Dodging the (Fusarium Wilt) Bullet

Since the last post, I have removed the plant that was damaged, since it also seemed to be the most sickly. I also removed all affected leaves from the rest of the plants in hopes of pushing the crop to completion. A few of them look more like sticks at the moment due to the heavy leave removal, but as you can see, in only 7 days, they have grown significantly, doubling, perhaps even tripling their size. The angle/perspective of the picture is different, but still... HUGE growth!:

Today (9/29/09):


A week ago (9/22/09):


Now that they are out of their seedling stage, I've cooled things down a bit with the A/C and lowered the humidity by opening some vents in the tent. It's right where I want it. 80 degrees. I know from having previously putting the thermometer/hygrometer on the rockwool cubes that the humidity is 5-10 percent higher at the plant than on the control board. This puts the plant at 50-55 percent humidity. Perfect:



As you know, it was looking like I may have Fusarium Wilt infection. The only way to determine this for certain is to cut a stalk in half lengthwise. Since I was throwing out the damaged plant (also the most impacted by the chlorisis/yellowing and dried up leaves), I decided to use that one.

Here's what it looked like (you probably want to click on the picture to see it full-size/close up):


Here's what a badly infected plant looks like. Notice the brown discoloration in the vascular tissue:



So... it looks like the plants are safe; At least for now. When it comes time to do a nutrient change, I'll be re-sterilzing the system (except for the cubes of course), then adding about 50ppm of 35 percent Hydrogen Peroxide to the system to help kill-off anything evil still lurking in the plants as well as preventing future infections.