White on my Rockwool????

[Giddeon]

PIC 1: Have this white stuff show up on the bottom and a little bit on the top of the rockwool cubes any help as to how to get rid of this problem??

PIC 2: What is going on with my stems I have never had this problem before does it have to do with the white shit?? It is happening to a couple plants this one is the worst!

 

[BakedasBeans]

What kind of water are you using? (RO or tap), and if using tap water are you letting it sit for a day or 2 before using?? Looks like salt, but im not sure if that would cause your stems to do that or not. Is the growth being affected at all? Slowing down or yellowing?

 

[BakedasBeans]

I also noticed the light is hitting the top part of your cubes. It might help if you cover the top of it with panda film or something to keep the light off and prevent mold. They make little plastic squares specially for this but its cheaper to DIY and cut your own.

 

[Giddeon]

Yeah tap water no sitting out...never had this problem before though.

I noticed the problem start when I did cover my cubes to protect the top from light. maybe just a coincidence. I uncovered them to increase air flow to the top of the cube if it was a mildew problem.

 

[mrdizzle]

that stem looks like its from being too wet, possibly from the covers you had, they seem to make it real moist and humid

looks like some salt build up or possibly some sort of mold. I would hit them with a serious flush

 

[Giddeon]

that stem looks like its from being too wet, possibly from the covers you had, they seem to make it real moist and humid

looks like some salt build up or possibly some sort of mold. I would hit them with a serious flush

Yes I have started today with water that had been sitting out about 36 hours Ph'd to 5.65 hand watered with a kitchen baster so that I wouldn't get the stems wet at all.

I also sprayed a 10% bleach solution on a couple of the cubes that wont be keepers anyway just to see if that solves the white powdery build up with no negative effect to the plant

 

[WolfDawg]

Well that definitely looks like stem rot, did the plastic you had on top set on the stem there as that would cause it, it can also be caused by any algae growing on top of the rkwl/stem then it dies and causes rot.

The stem rot can also be caused if that part of the rockwool by the stem just stays wet constantly, I would be pulling it away from the stem right up there to keep it dry as possible.

The damage appears to be already done and may already affect the growth pretty bad on that plant, sometimes it affects it only a little and it recovers other times the plant struggles to keep up or dies even after addressing the prob.

If it is salt buildup you need to really flush the hell out of it, those bottom roots look pretty decent from what I can see though.

 

[mrdizzle]

I agree its a form of stem rot, it looks to be mending itself thou. you said you have 16 cuts thou right, are they all like that

 

[Giddeon]

Not all as bad as that one, next time I can I will snap some more pics, but there is some form of that going on with all the stems, Maybe one or 2 are ok but now I have only 9 cuts (got rid of the ones that were weak and not drinkin) the 9 I have left drink about 3 cups of water a day each.

 

[WolfDawg]

Yeh I feel for you, stem rot just SUCKS root rot too, one of the really bad probs that can make you have to kill the whole plant.

The only rockwool I really use nowadays are the starters, put in hydrotron set up a little higher and the top stays pretty dry, that rot is so insidious, didn't you say you had to cull some from stem rot MrDizzle in you other thread?

 

[Giddeon]

Just gave them another check and pulled back a bit of the RW around a couple stems as best I could but as far as I could tell the problem isn't getting worse.

Thanks for all the Help!!
G

 

[Giddeon]

Thank you all for your help and suggestions for my problem.

It seems that the white was a hard water build up and I have ran 5.8 Ph water that had sat out for 36 hrs through the cubes to flush any of this away.

Since I have started hand watering with a turkey baster on the edges of my cube the center part around the stem had dried up a bit which should help my stem rot problem.

Thanks again for the help to keep thing running smooth
G