Hey DGC I could really use your knowledge. I have some issues going on here and don’t have the experience with soil to really diagnose or treat this.
Two of our mother plants started taking a crap right after I topped them all. I thought I put those two into shock. One bounced back and one did not. The bad one kind of looks like it wanted to flower but it has never seen less than 6 hours of darkness. It is also older than it should be. I’ve kept all these poor girls on slow cook as I built the room around them. I know not the way but it is what it is. We were going to take as many clones from the dying mama as we could and ditch it. Well she must have heard the discussion because she has since yesterday started new growth above the affected area. She is a Forbidden fruit right next to a runtz that is showing nothing so I wondered if it was a varietal characteristic.
But today I noticed the same thing happening to a couple plants in the flower tent, including a Runtz. Here are two pics from the same week 3 Runtz plant.
I don’t live at my grow so I don’t get to monitor everything regularly (I know I need a pulse). Last night the exhaust was not turned up and RH levels got up to 77% with a low temp of 55. Could one night at these levels have a critical affect? Even though I was not there to put them to bed I blame myself completely! If I had been focusing on the plants as much as building and dialing in the grow maybe this could have been averted. I have put too much on my new partner in training and I forget to keep up on teaching and reminders sometimes. Also I gotta give her props because she has learned a shit ton in just a year. She has taught me some good stuff too and is going to be a great cannabis grower.
Back to the issue. We wondered if it was a soil bug. We did see a tiny, skinny and possibly winged grey bug crawling around in a soil sample (baby gnat?) Sorry we didn’t get a pic of it, but just not getting good images from the new microscope. We have battled thrips and spider mites (brought in on outside genetics) and managed to kill those fuckers. On any given day we might see 1-2 fungus gnats buzzing around but usually none. Our IPM seems to have handled most of our issues as we have no critters or poop anywhere on the plants.
We have no mold and conditions are generally pretty steady with good temps and RH . So is this a fungus and would a quick sweep with my fish tank uv light maybe kill it off?
We split one of the affected stems to show the inside. It is green and wet. 
I finally got all these zones (mama, baby, veg, flower) clicking. It would suck to lose every thin in this room. What the hell is it and can it be stopped? Fuck I’m a hydro guy!!
Help me OBI-DGC-KENOBI! You’re my only hope!!!! And as always…..GROW, SIFT, PRESERVE!!!!!!
Some serious phosphorus lockout with the purple stems. What ph is the soil at and what is the nutrient strength. Runoff test or slurry test might be in order. Any chance the mother is root bound. Sometimes a transplant and root trim might be in order. Also after taking cuts did you water or right before, with the reduced vegetation it would leave excess moisture in the soil longer then it was used to. Make sure those gnats aren’t root aphids.
PH soil is coming about 6.9-7 right now in all zones. We have been lowering water ph to about 6.3-6.4 to try and get it down a bit more.
The nutrients are mild at about 450 ppm because I have such high ppm in our tap. It comes out at around 290 ppm. I want to boost the food actually but scared because of the super high ppm in reg water. I have not tested it so no idea what dissolved solids are in there. It did however create a massive salt build up that required a flush for most of the plants a little over a month ago.
All of them have been vegging for months as I completed the room. They were root bound in the 6” but have had normal transplants to a 3 gal and then a 7 gal in flower tent. All have nice root systems. I was worried they did get over watered on the 7 gal transplant because the dry out took too long. We are watering to about 15% run off.
As for the plant in the mama zone, It is actually not a mama and was supposed to go outside soon. It has not had cuttings taken. It was also transplanted into an pot that really wasn’t large enough. I was considering chopping it up for the good available clones on it.
Thanks for confirming my suspicion that we did over water so e of these girls. I’m not transplanting them again. It is only a couple branches out of hundreds in the room. I have ways to move air and adjust temps and RH. I think we will be ok if it’s not a bug or disease. There is lots of nice week 3 flowers going and I need to dust pollen like now so it will be in the hands of the gods. Thanks for the help man!
Oh I forgot to add. I think it is more of a deficiency in phosphorus. I have spent the majority of my time building and tweaking this grow. The plants were kind of just appearing as I was building and training my partner. That being said I have not focused on good soil or nutes yet and in fact I was behind in upping the P and K for these girls. I am a bad dad!
That high of tap water usually leads to excess calcium which will cause lockouts and if tap is high ph then excess carbonate is in your water and will also buffer ph too high. Be careful with that tap and such low nutrient feeds as your nutrient ratios will get out of wack.
I suspect two things are at work here. The gnats and leaf issues look like over watering in a cool environment to me. The gnats and leaf damage can be from an over moist media. The gnat larvae feed on the fungus that is growing in soggy conditions. The roots get suffocated and are easily infected, resulting in leaf damage. Too much water and too little water both result in root die off. The purple stems are from the single temp drop to 55. The fact that the humidity spiked at this temp, supports the over watering theory. Best thing to do is transplant. You will be able to examine the roots, and identify the pests.
Well as I stated we saw a single suspected gnat larvae. We do not have a pest problem. I rarely see a gnat or maybe two. We have been very successful with our IPM and things are looking great in that department.
