Hello,
I think my plants have Tobacco Mosaic Virus, or some other really bad plant virus that is systemically crippiling my crop to the point of near uselessness. This is not a simple nute or ph problem or anything like that, I would know, I have 14yrs experence growing and I have NEVER seen anything like this. I hope someone here has and can help, or at least confirm my suspicions of an incurable plant virus (or microscopic insect/spider that is impervious to all known incectacides) that is ravaging my crops before I nuke the entire grow-op from orbit and start with everything new (including a/c and light fixtures which is BIG $$$). Info below...
Plant: Indica dominant, unknown genetics (came from a "bag" I bought over 15yrs ago).
Reason For Growing: Medicinal use. For me only. I'm in a legal state following state law.
History: Been growing this same strain for 14 years, no problems. The last two and a half years have been a disaster...every crop in last 2 1/2 years has failed, and failed in the exact same way, no matter what interventions I take (and I've tried MANY, listed below). I've thrown the kitchen sink at these plants and no matter what I do nothing changes for the better. Nothing changes in ANY way whatsoever!
Note this was a very SUDDEN change, it was NOT a slow fade. It went from a ~12yr run of good to great crop every time to near total failure within one grow cycle and every cycle since has failed to the point of entire branches dying back and buds dying on the plant.
Environment:
- Indoor. Grow cabanet. Totally self-contained.
- 3gal pots
- 2x 600W HPS approx 2ft from plants
- 8 mature plants blooming together
- Temp controlled 70 lights off 80 lights on
- Occilating fan blowing across tops of plants
- No visible insects, spiders, spider mites, fungi or animals
Nutes: Jacks classic 20-20-20 (tried others, see Interventions section below)
Water: tap (~100ppm baseline)
Symptoms:
*** MUCH smaller yields. Yeilds were bigger when I was growing under 80W shoplight when I first started 14yr ago, with the SAME plant (genetics). Now under 1200W hps the yeild is clearly smaller and medicine weaker than under flo tubes 14yr ago.
*** MUCH less resin production per bud
*** Buds are fluffy and airy, not solid and firm like they always were.
*** Top bud (main cola) the same size as most of the other upper level buds...before problem started top bud was MUCH bigger than any other bud on the plant. Top bud was also purple at maturity (end of flower) now it's just green like all the others.
- Mother plants dying quickly - can't keep them alive more than 6mo to 1yr
- Clones taking 2x longer to root
- Plants taking 2x-3x longer to reach maturity
- Once mature, nute burn even at low/no nute levels
- Light burn starts as soon as buds form
- Light burn on mother plants under 2x 40W shoplight (!!!)
- Leaves burn on all edges, necrosis slowly spreads inward until leaf dies, curled UP
- Some leaves get a brown and yellow tip on the longest petal before necrosis spreads
- a striped alternating pattern on leaves (green-yellow-green) that is VERY unique
- slow root growth
- root ball at maturity much smaller than normal
- weak main stems (tall/mother plants unable to support own weight, keel over)
- smaller, weaker secondary stems
- MUCH longer distance between nodes. stretch starts in veg, MUCH worse pre-flower.
- Once buds form, leaves start dying from MIDDLE of plant up. Lower leaves unaffected.
- Lower leaves and lower buds (where light rarely hits) finish completely healthy
Hypothesis: Plant cannot take light properly. Plant does not absorb, distribute and/or process nutes properly. Disregulation of photosynthetic process. Total systemic collapse. Virus or microscopic insect/spider suspected as cause.
Interventions (all of which had ABSOLUTELY no effect):
- tried seven diff types of soil...all seven crops failed the EXACT same way
- changed all grow lightbulbs to new ones (done this twice)
- tried different water (distilled, RO, rain)
- tried different temps for day vs night
- used Jacks Classic bloom booster nutes 10-30-20 instead of Classic 20-20-20
- worm castings
- bat guano
- neem oil
- insecticidal soap
- acephate
^None of the above had ANY EFFECT WHATSOEVER good or bad!
Plan:
Nuke the entire grow-op from orbit when this current crop finishes (fails), clorox and bug bomb entire grow area, heat grow area to 140 degrees for 12hrs, attempt to start over with a new seed/strain/cultivar...unless my hail-mary post here lands on someone's eyes that knows wth this is (and how to fix it) which I realize is a long shot since this problem is so very, very bizzare and unresponsive to any interventions.
Pics attached.
Thank you for reading!
