why clean media?

[Harvester]

Seriously...I'm staring at 16 buckets full of lava rock and hydroton mixed that is full of roots...and I know what happens if I don't clean it... But then again..what are we missing?

Roots sit and rot in soil from dead plants and new plants just grow.

My thought is that by keeping things too clean, we are opening things up to disease.

Is it possible that rather than cleaning all of this stuff out to a sterile level, we could instead simply increase oxygenation and introduce beneficial bacteria such as in nature?

there are many bacterial additives for ponds and aquariums that could easily be added right to the hydro mixture...then a couple extra airstones added to make up for the O2 use of the bacteria.

any thoughts?

[Green Supreme]

Why do you wash your dishes? Peace GS

[Harvester]

If I didn't wash my dishes my immune system would be stronger...which makes for a good comparison... It's also been proven that people who eat their own boogers and swallow their own snot have stronger immune systems...

In mushroom culture I learned that a sterile media molds...but a pasteurized media has some resistance because there are good bacteria remaining after pasteurization.

In nature things work because good bacteria out number bad bacteria...

Indoors...we are taught try to eliminate ALL bacteria...which creates an atmosphere ready to let the first microbe introduced to run amock.

So back to the original question...why do we clean hydroponic media in-between runs instead of trying to maintain the same process that nature uses?

[Green Supreme]

For me I use mineral salts, which build in the soil too toxicity ,at some point. For me it is more like dishes though. Peace GS

[spaceman]

are you using salt base ferts ?if you are then i would wash the salt and crapp off my medium especially hydro,ph issues...
me i reuse my medium{coco}all the time it seems to be getting better actually, but in this system i am using the microbes to do my dirty work.they just need a few things to help them along...

[Harvester]

I'm definately not looking to eliminate the step of rinsing out the excess salts, but rather looking to eliminate the tedious task of lugging it all outside to get every little last bit of old roots removed to be able to call it "clean"

Vapor, are you saying that you are kindof doing what I'm suggesting?

I would still always take the time to rinse well and get as much crap out as I can... I just don't see the need to make it "sterile" and I don't see why, if all the needs are met, the remaining root bits can't just break down on their own.

I'm running a 3 x 6 ebb and flow using GH micro and bloom...so yes, I do have a salt buildup with each grow.

H

[spaceman]

as long as you take care of the excess salts then you could use some enzyme product to eat the roots, but how well that would work i dont know.
Me i grow organic amendments so everything is cooking for 10 days or so then growin it, after i cut out the tap root and add it back to the pile and reuse it roots and all....most of the roots are gone by the 14 day mark, i use EM and a few others microbes....

[Harvester]

I'm seriously considering adding a beneficial bacteria supplement to my res. The type of supplement added to Koi ponds to clean out the sludge and carry out the nitrogen cycle via turning bio waste into nitrate before it can culture disease and clog filters. I think it will work, but how well, I'm not sure.

But I'm not talking about adding an enzyme cleaner...I'm talking bacteria.

I just don't see why hydro media can't have the same type of bacterial process that mother nature uses...that's all.

H

[otto]

I've seen aquaponic systems with fish living in the rez, and worms mixed in with the lava rocks, I don't think they were feeding that system salt based ferts though.....

[Harvester]

I have done several rinse cycles to get out as much decayed matter as I could. Now It is soaking in water that I pumped in from a healthy aquarium.

At any rate, it will be cleaner than it was last time..but I believe there is benefit to having beneficial bacteria within the media.

H

[disciple]

:)

[Harvester]

For whatever reason, it failed. It could have been larvae in the roots from insects, or it could have been lack of O2, or it could have been bacterial or fungal infection of the roots...

Not being sure of what the caused the root die-off, I took care of all the problems at once. I never saw any larvae, but I did see flies. I did a peroxide rinse, covered the grow bed with white plastic and put 2 no-pest strips in there..I HATE using those things, but I'll leave them in there for a month or so while I work on the environmental issues which brought the flies in there in the first place.

I am using Sub-Culture now as a Probiotic. The roots on all the new plants are looking great. So My original Idea was good, I am just using a purchased product rather than relying on what "might" be a beneficial bacteria that was in my aquarium water.

I also tripled the aeration in my res.

I don't have any more time to mess around right now with experiments. I love to experiment with things... but I gotta go with what I know will work.

H

[DOZEE]

I have been adding petco fish tank primer for years to boost beneficial bacteria s and re using lava rocks. it kicks ass if you add a lil molasses and sea weed .. Now you got dank ass bud there buddy.. and it digests dead roots if they have dryed out first.. just do you best to pick out most of it and monitor ph

[Harvester]

I have been adding petco fish tank primer for years to boost beneficial bacteria s and re using lava rocks. it kicks ass if you add a lil molasses and sea weed .. Now you got dank ass bud there buddy.. and it digests dead roots if they have dryed out first.. just do you best to pick out most of it and monitor ph

good info!

I think I just found my problem. I lost 1 of 3 new clones that I just put into my table...It was growing beautiful hairy roots, but then it just fell over on day #3...

I recently started using Rapid-rooters old-school cutting style...because my DIY aerocloner needs a few improvements.

The cutting that died was planted slightly deeper than the other 2...tearing apart the rapid rooter showed me that those things hold WAY too much water...it was sending out healthy roots but it died inside the cube.

I'll be ordering a bigger air pump and going back to work on my cloner. I never had these problems dropping a bare-root cutting right in the basket of lava rock but it looks like If I stick with the rapid-rooters I have to put them in the table while the table is flooded so I can set the depth just so the cube barely gets wet each cycle.

H

[spaceman]

was there rot in the rooter that died////
was it on the stem?///

[Harvester]

It happened very quickly. the main section of the root turned yellowish and smelled of carrots. The cut lasted a day and a half after putting it under the big lights.

I think it was rot, but it affected the main part of the stem only...so it didn't have a chance to turn anything else brown or yucky. the suspected rotten part was still fairly firm, so it hadn't decomposed.

Nothing visible above the rooter cube...the stem appeared very healthy until I broke the cube apart and smelled that smell...

H

[spaceman]

damping off/ the real trick is whatever medium you are using to root finding the right moisture level for rooting{squese wrist flickers}, i liked the no damp for those reasons but they dont sell it no more up here/// happens waa///