The temp has been dipping into the 60’s for a few weeks but we did have a couple super cold nights with a heavy temp swing. RH was being handled fine by manually turning up exhaust at night. We just missed some nights I reckon.
In hindsight I should have installed an additional night exhaust for spiking RH. I may do that later. I was bound to miss something in the set up as I have 4 growing zones, soon to be 5. I’m thinking of a pulse for the flower tent because I am not living at the grow. Often I find stuff out after it has happened. I’m still tweaking everything and this is just a first run. It is full of experiments and training cuts and it has been sorely neglected by me.
I will try to get some more heat in the room to help the flower tent temps during it’s dark hours.
We water to 15% runoff so I think we are ok. I did hit the flower tent a bit heavy after it’s transplant . I didn’t know how the run off was with the new pots and I gave them more than they needed. That watering schedule has already been reduced so things are evening out. I had a feeling that mistake would bite me in the ass but it’s not a total loss. Those affected areas are small and the RH and temps are already stabilizing.
I think I’m gonna ride it out. I have too many plants waiting for the season so they can go to new homes and I want it all to go! I am ready to start running seeds and do some crossing. Thanks for the help.
looks like some possible lockout going on.. whats your run off ph and ppm? what type of soil are you using? what kind of lights are you growing with? so much missing from this picture for me to offer any real assistance my dude..
Soil is not premium but it was new. run off is fine. Ph fine and ppm on low side. lights are fine. I really am not buying the environmental stuff anymore. I have the room pretty friggin dialed in. I think Wesley is on track. My first thought was soil bugs because this happened quick. One cold night is not going to kill one plant but leave the one next to it just fine. It is going one branch at a time so it is a spreading active thing, not a slower response from environmental factors that affect a whole plant. Thanks for the advice.
But I do plan on better soil in the future.
this RUSSIT MITES all day. they cause every deficiency you can think of. please compare pics of your plants to an online search. I see this misdiagnosed all the time
Thanks Wesley. I just knew in my bones this wasn’t watering. I don’t have an out of whack room. My environmental conditions are solid and we don’t water log our plants. My lights are not too bright or hot (running 18-20” away right now). If anything they are borderline not enough light. Everything is very consistent and running well. Water schedules are to about 15% runoff so I think that is not too much.
Damn my first thought was some kind of soil bug but I have almost no experience with soil and it’s issues. I am glad I was on the right track. I had never seen anything like this when running hydro of course.
Thanks for what I feel was the actual advice I needed. Even though I think I watered the flower tent too heavy on the 7 gal transplant, my run off was still only 25% so they weren’t drowned. It was only like a 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 gals which i cut down to a gal and a quarter and that is far as I am going. Lack of runoff caused a salt build up already and I had to flush a while back.
Let the battle begin. Thanks again dude. I hope we can save the room. There is one of the draw backs of a perpetual grow in one room. But I have confidence it will run smoothly once I iron out the wrinkles. Thanks again dude. I appreciate the help.
ok just did some reading and these guys are supposedly under the leaves. I guess our loupe check yesterday was not very thorough as we did not see them. Today my partner says she spotted some so I guess I am heading to the grow before the game to start dealing with this shit. I’m sick of all these fucking shit genetics from other people man. This is my fourth pest in one grow. I want all this shit out so I can start popping seeds.
the lower buds turning brown is a major sign of russet infestation. you need to throw it all out and clean 16 times over and over and over. alone with chlorosis, spindle stems, small fan leaves,wackey new growth and the dusty/sandy look is all tell tale signs of the beast RUSSET
Remove just the affected plants or all my plants? Dude there is like 40 ladies going in there! I need to try to save them if I can.
100% mites this is bad . ive delt with these for 4 years trust me you don’t want this to slip by you. this shit will make you go get a nine to five after 12 years of cultivation.
im going make a post with pics from the first sighting to what we see here about russets from pics from. my garden. the plants look the same as these
Nothing beats first hand experience.
Here’s a little info on those damn buggers.
Sending positive vibes. 💚🤞
https://www.growweedeasy.com/cannabis-plant-problems/hemp-russet-mites
Hey thanks man. I appreciate that.
Ok DGC. Thanks for all the input. Wesley has it. I did not not look close enough with the loop. Pulled out the USB microscope and sure as shit there are some russet mites.
I was an idiot for not keeping up on my IPM just because I had battled down the other pests. This is another thing that would have been prevented if I was being more diligent with the plants and not fucking with my setup.
Culling the room is not gonna happen. This is one dying plant of many and there are some affected branches here and there that are gonna be removed and IPM will resume hardcore for the next 7-10 and then regular schedule again. We will keep y’all updated.
good luck brother. positive vibes your way. * grabs loupe and goes back to the garden *
thanks man
Well flower tent is going to be gone pretty soon I think. The russet mites are having a field day in there. Vegging plants showing signs but also looking like the may survive it. If the plants survive this IPM blasting and I manage to stop the pests, can I then take cuttings, dip and quarantine them to save some genetics? Will they just come back on a clone that has been cleaned and treated and quarantined for a couple weeks?