We’ve been battling this in East, Ky for about 10 years. Its killed literally 1000s of plants. Weve not seen the likes of this for 50 years. I grew my first plants in 72.
My buddy is the real grower, though he passed last October. He guerilla farmed for 45+ years. Got popped once in 1984. He was 74 when he passed.
But in the past 10 years this started showing up more and more,.
I also supplied him with some hard to get seeds, and most of them got trashed. 1000’s of dollars worth over the years.
But the disease starts with purple/Black usually starting at the growing tips, and spreading t the main stalk. Also, it doesnt always kill the plant, and sometimes, they even grow out of it, but that isnt the norm.
Usually it turns the growing tips black, withered, and useless, and eventually the plant dies. This usually starts when the plants very first start to flower, or a week or 2 before.
Im certain its some kind of Phytoplasma disease, which is a Viroid, and there is no cure, and is highly infectous. Its generally transmitted by leafhoppers.
Like I said, Ive been speaking of it, along with several others on a couple other forums for several years, that have also experienced this plague. There have been people from Hawaii, to South Africa who have responded on the other forums, that have experienced this disease.
We have also noted a much higher incidence of leafhoppers in the past 10 years too. The suckers are everywhere. We’ve been growing this stuff for almost 50 years, and never has anything been so destructive in the last 10 years as this.
While some may disagree. Im convinced climate change is allowing the bugs to spread further north, because they dont get killed off by consistent, long, freezing winters anymore. Which also has made them not migrate as far back south, and they overwinter in places they usually wouldnt be in the winter.
This is a photo I borrowed, and it is the beginnings of the plague. Eventually,on a really badly infected plant, the whole plant turns black.
No. And if it is a Phytoplasma, there is no cure. Like I said. Some grow out of it, but we kill any plants that show signs of this, so it wont spread. In some plots it kills every plant.
Are these indoor/outdoor? And are they right in the soil, I’ve seen this ONCE , long ago on an outdoor grow, got 4 plants all the same strain. Never seen it again, thought it was something with the strain tbch
We have a thread about this, affectionately called purple blotches…
I’m still on the fence about this issue. I want to believe it’s mineral but I’ve grown God knows how many plants from seed and never seen this indoors.
I have one patch that showed this symptom, and it would seem that one branch can be affected while the rest of the plant remains untouched which isn’t what I’d expect from an elemental issue.
Ive been growing weed since the 1970s, and have never had this problem, until the last 10 years. And like I said. Its been reported from Hawaii-South Africa.
Ive never seen it happen indoors. I can use the same cuts outside, and many of them will get infected. Inside?? Not 1 plant gets infected.
And yep. One branch can be infected, and not bother the rest of the plant. Im all but certain its a Phytoplasma.
Phytoplasma only exists at high phloem ph/eh. The purple is the plant attempting to lower the ph with sugar buildup.
Best to find out why the plant isn’t healthy than to study specific outcomes of poor health. Health comes first in my garden. Disease can have whatever is left. "Pesticide companies hate this guy "
The reason as to why here reminds me of something Tom hill said about why he hated purple weed in general and plants that tended to purple from the inside out were trash.
This is a good point, also all the infected plants in that mentioned thread were outdoors, makes me think about an external vector involved, not a deficiency…
Ive read all that a couple years ago.
Like I said. Ive been growing weed for 50 years, and this only started happening 10 years ago. Every plant that gets it, is seemingly in the best of health, and then right before they start flowering, the black sets in.
The plants are in 6.2-6.5 medium.
It also happens when we use pots, and grow them in Promix BX, which has a buffered PH of 6.2. It happens in both potting soil, and native dirt. PH is perfect. And like I said. This aint my first rodeo with weed. Almost 50 years growing outside, and have been growing inside since they first came out with a 1000w Metal Halide in 1977-78. It was used on Navy Subs to grow veggies.
