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GanjaGuru

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Early in my indoor gardening career my plants got sick.
It first affected one plant then quickly spread, plant-to-plant.
The leaves got all wrinkled, it was hard to root clones, growth was slow and yield was low.
I checked every marijuana specific grow guide and talked to friends; no one knew what it was.
Then I read in an Ask Ed column about someone who had the same problem and it's prevention/solution.
I had tobacco ring-spot virus.
It's a virus that only affect tobacco--and marjiuana.
If a tobacco plant gets it, the virus can survive the drying/curing/manufacturing process (hardy things those virii).
I roll my own cigs. When I handled the infected tobacco I got the virus on my hands and when I touched the pot plants they got it.
I tore out all those plants, cleaned-up the growroom real good and re-started.

Another time I got a few clones from someone and introduced them into my growspace. I didn't notice the donated plants had spider mites. In a few weeks I was overrun. Spider mites don't travel far and the donated clones were a ways from the other plants. Undoubtedly they traveled on my hands/clothes from the infested clones to the rest of my plants.

So clean up real good before tending your plants. Change clothes (I have a pair of overalls I wear ONLY while tending my garden. It hangs on a hook right outside the growroom door0 and wash up real good (water only works-- you don't need antibacterial soap or soap at all).

P.S. Like I mentioned, virii are tough. If you've got it on your hands and touch a doorknob, the next person to touch that doorknob will get it on their hands.
 
do you have any pictures of the effects it had on your plants?
 
username812 said:
do you have any pictures of the effects it had on your plants?

Unfortunatly no, but if your good at searches you could prob. find a pic of the affect it has on tobacco.
There were brown splotches and the leaves were "wrinkled".
There is a spray you can use to get rid of it that contains copper, but I didn't want to use that on something I intended to smoke.
 
i found a couple pictures of its effects on tobacco but not marijuana, it looks very similar to a couple of my plants, so i have a couple questions for you,

1. how long did it take to effect all of your plants?
2. were there any other effects besides the yellow and brown spots, like the oldest leaves yellowing and dying?
 
Yeah there was a lot of lower leaf die-off, even before flowering.

Since I hand-examined all my plants frequently, it didn't take long to spread the virus as I moved from plant to plant.
I found no way for the plants affected to be cured naturally but it spreads from direct contact. If you wash your hands after touching each plant you will stop it's spread as long as the leaves from an affected plant don't touch another plants leaves.
But like I said, if you touch a doorknob before you wash your hands and then touch that doorknob after you wash, you've got it again.

By no longer continuing to re-introduce the virus every time you handle the plants in the future, they will "recover" a bit. The new growth won't be affected as much.

Good luck.
 
damn, i also roll my own cigarettes so im beginning to think i have a problem, and i touch a lot things before washing my hands so it probably all over the place, thanks for the info
 

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