Spacewreck said:

Do you grow outdoors ? If so ,, where do you dry your harvest ? I grow indoor and outdoor .. The only place I can dry mine is in my basement . . This purple crap is the only thing I have not been able to control or figure out for sure .. I have ,, in the past ,, taken some of my plants ,, that had spider mites,, outside for a few days .. I have very diverse // native gardens here and use no pesticides . There is lots of natural predators that knock down the spider mite issue fairly quickly ..

Click to expand...

Dry the outdoor crop in a large garage, thats unattached to the house.
Dry the indoor crop in in a large room in the house.

Jmaes Mabley said:

Dry the outdoor crop in a large garage, thats unattached to the house.
Dry the indoor crop in in a large room in the house.

Click to expand...

I don`t have a garage ... Is that what you do ? Thanks ..

Yes thats what I do.

So has no one here sent off tissue samples to a lab? Any updates? @browntrout

To op. Just got word from Matthew Gates, zynthenol on yt, synchagel on Ig. Confirmed witches broom.

Whats up with this? I got the every damn year bullshit going on, when we get it figured out, this is bullshit.

sik1 said:

Whats up with this? I got the every damn year bullshit going on, when we get it figured out, this is bullshit.

Click to expand...

Yeah it’s been going on An awful long time to not have a solution! If there is one! Good luck!

Slicc_Ricc said:

To op. Just got word from Matthew Gates, zynthenol on yt, synchagel on Ig. Confirmed witches broom.

Click to expand...

Thing is, Ive Never seen a photo, from an expert source, that showed the Viroid/Phytoplasma ect- that is purple black. Ive seen extremely twisted leaves, and other things, but Ive never seen a photo, taken by someone knowledgeable, that shows the disease, as Black/Purple.
Also, not saying it isnt Witches Broom, as it very well may be. But, Ive never seen someone with expert knowledge, and photos, showing the disease, as Black/Purple. Nor have I read descriptions of it being Purple/Black.
Also, of course Ive not seen nearly every photo, on the internet-forums ect, so, I could be missing something. I will always have an open mind. Dont have an open mind, at ones own peril.
And, if it is Witches Broom, these no cure. Only prevention.

Also the clustering of leaves, branches ect, that are mentioned by this scientist, is not typical of the disease Ive seen. It usually turns purple, black, and dies. Though, some do grow out of it But it doesnt cause the type of growth explained in this article.
Also, Witches Broom,, and Whatever the Purple/Black stuff is, are both transmitted by Leafhoppers, and other chewing/sucking type insects.
The only way to eliminate it, is to keep leafhoppers ect, off of the plants, which may in many cases, be impossible to do.

Phytoplasmas are bacteria that live in insects and plant phloem, or the living tissue that transports important resources like sugar. Unlike non-fastidious bacteria, which are culturable on growth media and generally cause plant tissue decay, phytoplasmas are phloem-limited parasites and mainly cause significant alteration of plant growth and development. Typical symptoms include clustering of little branches (witches’ broom), phyllody (developing floral organs on leafy structures), greenish pigmenting in non-green flowers or shoots (virescence), and yellowing and stunted plants. In certain varieties of hemp, phytoplasma-infected plants develop clusters of highly proliferating branches with significantly shortened internodes (Fig. 2, above). Leaves in a cluster are tiny, crowded, sometimes yellowish. Leaves outside the cluster turn yellow and sometimes are deformed. Early infected plants may be severely stunted when compared to a normal plant. Young plants may die off during the early season. A May 2019 disease note published in Plant Disease confirmed the presence of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma trifolii’ in U.S. hemp crops.
THAT DESCRIPTION IS NOTHING LIKE I HAVE SEEN. AND STILL NO MENTION OF PURPLE/BLACK.

Phytoplasmas generally are transmitted by phloem-feeder insects in the order Hemiptera, particularly leafhoppers, planthoppers, and psyllids. Inside the insect vector, phytoplasmas can survive and are stored in the guts and salivary glands, with the ability to move to the saliva. When a phytoplasma-carrying vector feeds on a plant, it delivers phytoplasmas into the phloem via saliva. Therefore, the host range of a phytoplasma largely depends on the plant feeding range of its vector, which is generally broad.

One of the most effective practices to manage phytoplasma diseases is to periodically monitor and control insect vectors, especially leafhoppers, which can also help mitigate hemp leaf curl caused by Beet curly top virus. Although phytoplasmas are mainly transmitted through leafhoppers, they can also be spread via propagation materials such as cuttings and seeds. Therefore, mother plants should be periodically tested for the phytoplasma to prevent the dissemination of the disease to progeny plants. Seeds should be tested and verified to be free from phytoplasma infection.

Correct Diagnosis​

The virus, viroid, and phytoplasma all infect cannabis plants systemically and induce abnormal growth. Although symptoms caused by each organism are distinct to some extent (for example, witches’ broom is more likely to be caused by a phytoplasma infection, leaf curl by Beet curly top virus, foliar chlorosis by Lettuce chlorosis virus, and stunting by Hop latent viroid), there are significant overlaps in symptom development among these diseases. One pathogen can cause multiple symptoms that may resemble other diseases and, in some cases, a crop can be infected by multiple pathogens.

