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Do Root Aphids find hydro hospitable?

inreplyavalon

breathe deep
Veteran
Anyone have any clue if Root Aphids find Active hydro to be a hospitable environment? DWC, RDWC, undercurrent, Rockwool?

I am asking because i have them controlled in coco, but i know they are not gone, and i am considering switching over to active hydro, but i know one of my weapons against them(Met52), does not work in a non soil/soiless environment.
I have been interested in switching to a faster vegging method but i cant cause the switch to give the RA's an upper hand.
So i only want to switch if it can also help battle the bastards...

Any thought or experiences?
 

cyat

Active member
Veteran
flood and drain with coco in bucket system keep the top totally dry

they love rocks... I had billions in my last tree machine run... still harvested tho
 

shredGnar

Member
I run ebb and flow buckets with rockwool and I am battling them now! From what I've read they like the wetness of hydro better than soil or coco..
 

MIway

Registered User
Veteran
Hey av!

Can say that I'v been around both a rw and dwc set-up... And the ra's just loved em... Like shred said. The imid seemed to destroy em tho...
 

inreplyavalon

breathe deep
Veteran
CYAT i like the idea of flood and drain with coco, as it probably drowned some of the bastards. And keeping the top dry. I used Met52 and Bayer and at the end of the run i can see them on the top of my coco, and their white residue is all over it. My best guess is the Met does not grow well on the top and so that is where they hang out most. At least i am hoping they are not all through the pot, and i am still pulling down decent yields.

Shred the Gnar thanks for sharing. It seems the ability to let the soil/coco get a bit dry is helpful in dealing with them.

I wonder if aeroponics, and spraying/misting roots is a good way to grow with them. I never seem to find them in my aerocloner as it seems real inhospitable, but i would guess if i tried to grow big plants in aero, they would have plenty of places to hide inbetween roots...

Miway nice to see you. How's things going? Yeah I have found Imid to control them, but not eliminate them. I am sure different species have different results, but i have had the bastards for at least a few years, so i am under no illusions that i will kill them all.. Thanks for the hydro tips, i am sticking with COCO!
 

GoozMan

Member
I had them bad in DWC. Used azatrol (neem oil concentrate) in the tankat half dose and voila! no aphids or spider mites either. I use the azatrol now for every run as a preventative at the start of veg and have been bug free ever since.
 
They fucked me pretty hard in undercurrent RDWC. Imid was used in high amounts however their bodies would continue to float up on the bucket walls for quite some time. I will still harvest but they sure do some damage.
 

max_well

Member
Give these a look: http://www.growstone.com/
I found the performance of these to be equivalent to hydroton, with the benefits of being MUCH lighter, easier to wash initially. The jagged edges (think lava rock, or pumice texture, but lighter and maybe a little sharper) make it very inhospitable for soft bodied insects-- I think this was key in a successful eradication of RA in a large growroom, which I had battled for consecutive rounds in a coco DTW setup. I also tried Met52 and the standard suggested chems (Evergreen 60-6, Merit 75, Botanigard, etc) . I cleaned house, switched to and Ebb/Flood bucket system (which I had lots of experience with in the past, but hated the hefting of hydroton), and switched to growstones, never saw the RA again.
In the French wine blight of the mid 19th century, caused by phylloxera (root aphids), it was observed that vineyards on sandy soil suffered less damaged. Growstones are made from recycled glass, and glass is made primarily from quartz sand, so there is some history to the suggestion that a glass-based medium would deter a soft bodied insect looking for a cozy environment to breed and eat in.
Another note: Ebb and Flow style setups make it easy to do a complete drench of medium with chemical treatments as compared to top-feed or hand watered setups, and can greatly reduce how much contact you must have with the pesticide you are applying.
 

cyat

Active member
Veteran
Give these a look: http://www.growstone.com/
I found the performance of these to be equivalent to hydroton, with the benefits of being MUCH lighter, easier to wash initially. The jagged edges (think lava rock, or pumice texture, but lighter and maybe a little sharper) make it very inhospitable for soft bodied insects-- I think this was key in a successful eradication of RA in a large growroom, which I had battled for consecutive rounds in a coco DTW setup. I also tried Met52 and the standard suggested chems (Evergreen 60-6, Merit 75, Botanigard, etc) . I cleaned house, switched to and Ebb/Flood bucket system (which I had lots of experience with in the past, but hated the hefting of hydroton), and switched to growstones, never saw the RA again.
In the French wine blight of the mid 19th century, caused by phylloxera (root aphids), it was observed that vineyards on sandy soil suffered less damaged. Growstones are made from recycled glass, and glass is made primarily from quartz sand, so there is some history to the suggestion that a glass-based medium would deter a soft bodied insect looking for a cozy environment to breed and eat in.
Another note: Ebb and Flow style setups make it easy to do a complete drench of medium with chemical treatments as compared to top-feed or hand watered setups, and can greatly reduce how much contact you must have with the pesticide you are applying.

maxwell can growstones replace hydroton...can they be watered 24/7 ala waterfarms?
 

turbo14

Active member
Veteran
Met52 does work very well in hydroponics. Apply met52 granulars to the top of the root crown, rapid rooter, rockwool or any other medium. Met52 will innoculate on the outside of a DWC netpot,no problem.



turbo
 

Puddletown

New member
Yes, you will find root aphids in hydro above the water line.

I have used this information to drown out the ones that I had. I put cloth over the top of the soil container like you find to keep weeds out of your planting areas.

Then I made the water circulated through the soil with the cloth keeping the soil inside the pot.

This allowed me to get the water level to stay at the top of the soil and then the excess water dripped off into the tub the pot was in.

Gravity makes the water want to go down and while the plant roots are fully immersed the water has oxygen in it to keep the plant going.

I also put a bowl with apple cider vinegar on the top so that it will attract them. I still get some very small aphids in there but they substantially are gone.

I have also fully submerged small plants in water both to drown the aphids and also for spider mites.

Best wishes on your crop.
 

mudvaynefan

Member
Im going to run a 2 5 gallon bucket RDWC, and if happen to run into R.A I will get Dry Ice from the grocery store, and put chunks of it into both buckets.

The Co2 kills anything in the root zone at the ppm you achieve this way.Also cools down the water, so win win.

I saw some canadain guy on youtube do this, and he also pointed to his Rockwool as the source of the culprits.
 

zor

Active member
ime, dwc is much less hospitable for aphids than coco by far. after using met 52, and imid with coco, i could not eliminate them completly either. I know exactly what you mean about them hanging out at the top of the pots.

because of this, as well as my suspicion that the aphids were coming from inside the coco, i did some aero and dwc growing. I had zero issues since eliminating coco from my grow rooms. In fact, ive had aero plants and dwc plants right next to infected coco plants that did fine. Im not sure why this is the case.

right now, i'm experimenting with using a 2" layer of fine perlite (some use sand ) at the top AND bottom of coco/and or soil pots as a physical barrier. This also, seems to be working very well so far. in previous grows without the physical barrier, id often see the aphids humping each other all over the top of the coco (even with met 52, imid). This run, in both my veg and bloom closets, i have not had any aphid issues of yet (knock on wood) using the physical barrier.
 

Farm Hero

Member
Not sure if they were root aphids, but we did have some critters that lived happily in the root zone of an ebb and flow system.

Each time it would flood, the little bugs would surface to the dry top layer...after the drain, the bugs would head back into the root zone.

Are the root aphids small and white?

We had this issue back when we'd wash soil from the roots of plants before adding them to the hydro system. Figured the pests came in with the soil.

Switched to rooting clones in oasis cubes and have not had the problem since.
 
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