So I came outside to check the ladies about a week ago and noticed a lower branch that was wilted and dead even though the rest of the plant looked healthy. I’ve heard of plants sometimes dropping branches for no particular reason so I just cut off the branch and kept it pushin.
I typically check the plants at least twice a day, on my morning check yesterday everything was fine. That evening I came out and two more branches were wilted and half dead.
The concerning part is that all three branches are on the same side in line up the main stalk. Anyone have a clue?
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Are you in native soil or amended? Sometimes roots can hit a thick or rough patch of soil causing a couple small branches to struggle… doesn’t look pest related so that’s my theory.
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What i did was till up the ground about eight inches deep then i put on about eight to ten inches of decomposed material i found on the property. I tilled that in then mounded it all back up to about ten inches and put on three more inches of horse manure compost.
The bed itself is about four foot wide and the ground below was not compacted that i could tell. None of the ground around the bed has any drainage issues. The plant in question is on the end of the bed and the branches are on the end side so maybe.
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Do you think i should water that side more or do something else?
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Could be a stem borer, they drill a small hole into the stem and the larvae kills the entire branch. Usually happens very quickly. Look around the base of the stem for a hole or saw dust looking stuff at the base of the stem.
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That is exactly what i was thinking also. It is a corn borer
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Yeah it’s possible there’s a big dry patch but wouldn’t hurt to kind of dig above that area see what’s going on.
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I think of sciarides larvae
They can drill into plants stem
Some moth larvae can also attack in this way
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There is no sign of any stem damage or debris around the plant base. Its strange because in this picture the healthy looking portion in the center is actually between two wilted portions on the same branch.
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I have the bed covered with weed fabric. I pulled that back and it was fairly dry so I gave it a good watering and we shall see.
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Yeah man I was going to say she looks pretty healthy to me so hopefully a thorough saturation will bring her back to Glory.
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that’s called frass 
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After my watering the branches have still not gotten better. I did a little digging and I think it’s fusarium wilt.
I cut off the two branches in question and saw no signs of discoloration or any other abnormalities.
If the plant shows anymore signs of wilt I’m just going to pull it.
Thank you all for your suggestions.
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Oh damn that’s a bummer…is it just a single plant suffering? I don’t blame you for culling it soon if continues to spread
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It is just the one plant so far and Fortunately for me I planted two of them so hopefully the other makes it if this one doesn’t.
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We never really know what’s going on beneath the surface but overall plants were looking healthy so prob just a one off. I’ve had all kinds of soil, fungal, and pest diseases growing non cannabis outdoors in the deep south… you kind of just work backwards based on symptoms and observations by the process of elimination
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Yeah, I’ve been vegetable gardening for a while now so I’m no stranger to dead plants lol.
It does sting a bit but when it’s gotta go it’s gotta go
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How’s the native soil in your area? I know you mentioned amending it thoroughly but we have so much compaction from clay sand and rocks down here it reminded me of a few plants that suffered in a similar way. When those roots hit the super dense pocket it’s game over
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I had a gopher make a run/tunnel under one side of my plant near the edge. it dried out the roots on that side and one branch started looking similar to what you have there. So I filled it and put some chopped up bald cypress seed balls outside the root line.
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It’s clay and rocky but it all seems fairly well draining, we never have any standing water even after large rains. I hope it is just a soil compaction issue that would be preferable to having fusarium wilt for sure.
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