Virus? Mold? Lighting problems?

Hey guys,

First of all, please excuse me if I go against any guidelines in this forum with this post and English is not my mother tongue.

I have a shiva skunk 97 I absolutely love but she is haunted by some sort of sickness or issue.

The problem seems to be well contained as long as the plant is in the vegetative state. I hardly get the issue on my motherplant. I have only witnessed it once on my mother when I neglected her and she grew very tall and I didn't cut her back.

The problems start to occur around week 2-3 of flower when the buds start to form. First thing to turn bad is large sun leaves and from there the "necrotic" looking sickness spreads to the buds where they turn brown and moldy and die off. It mostly hits the top buds (especially top cola) of the plants which is devastating.

The weirdest thing about it, is that if I keep cutting the bad parts away, the plant seems to eventually stabilize and I can even finish her with beautiful big and great smelling buds. Only the lower buds remain but they finish strong. Also note that from 10 shiva skunk there is always about 1 or two that are not affected at all.

Also worth mentioning is that I have the mother in the same room as my other genetics and I have also grown her in the same bloom room with other genetics and they are never affected by what's happening to the shiva skunk.

This for me points away from the theory I'm dealing with a virus or mold, since I also cut my cuttings with the same knife from all my mothers and this problem (yet) only occurs with my shiva skunk. Maybe I have just been lucky up to now.

Years back I heard a grower talk about older strains from the 80's and 90's and some strains in general that don't like strong light as much as other genetics. I'm wondering if it's a lighting problem since I use powerful Q6W Sanlights. In one room I mix the Sanlights with 600W HPS and I had the impression that the ones closer to the "oldschool" 600W HPS were less affected but I'm scared to jump to any conclusions too quick.

I have switched fertilizer (plagron, biobizz, advanced nutrients) believing it's a feeding issue. I grow on soil and am mainly organic. I'm scared at the moment to try any further experiments since I don't want this to spread and I get sad every time losing so many plants.

My shiva skunk, if not affected, has the highest yield of any strain grown so far. She has a thick stalk, great roots, finishes in 6 weeks and smells of blueberries. I am in love with the plant so I really want to save her! Please also note I obtained the shiva skunk from a vendor in Austria and didn't grow her myself from seeds.

If I can't fight this, my next step is to order some skunk x nl5 seeds from Mr. Nice to find a few great males and cross her. That's how much in love I'm with the plant. lol

I am grateful for any help or tips you guys can provide and if you need any further information please ask away.

Cheers everybody.

Pics of what the plant looks like when it first starts would be helpful.

What are the temps and humidity levels in the room?

This happens on different setups and has happened to friends that share the cut as well.

What I can say is the rooms are well aerated with good airflow and enough intake and fans. We pull fresh air from outside so temps typically range from 20-30 degrees celsius (68-80) and humidity 45-70% depending on season etc. It happens every run no matter temps and humidity.
As mentioned above it ONLY happens with this strain so I don't believe its a matter of temp and humidity except this plant is very extreme and only manages in a very tight range and can't handle temp and humidity above something absurd as 22 degrees and 50% humidity.

I have strains in the same room like mac, skittlez, unicorn farts, gorilla glue, wedding gelato and none of them show any trouble regarding mold and humidity. Skittlez makes huge, dense buds without any budrot standing right beside.

As mentioned in the post above this problem already starts in week 2-3 of flower where in my experience plants can handle all sorts of temps and humidity without mold or budrot etc.

If you look on the provided pictures you can see leaves where the necrotic colors just started to form. Thats how it starts. A fan leave starts to become slightly necrotic and then it spreads like wildfire and reaches bud sites which turn brown and moldy.

I hope this provides further clarification. I'm thankful for all your support and tips.

Cheers

Looks like this could be anything to me.

I had similar looking plants when my PH meter decided to suddenly give me lottery numbers instead of accurate measurements.
Also had similar looking plants with a mildew infection.
Also had a plant that looked pretty similar and it was in fact rotting.

My guess is as good as yours...
Sad tho, better luck next time :T

Look to PH 1st.

Hey guys thanks a lot for taking your time and replying, its much appreciated.

I haven't used a ph meter since going organic but I'm definitely considering the extra effort just to get everything even more dialed in. Can't really go wrong there in my opinion.

I'll also try to optimize the rooms in regard to humidity early on and I'll look for some natural remedy against mildew.

I'm also setting up a small tent and pop some seeds to cross her. I'll order skunk x nl5 since those are her parents and I'll also experiment with some other strains. Maybe it's time for her to get some new genes introduced into the gene pool to be more resilient.

Thanks again and have a great day!

CigaretteSmokingMan said:

Hey guys thanks a lot for taking your time and replying, its much appreciated.

I haven't used a ph meter since going organic but I'm definitely considering the extra effort just to get everything even more dialed in. Can't really go wrong there in my opinion.

I'll also try to optimize the rooms in regard to humidity early on and I'll look for some natural remedy against mildew.

I'm also setting up a small tent and pop some seeds to cross her. I'll order skunk x nl5 since those are her parents and I'll also experiment with some other strains. Maybe it's time for her to get some new genes introduced into the gene pool to be more resilient.

Thanks again and have a great day!

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Good idea mate, really good idea!
You only realize how important PH is after you went out of the zone and see how badly it can f*ck with your plants.

I mean, if all your other plants are fine and all your friends' plants are fine but both you and your friends consistently have identical issues with this one particular cut, it kind of rules out grower error.

Ec121, that's my issue. I have healthy, great looking plants standing right next to my plants with issue. And the plants with issues look great up to week 2,3 of flower and then suddenly leaves turn necrotic and bud sites start to rot. Never seen anything like it and i had my fair share of learning experiences with grower error. Bud rot, ph up and down the scale, over feeding, root aphids, spider mites, powdery mildew, bad temps, no ventilation. I made it all happen in the past lol. I can only explain grower error if this is a very sensitive plant in comparison to the others. Or does she have a virus/sickness I have never encountered? I don't know but I always try to find the problem with my technique first. It's grower error like 90% of the times...

Wedding cake has alot of issues too... it's a very weak strain and if she's not in the mood or kept perfectly fine she'll put on her face of horror in no time.

Sadly, it's very delicious

I haven't had wedding cake but im in love with wedding gelato at the moment. Roots in like 7 days, has decent yield and tastes great! Also purples heavy near the end and is so greasy!

CigaretteSmokingMan said:

I haven't had wedding cake but im in love with wedding gelato at the moment. Roots in like 7 days, has decent yield and tastes great! Also purples heavy near the end and is so greasy!

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Hee-Hee! Noted, thank you!