Is this Tobacco Mosaic Virus? Almost three straight YEARS of total crop failure. Should I nuke the grow-op?

ebgms

Active Member
It would be dependent on what mutation the plants have undergone (if any). It could be something that only happens in flower, or it could be a combination of small mutations that finally shut down a biological function (inability to assimilate N, P, K, or micronutrients) or weakend chlorophyll/chloroplasts, a disruption in transport of nutrients within the plant, no way to really know, but it's a possibility. Try growing from seed or get a diffent clone strain and see if the problems persist, then you'll know with greater certainty.
Yeah, that's what it appears like, some biological function that's critical to photosynthesis just shuts down for unknown reason(s).

I don't have the time or the space to try growing from seed, but that is a good idea thank you.
 

ebgms

Active Member
You said from the middle, do you lollipop hard, to where the middle is basically the bottom of your plant? The reason I ask is because russett mites damage almost always starts at the bottom of the plant.
No, no lollipop or pruning of any kind. I may try lollipop next grow because this plant malady I have causes them to s t r e a c h like there is no tomorrow, even during veg, and half my bud sites get no light whatsoever.

Do you have any pics of the whole plant, not just the leaves?
See my follow up post above.
 

TCH

Well-Known Member
Yeah, id definitely get a pH pen. Tap.water isn't necessarily 7.0. Otherwise there would be no reason for calibration solution. Since you have tried multiple water sources, I dont think thats it, but it's definitely worth dialing it in to eliminate the possibility.

And you said that you don't have the time or space to grow from seed? If you have the time and space to grow plants half way to completion and then scrap them, you can take a couple extra weeks and start some.fresh seeds to try new stock.
 

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Why go thru all of this without knowing ph of source water / feed ?

Plenty of ways to check what you are putting in to eliminate THAT from the problem. Plus the fact , you are overly flushing the medium ( unbalancing ) it . That alone opens up a continuous problem as you leach it .

Also when you overly flush you reduce the buffering that makes up the medium hence the problem you see.

IMG_0383.jpeg

This is not TMV - this is all grower error.
 
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Phytoplankton

Well-Known Member
If it’s city tap water its usually easy to find out the PH and what’s in it. The water quality report should be available on-line. If not, you can get it from them in hard copy. That at least will tell you the base PH, and what dissolved solids are in the water. That’s a starting point, also invest in a ph pen. Until you have that info, anything we could suggest would be a wag (wild ass guess).
 

weedstoner420

Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear of your troubles...sucks when you get good at doing something a certain way and then the old methods no longer work... For some reason this part stuck out to me:
I don't know what the water ph is because I've never been able to find a ph meter that works properly (reads 7.0 in water without nutes in it).
Some things to consider:

- Tap water with no nutes in it isn't always 7.0 pH.
- pH meters need to be calibrated, even the $10 Amazon ones have an adjustment screw on the side. They also sell calibration solutions of various pH's, because you can't assume your tap water is 7.0 pH.
- For water with no nutes added (i.e. no color), the color-changing pH drops from the pet store are guaranteed to be accurate with no calibration required, and you can buy them at the local pet store.
 

Phytoplankton

Well-Known Member
You've only been growing one strain for 14 years? Clones of clones or do you have a very old mother?
There is a thing called genetic fading, that really sounds like it may be your issue. As I said way back, get some fresh clones (not from your mother plant) or seeds and try that. Conversely, give a couple clones to a fellow grower and see if they have the same issues, that would be definitive.
 

Stardog FPV

Well-Known Member
14 years of the same strain is too long unless you know what you're doing. Even tomatoes and peppers need new genetics every once in awhile. Time to buy some seeds and start over for sure.
 

ebgms

Active Member
You should try to get something to help check the PH and EC of your nute solution.
Oh believe me, I have tried. I've been at this for almost 15 yrs. I would like nothing more than to know the PH and EC of my nute solution. I've tried (7) different ph meters over the years ranging in price from ~$40 to an $500+ Hannah meter that in addition to pH did all that other wizz bang stuff like EC and PPM and uMeters/sec or w/e.

