Thank you all SO MUCH for putting this information out there. I thought the whole idea of "beneficial bacteria" was a crock of shit before I read this thread and tried it for myself.
I'm in DWC buckets with the temps peaking at 90. Lost my last round of plants to the root rot after trying Physan 20 and H2O2 (3% and 35%). I thought I was going to have to give up DWC and deal with soil after that happened but it's been ~3 weeks and my plants are looking great! Roots and all!
I'm just using blackstrap molasses and earthworm castings to make my tea and so far it's working great.
Bravo, bravo!!! A quality, informative post there by Maxipad.
I am certain you aren't stoned/dumb enough to think you add all that "JUNK" at once!? Well don't. But seriously, read the third to last line in my post...it's there just for someone like you.
A good grower is determined when things go wrong and how they respond.
I posted to help people understand, in a somewhat organized manner, just a little more of the challenges some of us face when growing in hydro or peat moss/vemiculite. Dirt is what you dig up in your yard or like the Irish grew their potatoes in back in the mid 1800's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)) and they would have done ANYTHING for just one of those "JUNK"s you referred to. Phytophtora (aka plant killer) was the demise of over a million people.
Well we can certainly agree on that!
Not entirely true!Just drop the coin on a proper chiller for your setup and you'll be good to go. You can't grow hydro without one except in the smallest of spaces. The sheer heat from the light will warm up any hydro way past it's capabiltiies without a chiller.