ZeFunkMaster
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Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2020 11:25 pm

Root Slime in DWC Peas

Hey everybody, I'm new to this forum and to hydroponics so I just wanted to start off by saying thanks for taking the time to read this and potentially offering some advice. I live in an apartment that gets minimal sunlight, so after watching the plants on my balcony fail to flourish the past few years I decided hydroponics might be the way to go.

I made a DWC set up using home depot buckets and air stones and transferred two relatively small (4") pea plants from soil (yes, a poor choice for germination I've since discovered) into their own buckets. I used tap water to make the nutrient solution for one plant and 75% distilled water (25% tap, chalk it up to poor planning) for the other. I opted to use tap water as I don't have a cheap source for purified, non-mineral/spring water. Furthermore, I checked the water quality in my area through the municipality website and discovered it is actually pretty good (0.74ppm Chlorine, 4.4ppm Calcium, 0.165ppm Magnesium) so I figured I would try it and compare the result to (mostly) distilled water.

The first thing I noticed that was weird as the pH in the Tap Water Bucket. I would reduce it down to ~6 but it would climb up to 7.5-8 after a day or two. Approximately 3 or 4 days after transferring the plants to the buckets I noticed a clear slime growing on the roots them to clump together. A few days after I noticed white foam on the surface of the water.

The end result was the Tap Water pea plant growing maybe 1/2"-1" in 10 days whereas the 75% Distilled Water pea plant doubled in height. No trace of slime has yet to be found in the DW pea plant, roots are white, long and fibrous. Every indication is there that it is flourishing. The TW pea plant has since been discarded as I don't want the infection to spread further.

So my question is this: what do you guys think caused such drastically different results and what can be done about it? My first thought was that the tap water must have had damaging microbes that infected the plant, but given that both reservoirs contained at least some tap water I remain unconvinced. Thanks again for any advice.

Nutrients: FloraGrow, FloraBloom, FloraMicro (1Tbsp/Gallon)
Aeration: Air stones (4L/min)

hydro_chief
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Joined: Sun Jan 31, 2021 12:42 am

Hey Mate,

The fluctuation of pH is most likely from your tap water Ca has a naturally high pH. The slime on the other hand is a microbial issue which can be fixed with additives, I.e. H2O2, H2O2+silver, Cietecbio has a water conditioner also.

Any updates on the peas? that'd be great

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Location: Amherst, MA USDA Zone 5a

Thanks for your feedback, hydro_chief! And welcome to the forum! :D



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