Cannabis Pathogen Problems: What They Mean for Your Grow Room

After spending time and money on your grow room, it’s not a good feeling to walk into your greenhouse and spot wilting plants, twisting leaves, or brittle stems. Even worse, sometimes there are no visible symptoms at all until late in the growth cycle. When you should be harvesting buds, you end up with duds instead.

If you’re worried about plant pathogens in your grow room, this article will explore five common cannabis pathogen symptoms and what they might mean for the health of your plants.

My Cannabis Plants Are Stunted

Stunted growth in cannabis can sneak up on you. Initially, your plants might just seem stuck in an early growth stage, and they don’t progress. Another indicator is when the stem nodes, where leaves or branches begin, are too closely spaced together, giving the plant a compact, stunted look.

The reasons behind stunting could vary from poor growth conditions to diseases or pests. In a grow room setting, it’s crucial to set up ideal conditions for cannabis cultivation. However, pathogens are often the culprits behind stunted growth, and this is an early sign of several different infections. Here are three common pathogenic causes:

Beet Curly Top Virus (BCTV): This virus can cause cannabis stunting, accompanied by leaf deformation, often with a curly top appearance.

Hop Latent Viroid (HLVd): HLVd, sometimes called HpLVd, may cause stunting during the vegetative stage when plants should be rapidly growing. It’s difficult to spot at this stage, but HLVd’s most notorious symptom is ‘dudding’ (which we’ll discuss later).

Lettuce Chlorosis Virus (LCV): While stunting is not the primary symptom of LCV, it can cause it. You may also notice interveinal chlorosis and leaf distortion as tell-tale signs.

If your plants aren’t growing as expected, it could be due to unfavorable conditions, but a pathogen might be at work. Without a plant pathogen testing regimen, it’s best to isolate or destroy the affected plant to prevent spreading.

My Cannabis Plant Leaves Are Turning Yellow

Yellowing leaves, also known as chlorosis, can be a distressing symptom for any cannabis grower. The yellowing might affect the entire leaf, or only specific areas, and can vary in how it spreads. In some cases, the yellowing starts at the leaf margins and moves inward. Other times, the leaves turn yellow, but the veins remain green, a condition known as interveinal chlorosis.