Slime Mold? (w/ frightening pictures)

[wordsandwich]

-indoor or outdoor-indoor
-soil, soilless, or hydroponic- Hydroponic
-specific medium-seeds were started in rapid rooter sponge type cups
-Soil type/brand-N/A
-Hydro/aero/soilless system type- Aerogarden
-Anything you have added to the soil-Fox Farms Grow Big, PH down, Hydrogen Peroxide (only in the past few days)
-Soil pH
-Water source-was using spring water, now using tap (switched after mold problem started)
-Water pH- varies between 5.5 - 7.8
-Age of plant- planted in aerogarden from seed on nov 5th (10 weeks)
-Type of fertilizer- Fox Farms grow big hydro (3-2-6)
-Rate of application- 1 gallon res, water changed every two weeks
-Lighting source and distance from plant- was cfl's w/ aerogarden, changed to 250w HPS about a week ago.
-Temperature (both day and night if you are running a dark period) - 63-67 night, 66-70 daytime
-% Relative humidity - not exactly sure but pretty low, we have dry winters...my guess is under 30%
-Lighting schedule - 18/6 from the beginning
-Type of ventilation your room has - one fan blowing at light and closet door stays open when light is on. Closet is about 7' x 2.5' and the HID ballast stays outside of the closet for heat reasons.

this thread >>http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-growing/142229-aeroponic-grow.html#post1735795<< is more or less of a grow log, it's long so i'll summarize as quickly as possible.

I have been experiencing what I believe to be slime mold for about two weeks now. at first all i noticed was a little bit of pink stuff near the roots of my plants, then all of a sudden it came on much stronger and as you can see from the pictures it is quite a problem.

[wordsandwich]

here is the link to the grow log thread, i did it wrong on the last post:

http://boards.cannabis.com/basic-growing/142229-aeroponic-grow.html#post1735795

fire away with any questions...thanks in advance to anyone who can offer some help!

[wordsandwich]

also, i have been treating the water/nute solution with food grade hydrogen peroxide (HP solution at 3%, using about 1 1/2 tsp per gallon of water) for about four days, and I have a bottle of serenade concentrate on the way (should be here on the 10th)

[Weedhound]

Oh dear....where to start? Ok....I will tell you the things I see that you are doing wrong. There are so many that I'm only willing to give answers.....not explanations. Feel very free to disregard my advice.

ph..should be 5.6-6.2....not outside that range. 7.8 isn't going to cut it. It's YOUR job to keep ph in check.

A one gallon res that you change every two weeks? Are you keeping them in a milk bottle? Your rez....(especially YOUR res with those nasty roots) should be changed completely every seven days no matter what size it is.

Your plants are three months old? They should be several feet high by now so they haven't been "flourishing" for awhile.

H202 3% percent should be used at 2-3 teaspoons a gallon.....try two and then kick it up to three if it's not enough.

I'm not even sure what to say about your roots.....that's just plain scary.

PS....I just learned yesterday from rhizome that the fox farm nutes are three part nutes and you only have one of them.....where are the other two parts to your nutrients?

All in all....not great. I Let me dig up my link to plant problems. You have a very large amount of work ahead of you.

[Weedhound]

This is an excellent link to problems, why and how they happen and how to fix them.
Revised: The Complete Guide To Sick Plants,pH and Pest Troubles - PlanetGanja.com (http://www.planetganja.com/highsociety/showthread.php?t=8778)

Good Luck.

[wordsandwich]

Weedhound,

thanks for the advice...honestly i'm not feeling very free to disregard any advice at this point. but thanks for your offer to let me disregard yours if I so please...

the ph is rarely above 6.5 i have been keeping on top of it fairly well I would say, but it spikes from time to time (including before the slime mold problem, which was just days ago) hence the 7.8 i put in the explanation. I realize that ph is my responsibility.

the plants are about two months old. planted from seed on nov 5th. how can you tell the height of the plants from my pictures? plus don't different strains grow to different heights? These plants were seemingly okay just a few days ago. I know the res pictures do not look good but let me assure you this problem came on quickly. i'm sorry if this sounds like i am coming at you but i'm just trying to figure out how this mold problem may have started and I feel like you are scrapping all of my effort thus far into the grow. i don't wake up every morning and take a crap into the reservoir. i'm making an effort to grow healthy plants, plus this is my first grow so obviously there is a learning curve.

