# Help identifying issue with this plant



## LBrewski (Jun 1, 2018)

Hi, I am new to this forum, new to growing cannabis. In short: I have one plant that is doing terrific and one that is sick. I have looked to diagnose the issue from other posts, photos etc, but in the end I'm confused.







The longer story:
I started with the idea of wanting to grow a couple of plants outdoor in my backyard, just a casual grow, no big deal (I'm in SoCal). Turns out this is really fun (except for the sick one).

I began with 3 seeds - Tangerine Dream (auto fem, auto flower). The seeds germinated just fine, I put them in small peat pots and when they were showing roots I figured they were ready to plant. I gave one to a friend, then planted one in a pot with Natures Care potting mix (yes a Miracle Grow product, from H Depot). This one is growing like crazy and other than some leaf hopper damage that I addressed with insecticide soap, looks perfect, still has all it's first leaves and is well over 2 ft tall after 6 weeks.

The 3rd one, the problem plant, I planted in a flower bed, after digging out a pot sized area and filling with some small rocks, sand and then some organic planting mix I had (don't remember what it was). The first leaves dropped after it had the ones above it - it appeared to have nitrogen deficiency (internet photo diagnosis) so I got the FFarms trio. Bugs attacked it, so I used the soap, then I saw some sort of slick stuff on a small portion of it and used some Dr Earth insecticide, which seemed to have gotten rid of that (maybe broad mites?). Leaves are damaged, growth is stunted and it appears that the new sprouts from the top middle of the plant are tiny. I moved it to a pot with some more of the Natures Care mix just the other day. Not sure if it's going to recover but I'd really like to know if anyone has any thoughts/suggestions.

Here is the healthy one:


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## powerplanter (Jun 2, 2018)

I was thinking bugs but someone else with more exper. will chime in.  The healthy one looks great!!!  Green MOJO to ya....


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## powerplanter (Jun 2, 2018)

It may have something to do with it being an auto.  I have never grown an auto before.


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## umbra (Jun 2, 2018)

bugs for sure


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## LBrewski (Jun 3, 2018)

So this is what the sick plant looks like now. I am ready to give up on it. Besides bugs, this one has been in a different area of the yard than the good plant and didn't get as much sun - I thought it would be enough but perhaps not.





At least I have this one; I'm thinking of attempting to clone from it.


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## Weedman2018 (Jun 3, 2018)

Looks like its getting its butt ate up by grasshoppers or catipillers to me,,which is going to effect the plants growth because those leaves are its Solar Panel's.


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## powerplanter (Jun 3, 2018)

Some times the new growth looks a little funky when they start to come back.  I would give it a week or two.  If you can, move it to a better spot.


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## Rosebud (Jun 3, 2018)

Well, i would toss the bad plant and take clones from the other. The damage is too much for that plant to be a good plant. cut your losses, sorry.


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## Squish (Jun 3, 2018)

Rosebud said:


> Well, i would toss the bad plant and take clones from the other. The damage is too much for that plant to be a good plant. cut your losses, sorry.



I've never seen clones from auto plants.


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## LBrewski (Jun 3, 2018)

Squish said:


> I've never seen clones from auto plants.


I was just looking into how to clone and ran across :

"It's best to clone plants from regular seeds instead of feminized seeds. Marijuana plants are forced to produce feminized seeds only by stressing them. If plants from those seeds are stressed again, they can become hermaphrodite."

Sounds like it's not worth trying. I guess I can look to buy a clone locally.

Sent from my ASUS_P00J using Tapatalk


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## Rosebud (Jun 3, 2018)

I am sorry, i didn't realize it was an auto.


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## The Hemp Goddess (Jun 4, 2018)

Lbrewski, while there is some truth to that, almost all of us clone plants from fem seeds with no problems.  It is actually the auto part of your plant that would make cloning problematic.  Autos only live for a set number of weeks.  And as clones are the same biological age as the mother it came from, the plant generally does not have enough time to mature.  Let's say that you (hypothetically) have a 12 week strain there.  Your plant is 6 weeks old, so it only has about 6 weeks left to go.  If you take a clone from this plant, it is 6 weeks old from the get-go--giving it another 6 weeks or so of life.  That is not long enough for the clone to develop roots and yield much of anything.


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## LBrewski (Jun 4, 2018)

Thanks to everyone for the comments, it's been very enlightening. And I think I'll get the feminized type next time I start from seeds.


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## tcbud (Jun 4, 2018)

I’m with the big bug damage thought. That plant was had for breakfast lunch and dinner. Good you kept it away from the other plant. Reminds me of damage from cabbage moth catapillers from when I used to garden veggies.

Beautiful other Auto you have there. *Welcome to the passion of growing!*


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## The Hemp Goddess (Jun 4, 2018)

If it weren't an auto, it might have recovered.  However, since it is an auto and in such poor condition, I think it is beyond being saved.  If you buy a clone locally, keep it sequestered from your healthy plant until you have determined that it doesn't have any pest or disease that can be transmitted to your healthy auto.


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## burnin1 (Jun 7, 2018)

Poor plant..  Very stressed from bug damage and in the first pic it looks like some black spots on the lower leaves.

Bad things can happen to a stressed plant. Time to replace this one.

To help with your good  plants health and get a few clones I would trim the bottom part of the plant.

The summers can be very hot in SoCal and I would be careful with those plastic pots in the sun.  Don't want to cook the roots.

There are many expert growers here of which I am not one.  I could be wrong.

I wish you all the best with your grow!


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## LBrewski (Jun 10, 2018)

Again, thanks for all the helpful advice. As much as I have been telling myself to keep it casual, not to geek out and take on yet another hobby... here we go. I've been a home brewer for years (beer) and have that activity down, so it's weird (but exciting) to be a newbie in this area.
Anyway, I ditched the sick plant and obtained a couple of clones from a very nice, experienced lady that was generous with her advice. So I transplanted them to smart pots to get them going.



Meanwhile, my healthy plant is still doing well but I've had to remain diligent in dealing with leaf hoppers.
I did prune off some of the lower leaves, and some that had damage, but I'm not sure how much more trimming to do at this stage. I noticed the plants at my clone suppliers place seemed to be more drastically trimmed, and I have done some research but ended up feeling that I may not want to go too far. I was thinking of removing some of the lower fan leaves that are shading the lower buds.




As far as using plastic pots, I do like the decorative look but now see they may not be the best functional choice.


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