frostqueen
Active member
This was what I was just going to ask you: when I have seen root rot in my scene (a rare thing, luckily) I can always smell it.
I had this same thing happen to me. The plant looked exactly like your pics. It was root rot in my case.
I've been working with various antibacterials lately, as I had some clones get a bit slimey after developing their roots. I figured it was a good time to experiment. I have focused on the sterile route rather than beneficials.
I usually use about 2 ppm of chlorine via calcium hypochlorite in my aerocloners. I add it every 4 days. For perspective, our city water in Portland comes out of the tap at 4 ppm. That actually kind of surprised me. Suffice to say, plants seem to have no problems at all with 5 ppm or even more. I use the smaller amount as a preventative and it works great.
I got some chlorine test strips and ran quite a few tests to determine exactly how fast that stuff breaks down. Interestingly, if I use tap water the chlorine is gone the next day. If I use cal hypochlorite it lasts about 3 days.
As far as the slimey clones go, I got a few tests going in small jars to figure out how well they kill off the rot:
1. Calcium Hypochlorite at 6ppm. I thought that this would work. It didn't. I switched out the liquid each day to keep it all fresh. Stayed slimey. Beyond hope 3 days later.
2. Z7 enzymatic cleanser. Nobody talks about this one much, but it is a fantastic preventative. It's kept me disease free for years. I don't use it in the aerocloners, though. It would probably do fine, but chlorine works better at temps above 72 degrees, and I often push it to 75 to speed the rooting process up.
Anyway, Z7 did not work. That one was done and gone in 3 days, too.
3. H2O2. This one I have used the least in the past, so I read a bunch about it first. The good thing about H2O2 is that it adds oxygen and has other beneficial effects. The consensus seemed to be 3% H2O2 at 1-3 tsp per gallon filtered water. If you are using 35% H2O2 you just dilute it 1:11 with filtered water first to make it 3%, then add 1-3 tsp/gallon. This lasts about 3 days until you need to re-add.
This one actually worked. It had a lot of tiny bubbles coming off of the roots, so that was satisfying. The roots turned white. 3 days later it had started to form more roots and looked good to go.
Long story short: they all work well as preventatives. Z7 does great as a general preventative, and I add it to all of my water, in soil or hydro. It becomes less effective above around 75 degrees.
Calcium hypochlorite does great, and handles higher temperatures better than Z7 does. I use it at 2 ppm as a preventative in my aerocloners and very rarely have problems. Seems it can be pushed to 6 ppm with no ill effects. Plants root fine, tops are healthy.
H2O2 is something I will be using more of. I want to try it in the aerocloners next time to see how that goes, and my hydro scene will get a test run with it instead of Z7.
Note of caution: don't mix chlorine and H2O2. It foams up and reacts and isn't compatible.
