Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hello there!

I have a single 250 gallon FT to nurture some lettuces in a DWC system, It worked for a few months, but now the lettuce is dying, damping-off, wilting. It looks like I have Phytium in the GBs water, so I am cleaning the solids filter with more frequency, I added some Trichoderma to the roots and I saw an improvement in the roots color and strenght, however the stem of the plants is still being affected, getting that brown color and the lettuce are very pale and dying at the end. Can you advice me about what to do ? I thought I should add a sand filter, but it will slow down the water flow, an aereator was added to a section of the GB, but I don't see an improvement, I was thinking of using Mychrorrizae but maybe you have other practical tip to share ? Thanks a lot

I had problems with Pythium during our rainy season,days on end of 100% RH etc etc, anyways I think I reduce its impact to the point of it no showing up again with activated EM, dosing is 1-10,000 but as an experiment I dosed much higher than that with positive results. Take into account I can’t substantiate this so its just my oberservation on my system.

It sounds interesting, this activated EM is a product that you get locally ? Or do have a recipe to prepare it ?
Thank you.

You can make your own, but I am to lazy and just by it locally, I brew it it large coke bottles ( other brands are available) 4 at a time, it lasts for a month or so when brewed and takes up to 3 weeks to brew depending on temp. I love the stuff and have used it since I started with I think great results.

Well, I will see if can get it locally, otherwise ...I will prepare some, somehow. I had used worm tea, wich is also rich in microorganisms, but I stopped as the system had these issues arond the same time , I thought I had a lack of nutrients, so I added a worm bed in the chain, instead of the compost tea to keep the constant nutrients source; now knowing that the bad guy is there...I should try activated EM, today we put some michrorrizae to see if the micelias grow. Thanks a lot, your AP system looks great.

Now then, I had two small hydro systems that had some horrid bacteria outbreak that I couldn’t for the life of me clear up, so lots of google searching I found mention that Worm Teas or Compost Teas would help to the point of clearing it up. I didn’t have either but did have EM,so I tried it at quite a large dose and it was successfull at clearing it up, hence I tried the same in my system against pythium and I feel it was successful, I am growing today all three trough nearly full of lettuce and absolutely no sign and we are still having daily high RH,but it is coming down as the season is changing.
I would go back to what you were doing and throughly try that,if no joy by then you would have brewed or bought your EM and you can try that.
Hope it works as it’s heartbreaking for Pythium to rob you all all your hard work,I lost Toms, Chilies, peppers and lettuce at one point.

Thanks for sharing, I will prepare some worm tea with the remaining humus I have, it looks like we need to boost the good guys growth and reproduction, so they overcome the parasites in the micro-battle, it is frustrating when you see after 2 weeks of planting good seedlings how they just get yellow and die, it feels like a waste of time and money, but it is going to be fixed!
Do you have aerators in your GBs ?

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