Root rot?

[wh33t]

Am I correct in understanding that because of the ammonia (or some other substance) plants in an Aquaponics system cannot get root rot?

[badflash]

Not true. Many plants can not stand having their roots wet all the time, others can. Flood & drain works with more plants than a rafting system, but if your plant needs well drained soil, it may not be a good candidate for aquaponics.

[wh33t]

Not true. Many plants can not stand having their roots wet all the time, others can. Flood & drain works with more plants than a rafting system, but if your plant needs well drained soil, it may not be a good candidate for aquaponics.

So it's possible for Aquaponic systems to get pythium and wipe out the whole system? Is there much less chance of it happening?

[urbanfarmer]

Hm, this is an area I have not researched intensively, but I have never had a problem with root rot with adequate dissolved oxygen levels. Conversely, I used to have a common problem with it with low DO levels. I can replicate this experimentally, but that doesn't explain what it is, but I would imagine the DO being high enough to allow the good aerobic microorganisms to out compete and be present in sufficient quantity to prevent damage to the plants.

[rfeiller]

my understanding is that pythium will not exist if you include some pine shavings in your media. this was in an article in i believe it was the publication Maximum Yield (an excellent publication by the way, so is Rosebud and urban gardener). i will look up the specific date of the publication. pythium can be as a result of low oxygen and an anerobic conditions, but not always. whole well maintained hydroponics systems can be wiped out in a few hours.

[wh33t]

my understanding is that pythium will not exist if you include some pine shavings in your media. this was in an article in i believe it was the publication Maximum Yield (an excellent publication by the way, so is Rosebud and urban gardener). i will look up the specific date of the publication. pythium can be as a result of low oxygen and an anerobic conditions, but not always. whole well maintained hydroponics systems can be wiped out in a few hours.

Well what I know of Pythium is that it is an organism. It doesn't just happen, you have to get it. But where it comes from I'm not sure exactly. I do hear that it likes still water though.

I don't much like Rosebud. But I have some friends who write articles for both UGM and Maximum Yield. I know the owners of UGM personally. They are great people.

[rfeiller]

it is like any other organism you can bring it in on your person, in the air, that's why high tech grow rooms require a sterile enviornment. when i toured a very nice rose hydroponics set up (25k-50k cut flowers a day) i was not allowed to touch any plant and had to stay in the main isle. it was not clean room cleanliness, but still.

i just hit Wikipedia, apparantly pythium is a large family of pathogenic organisms it is certainly worth checking out what is written there. it is something that anyone with a green house or hydroponics type of set up should know about. i've never concerned myself with it until now.

i pick and choose the articles from all three publications. urban gardener takes a somewhat different approach, sometimes too political for growing tomatoes. but i like the publication very much.

the other two publications market their products quite heavily. but something has to pay for the publishing, i enjoy my free copies.

[wh33t]

it is like any other organism you can bring it in on your person, in the air, that's why high tech grow rooms require a sterile enviornment. when i toured a very nice rose hydroponics set up (25k-50k cut flowers a day) i was not allowed to touch any plant and had to stay in the main isle. it was not clean room cleanliness, but still.

i pick and choose the articles from all three publications. urban gardener takes a somewhat different approach, sometimes too political for growing tomatoes. but i like the publication very much.

the other two publications market their products quite heavily. but something has to pay for the publishing, i enjoy my free copies.

I dig the political and ethical vibe of UGM. To me that is something that needs to be more apparent to us in our day to day lives. I think we need to continually be evaluating our impact on the planet for future generations.

Anyhow, DAMN ROOT ROT. I hate you!

[rfeiller]

i couldn't agree more about saving the planet and being responsible caretakers of what has been entrusted to us.

[kneedeepinwater]

From what I have learned while using DWC systems and other people using them, which is the only time I have really heard about hydroponic users complaining about root rot....is if you experience root rot your DO is too low. When I was doing DWC and from other peoples experience we/they used ceramic air stones and strong air pumps, not the cheap kind. Also the pumps moved a lot of GPH which help with water turnover which help with oxygen levels even more.

I have never experience root rot period in DWC, Aero, organic soil, ebb n flow/flood n drain, I have never messed with NFT never heard or seen huge harvest from them and I have never messed with drip systems either so I can comment on those.