What Causes Stalk Rot????? Help

[MendoGiantZ]

Hey everyone.. So every year for the last three years I have had about 5 percent of my plants get stalk rot.. Im not sure exactly what its from but here are a couple things I think are part of the problem....
1. Burying the stalk a tiny bit to deep and having wet soil around the green healthy part of the stalk. (i really tried to not bury the stalks this year but it happened on some)
2. My method of watering.. I have been hand watering every year and my fiances mom does it.. She isn't very careful and often times leaves the hose on each pot and lets it get a massive amount of water and also waters it heavily right at the base of the stalk. ( we are setting up a drip system as we speak..)
3. I think it might be something in my soil.. The guy at the organic tea shop said a lot of the unhealthy parasites can actually be living in the soil.. (not sure about this one but it kinda makes since)
4 Over watering..

Any advice would be appreciated... I have been digging any excess dirt from around the stalk and getting rid of it.. I use Mad farmers super potent hydrogen peroxide to spray once i find any rot... It just sucks having massive plants get it and start to die.. :(

 

[MeJuana]

It's just the fact that the stem is remaining wet along with the soil. Hydrogen Peroxide blows it's ass up around it's neck area..

 

[GrowGod]

Hey everyone.. So every year for the last three years I have had about 5 percent of my plants get stalk rot.. Im not sure exactly what its from but here are a couple things I think are part of the problem....
1. Burying the stalk a tiny bit to deep and having wet soil around the green healthy part of the stalk. (i really tried to not bury the stalks this year but it happened on some)
2. My method of watering.. I have been hand watering every year and my fiances mom does it.. She isn't very careful and often times leaves the hose on each pot and lets it get a massive amount of water and also waters it heavily right at the base of the stalk. ( we are setting up a drip system as we speak..)
3. I think it might be something in my soil.. The guy at the organic tea shop said a lot of the unhealthy parasites can actually be living in the soil.. (not sure about this one but it kinda makes since)
4 Over watering..

Any advice would be appreciated... I have been digging any excess dirt from around the stalk and getting rid of it.. I use Mad farmers super potent hydrogen peroxide to spray once i find any rot... It just sucks having massive plants get it and start to die.. :(

Nice one blaming the mother in law lol but if they are your plants it's your fault for not taking care of it or teaching her to correctly water your 10 lb. plants.
Anyway hygrozyme works really well below the water line. Will prevent the rot even with sloppy watering practices. And you can use h202 in low ppm's with the hygrozyme.

 

[Blaze]

1) Get your drip system finished so the plants are getting watered more precisely. Make sure they are not getting over watered.

2) Get down to Ag Unlimited and get some Regalia and spray it on your plants and possibly even do a soil drench. This will help the plant fight off fungus infections.

3) If that still doesn't work PM me and I can send you some links to get something a bit more heavy duty than the Regalia but I'm not posting that info on an open forum.

4) Make sure the soil and/or mulch is pulled back from the base of the stem where the crown is. Sometimes all it takes is the crown getting too wet and then fungus can set in.

5) Make sure you have no open wounds on the plants from pruning or whatever. If you do, spray them with some hydrogen peroxide to clean the wound then seal it with tree seal.

Good luck, stem rot is a bitch we've had our share of problems with it here and there over the years.

 

[Adventure]

Spit bugs

 

[ThaDurb707]

The drip system will help a lot keeping the water away from the stalk. Keep using the H2O2 once a day, 3% diluted 1/1 with water works for me. I love watching it bubble up eatin the bad shit and two days later it looks brand new. Good luck brozie

 

[MendoGiantZ]

1) Get your drip system finished so the plants are getting watered more precisely. Make sure they are not getting over watered.

2) Get down to Ag Unlimited and get some Regalia and spray it on your plants and possibly even do a soil drench. This will help the plant fight off fungus infections.

3) If that still doesn't work PM me and I can send you some links to get something a bit more heavy duty than the Regalia but I'm not posting that info on an open forum.

4) Make sure the soil and/or mulch is pulled back from the base of the stem where the crown is. Sometimes all it takes is the crown getting too wet and then fungus can set in.

5) Make sure you have no open wounds on the plants from pruning or whatever. If you do, spray them with some hydrogen peroxide to clean the wound then seal it with tree seal.

Good luck, stem rot is a bitch we've had our share of problems with it here and there over the years.

Awesome advice. So we got the drip system almost dialed in. We have the 1 gallon per hour pressure compensated soaker hose with an emitter every 12 inches. We are doing 9 plants per zone and i was wondering what you think is the best Amount of time to use the drips. Is it better to water every day for a small amount of time. Every other day for a medium amount of time or every three days and soak them really good. I was planning on doing a medium amount every other day and doing a fertilizing once or twice a week with the extra 1200 gallon tank. The plumber/contractor that set the drip up for us said we should install an iron filter. He thinks we will have a problem with clogged emitters do to our high amount of iron in the water.