Check this out: Every single one of them gave a different reading when placed in the exact same glass of plain water (nothing added to/dissolved in it) and the best part was...none of them read 7.0. I know nothing about chemistry except that water is always neutral ph=7.0.

None of these meters were accurate, not a single one of them so they all went to the bin.

Confusis Say: Man with one thermometer know temperature. Man with more than one thermometer know confusion.
 

ebgms

Active Member
And you said that you don't have the time or space to grow from seed? If you have the time and space to grow plants half way to completion and then scrap them, you can take a couple extra weeks and start some.fresh seeds to try new stock.
No, my back is to the wall. I'm running out of medicine (dry flower) from my last harvest less than a week after each new harvest. I have no extra source or supply to draw from (I use medicinally and dispensary weed doesn't work for me). I must use every available square inch I have for production, not experimentation, now, or else I will run out of medicine.

Once I can, if I can fix this problem and get a few decent harvests in the kitty, then I'll have some leeway to play around with fancy stuff like starting a seed (which remember can be male and thus wastes months of time with absolutely zero to show for it).
 

ebgms

Active Member
Old hps bulbs could be losing spectrum?
Yeah, I thought that too and replaced both bulbs (2x 600W HPS) a little while ago. One has about 1,500 hrs on it and the other has less than 1,000. The box says they're good for 16k hours (eye hortilux).
 

ebgms

Active Member
Why go thru all of this without knowing ph of source water / feed ?
Because if I don't grow the medicine I suffer debilitating pain regardless of what the ph of the source water / feed happens to be.

This is not TMV - this is all grower error.
So my grow method was not erroneous for 10 straight years, everything worked perfectly, no problems, then all of a sudden became erroneous overnight and hasn't worked worth a flip since?

I guess nature just went and changed all of the laws of plant biology, again, and I didn't get the memo. Legit. Maybe it's in my spam email folder...
 

ebgms

Active Member
If it’s city tap water its usually easy to find out the PH and what’s in it. The water quality report should be available on-line. If not, you can get it from them in hard copy. That at least will tell you the base PH, and what dissolved solids are in the water.
That's a great idea. I didn't know water companies did this.

When/if I can find the water quality report / ph for my area I'll post it up here.

ps: Is ph even a real thing? Like, do actual scientists believe in it or is it more like fortune telling and tarot cards because that's what it seems like to me.
 

ebgms

Active Member
Sorry to hear of your troubles...sucks when you get good at doing something a certain way and then the old methods no longer work...
Thank you for your sympathies. That's exactly what it's like too. Imagine getting up tomorrow morning and realizing you forgot how to walk. Your one foot in front of the other method that worked all your life now results in nothing but a faceplant...into dogshhh. That's what this feels like.

- Tap water with no nutes in it isn't always 7.0 pH.
About the only thing I know about chemistry is pure H20 (aka tap water) is always neutral (ie ph=7.0). If a meter says pure H20 is anything but 7.0 the meter's wrong not the water.

- pH meters need to be calibrated, even the $10 Amazon ones have an adjustment screw on the side. They also sell calibration solutions of various pH's, because you can't assume your tap water is 7.0 pH.
Yeah that's waay beyond me. As I said I know nothing about chemistry so doing something advanced and esoteric like calibrating a ph meter in a test tube or w/e is a non starter.

- For water with no nutes added (i.e. no color), the color-changing pH drops from the pet store are guaranteed to be accurate with no calibration required, and you can buy them at the local pet store.
Yeah I have those but my color vision sux so most all of the different hues look the same to me. My girl can easily see the difference but she's not always here when I water the plants.

Thanks for the info, good post.
 

ebgms

Active Member
You've only been growing one strain for 14 years? Clones of clones or do you have a very old mother?
Correct.

Clones of clones. My current mother is a 9x clone of the original mother, meaning the 2x mother was a direct clone of the original, the 3x was a direct clone of the 2x and so on.
 
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