To correctly diagnose complicated and overlapping abnormal-growth diseases, one can perform a symptom polling in the field to determine the prevalence of each symptom type by referencing what the polltaker sees to each typical symptom caused by phytoplasma, virus, or viroid. As described in detail in my book “Diagnosing Hemp and Cannabis Crop Diseases” this strategy helps to correctly classify each symptom observed and calculate the percentage of plants exhibiting witches’ broom, leaf curl, mosaic, chlorosis, yellowing, or twisting. This process greatly helps determine if a phytoplasma, a virus, a viroid, or a combination of them are contributing to the disease, which will guide subsequent sampling processes for targeted testing.

Shouhua Wang, Ph.D. is a plant pathologist with the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

Had it on few smaller lower branches this year at beginning of flower. I cut them off and haven't seen it yet again but it's probably part of the plants now. Last year I use to just cut the infected top but it would always come back on same branch so this year cut the whole branch, smaller branches...

Yeah, it’s weird all right! Seems to be some kind of systemic thing! And fairly localized! Same people seem to be getting it over and over again! In general! Must be in the soil! Just a loadie Observation from spending too much time on forums! L O L! MSU said something about some kind of aster disease Vectored by hoppers! Good luck! Maybe it was spread by the Aster Hopper! I don’t know! I have CRS!

If you search 'aster yellows' here on the forum, follow @cpurola post. This is what it looks like to me. Even the photos she took this year looks like these photos.

Spreads by leafhoppers. There is no cure. I had to remove 5' section of my echinacea because of this disease.

This mentions the aster yellows on carrots misidentified as witches broom.

Also, there are 3 type of insects that cause this, not just the leafhopper, like I stated above.

Jmaes Mabley said:

Yes thats what I do.

Click to expand...

I switched up soil this year..but I grow outdoors and my garden is is a former goat pen..this year has been flawless..no sign of that black top rot,or whatever it is...I had it 3 years running...this year has been extremely dry..no leafhoppers or thrips..just a few...plants were so healthy nothing has touched em yet...we still got 6 weeks or so to go though

Organic13 said:

Sign up for aster leafhopper infectivity text messages

Follow this year’s aster leafhopper infectivity via text messages from the MSU Plant & Pest Diagnostics lab.

www.canr.msu.edu

If you search 'aster yellows' here on the forum, follow @cpurola post. This is what it looks like to me. Even the photos she took this year looks like these photos.

Spreads by leafhoppers. There is no cure. I had to remove 5' section of my echinacea because of this disease.

Click to expand...

I still dont see any purple/black. I see fucked up. But no purple/black.

I thought I saw a link for hemp and aster yellows woth photos, but I can't find it. I see what your saying though. And without photos or a science backed published paper, it isn't possible to connect the two. I'll keep trying to dig because aster yellows is on my property. I do need to be aware and alert because I am growing now.

Jmaes Mabley said:

I still dont see any purple/black. I see fucked up. But no purple/black.

Click to expand...

So what happens if you smoke some bud with the purple on it? Ive had the purple issue for 4 years now and I cut off the really purple/black ones but leave the ones that have a tiny bit on it. This year I got more than any other time ive seen it. Half of my cherry pie looks like this....

Yeah last 4 years here too...that buds gonna be stunted. Been doing the same thing, remove the worst. You can sometimes save a bud by trimming all the sun/shade leaves because they are gonna rot. But if you have a large crop best to just eliminate it. I noticed if I remove the whole branch the ones next to it might not get it but if you dont the ones next to it WILL get it. As far as smoking that would be anyones guess but I shit canned most of it if it got very much purple on it. I would say this year maybe i lost 10%-15% last year about the same. The first year it came around it hit me hard because in 40 years we never saw anything come along like it where I live/grow, so i wasnt watching like I do now. Sorry to hear it's hitting others like usual. I believe I will wage war on leaf hopppers before next springs planting. Also I grew a bunch of different strains 2 years ago , some got it and some didnt , i grew the ones that didnt get it again this year and so far they didnt get it again so we might just have to experiment till finding the more resistant strains...I've grown for 40 years and I'm no expert just a guy who loves weed looking for something to kill this purple garbage.

mike1980 said:

Had it on few smaller lower branches this year at beginning of flower. I cut them off and haven't seen it yet again but it's probably part of the plants now. Last year I use to just cut the infected top but it would always come back on same branch so this year cut the whole branch, smaller branches...

Click to expand...

It got my whole outdoor crop

Looks like there is no cure for Astor yellows or Astor yellowing disease if that’s what it is! It’s got a lot of symptoms, including purpling, and reddening of foliage! You’re supposed to just trash the plant! Unless you want to try and nurse it along And risk vectoring into healthy plants via the leafhoppers! I don’t know if there’s been any definitive diagnosis on weed yet! But it is murder on Carrots! And I thought it was interesting that part of the scientific name of Carrots is something like sativa!

So, maybe you better start sucking it up and trashing them at the first sign of it! Well, you’ll never get rid of it! Or learn to live with it! Bad luck!