Concoction of problems. Experienced grower struggling for the first time.

Hello and thank you for taking a look at my serious issue. I have been growing medically for years and have never had a single issue except for thrips and powdery mildew which have been easy for me to cure.

All of my problems started over a year ago when I decided to get clones from someone for a new strain. The grower of the strain was a hydro grower and I am a soil grower.

Conditions:
I grow under 1000 watt double ended bulbs in flower and veg. My temps are good at 78-82 lights on, and the normal 10 degrees lower at night. Air flow is good with tons of fans, rooms are sealed. C02 sometimes gets low at around 300 and hovers at around 570 in veg, and in flower low is 350 and hovers at an average 750 with lights on. (I know it should be higher and I will work on it in future but for now, they survive with this) Humidity is 40- 55%. Light leaks are minimal. I use sensi veg and bloom nutes with the big bud b52 and overdrive in flower. I have recently added hydroguard to my water to help with any issues. I also give sugars and have recently adding mycorhizzae. I also use calmag. I grow in promix.

The problem:
Over 1 year ago when I got these clones, either by coincidence or the clones, I started to get an issue ONLY IN FLOWER. What would happen is that the lower buds, the ones not on top in direct lighting would not really grow hair and crystals, they would just kinda be green and some orange hairs, almost looking frostburnt or something, and would be just crispy puffs upon harvest. This was the beginning.

Might I add, these clones were garbage, they barely survived. I have a low success rate, the lowest ive ever had.

I changed spaces in that year gap and things only got worse.
The new clones that I transplanted, doing everything the same as I always had, died, except for 3. Those 3 took so long in veg to recover that it was insane, but they eventually came out of it and started to grow normally, all the while my plants in flower were still getting lower crispy buds.

The worst of it:
So this is when things started to get really bad. I got mites. Yes mites. I used avid to treat them and it seemed to take care of them, but for some reason, my plants still slowly started to show this new issue which I had never before seen in veg. The newer top growth started to get brownish golden and die. I had no clue what this was. I showed many other experienced growers and no one had a solution. (See first few pics below) This almost looked exactly like the crispy buds thing, but I had never seen in before in flower. I also had a multitude of other deficiencies so what I had summed it up to be was that something was causing nutrient lockout and giving my plants horrible deficiencies.

The pictures of this were taken months ago when the problem was at its worst. I was told by others to kill all plants and start over, while being a good idea, could not happen.

The clones I had gotten from my hydro friend is what I blamed, and started to assume they had root rot in their genetics and it somehow passed to my babies in my whole garden. I started using hydroguard, I also underwatered to dry things out, and chopped off all infected branches and leaves, leaving my babies bare and naked and sad. The round that was in the pictures is actually in flower now and doing fine, other than still having lower crispy buds forming, there is green growth and happiness. I had to chop over 50% of the plant away though, so yields will be sub par. What Ive noticed is that any branch that is infected with whatever this is, seems to take over the entire branch.

Slow but not full recovery:
Since that day months ago, things have gotten much better, but the problem is not gone by any means.

Within the past week I have taken an extremely close look at my plants and have found all sorts of things and that is what I have come here to seek answers for. My plants have slowly started to get better through use of hydroguard, mycorhizzae, chopping off infected branches and underwatering. But my recent chop of infected branches has shown me alll sorts of new possible issues and bugs that I need help with and have many pictures attached. Here is a list of my issues and pictures are at the bottom:

Issues I need help Identifying:

The crispy lower buds and new growth issue
(Upon close examination, these seem to look like the have a golden fuzz on them, the leaves curl inward sometimes, and it almost looks like a possible fungus on there or something)

Eggs
These red eggs are found on my stems and leaves, very few and far between. I saw lots of red eggs, but only one clear egg. It looks to me as though the red eggs are hatched bugs, and the clear is maybe an earlier stage. I cannot find anything on the internet with few far between eggs like this. I saw squash vine borer looking the most similar. My best guess is maybe aphids.

Bug
We only saw one bug while looking through the plant that could be seen with the naked eye. It was hard to get a picture of as it moved fast. It looked clear/green/white and was crawling on stems and leaves. My best guess is that it was an aphid or a spider mite.

Fungus/Bug
I have since gotten new clones from a safe place that had 0 problems and were and still are super healthy, but are starting to show certain similar traits of infected plants upon close examination. The leaves that curl inward look like they either have some sort of fungus, or bug eggs on the leaves upon close examination, and now the new strains are starting to have the same things on the leaves.

