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soil Moving a plant from Soil to Hydro.... roots

MNXR250R

MNXR250R

I have two Tasmanian Habanero plants in three gallon fiber pots that have been indoors their entire life. They are in big-box "organic potting mix". I will say that I have not treated them very well. What I mean is that they have been inside of my grow tent from germination until now, but I never spent much time on them.  They have never looked very good (see the pic).
 
Tasmanian 2.jpg

 
I want to move one of those plants into a RDWC system that I have running. SO the question is " What is the best way to wash the roots and clean the plant before I add it into RDWC system ?"
 
I have established plants in this RDWC system already.  If a cannot reliably remove pathogens from the roots of the new plant, I am hesitant to add the new plants to the system.
 
Let me know what you think.
 
Happy Growing,
 
Jeff
 
MNXR250R said:
I have two Tasmanian Habanero plants in three gallon fiber pots that have been indoors their entire life. They are in big-box "organic potting mix". I will say that I have not treated them very well. What I mean is that they have been inside of my grow tent from germination until now, but I never spent much time on them.  They have never looked very good (see the pic).
 
attachicon.gif
Tasmanian 2.jpg
 
I want to move one of those plants into a RDWC system that I have running. SO the question is " What is the best way to wash the roots and clean the plant before I add it into RDWC system ?"
 
I have established plants in this RDWC system already.  If a cannot reliably remove pathogens from the roots of the new plant, I am hesitant to add the new plants to the system.
 
Let me know what you think.
 
Happy Growing,
 
Jeff
Click to expand...
 
I don't have direct experience so take this with a grain of salt, but take the plant outside, wash the roots well with a medium pressure hose attachment, rake the roots if necessary, and maybe give them a light trimming, which will encourage more root branching. Once cleaned, submerge the entire plant in warm (80-85 degrees) water in the bathtub with an added drop of dish soap. Leave it there for 15 minutes, and then wash off the soap and replant in your system.
 
I did this before with fair results. I made a small homemade hydro system for herbs in my kitchen years ago. I just soaked the roots in water to remove as much dirt as possible and gently washed them under the tap. Then I dunked them in dilute hydrogen peroxide, washed again and put the roots in expanded clay pellets. They lived for about a month. I'm sure I messed up somewhere with the nutrients and that's why they died but the "repotting" part of it was a success.
 
Khang Starr has a video on it on YouTube. I'm not sure if it's the best method, but it seemed to work well enough for him.
 
Alternatively, you might consider growing this plant in it's own hydro container, Kratky-style. That might be the only way to 100% guarantee that you won't introduce something to your existing RDWC system. Whatever you decide, the plant in the photo looks like it is probably deficient in something. Once you start giving it the good hydro nutes and put it under a good light source, it will probably explode with growth.
 
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