Tobacco Mosaic Virus Help!

[acedog420]

Hello, my name is Eric and I am a caregiver with the state's medical marijuana program.  Let me start by giving you some pertinent details.  I grow with CANNA coco coir in 7gal fabric pots.  I use all high end hydroponic fertilizers and make sure to supplement in silica.  I monitor nutrient solutions for ph and ec.  I run sealed rooms with CO2.  Temps are low 80's lights on and low to mid 70's lights off.  Humidity is around 50% in flower and high 50% to low 60% in veg.  Plants flowered under 11 non-air cooled 1000w HPS lights and vegged with mainly T5 fluorescent with some HID supplementing.  Reservoirs are cleaned weekly and rooms are tore down and scrubbed every 8-10 weeks.  Foliar feed once per week and maintenance spray for pests every 10-14 days.  Plants are watered to runoff 2 times/day, feed in the morning plain water at night(0.3-0.4EC)

 

  I am currently having a problem in my gardens that is getting out of control.  I have been growing indoors for almost 15yrs and thousands of plants and have never seen an issue like I'm currently having.  The plants will thrive throughout the cloning and vegetative processes with little or no plants displaying issues.  within 14-21 days of switching to 12/12 photoperiod I will notice only the leaves protruding from the forming flower start to show signs of chlorosis starting closest to the flower and moving out towards the tip of the leaf.  As it progresses the flower sites will become almost completely "yellowed out" while the fan leaves remain relatively healthy.  Towards the end of flower it becomes apparent that the flowers are failing to bulk up and oil production is severely reduced.  The fan leaves also start to show signs of heat stress during the final weeks.

 

I have been having this issue for over 5 months now.  I have tried ruling out over fertilization with testing EC of nutrient solution and runoff.  I keep my PH in a constant range of 5.9-6.1 so have ruled out any lockouts due to that.  In the past, I have been able to solve ALL issues I have encountered by either flushing to remove excess salts, paying closer attention to ph, or by foliar feeding for macro/micro deficiencies.  However, with my current situation the problem is only getting worse.

 

I have contacted several testing facilities across the state attempting to find one to test for pathogens.  After speaking with several microbiologists they have led me to the conclusion that I am dealing with an infection by some strain of the Tobamovirus(Sunn Hemp Mosaic Virus best guess) of some sort for 2 reasons. First, not all plants across my 2 flower rooms are affected equally.. Some plants are mostly healthy and some are mostly affected.  There may be a plant that all but 1 branch is severely affected and the branch that isn't seems completely unaffected and is thriving.  On the other hand there may be a perfectly healthy plant with 1 affected branch.  The affectation seems to be indiscriminate across strains and location in flowering room.  Secondly, I have recently put some of my plants in a room with plants from another caregiver that has never had this issue before and within 21 days of flower his plants were also exhibiting signs.  This was done at a completely different location.

 

I have ordered a TMV immunostrip test kit(ELISA) from AGDIA to try and test on my own, but would be more confident in a neg/pos result from a lab rather than an at home test.  As such, I have talked with Alliance Analytical Labs in Coopersville and will be having them verify my at home test with a more controlled laboratory test.

 

I guess my question is has anyone on here ever dealt with some sort of a pathogen in their grow?  If so how did you treat it?  I understand the virus will always exist on some level in my grow, but can it be controlled to the point that I rarely see signs of it?  I was told when I first encountered PM that the only way to never see it was to get rid of everything and start from scratch and found out that wasn't necessary and I have been controlling it for years without seeing any signs.  I'm hoping the same is possible with a viral infection?!

[acedog420]

more pics

[Restorium2]

Stop this part for a while and see if it helps;

 

 Foliar feed once per week and maintenance spray for pests every 10-14 days. 

[acedog420]

Been there done that...no change.  Thanks for the input.

[Restorium2]

If you think it's a virus then treat it like a virus. Clean and isolate. If it's really a virus then it will be gone. If it's still happening then it's something in your growing technique. 

[Restorium2]

 

Treatment and management[edit]

One of the common control methods for TMV is sanitation, which includes removing infected plants, and washing hands in between each planting. Crop rotation should also be employed to avoid infected soil/seed beds for at least two years. As for any plant disease, looking for resistant strains against TMV may also be advised. Furthermore, the cross protection method can be administered, where the stronger strain of TMV infection is inhibited by infecting the host plant with mild strain of TMV, similar to the effect of a vaccine.

 

[bax]

standard non virus answer to grow problem post:

 

you didnt tell us if your plants are from seed or clones.

if clones, try seeds.

 

you are using flood and drain tables?

water each plant individually, new res, new pumps, tubes, air stones.

maybe its in your rez bro? or your system.

hell, scrap the hydro for a run and go full dirt.

 

what are the buds like when finished? white? do they finish? or do they budrot or something?

i want a picture of a non-green bud if you got one. like a trimmed one i mean, off the plant. did you get it tested for potentcy? or smoke it? the green is chloraphyll anyways, THC and other cannabinoids are mostly milky clear... maybe light brown/yellow/red. so going by color wont really tell you the potentcy. although very obviously the plants look sickly and that will cause potentcy issues.

 

using calmag at all? if not, add some.

 

heres what i think, i could be wrong. try it!:

 

go organic 100%

 

worm compost + coco , water with worm compost tea only both foliar and roots. dont use your bottled bunny muffin for one run.

 

if using clones, stop. either by throwing a male in there to produce seeds and continue the strain by seed with new moms, or just run other seeds. its possible TMV or other hemp virus is passed on by seed, but give it a try anyway.

 

water? got a filter? RO water? tap? well water? whats the ppm?

 

how close are plants to the light? i think grass said something about heat bleaching buds by putting them right next to the lights.

[bax]

virus answer post:

 

not much info on plant viruses.

not much info on combating them either.

 

jorge's book only contains miticides, insecticides, bactericides, fungicides. nothing about viruses. there is no plant anti-virus. at least not in this book.

 

jorge book says aphids and whiteflies spread virus plant to plant.

 

finally jorge book recommends another book

"hemp diseases and pests"

 

which is a 275 page book and can be found at http://libgen.ioor amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Hemp-Diseases-Pests-Management-Biological/dp/0851994547

Edited February 25, 2017 by bax

[bax]

i wonder if that guy is going to come back. that hemp diseases is a good book

 

ironically, european researchers have controlled spider miteswith leaf extracts of cannabis sativa ( fenili & pegazzano 1974).

very interestinggggggggg

[bax]

the book quotes rosenthal from high times saying that viruses infect the seeds, so dont bother sending a male in there to produce seeds if you are trying to save any variety.