Got a virus - now what?

[funkervogt]

A few months back I got a thrips infection which propagated a virus throughout my garden. My garden was composed of several Witches Weed females and males, and C99 females. I ended up killing off the ones with clear virus-related degradation.

The ones I kept were two Witches Weed females, one C99 female (all keepers!) and one Witches Weed male. I was hoping these were uninfected and therefor okay to breed with [for personal use only].

Then I started noticing some virus symptoms on newly vegging clones of my Witches Weed females... None on the C99 female or Witches male yet, but I'm keeping a close eye. But it's upsetting nonetheless.

Here's my question: Is there any hope of keeping these plants around, at least for flowering and not breeding? I would like to keep these as active cones until I'm able to wipe out my garden for an entirely new stock. My concern as these will just start to degrade in flower. I've heard CalMag will keep them from pooping out too much, but I wanted to get the communities opinion on this.

Best,
FV

 

[generalgrievous]

What kind of virus...?

 

[Greyskull]

thats 'mosiac-ey' looking

 

[funkervogt]

Thanks Greyskull - mosaic looks pretty nasty.

Anyone have any opinions on this before I dump the plants?

 

[darrmann]

that doesnt look like mosaic virus to me. Mosaic virus is caused by handling or cutting clones by a cigarette smoker who doent wash his or her hands when cutting or handling roots. Now unless that thrip was a smoker not sure whats happening. I had a mother and cosequently a bunch of clones with mosaic and they look like tye dye in different color greens and stunted plants. mother hardlt grew and i threw them all out. You cant take clones so if you really have it you have to pitch. DO NOT GIVE CLONES AWAY if this is your problem. But again doesnt look it.

 

[bushmasta]

I have had Mosaic virus before and it looked way worse than your pics. I would say keep your stock and keep growing it out, other than the leaf tips curling sideways nothing looks wrong. I would see that symptom some but my biggest problem was the new shoots everywhere would yellow and grow very slowly, if at all.

 

[HydroJen]

Imagine a human virus- spread by internal fluids, no cure, generally won't kill ya
Same thing
You can pass virus on hands and scissors, so treat it like a syringe at the hospital.
Chem D has a virus. It either stays strong for beast yield or pretty much dies out. Toss up
If u choose to risk it, just don't be a vector!

 

[darrmann]

Imagine a human virus- spread by internal fluids, no cure, generally won't kill ya
Same thing
You can pass virus on hands and scissors, so treat it like a syringe at the hospital.
Chem D has a virus. It either stays strong for beast yield or pretty much dies out. Toss up
If u choose to risk it, just don't be a vector!

mosaic virus will not die out. once your infected you have to throw out the mother or clones whatever you might have. now if you have grown a plant for monthes grow it out but dont take any clones or pass it on.mosaic is bad to have it wont kill ya but it will diminsh your yeikd tremendously.

 

[HydroJen]

mosaic virus will not die out. once your infected you have to throw out the mother or clones whatever you might have. now if you have grown a plant for monthes grow it out but dont take any clones or pass it on.mosaic is bad to have it wont kill ya but it will diminsh your yeikd tremendously.

I apologize, I meant the infected plant could possibly yield or just die before it's finished. You are correct that a virus will never leave the plant.

More specifically, in a 4x8 table of 60 chem D, four or five died on the stem a few weeks before harvest, but we still harvested an easy two pounds.

 

[darrmann]

I apologize, I meant the infected plant could possibly yield or just die before it's finished. You are correct that a virus will never leave the plant.

More specifically, in a 4x8 table of 60 chem D, four or five died on the stem a few weeks before harvest, but we still harvested an easy two pounds.

I just harvested about 15 strawberrys that were infected by mother. they did finish but with lower yeilds then usual, but threw out the mother after that.

 

[funkervogt]

What does "significantly diminished yields" mean? Like, 50%? More?

Basically, I would like to toss these plants and restart, but I want to save my seeds for when I move to a new location in a few months. Sounds weird, but I'd rather build a completely new cabinet then clean the cabinet and the room and still risk a virus in new plants. I figure if I continue with these I won't have to risk my seed genetics.

 

[!!!]

My slut plants have an STD as well.
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=195824

Here's the scoop...

NOBODY will believe you have a virus. They'll think you're a whiny newb if you insist otherwise.

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You can order a test for TMV (and friends.) $35 for 5 strips w/ shipping. I don't know how much I trust the test. If it's negative, perhaps there wasn't enough virus bodies in the test subject for a positive result? Perhaps you DO have a virus not tested for by these strips? I haven't tried the strips myself.

