Mystery blight is killing every plant I grow!! HELP!!!!

For the past few months, ever since bringing in a tray of awful cuts from GP dispensary in Santa Cruz, I've had the same progressive chlorosis that looks and acts EXACTLY like a nitrogen deficiency, KILLING every plant I try to grow. I thought I finally had it beat by switching from E&F w/mineral nutes (I tried almost every brand) to hand feed with EJ in coco, but guess what?? it's back! It's not root-rot, I checked and every root I could find was happy and white. It's not a nitrogen deficiency because I'm soaking them with Bill's Perfect and using 2-3TBSP/gal of grow so they've got more than they need if anything. PH of solution going in is always at or near 5.8 and the PH of the coco tested in 2.5oz water is 6.2 so it's not a PH problem.....I'm baffled....it keeps getting worse. At this point all growth has halted and they're losing leaves daily......WTF!?!@?!?!?!?!?!?!@?>! This isn't the first crop that's fallen victim to this, I lost an ENTIRE CROP just a month ago. First a leave or two at the bottom will suddenly go 100% yellow over the course of a lights off period, then the plant loses vigor and gets light green as the chlorosis effects more and more leaves up the plant. The day after they're yellow they turn brown, curl up and die.

I REALLY need help here guys because the only solution as I can see it is to gut my grow room and move to a new grow house because this place is clearly fucking bad voodoo. I never thought I'd want to soak my grow in gasoline and walk away pitching a zippo over my shoulder but I'll be damned if I'm not two fucking steps away from giving up on cultivating all together. I'm on my knees here guys, anything you can give me is more than I got.


Again this is Jilly Bean in chowmix, mostly coco, under a 400w MH. I've no aircon so it's been getting up to 85-90 in there during the day....but there's nothing I can do about that. Lights on (night time) it's rarely over 82 or so.

have you always used that soiless mix? did you ever have success with it? mb try a simple soil grow? organic like it does take a lot of the guess work out of growing. just my humble opinion.

Hey man don't give up. A green thumb isn't genetic and everyone has to go through trials. I noticed your plants are sitting in a tub. Are you watering from the bottom up or from the top down? The reason why I ask and I might be wrong but they look like they are over watered. A tub can have wet spots that will not let pots evenly dry out. I would start by spacing the pots some so enough air can get down into that tub to help dry it out and I would let the soil dry out completely and then water lightly and see if they recover. I also recommend getting a soil PH test kit to make 100% sure the soil isn't being goofy.

Check carefully for something that might be leaching phthalate plasticizer. It's surprisingly toxic to plants and presents just like that. But it's still a long shot ... other things present thus as well. cn

Just a little advice. The 4 or 4.5" pots your using are good for seedlings but I have noticed they work best for me when I checker board them in their 18 and 15 slot respective trays. I think its the airflow that helps.

cannabineer said:

Check carefully for something that might be leaching phthalate plasticizer. It's surprisingly toxic to plants and presents just like that. But it's still a long shot ... other things present thus as well. cn

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Canna I have never heard of that. Is that something that is somewhat common to green house pots like hes using?

KatBUSA said:

Canna I have never heard of that. Is that something that is somewhat common to green house pots like hes using?

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The pots are injection-molded ... no plasticizer. My hydro grow a year ago gave me no end of yellowing and failure to thrive. i found an article about well-established grows, weed and other, being ruined from one batch of that black vinyl tubing. I'm pretty gunshy about that now. Once I have a happy healthy hydro grow back under my belt ... I'll unclench. cn

those are six inchers from the local grow shop. I've just switched to the chowmix from straight hydroton. I was trying to do just that, quit the hydroponic bologny and go for something more straightforward, I went with the chow mix so I could water daily. They're 'standing tall' so they don't seem moisture stressed (I've always thought that limpness was a sign of over/under watering and they're not limp at all). If there's anything toxic it's not from the black 6" pots because the mother I have in a 3gal rootpot is suffering WORST. Could it be from the 5 gal buckets I nabbed at ACE and mix my solution in? A quick google of pthalate tells me that it leeches easily from PVC....the water coming into my little cottage from the main house (say: my penny pinching landlords fuckin' mansion) runs through a PVC pipe....I've been wondering if it isn't something in the water....

I'm off to flush them with h2o2 to rule out all root zone infection. I'll flush them again in the morning before lights off just for good measure.

Thanks for the input guys

Is there any way this could be a calcium deficiency? I was warned they are rather common with coco and I haven't picked up an organic calmag supplement to add to my RO water.

i have never used coco but i hear its extremely chemically unstable due to the fact that it is made in about a year versus alot of the popular soils out there which are broken down over thousands of years making them extremely stable in their chemical composition, have you been using the same batch for every bad grow that you have gotten since you started using it?. if so then i would either switch or get some more

I have found that there is a lot of difference from one coco mix to another. Coco presents a variety of Mag problems. Some brands of Cal/Mag do little for coco. You might consider trying this on a couple of those sick puppies :
Using Epsom salt and water improves the pH by flushing out the toxins in the soil and roots and creates an environment by which magnesium can be taken up. It aids the process of photosynthesis and increases nutrient absorption. Potted plants become greener and bloom more with this treatment.

Read more: Epsom Salt for House Plants | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_7602974_epsom-salt-house-plants.html#ixzz231RlDykL

I feel for ya, I have this same problem. was thinking it was salt build up in my medium, so im going with straight water for now. good luck. its frustrating as all hell for sure...

how often are you watering them? that coco looks VERY dry, I've used canna coco for years and had no problems with it, i do feed the girls twice a day tho most days(and feed them well, usually to run off), and would never let it get as dry as that, you dont need to, it's very hard to 'over-water' in coco, with the heat as high as you say, your girls are gunna need water, and lots of it, lower the nute's, raise the amount of water, worth a try, and imo, could be your problem good luck mate!

i had read that when handwatering coco you should let the top few cm's dry out between feeds, which happens to be daily in my case, but more certainly won't hurt so I'll double it up and cut my feeds in half. so It'll basically be water-water-feed-water and so forth.

just an update, after flushing things have continued to get worse, the large mother is COMPLETELY DEFOLIATED ON IT'S LOWER HALF!!!!!!!

I hate Mystery Blight. I feel your pain. cn