Thank you for the links to common grow problems, I will study them and I appreciate your help....I am commited to this. again forgive me if it sounds like i am coming at you, it has been a long day at work and the tone of your initial post rubbed me the wrong way..

As I know it Fox Farm Grow Big is a stand alone nute used for veg...i am using it on a recommendation from opie yutts. I will have to research that though thanks for the heads up.

anyone have experience with serenade? I received it today in the mail and i am going to start running it with the hydrogen peroxide, and also up my h202 to two or three tsp from one and a half.

[Weedhound]

Well you have a picture of the plants right there. My math sucks however, but still for 8 weeks they seem rather.......well....unfulfilled shall we say?

I honestly DONT know what to tell you about the roots. That looks pretty bad to me and I'm not too familiar with root rot so I would go with the H202.....but the link is there to offer better suggestions.

I apologize for the information about the Fox Farm nutes....I must have mistaken what Rhizome told me...that's what I get for talking about nutes I don't use. :(

I use Serenade....but I'm not sure that's what you need. Are your plants/leaves showing signs of mold or fungus as well? I would have to go read my bottle but I've never heard of using it for roots. You certainly can use it as a preventative....but your plants seem so stressed already that I'm not sure if it would be a good idea unless you are seeing definite mold or something on the stems or leaves.

It's pretty imperative at this point that your ph remain under control. 5.6-6.2. 6.5 is really pushing it and when the ph goes out of the ideal range you are literally wasting growing time.....not to mention the stress.

You may very well want to change your rez every few days at this point. Are you using RO or tap water?

I don't know what kind of lighting you are using but if you DO use the Serenade you should make sure to pull your lights back for a full 24 hours. I fried the tops off of some nice plants by not pulling my lights back while using it.

What size is your rez? just so I can be sure.....

[wordsandwich]

thanks for the info...again sorry about my last post.... yesterday was a long one...

my res is one gallon, i am running serenade with the nute and h202, and i will pull back the lights for 24 hours, thanks for that advice i had not heard that yet in all my serenade research.

The leaves are showing some spotting, yes.

right now i am thinking i am going to run the serenade in the res for a few days and see if there's any improvement. if not then i may try to clone one of the plants, purely for the experience. everything thus far has been a learning experience for me so i may as well try to get more.

barring a miracle with the serenade this will probably be a chop, next grow is going to be in soil i think!! i'll leave the hydro until i have a respectable system and some more experience.

again, thank you for your help i really appreciate it.

[Weedhound]

One gallon is a really small rez....that right there will make things very hard to keep stable and in balance etc etc....

Please update about the roots....I'd like to see what happens there.

Yes do pull your lights back if you spray the Serenade. I pulled mine back for about 4 hours after I sprayed one tiime and it was NOT long enough. Now I go for a full 24 hours post spray and haven't had a problem with that length of time.

Your humidity is a large key in mold and fungus (you mentioned you live in a dry area) so finding out what that is would be good if you can. But stressed out or unhealthy plants will also be more susceptible to disease. I had some white rhinos that developed mold in a few spots due to being generally unhealthy (fert build up probs) even though my humidity was in the thirties (which is where you want.)

Good Luck!! :)

[Weedhound]

http://www.4hydroponics.com/nutrients/Mnl/foxFarmHydro.pdfu

Upon checking out the fox farm nutes it appears Rhizome was correct....you need several parts of each to make the complete nutrient solution according the manufacturers. This may be part of your problem as well. ;)