 

[Seamaiden]

The drip system will help a lot keeping the water away from the stalk. Keep using the H2O2 once a day, 3% diluted 1/1 with water works for me. I love watching it bubble up eatin the bad shit and two days later it looks brand new. Good luck brozie

I do, too! I'm so glad I'm not the only one who enjoys watching it do its thing. :D

 

[Growfellaz]

ANY PICTURES OF YOUR ROT,PLANTS?

 

[DemonTrich]

Doesn't h202 kill any and all benies in the soil?

 

[GrowGod]

Doesn't h202 kill any and all benies in the soil?

I think so

 

[ThaDurb707]

Doesn't h202 kill any and all benies in the soil?

It kills anaerobic bacteria, feeds aerobic. If you use it in your feed mix it will kill some bennies. I only use it to mist bad spots while growing. You can use higher concentrated levels to sterilize your hydro system

 

[Seamaiden]

It reacts with organic matter, so once it's hit organic matter (irrespective of whether it's alive or not) it's done reacting.

 

[Blaze]

Awesome advice. So we got the drip system almost dialed in. We have the 1 gallon per hour pressure compensated soaker hose with an emitter every 12 inches. We are doing 9 plants per zone and i was wondering what you think is the best Amount of time to use the drips. Is it better to water every day for a small amount of time. Every other day for a medium amount of time or every three days and soak them really good. I was planning on doing a medium amount every other day and doing a fertilizing once or twice a week with the extra 1200 gallon tank. The plumber/contractor that set the drip up for us said we should install an iron filter. He thinks we will have a problem with clogged emitters do to our high amount of iron in the water.

The exact time and amount of water will depend on your soil, climate, and how big your plants are so it is hard to give an exact answer. You will need to monitor your soil moisture and dial it in yourself. Once the drip is up and running that should not be too hard though, you will get a feel for it quickly. I water my plants 1x-2x per day - though to be careful that you are not over-watering if you water more frequently like this.

Smaller, more frequent waterings will produce better growth than heavy, infrequent waterings. When you do a really heavy watering every few days you flood the plants at first, which deprives them of oxygen and increases the changes of having fungal issues like stem rot. You end up losing a huge amount of that water to run off, which also leaches nutrients out of your soil. Ideally you want to give your plants enough water so that your soil hits its holding capacity but does not become over-watered and anaerobic. Usually this means watering until there is just barely some run off.

Also if you are going for the more organic approach and using top dressings and teas, more frequent watering helps maintain the health of the top layer of soil. Over 90% of soil biology is contained in the top 2" of soil. Most of the chemical reactions that occur in soil also happen in that top layer. Almost all of the feeder roots that cannabis puts out are also all in those top few inches as well. More feeder roots means the plant can uptake more nutrients and more water which in turn results in faster growth and larger plants. If that top layer gets dried out repeatedly and consistently, then you are killing off your feeder roots and soil biology. This is one of the reasons why mulch is SO important as well. Your soil surface should always be protected by some sort of mulch - it not only helps conserve water but is one of the easiest, simplest ways to grow bigger, healthier more productive plants.

 

[jumpincactus]

yup very good input. The herd loves a moist, not sopping wet house to live in. Letting that top 2-3 inches dry out is not a good thang. Mulch is a must!!!

 

[50YardLine]

WTF? You didn't take any of the advice I gave you last year?

Do bog potting.

Run sprinklers.

Have a professional water your plants if you keep hand watering.

Facepalm!

 

[MendoGiantZ]

WTF? You didn't take any of the advice I gave you last year?

Do bog potting.

Run sprinklers.

Have a professional water your plants if you keep hand watering.

Facepalm!

I took your advice. I planted almost all the plants out of the soil. Not the bog method because I didn't like the pots that look like a 5 gallon bucket and didn't want to have 3 inches of root ball sticking up above the dirt. (We used 10 gallon soft plastic pots so we could rip them in half when we transplanted ) it was hard to get a good BOG with those style pots but we did it on as many as we could. We are setting up drip systems as we speak ( we have it mostly set up we just need to do the repetitive part now. No one really wants to hand water that I trust for 15$ an hour and my fiancés mom loves to do it so I'm gonna continue to use her until we are all dripped up

 

[Seamaiden]

I prefer watering at least 4x/day, short bursts. I've managed to reduce my water usage per plant to about 2gals/day total. But, that's in raised beds with cover crops.

 

[Bulldog420]

Still getting those problems?

How much are you watering?

How often?

Sounds like way over watering then. Leaving a hose on a plant is a no no.

If I remember I will come back and post up some evaporation rates for your area, and that will give you an idea of how much you plants should be drinking. I just saw a post where somebody was giving 600 gallons a day to twenty plants.......

I think the worst desert in Ca looses around 18" of water in July. This is calculated without plants, just soil retention. 600 gallons a day? Crazy!

 

[Blaze]

If you get a soil test you should also be able to calculate out a good estimate of how much water it takes to get your soil to capacity. Just something to think about.