RAPIDLY moving problem: Yellowing, browning, wilting, then death (organic only grow)

[SeaMaiden]

Alright, I've had a feeling something more was in store for me this year, and I was right. I've got an issue I've never seen before, but I'm not quite sure it has me stumped, I just need to make sure I'm on the right track.

Conditions are as follows:

Outdoors at approximately 38*N, western scarp of the Sierra. Organic grow (organic gardener, NO chems on site), plants were started several weeks ago and then transplanted into 1gal pots.

Temps have been in the 70s until a few days ago, when localized temps have hit the high 90s. This is not unusual nor unexperienced, however.

RH in the 30%-40% range, some rain a couple of weeks ago but they were inside the greenhouse at that time.

Water only at this time, as soil has been well-amended. It's the same mix I've used for *all* my veggie garden seedlings, btw, and nothing else is showing a problem.​

The story is that I went to Portland last week for a few days. While I was gone the temps went up, but nothing out of the ordinary. Some of my seedlings shriveled up, but all the veggies came right back. The cannabis, on the other hand, which had already mostly been moved to behind the greenhouse, was showing some decidedly different problems, as you'll see in the photos.

It begins as a lightening just inside the leaf margins. That rapidly progresses to browning, which once begun RAPIDLY progresses to full necrosis and simultaneous wilting of the leaves. Sometimes the crown is left somewhat intact, other times the whole plant seems to be consumed.

I'm thinking I have blight, pythium, fusarium, something like that. The plants have not been over- or under-watered, though, and up until last week showed all signs of vigorous, healthy, happy growth. I've just been waiting for them to sex so I can put them into their final beds, where I have some other clones (from someone else) growing that are showing NO SIGNS whatsoever of this problem.

However, they're in black nursery pots. Could it be heat? I'm not seeing how that is possible because the last and largest plant to succumb looked perfect last night, just before dark. I went down this morning and woke up to two of my larger starts near death.

All help is HIGHLY appreciated. Please understand that I am dedicated to organic-only methods.

 

[SeaMaiden]

Couple more pix. This last plant was literally perfectly healthy last night.

Thanks for looking.

 

[Granger2]

Maiden,
How do the roots look? I know you've had experience with root aphids, but this doesn't look like RA's to me. Checking would be wise anyway, and I'd smell the roots. A sulfurous smell would be an alarm.

Looks like you need to act quickly, so if it were me, I'd spray the leaves with potassium bicarbonate, and drench medium with you're usual water, ph'd, and 1 1/2 Tbl/gal 3% hydrogen peroxide. I'd want plenty of run off.

I'd use H2O2 for three waterings/feedings, then re-innoculate with Great White or similar. Then I'd brew some good ACT with EWC, and hit the leaves and soil with it. I'd also each time use a good root stimulator like Roots Excelurator or GO's Root...whatever. Hope than helps. Good luck. -granger

 

[Weedninja]

If you're pretty sure that nothing is pissing on them and no one is poisoning them, I'd be inclined to agree with you on the Fusarium, or maybe Verticillium; something like that. Unfortunately, there's not much you can do about it.

Here's an ebook that may help you with diagnosis and treatment/prevention: http://depositfiles.com/files/m55mo6rnb
It's not my upload, but I can say that there's no executable attached and it tests clean with my antivirus.

 

[yortbogey]

yes...it really does look like the plants have been sprayed or covered in sum....poision...
is there crop spraying in U'r area that could have drifted thru the wind?
or a pissed off bear w/ a urinary track infection that is mad @ U?

 

[Weedninja]

I was thinking more like raccoons, possums, or cats, but the bear was a nice visual

 

[b00m]

Also check for cats, the bastard males around here came and sprayed my plants on a regular basis till I got my 22kg staffy , now they(cats) take a wide berth around my house.
Your leaves look very much like mine do after a cat has sprayed them and it doesn't take long at all for the plant to die.
Hope this gives you food for thought

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

What the heck is that soil? Looks like some terribly dense rocks...My guess is that weed ninja is right and it was caused by over watering + compaction. Soil just looks awful from here and number one culprit imo. Heat stressed as well but how hot was it? Hot enough to kill the roots? The whole grow is bad I think this is soil mix issue, but maybe pest. Really does look like plants that were pissed on though I have been drawing my name in the back yard for a week now looks just like the dead grass j/k heh

Couple more pix. This last plant was literally perfectly healthy last night.

Thanks for looking.

Is that algae all over in the pots from the white tables? I have heard it does not affect your plants but I do not believe this to be true. I would change your seed/clone starting method by using a better mix and a standard pot or solo cup.

I hope you get this solved I know how much of a bummer this can be you should definitely check for root aphids on the roots and fungus gnats they will do this too cause fusarium etc as well.

