Hi everyone,
I'm just about to start another crop but am have a few questions about cleaning hydroton in between crops.
I had to leave my last grow for a few weeks unexpectedly (car accident) and all my ladies were dead when I got back. I was still laid up and didn't clean out the buckets for several weeks after the plants were dead.
Now that it's time for my next grow, I'm having a lot of trouble getting things clean. The hydroton smelled awful after be left to sit for so long, and the roots were very difficult to pull out. I've been very thorough in cleaning roots off the hydroton, and used a light bleach mix to kill anything bad that may have been growing in there while I let it sit.
The problem I am having now is I am finding it impossible to remove all the root remnants from my previous grow. I am using a sort of gold panhandling system with a screen small enough to let roots/etc fall through but will leave the hydroton on top. This has removed most of the roots, but if I sort through by hand I am still finding portions of roots (1/2 long or shorter) that are stuck to the rocks.
My question is do I need to remove every single little piece of root to insure I won't have any problems with root rot/etc? I'm hoping the bleach solution and use of h202 daily during the grow will be enough to kill any problems, but I don't want to risk it. I would much rather spend the extra time going through each bucket by hand, but I have 24 5-gallon buckets to go through and I'd rather not do it unless I have to. If that's what it takes, obviously I'm willing to do it to insure a successful grow.
Any advice?
I'm just about to start another crop but am have a few questions about cleaning hydroton in between crops.
I had to leave my last grow for a few weeks unexpectedly (car accident) and all my ladies were dead when I got back. I was still laid up and didn't clean out the buckets for several weeks after the plants were dead.
Now that it's time for my next grow, I'm having a lot of trouble getting things clean. The hydroton smelled awful after be left to sit for so long, and the roots were very difficult to pull out. I've been very thorough in cleaning roots off the hydroton, and used a light bleach mix to kill anything bad that may have been growing in there while I let it sit.
The problem I am having now is I am finding it impossible to remove all the root remnants from my previous grow. I am using a sort of gold panhandling system with a screen small enough to let roots/etc fall through but will leave the hydroton on top. This has removed most of the roots, but if I sort through by hand I am still finding portions of roots (1/2 long or shorter) that are stuck to the rocks.
My question is do I need to remove every single little piece of root to insure I won't have any problems with root rot/etc? I'm hoping the bleach solution and use of h202 daily during the grow will be enough to kill any problems, but I don't want to risk it. I would much rather spend the extra time going through each bucket by hand, but I have 24 5-gallon buckets to go through and I'd rather not do it unless I have to. If that's what it takes, obviously I'm willing to do it to insure a successful grow.
Any advice?