Plant wilted and dying(opinions please)

jbird74 · Jul 20, 2014

So I had another one do this at another location abot 2 weeks ago. I don't visit them as often so when I found the former one it was far gone. This is one that I see on a daily basis. It looked healthy as a horse last night. I checked it out mid day today and it was wilting. After close inspection the only thing I could find different about it was a slight orange appearance towards the base of the stock. It is not a watering issue. I've been using the same 2 buckets and they have had nothing but fresh creek water in them all year and no problems with the other plants. Any thoughts? I can (as if I have a choice) weather the loss of this plant but nevertheless it sucks. God forbid this becomes an issue with a bunch of my plants...UGH....

757growin · Jul 20, 2014

Looks like fresh flesh on the trunk. Was something nawing?

jbird74 · Jul 20, 2014

I don't think so. I inspected this thing painstakingly. That pic is after I rubbed a little bit of the orange shit(should have snapped pic first). I wonder if there is some sort of fungus or something that is orangish in color. I'm smack dab in the Midwest. I've never had this issue before but it's been many years since I grew.

veggiegardener · Jul 20, 2014

Your foliage lacks water. Figuring out WHY is the hard part. A gopher could be dining on the roots. Two buckets might just not be enough. It isn't too much ferttilizer. The tips would be the first to wilt. If you can visit her several times a day, and misting the entire plant might give you a bit of a reprieve. You may have other pests in your area that I don't know about(insect grubs?), but I'm fairly certain something is messing with the roots. The orange could be 'scale'. An insect that attaches to lower stems and feeds on the plant's sap. This rarely(never in my experience) kills a plant.

One other possibility. It could be that the roots are rotting due to over watering. The result is the same. Insufficient healthy roots to provide the plants moisture requirement.

spankdizz · Jul 20, 2014

i had one do that about a week ago wasnt getting any better so i decided it was time to rip it out and when i did i had a shit ton of subterranian termites eating the crap out of it my guess would be something eating the roots

jbird74 · Jul 20, 2014

veggiegardener said:
Your foliage lacks water. Figuring out WHY is the hard part. A gopher could be dining on the roots. Two buckets might just not be enough. It isn't too much ferttilizer. The tips would be the first to wilt. If you can visit her several times a day, and misting the entire plant might give you a bit of a reprieve. You may have other pests in your area that I don't know about(insect grubs?), but I'm fairly certain something is messing with the roots. The orange could be 'scale'. An insect that attaches to lower stems and feeds on the plant's sap. This rarely(never in my experience) kills a plant.

One other possibility. It could be that the roots are rotting due to over watering. The result is the same. Insufficient healthy roots to provide the plants moisture requirement.

Well I can see plainly that nothing has been messing with the roots. The ground is completely undisturbed. It is right next to these plants that are being treated exactly the same. You can barely make out the wilted on in the first picture as it is sitting behind a plant with obscured view. Everything in this patch is the same...same everything..including amount of water. I'm not a novice and have never over watered a plant in my life. I'm thinking some sort of fungus or something....a bit bewildered. Notice how healthy everything is...it looked just as healthy Saturday evening just before dark and then about 17 hours later bam.

Here it is front and center just 17 hrs or so earlier

Here are various shots of the patch from this evening.

jbird74 · Jul 20, 2014

spankdizz said:
i had one do that about a week ago wasnt getting any better so i decided it was time to rip it out and when i did i had a shit ton of subterranian termites eating the crap out of it my guess would be something eating the roots

That's something that's ran across my mind tonight while pondering it. Something very small like that...not an animal digging though. I will pull it in the morning and see what I find. Thank you for the reply.

jbird74 · Jul 20, 2014

Thank you VeggieG as well. I misread your post. I was thinking animal from the top side lol. Moles are the only things working under ground around here and they leave a tale tale sign with raised ground from their tunneling. I'm thinking it's some sort of subterranean insect as mentioned by SpankD. Thanks again for your input. :peace:

Farmer's Hat · Jul 20, 2014

That brown spot on the stock looks like it could be signs of rotting. Did you try to scratching it to see if the spot is soft?

spankdizz · Jul 20, 2014

this was about 2 weeks before i pulled it all others are fine but the big tall one in the back and the worst termite infestation i didnt even know they would go after cannabis but i got i guess the stem at the bottom was big and woody enough they decided to destroy it second pic is what it looked like right after i pulled it out of the ground and the last pic are the @#$% termites

jbird74 · Jul 20, 2014

Yes I did FH and no it was not soft. Thank you for the input. It will be interesting to see what I find in the morning. Hell I'm about to go back to it right now...hmmmm....I'm in no shortage of vegetation so I probably won't...but I'm curious...especially with the nice crop I have setting next to it. Like I said at the start of thread I had another plant do what seems to be the same thing in a different location..separated by about a 1/4 mile but very different soil.

mr sunshine · Jul 20, 2014

It could be a golfer.. that's how plants look after they take a few bites ...In some cases you can pull the trunk straight out of the ground like it was a stick..they wouldn't disturb the ground they dig tunnels and come from underneath. . I didn't put any wire either this year I like gambling!

mr sunshine · Jul 20, 2014

spankdizz said:
i had one do that about a week ago wasnt getting any better so i decided it was time to rip it out and when i did i had a shit ton of subterranian termites eating the crap out of it my guess would be something eating the roots

That's crazy I didn't even know those fuckers like weed!

jbird74 · Jul 20, 2014

Mr. Sunshine there is only one type of gopher in the state I'm in. The pocket gopher and it is not in the area that I dwell in. But thank you.

mr sunshine · Jul 20, 2014

jbird74 said:
Mr. Sunshine there is only one type of gopher in the state I'm in. The pocket gopher and it is not in the area that I dwell in. But thank you.

I wounder what it could be definitely got to be some type of bugs on the roots.. or some contamination in the dirt whatever it is after you check it I would start a fire on that hole and burn it to hell..gotta protect the ladys!! :hump:

PoopBear · Jul 20, 2014

The one time something similar happened to me it was from critters gnawing at the base. It was pretty hard to see. I guess they gnaw at the base in hopes of the tree falling so that they may eat the fruit at the top.

veggiegardener · Jul 21, 2014

Is the plant recovering?

jbird74 · Jul 21, 2014

Not recovering but it didn't look any worse 2.5 hrs ago. I dug a little dirt up (very gingerly) to take a peek and see some of the roots and see if i seen any pests. Everything looked A okay...but these are in deep holes and I dug very shallow. Misted it with a spray bottle multiple times while there. Going back out to check on it in another hour or so. Thanks for checking in.

mwooten102 · Jul 21, 2014

I would dig a circle around the plant .... say with a 2' ID and an OD of 3.5' and a depth of 1.5-2' then I would gingerly check along the walls for the tunnels of a gopher warren or w/e.

jbird74 · Jul 21, 2014

mwooten102 said:
I would dig a circle around the plant .... say with a 2' ID and an OD of 3.5' and a depth of 1.5-2' then I would gingerly check along the walls for the tunnels of a gopher warren or w/e.

Might do that Woot...but I've never seen a gopher around this part of the countryside in 40 yrs... moles but never golphers... I think I might try that though just as a process of elimination if nothing else. Thank you.

Plant wilted and dying(opinions please)

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