The good news is that this article tells you why it happens and what you can do to stop it.
What are the signs that your cannabis plants might have rotting roots?
In soil or hydroponics, if your marijuana plants are drooping, growing slowly or not at all, showing nutrients problems even though you’re using good hydroponics ferts and have reverse osmosis water along with the correct pH…the problem may be root rot.
If you’re growing in pure hydroponics systems such as Deep Water Culture (DWC), NFT, or aeroponics, you can easily look at your marijuana roots.
If they’re white, dense, and shiny, they’re healthy. If they’re brown, thin, and/or parts of them are mushy, that’s root rot.
There are various vicious microorganisms that can create root rot, including pythium and phytophthora. These aggressive parasites can harm your roots in a few hours or days and gradually suck the life out of your cannabis plants.
Root rot microorganisms thrive on hydroponics nutrients, light, dirty water, and less-than-optimum water temperatures.
You stop root rot using the following methods:
* Early detection comes from monitoring of plant health aboveground, and if you’re running a water culture system, actual visual of your marijuana plants’ roots.
* Only use reverse osmosis water.
* Use hydroponics nutrients that automatically balance and and continually adjust pH so it’s in the optimum pH zone (5.7-6.2).
* Don’t overwater!
* Keep your root zone and water in the temperature range of 67-71F.
* Install beneficial microbes in your root zone. Beneficial microorganisms protect your roots from root rot organisms. Not only that, they power marijuana roots so you get better growth, yield, and general plant health. Use beneficial root zone products made specifically for marijuana roots: Voodo Juice, Piranha, Tarantula.
* Use a hydroponics enzyme product such as SensiZym. Enzymes are catalysts that digest root shedding debris and other materials in the root zone. This increases marijuana plant nutrients uptake, and also cleans the cannabis root zone so harmful organisms have a harder time taking hold.
* Install aeration devices in your nutrients reservoirs. Oxygenated root zones are healthier root zones.
* If you’re growing marijuana in soil, make sure your soil has sufficient perlite and other spacers that create looser soil that is less prone to being waterlogged. Many types of commercial soil don’t have sufficient aeration and tend to clump up and lack aeration.
* Don’t allow light to enter your marijuana root zone.
* Only use the best organic soil that comes with on-board beneficial microorganisms and is guaranteed not to have root rot microorganisms. Good luck finding soil that good. Most soil available at hydrponics stores isn’t organic or safe to use.
* Keep your marijuana grow room, and especially your irrigation system and plant containers as clean as possible.
* Some inferior cheap types of hydroponics nutrients can create conditions that favor root rot microbes. Only use high-end hydroponics nutrients. This gives you the added benefit of having faster growth, more THC, and bigger yields.
If you detect root rot in your garden, here are the steps you take:
* Run a mild H202 (hydrogen peroxide) solution through your irrigation and root systems. Ask your hydroponics store for the best hydrogen peroxide products, doses, and cleanse duration specific to your marijuana growing system.
* If you’re growing your cannabis in DWC or other pure hydroponics systems, do root pruning to remove rotted root mass.
* If your marijuana plants are in a solid root zone media but the roots haven’t penetrated too far yet, remove the plants from those containers, get rid of as much of the old root zone as possible, and re-install fresh root zone materials.
* Add SensiZym to cleanse your root zone.
* Change out your water and clean your irrigation system, especially your reservoir and buckets. Use H202. Don’t use chlorine bleach or other household cleansers.
* Water can carry harmful microorganisms. If you aren’t running reverse osmosis water, now’s the time to do it.
* If you disturb your marijuana plants with root pruning or removal from their stable placing, give them No Shock, B-52, or Organic B to help them deal with the stress.
* Use chillers and aerators to ensure proper cannabis root zone temperature and oxygenation.
* Re-install beneficial microbes after you’re done using hydrogen peroxide.
* Replace your existing hydroponics base nutrients with pH Perfect and Balance-Free pH hydroponics base nutrients. When you use these new type of hydroponics base nutrients, your marijuana plants take in nutrition faster, and root zone is right where you want it to be. This makes it way harder for root rot organisms to flourish!
Root rot has become a persistent and destructive problem in the hydroponics marijuana community, as the embedded videos show. It’s especially prevalent in deep water culture and other water culture hydroponics systems.
But hey, let’s celebrate with a bowl, vape, or rig hit, because now you have a complete guide to detecting, preventing, and remediating root rot in your marijuana garden!