I think my plants have Tobacco Mosaic Virus, or some other really bad plant virus that is systemically crippiling my crop to the point of near uselessness. This is not a simple nute or ph problem or anything like that, I would know, I have 14yrs experence growing and I have NEVER seen anything like this. I hope someone here has and can help, or at least confirm my suspicions of an incurable plant virus (or microscopic insect/spider that is impervious to all known incectacides) that is ravaging my crops before I nuke the entire grow-op from orbit and start with everything new (including a/c and light fixtures which is BIG $$$). Info below...
Plant: Indica dominant, unknown genetics (came from a "bag" I bought over 15yrs ago).
Reason For Growing: Medicinal use. For me only. I'm in a legal state following state law.
History: Been growing this same strain for 14 years, no problems. The last two and a half years have been a disaster...every crop in last 2 1/2 years has failed, and failed in the exact same way, no matter what interventions I take (and I've tried MANY, listed below). I've thrown the kitchen sink at these plants and no matter what I do nothing changes for the better. Nothing changes in ANY way whatsoever!
Note this was a very SUDDEN change, it was NOT a slow fade. It went from a ~12yr run of good to great crop every time to near total failure within one grow cycle and every cycle since has failed to the point of entire branches dying back and buds dying on the plant.
Environment:
- Indoor. Grow cabanet. Totally self-contained.
- 3gal pots
- 2x 600W HPS approx 2ft from plants
- 8 mature plants blooming together
- Temp controlled 70 lights off 80 lights on
- Occilating fan blowing across tops of plants
- No visible insects, spiders, spider mites, fungi or animals
Nutes: Jacks classic 20-20-20 (tried others, see Interventions section below)
Water: tap (~100ppm baseline)
Symptoms:
*** MUCH smaller yields. Yeilds were bigger when I was growing under 80W shoplight when I first started 14yr ago, with the SAME plant (genetics). Now under 1200W hps the yeild is clearly smaller and medicine weaker than under flo tubes 14yr ago.
*** MUCH less resin production per bud
*** Buds are fluffy and airy, not solid and firm like they always were.
*** Top bud (main cola) the same size as most of the other upper level buds...before problem started top bud was MUCH bigger than any other bud on the plant. Top bud was also purple at maturity (end of flower) now it's just green like all the others.
- Mother plants dying quickly - can't keep them alive more than 6mo to 1yr
- Clones taking 2x longer to root
- Plants taking 2x-3x longer to reach maturity
- Once mature, nute burn even at low/no nute levels
- Light burn starts as soon as buds form
- Light burn on mother plants under 2x 40W shoplight (!!!)
- Leaves burn on all edges, necrosis slowly spreads inward until leaf dies, curled UP
- Some leaves get a brown and yellow tip on the longest petal before necrosis spreads
- a striped alternating pattern on leaves (green-yellow-green) that is VERY unique
- slow root growth
- root ball at maturity much smaller than normal
- weak main stems (tall/mother plants unable to support own weight, keel over)
- smaller, weaker secondary stems
- MUCH longer distance between nodes. stretch starts in veg, MUCH worse pre-flower.
- Once buds form, leaves start dying from MIDDLE of plant up. Lower leaves unaffected.
- Lower leaves and lower buds (where light rarely hits) finish completely healthy
Hypothesis: Plant cannot take light properly. Plant does not absorb, distribute and/or process nutes properly. Disregulation of photosynthetic process. Total systemic collapse. Virus or microscopic insect/spider suspected as cause.
Interventions (all of which had ABSOLUTELY no effect):
- tried seven diff types of soil...all seven crops failed the EXACT same way
- changed all grow lightbulbs to new ones (done this twice)
- tried different water (distilled, RO, rain)
- tried different temps for day vs night
- used Jacks Classic bloom booster nutes 10-30-20 instead of Classic 20-20-20
- worm castings
- bat guano
- neem oil
- insecticidal soap
- acephate
^None of the above had ANY EFFECT WHATSOEVER good or bad!
Plan:
Nuke the entire grow-op from orbit when this current crop finishes (fails), clorox and bug bomb entire grow area, heat grow area to 140 degrees for 12hrs, attempt to start over with a new seed/strain/cultivar...unless my hail-mary post here lands on someone's eyes that knows wth this is (and how to fix it) which I realize is a long shot since this problem is so very, very bizzare and unresponsive to any interventions.
Pics attached.
Thank you for reading!