Also check for cats,

Maybe a mountain lion that is a lot of piss, lol...I have seen a lion blast off spraying everything before looks like a giant rainbird sprinkler would be able to cover that amount of grow.

 

[Kcar]

Couple more pix. This last plant was literally perfectly healthy last night.

Thanks for looking.

Looks like Round-Up to me. Anyone pissed at you?

Or severe dehydration.

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

Looks like Round-Up to me. Anyone pissed at you?

Or severe dehydration.

I did not see the over night comment, but I used malathion as a root dunk like an idiot one time and lost a whole grow to it...Did look EXACTLY like this.

If it was just drying out over night from under watering it wouldn't have all the crazy nute symptoms I would think? Would've stayed green and just went way crispy no browning but darkening and greying.

 

[Weedninja]

SM is a skilled grower and I doubt it's something noobish like lack of water. I've seen plants die quickly from overheating and they go limp, dry out and die. No chlorosis, no necrosis, they just die. They are showing some heat stress, like margin rolling, but they are still turgid the whole time.

 

[187020]

Might be time for a smoke report?

 

[joe fresh]

overnight you say?....

my first guess looking at them would be pythium, or the lesser known phytopythora...ive had this happen to my plants indoor overnight and there was no saving them...wilted overnight and died within 2-3 days...

one thing ive noticed is that with pythium or phytopythora, the roots stop drinking any water and the buckets remain heavy...yours look dry, how are they, full of water or dry? are the plants drinking?


take a look at the phytophythora link in my sig...




and as for something being sprayed on them? imo we can rule that out right now, anytime i seen stuff sprayed on plants the wilt and die from the top down, not the bottom up like in these pics

 

[FirstTracks]

If you check out my 600w grow link in my thread, same kinda thing happened to my plants. Pretty much decided it was because I made too hot of a mix and didn't really give it enough time to cook before putting the plants into it. Most of the plants stayed healthy enough to make it til harvest. Buds were crackly/sparky when burning, most likely because of overferting. Since it was my first time with organics, i was under this impression that I couldn't overfert........that was wrong. Also had an issue with fungus gnats until I put on a 2 inch layer of perlite (during that same grow), so that may have been part of, or all of, the issue.

Ultimately, adding the perlite to get rid of the gnats and flushing the hell out of my medium with straight water was the only way I got to harvest.

Might not be the same thing, but my leaves were showing all kinds of symptoms all at once, getting discolored and brittle and dying, etc.

 

[Ground Up]

I say soil, but your experienced sooo.. it must be something you used ,thats not what it says it is

 

[joe fresh]

oh i forgot to ask....do you feed your plants tea? reason i ask is if you made a bad batch of tea then chances are you infused the soil with bad fungi and bacteria which would be the same as pythium ect...

 

[Sam the Caveman]

I'd guess verticellum, or some other fungal/bacterial infection, thats the only thing I know of that does that kind of damage that quick.

foliar spray all the plants with ewc tea or compost tea, when the infectious material lands on the plant, it will be consumed by bacterial/fungal remnants of the tea. Thats about the best organic method I can think of.

You could spray the ones that are infected, then give them an asprin foliar feeding. (325mg/gallon) Asprin will kill internal infections, fungal or bacterial, may take a few applications though. This may help the ones mildly effected.

If it were me though, I'd trash all the infected ones just to get out of there. Don't want it spreading anymore spores.

Good luck, hope you can stop it.

 

[TripleDraw27]

My guess is Pythium. Ive seen it on parts of Cannabis, over night, half the bush is dead, wilted with a little bit of normal growth not affected yet. gl sm

 

[RetroGrow]

overnight you say?....

my first guess looking at them would be pythium, or the lesser known phytopythora...ive had this happen to my plants indoor overnight and there was no saving them...wilted overnight and died within 2-3 days...

one thing ive noticed is that with pythium or phytopythora, the roots stop drinking any water and the buckets remain heavy...yours look dry, how are they, full of water or dry? are the plants drinking?


take a look at the phytophythora link in my sig...




and as for something being sprayed on them? imo we can rule that out right now, anytime i seen stuff sprayed on plants the wilt and die from the top down, not the bottom up like in these pics

Actinovate is a natural product that will take care of pythium and other fungal diseases.

http://www.gardeners.com/Actinovate/39-394,default,pd.html

This stuff really works according to what I hear, but it's expensive.

 

[40AmpstoFreedom]

check this out this company has a lot of plant disease stuff:

http://www.rinconvitova.com/biostart.htm

Order their hypoaspis miles and keep a spare tub of dirt around you don't use so you can propagate them for a permanent cure of thrips and fungus gnats. Kills some mites not main thing though.