need help with Peace Lily

[GpsFrontier]

Hello odie91,
I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly. Were you trying to transfer the plant into a hydroponic system, or just a container with grow stones and 2 inches of water in the bottom? If it's the later, I wasn't there to see how you did it and how moist the grow rocks were, but I would suspect the plant died from dehydration. With all the water at the bottom and the grow rocks drying out, the roots wouldn't be able to get any moisture.

On a side note, why is it that you can take a Peace Lily and grow it in a vase of water (with no other medium) and it will not die of root rot? Whereas you overwet a medium, and it is more prone to root rot? Is it because in the water-only medium, it's harder for bacteria to thrive?

While there is some truth to pathogens being able to multiply faster in a growing media than just water alone, the growing media will act as a bio filter giving the pathogens (as well as beneficial microbes) more surface area to attach to. But pathogens will thrive in straight water as well. However it's not over wet/over watering that's the problem. It's suffocation. Like humans, the plants roots need oxygen as well. They pull dissolved oxygen from the water itself, but once that's depleted the plants will begin to suffocate. When they suffocate, that's when their far more venerable to pathogens causing disease. Some plants tolerate wet feet (waterlogged roots) better than others. That is some plants will be fine constantly submerged in water provided there is enough dissolved oxygen, but others need fresh air as well for added oxygen. Plants that prefer well draining soil don't like wet feet. A water culture system is a perfect example of constantly submerged roots, however the air stone and air pump provide added fresh air/oxygen.