PLEASE! I really need help identifying and treating this stuff. If I cant figure this out, I will be forced to veg at a seperate location from my flower and transportation would be such a huge risk and issue. I have posted many pictures down below and will update this thread constantly with anything new I find, and cures/rememdies I have come up with. But I need your help internet, I am running out of options.

If I have forgotten any important information please feel free to tell me and I will let you know.
 

Attachments

and more... THe second picture is the clear/white egg. The 4th - 10th is my attempt to picture the bug.
 

Attachments

BabyGotBuds

Member
The opaque small bugs look like thrip larvae to me but they are very small in the pic so I can't be 100. The red looks like sap coming from stem but again pics are a hard to determine. Have you checked soil for pests? I stopped using promix bc of the price and fungus gnats always seemed to catch a ride. Have you been spraying with anything? To me it looks like a phytotoxicity to a spray.
 
I do have mild thrips infection that has just started back up so it could be that, but I have not seen a bug like that before. I havent not sprayed for anything in quite some time. I sprayed organabilis like a month ago so there is no way it could make a toxicity. I will be spraying avid to treat for mites, just incase soon. I use a promis soil drench to treat for thrips.
 

BabyGotBuds

Member
It's a heavy thrips infestation based on the photos which maybe causing all the trouble along with mites. You stated you sprayed AVID to treat the mites in your post. How long ago was that? AVID can be phytotoxic to certain strains. Dead foliage on your plants only attract more pests. I would prune all infested/dying leaves off. I personally noticed a couple spider mites on some clones I got last night. Sprayed w/ Trifecta Crop ControI. Saw them squirm as if they hated it & died on contact. Tested this with a whitefly same effect. If I'm not mistaken spidermites can build a resistance to AVID. This is not the case with Trifecta & it's organic. I'm not a hippy juice saleswoman. I run chems. I truly do understand organic pest products make people roll their eyes and I've gone thru my fair share of organic bullshit but this product will kill anything. Mites, thrips, whitefly, powdery mildew, botrytis. Always keep blue sticky traps to monitor your room for any thrip/pest issues and yellow ones for whiteflies/fungus gnats. No offense this is tough love whatever you're doing isn't working regarding soil drenches.
 
Alrighty. As far as avid goes, it was at minimum 6 months ago. I have been chopping off foliage since those pictures and have been keeping all nasty looking leaf parts gone form my plants, anything infected looking gets chopped. I also run chems but only in veg, nothing in flower. Organic treatments have never ever worked for me. I may give trifecta a try. I have only ever used avid and they can build up a resistance. What about the browning/yellowing of new growth. Any clue what that is?
 

BabyGotBuds

Member
By doing a google search of thrip infestation on plants in general it looks like the damage in your photos. New growth looks deformed, leaves curled upwards on edges & dehydrated dry look, browning on new foliage. Thrips also love supple areas of the plant i.e new leaves and buds.
 

BabyGotBuds

Member
Never had russet mites but have heard of them. It's hard to tell from the photos but the damage resembles russets. I would hit them with the Trifecta regardless. Whatever you have it kills everything on contact, repels pests, and it's organic no chance for building a resistance. I'm currently replacing 3 products for it. I was told about it from a long time grower (30y). I put it off & just thought it was another organic pipe dream. I was proven wrong when I saw two spotted mites & whiteflies die on contact. Pyrethrum bomb w/ plants inside room will kill them too. Clean your whole room top to bottom with 1:10 bleach solution. Get a weekly IPM program going after. I do Trifecta, Spinosad, Foliar combination. You can do whatever products you prefer. Russets look like they pack a mean punch hope your plants recover. Keep us updated!
 
I got my local hydro store ordering the trifecta for me. For now I have blasted them with avid full strength, within 48 hours I will blast them again. From here on out I am replacing all bamboo stakes, dumping all plant matter as soon as it is off plants. I am going to clean every room with a bleach solution either once a month, or as soon as plants move in/out of them rooms. I do feel as though I will have these little guys for a long time, probably at least 6 months since they seem to live in everything. But slowly and surely I will irradicate them. Maybe I will post a picture of my flowering plants to show the damage they do. They don't mess with top colas, just underneath buds.
 
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