enough aeration:

Half a week later, she’s showing signs of improvement - there is some reach occurring:

I concocted a blend of 50 mL hydroguard + 1/4 tbsp great white + 1/4 tbsp root rescue (basically hydroguard + something “recharge”-like) in 1.2L of water and put it in a separate container to bubble for about 12-14 hours. I also mixed about 2-3 drops (about 2/13th of a mL) of molasses in the container. I added half of this mixture to each reservoir and poured some of it through the coco pod (slowly/carefully) to make sure it saturated that part of the root zone as well.

Leafy271 · March 7, 2020, 2:20am

Water temp is 66 degrees

Leafy271 · March 7, 2020, 2:24am

Leafy271 · March 7, 2020, 2:25am

Here are some more pictures. What is the brown stuff on top of the reservoir? It appears to be the same things on the roots, I touched the roots and the stuff got on my hand.

vegetato · March 7, 2020, 2:41am

The brown stuff with a lighter reddish or yellow tinge/color is just from nutrients.

The blackish-brown stuff is the concern. If it wipes off easily and looks red on your hand, it’s just nutrients. If it only somewhat wipes off and feels like slime on your hand then that’s a harmful bacteria that suffocates the roots.

I’m still not entirely convinced it’s rot, or perhaps it’s only maintaining a partial foothold on the root zone due to the lower temps?

Leafy271 · March 7, 2020, 2:45am

I’m not sure. The roots do not feel slimy or really smell bad, the water just has a mildew scent

vegetato · March 7, 2020, 2:53am

How is the base of the plant itself looking? Have any pics of the top area of the cocopod and base of the stem?

If you’ve been keeping RH up that could be how she’s putting up such a fight if that is rot setting in.

The leaves look super-healthy up top but something is up as you’re already nearing flower stage in the recipe. This doesn’t look like a simple case to diagnose but thankfully she’s not curly and brown up there - “doing nothing” and observing what happens next might be the best course of action. If anything maybe just clean off the roots below the cocopod a bit to see how fast it returns (or doesn’t).

Russel_Richardson · March 7, 2020, 5:43am

Yeah looking at the other pictures posted I’m not entirely convinced it’s rot either, I think it’s just the stain. You’re right @vegetato plant looks really healthy up top, and with the water temperature at 66.6 lol.