I would love to get some help and suggestions on dealing with root rot as I’m new to hydroponics. It’s my first non kratky build and been mainly growing bok choys. It’s been less than 2 months and now I’m having a root rot issue. I’ve washed the plant (with water) and flush reset the system with new water + nutrients. The root rot comes back within a few days- a week. The setup was in a hot sunny spot, I moved it to a less direct sunlit spot as I thought that might be the cause of too much heat but the root rot is still coming back. I removed the herbs from the system to rule out it being the cause as well. Can I buy something that kills and stops root rot or is it best to restart all the plants for it to be completely clean? Secondly, how do I minimise the chance of it coming back? Is my system flawed in it’s design? It didn’t seem like it as the bok choys and other herbs grew quite well at the beginning for a month before I noticed any signs of root rot. The water fills up the PVC pipe approx between 1/3 to 1/2 of the PVC height. All the bok choys + herbs were grown from seeds hydroponically.
A bit of info EC level – 1.0- 1.2 PH – 5.5 – 6.5 water temp ~20°C (in the new shady spot, been here for 1-2 weeks and root rot still keeps occuring)
Spring weather here. average for September 21°C high / 11°C low
water source – from the hose
no airstone (is this the problem?)
I’m sick of cleaning the whole system every few days so please any help will be greatly appreciated.
Kazootica
Light penetration and lack of air stone is my guess
Key-Job6944
Add peroxide
Efficient_Waltz_8023
Root rot is a fungus that flourishes at higher temps and with low oxygen. Suggestions would be to bury your res to bring down temps, put reflective insulation on top of the exposed part of the res. After that consider adding an air stone. You can also add beneficial bacteria additives.
ShamefulWatching
On your return loop back to the sump, have the water sprinkle over something with high surface area like a pile of bio balls. This increases the surface area for the water to take on oxygen.
FreddyFlintz
Go sterile
CSollers
High temperatures and low oxygen in the nutrient solution could well be the issue. The warmer the water is, the less oxygen it will absorb.
___Attila___
Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but Hydrogaurd root innoculant has been very good to me in the past.
8 Comments
I would love to get some help and suggestions on dealing with root rot as I’m new to hydroponics. It’s my first non kratky build and been mainly growing bok choys. It’s been less than 2 months and now I’m having a root rot issue. I’ve washed the plant (with water) and flush reset the system with new water + nutrients. The root rot comes back within a few days- a week. The setup was in a hot sunny spot, I moved it to a less direct sunlit spot as I thought that might be the cause of too much heat but the root rot is still coming back. I removed the herbs from the system to rule out it being the cause as well.
Can I buy something that kills and stops root rot or is it best to restart all the plants for it to be completely clean? Secondly, how do I minimise the chance of it coming back? Is my system flawed in it’s design? It didn’t seem like it as the bok choys and other herbs grew quite well at the beginning for a month before I noticed any signs of root rot. The water fills up the PVC pipe approx between 1/3 to 1/2 of the PVC height. All the bok choys + herbs were grown from seeds hydroponically.
A bit of info
EC level – 1.0- 1.2
PH – 5.5 – 6.5
water temp ~20°C (in the new shady spot, been here for 1-2 weeks and root rot still keeps occuring)
Spring weather here. average for September 21°C high / 11°C low
water source – from the hose
no airstone (is this the problem?)
I’m sick of cleaning the whole system every few days so please any help will be greatly appreciated.
Light penetration and lack of air stone is my guess
Add peroxide
Root rot is a fungus that flourishes at higher temps and with low oxygen. Suggestions would be to bury your res to bring down temps, put reflective insulation on top of the exposed part of the res. After that consider adding an air stone. You can also add beneficial bacteria additives.
On your return loop back to the sump, have the water sprinkle over something with high surface area like a pile of bio balls. This increases the surface area for the water to take on oxygen.
Go sterile
High temperatures and low oxygen in the nutrient solution could well be the issue. The warmer the water is, the less oxygen it will absorb.
Not sure if anyone mentioned it, but Hydrogaurd root innoculant has been very good to me in the past.