Fungal outbreaks DWC, RDWC

[B3henry]

Most RDWC growers will never admit to having had a fungal infestations although Pythium and other fungi are ubiquitous in hydroponic growing systems. They have never had an outbreak because they simply maintained healthy plants and great water quality and there ain’t nothing to it if you can do those 2 simple things.

But, when a healthy culture of fungi does take hold and thrive into a fulminating culture the race is always on to kill the pests. It’s way too late to prevent the outbreak by then. Fungal outbreaks always seem to happen when plants are looking sickly, dying and decaying and for some cryptic reason the water quality has become deadly, even smells like death, looks like death. Fungi thrive around death and decay… no rocket science here.

Have any of you RDWC, DWC growers ever tried to kill a fungal outbreak 1, 2, 3 times or more?

 

[Hushpuppy]

People often fail to realize that fungus like many other tiny plants and animals, are actually decomposers. Their jobs are to break down dead or dying things in nature. If a plant is weak from something that has caused it harm, this will signal any of these decomposers (who may be present in your grow area) to attack and break down this weak and dying plant.
However, in controlled growing situations, there isn't the natural balance that shuts down the decomposers when they aren't needed. In these controlled grows, if the decomposers get in and have no check on their presence, they flourish. I have had several issues over the years with Pythium, and bud rot on occasion. I have been able to prevent the Pythium by keeping my water chilled to 68f. I also try to keep plenty of "breeze" blowing in the flower room as well as using an AC with dehumidifier to keep the humidity around 50%. This slows the ability of fungal spore from attaching and growing. The only way to prevent the decomposers from attacking is to keep their spore out of the air space. Ideally, having a fully sealed grow space where you pull no air from outside, and recycle the co2/o2 with a co2 generator, is the best way to prevent decomposer attacks.
Once the attack has begun, using some hydrogen peroxide in the solution will kill off microbes in the hydro solution. However, this wont stop the airborne fungus that can get on the leaves and buds. There are several natural antifungals available that you can use to stop attacks in the early stages. But sometimes the only thing you can do is pull out everything and wash the whole space with bleach to kill off any live fungus. Then it goes back to preventing fungal spore from coming into the grow space.