Experienced Growere please Help Diagnose The Problem! Thanks!

So I'm trying to help a friend diagnose their plant issue and was hoping you wonderful professionals could recognize the issue and give sound advice as to the cause and remedy. I am looking for true experienced growers input, but appreciate any insight to my problem.

Please forgive the length I have tried to include all relevant info and will continue to add pics. The pictures included will range from the beginning to now based on what i have taken and kept for reference.
Due to the limited number of pics i can upload at once I will upload the first ten of the current status and then start from beginning to end in 10 pic increments and my description a1000 words at a time. thanks for looking!


Strains all feminized

Dutch passion

strawberry cough, hollands hope, durban poison, fresnian dew


world of seeds (Freebies)

afgan kush x black domina

chronic haze


Mix of regular old bagseed and seeds that came out of nugs from the dispensary.


Grow room

Very basic... carbon filter 6" inline exhaust fan and 1000watt hps for flowering when the time comes and a basic 4ft fluorescent shop light with two 32w bulbs used during veg up until now. Temp have stayed in the 68-73 range usually 70-72 f most of the time with a relative humidity between 30-40%. I run the exhaust constantly on medium and have an oscillating fan going when not in there. The shop light has remained on a 24 hour cycle. Colorado tap water, usually allowed to sit for 24 hours before use, then ph'd to the best of my ability between 6-7 ideally 6.5ish… 7 for foliar


Soil grow 50/50 mix between fox farm ocean forest and happy frog. All seeds started paper towel method and put into small styrofoam cups with holes or small pots with holes. Later on Heavy 16 veg A&b and bud A&B and cal/mag were added to the line up. After bugs discovers dead bug brew spiosaid, Azamax, Green Cleaner, and Sm90 were acquired. Ph meter and liquid test kit used together. 1500 Lady bugs for good measure

Up until now

Started some old bag seed and seed from new dispensary buds, before getting more strain selective. Started the various bag seed before getting the grow room really set up, was really stupid despite knowing better, and would take the ladies outside to get some sun and wind to strengthen the branches up.

I also did not have ph testing gear yet so I was stupidly using straight tap. Needless to say the 8.5 ph tap was creating issues and I got what I believed to be thirps from being outside. Bought a ph meter and liquid test kit and bonide captain jacks dead bug brew spinosaid treatment. Resolved both issues and plants were looking healthy... at least to me.

Maybe a week or two later I get my hands on the above listed genetics. After germination they go with the same mix of soil in small Styrofoam cups.At this point they all are receiving regular ph'd tap and doing well. Heavy 16 veg A&b are added to the mix and the ladies were given very light doses(1-2ml/gallon) every few waterings 1 soil drench but mainly foliar.

They looked good, everything was growing fine and then it started to change. 3 weeks to a month after the new plants were going(2 months for the bag seed) I started to notice what looked like something biting fan leaves. Slightly abnormal leaf growth or twisting on fan leaves and twisting new tops, various forms of deficiencies showing, and insect damage. Going off the online knowledge base I assumed ph issues and bugs were the culprit so I really started doing research. I continued to monitor the ph of the water going in and coming out and everything looked good, but had further issues. After concluding the ph was ok and that the plants should have all the nutes needed from the fox farm soil and light heavy 16 regiment i focused more on the bug issue.


I started treating with azmax mow, as well as alternating the spinosaid. The plants showed some signs of distress from the azamax, but relatively minor. Spots on leaves and slightly stunted growth for a couple days. Things started to look better, but the damage would come back after about a week and i realized I wasn't treating every three days and only slowing down what I now believed was either aphids or mites… pretty positive the thrips were long gone by now. The online guides indicated mites based on the bite marks size, shape, and color. Im no expert but all signs and the local grow shop guy indicated spider or russet mites with a light cal/mag deficiency.


Now I step up my frequency and concentration of the azamax to its higher recommended dose. I applied azamax twice three days apart. Foliar spray and soil drench twice and then the local hydro shop guy recommended green cleaner. Apparently mites can't build a resistance and the iso alcohol kills their eggs on contact so i tried it.


I did cut off any leaves prior that looked affected and applied the recommended strongest dose of green cleaner per directions(1oz/gallon) and applied two days in a row 24 hours apart. I saw stress on the leaves and some got a little crispy with a dry matte finish. I left the shop light on thinking the directions only recommended no lights regarding hid lights so not sure if that mattered. I became concerned, but knew to expect stress with these products and well... if they didn't work I had no choice but to kill everything, disinfect and decontaminate the room before starting over anyway so i just hoped for the best.

Things looked a little messed up, but all in all the plants still looked pretty healthy with the exception of some burnt leaves and twisting and cupping from the tops. The larger bag seed plants fared better than the newer young choice genetics. The strawberry cough however began to look progressively worse first during all this while the others were only slightly phased. The strawberry cough had signs of possible various deficiencies, but what stood out is the deformed leaves with odd growth and twisting and patchy color and texture.

