3rd times a charm?????

I've had 2 failed attempts at BubblePonics. Root Rot both times. Should my roots dangle in the water? Light was getting in when I checked the PPM and Ph but this time I'm going have a spout coming out the side of the reservoir so I can just fill a little cup and check. I thought it was good that the roots were soaking in the nutrient rich water?????? I raised the lid up twice a day, every day for a month and a half to check PPM and Ph and root health. They were nice and white for a month and a half then got brown and slimy. I used peroxide at every reservoir change(every week). The strain was Afghan Kush Ryder Autoflower. This time I'm going with Pineapple Chunk from Barney's seeds. I use Advanced Nutrients 2 part grow and bloom. 600w Hps, temps were 77 - 80 average. 1. Do I let the roots sit or trim them? 2. I have a pump feeding the plants 15 min on, 45 min off every hour, is that too much? Thanks for any advice or help.

sorry about this one

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Originally Posted by icupkn3

I've had 2 failed attempts at BubblePonics. Root Rot both times. Should my roots dangle in the water? Light was getting in when I checked the PPM and Ph but this time I'm going have a spout coming out the side of the reservoir so I can just fill a little cup and check. I thought it was good that the roots were soaking in the nutrient rich water?????? I raised the lid up twice a day, every day for a month and a half to check PPM and Ph and root health. They were nice and white for a month and a half then got brown and slimy. I used peroxide at every reservoir change(every week). The strain was Afghan Kush Ryder Autoflower. This time I'm going with Pineapple Chunk from Barney's seeds. I use Advanced Nutrients 2 part grow and bloom. 600w Hps, temps were 77 - 80 average. 1. Do I let the roots sit or trim them? 2. I have a pump feeding the plants 15 min on, 45 min off every hour, is that too much? Thanks for any advice or help.

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When you have roots sitting in water or nutes, they will drown.... or root rot.
Roots need both water and oxygen. For us that means we have to have LOTS of OXYGEN in the water/nutes. If the water is still and you have an odd bubble break out of the water, they are not getting enough oxygen. With the right amount of oxygen and water ...plants will thrive.
I don't know what you mean by bubbleponics, so you will have to explain to me it is you are doing. How are you top feeding? with a dripper, or ebb and flow? what kind of media are you using... rockwool? Hydroton?

SpaceNeedle

You need to get the water temp down to 70 degrees. It is what is causing the root rot or the brown slime sounds like cyanobacteria. Which ends up causing roo rot.

Bubbleponics is just a modified drip. The 1/4 drip line is under the lid and goes in the side of the net pot instead of over the top. It looks like a good way not to have any leaks. But if you don't have the rockwool cubes with the plastic wrap on them roots will grow into the drip line and glog it.


This is hydro and all of your roots are supposed to be hanging in the water. They love it. Do not trim unless you are getting rid of rot. The root bal in the netpot is what needs the air so put your drip on a timer for 15 minutes every 2 to 4 hours.

You get slime for a couple reasons. First your temps are likely too high. It's a prevailing issue for new growers. Seriously, the temps need to be low for bubble systems to work (70-75 max). Second, somewhere there may be light getting through. The light that comes in when your checking the water is no big deal, that lasts for only a few minutes. The light that causes slime is caused from pinholes and slits in your lid and the cuts you made for your netpots. Take the lid with the cups inserted and hold it up to a light. All the light that you can see coming in through the lid is light that will be hitting water. You can not have any light shinning down on your water. Somehow or another you will need to address that issue by covering the tops of the pots and surrounding the plants with light reflecting material. The last cause is about the oxygen itself. Most people already get that you need an air pump and stones of some sort to properly oxygenate the water. What you don't get is that sometimes that pump isnt big though and then you do have problems because your air stone and pump aren't sufficient for the res and thus not enough water to support large plants.

Personally I have found bubble systems to be too much trouble for summer and or hotter climates. Keep in mind that many of the people who report success with bubbler systems live in North Europe or Canada or even just further north in the US or Cali. Those places have milder climates then southern states. I have found most of the people that use bubbler systems live in apartments where they have better control of their thermostat. In large homes or any location for that matter outside a 500sqft apartment will have a much harder time of maintaining those sub 75 temps needed for bubbler systems to work. Ebb and Flow systems are more forgiving in temps north of 80. Look into that with coco and I think you may even find it more simpler and forgiving then what you are using now. I use a bubbler for the first two weeks of cloning but then after that I put them into a E&B table from then on out.