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If you absolutely need to save your genetics, you can take a few cells off the meristem (tip) and use micropropagation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_tissue_culture

The virus propagates slower than the plant grows so the very tip should be virus-free.

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Milk, physan, bleach etc kill the virus on contact but won't get rid of the virus inside the plant.

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The plant will generally show symptoms when under stress. IME, defoliation causes the symptoms to pop up a bit.

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Most people say the virus itself won't hurt yields too bad. It will hurt yield a bit of course, considering the leaves don't contain as much chlorophyll as a virus-free plant and therefore won't photosynthesize as efficiently, but you should still be able to flower just fine. In severe cases, new growth and buds will yellow and shrivel up and die. I haven't flowered yet but we'll see how it goes.

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Pollen, seeds, and clones will contain the virus. Bud you harvest will also very likely contain the virus. Don't smoke or handle infected bud or tobacco near healthy plants. Place hand sanitizer near the grow room and use it often. Try not to touch the plants and poke at them unless you have to. If defoliating, then use sanitizer between handling each plant.

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The virus is harmless to humans.

 

[funkervogt]

Thank you !!!

Pollen, seeds, and clones will contain the virus. Bud you harvest will also very likely contain the virus. Don't smoke or handle infected bud or tobacco near healthy plants. Place hand sanitizer near the grow room and use it often. Try not to touch the plants and poke at them unless you have to. If defoliating, then use sanitizer between handling each plant.

This scares me. I have plenty of bud from my last harvest which could be infected. Same with a few seeds.

So lets say I scrap my current plants and start over. How much cleaning do I need to do? I have a cab inside of an office which I basically smoke/hang out in. I'm sure the virus has touched every inch of this room either through smoke or me.

 

[PoopyTeaBags]

Imagine a human virus- spread by internal fluids, no cure, generally won't kill ya
Same thing
You can pass virus on hands and scissors, so treat it like a syringe at the hospital.
Chem D has a virus. It either stays strong for beast yield or pretty much dies out. Toss up
If u choose to risk it, just don't be a vector!

there is a chem d clone with the virus however not all chem d clones have the virus.... be careful out there girls that put out CAN carry diseases...

 

[!!!]

So lets say I scrap my current plants and start over. How much cleaning do I need to do? I have a cab inside of an office which I basically smoke/hang out in. I'm sure the virus has touched every inch of this room either through smoke or me.

I know what you mean. I can't give you a definitive answer but when I finish this round, I'm going to spray bleach and physan-20 EVERYWHERE I could. I'm also going to stop opening up the tent so much, stop letting pets near it, and stop putting anything that was outdoors like bikes, tools, boots, etc near it.

Nobody goes in/out of the room without sanitizing their hands, and nothing that I can't sanitize will be touched before I go into the room/tent.. this includes vaporizer, stash boxes, cured bud, etc.

Also don't forget to make every effort to eliminate pests, especially aphids. I think the virus itself isn't that contagious. It spreads primarily via roots (and specially aphids.) It can spread via leaves but only through open wounds (infected sap getting into your plant somehow) which means defoliation and any pest that damages leaves are a big risk factor if the virus is known to be present in the vicinity.

I figure dusting/scrubbing down and airing out the room for a few days will get rid of 90% of the virus bodies. Then there's the little nooks and crannies that need to be hosed down with bleach/physan.

Individual pots of soil/coco drain to waste is the safest bet but I'm in hydro with all plants sharing a res. Very hard to protect but I will continue to run a dead res (1-2mg/gal bleach) for the time being. Dunno how effective a dead res is against these virii but it "feels" clean and doesn't seem to harm the plants.

I personally wouldn't care so much about the virus except I'd like to take pollen/breed and trade cuts.

 

[BlueberryLovr]

Kill all pests. They are your primary vector for disease. This is what the scrub-down is for. I've had viral infections before too and (thank god) my plants bounced back--this is after I wiped out white-flies and their hellspawn.

You'll be fine!

 

[generalgrievous]

virus...... like aids...?

perhaps those are symptoms of stress...

 

[funkervogt]

virus...... like aids...?

perhaps those are symptoms of stress...

Perfect temps. Perfect humidity. No pests (all dead long ago). Feeding according to proven schedule with 3rd and 4th generation clones that have been with me long enough to lock them in.

I had zero problems like this until my thrips infection. Once those were eradicated with Azamax and Spinosad applications this weirdness began and hasn't let up since.

All signs point to a virus spread by the vector thrips.