I discuss this with the local grow shop and they suggest a flush so i did and it appears to help a little combined with a light foliar feed.. Still in the bug killing mode two days later i pick up another bottle of green cleaner and mix 1/3 of a 2 ounce bottle into a liter spray bottle thinking this will be the last treatment needed of this product. This was above the recommended strongest dose of 1 ounce to a gallon. I sprayed every square inch of all the plants with the overhead halogen ceiling lights dimmed low .I come back a few hours later to turn on the flouro again and everything looks good.

I come back the next morning and they look awful. Leaves tips looking fried cupping up while the rest of the leaf bow down like a canoe turned upside down. Yellow spots, rust spots, dark spots of necrosis. Dark green spots surrounded by yellow tissue. Light yellow/green veins / dark green veins. The tops of the plants were now a much lighter, yellow from the center out, and twisted while the rest of the leaves looked more green. Fan leaves were just falling off. Some dry others still soft, but as if nutrients and water stopped flowing overnight and they had a strange firmness to them with a yellow and red tinge to some of the stems. Others looked completely fine, but were still coming off. Some would fall of just from a light breeze. Most leaf tissue looked wilted with a strange texture. Most leaves cupped down.

I look everywhere online for help and again visit the local grow shop. No one can come to a conclusion for the results of the products, but people suggest washing such products off an hour after applying to help avoid burn and affecting its ability to breath. I was aware something like this could happen with such products, but not prepared to deal with it. I wash of the leaves two day in a row with a misting, but the death continues. The plants looked terrible, weren't drinking much water, and continued to have leaves die off from the bottom up while the tops stayed twisted.


On the recommendation of the guy at the grow shop I have only been giving them ph’d tap water. After a two weeks i gave a very very light foliar feed of cal/mag and heavy 16 vega&b. He suggested only micro nutes and beneficial bacterial products like ff bushdoctor boomerang comeback formula and suggest the plants have no nutrient deficiencies and if anything i may have given them too much prior to this happening.


Once they began to look a little better i transferred the healthiest looking to a new 2 gallon smart pot out of the hopes that there roots were suffocating in the small cup and maybe just maybe this might resolve these issues. The transferred plants do look a bit healthier than the ones still in the small cups. All signs of bugs seem to be gone, but i am still going to treat weekly with sm90 as they get better. It doesnt seem to hurt them at all and smells good.


For the record I sprayed all indoor and outdoor plants around the property with what was left of the azamax and green cleaner after applying to the ladies at the same concentrations and had no problems from any other plant.

Its been over a month and the die off slowly continues even though the plants are starting to look better. It is happening from the bottom up with a necrosis on the tips working its way inward with a yellow dry crispy death of the leaf tissue until it falls off. All strawberry cough have died and did so first. Several others didn’t make it or are on their way out. When I trimmed off infected leaves i took off as much as i thought they could stand so with the continued die off its bare bones now.


My thoughts

1. I sprayed my girls with harsh products that damaged tissue and affected ph of soil leading to lockouts and deficiencies. Grow shop guy thinks the azamax is more responsible, but i truly didn't have the intense issues until green cleaner. Maybe the combo was too much and its just a waiting game…?
   
   
2. The strawberry cough came genetically infected with a form of mosaic virus and perhaps the trait did not show until the stress from the bug treatment. Then either regular contact from other plants bumping or me touching every leaf while applying treatment spread it to them all. I can't say for sure because i was not aware of mosaic virus at the time, but looking back I do believe i recognized the first signs in the strawberry cough and those signs spreading to the plants next to them and so on. One day in particular, I remember noticing the symptoms on one plant and while raising it up to water it i bumped a different strains leaves… only to see the same symptoms 2-3 days later on the touched plant. Every experienced grower tells me its not mosaic virus so maybe I am just looking for a reason this is happening that is not my doing lol… but every symptom matched and it is my gut feeling that this is the issue.
   
   
3. The thrips or mites gave me a disease… ie mosaic virus as thrips and hemp russet mites are known to spread this disease during the humid months at the end of the season which is when all this showed up.
   
   
4. I touched a tobacco product(blunt) or cannabis from the dispensary already infected with mosaic virus then transferred to my ladies. Research how easy it spreads and the virus stays dormant
   
   
5. I have been experiencing a combination of phosphorus, potassium, and cal mag deficiencies caused by multiple factors and been unsuccessful in correcting them. The grow shop guy swears i have no nutritional deficiencies. But all the diagnose your plant guides suggest a phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium deficiency in late stage based on the signs and symptoms of the leaves. The cal/mag foliar kinda helped the green color recently.. I think. I have been debating a high n-k nutes but they tell me not to… dont trust them so asking you
   
   
6. Something completely different

You can see I lean toward the sprays messed me up or mosaic virus has got me… but i am a noob and desperately need help from you experienced growers. I have found multiple threads with other growers having the same symptoms with no clue.


Please help me diagnose what is causing this and how to remedy it.


Thank you so much for your help!

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