What kind of rot is this?

First noticed it on a bagseed plant, appeared as black cracks at the base of the stock. The tissue around the cracks looked perfectly fine, I didnt even know it was a crack so I thought nothing of it until I started noticing more of it spreading. I dug up the dirt around the base and noticed there was more. I went to give it a rub to see if it would come off and noticed that the tissue was soft and came off easily. On the inside of the tissue was this black stuff, almost like dirt. I took a toothbrush and scrubbed all the tissue and black stuff off, then doused the area in hydrogen peroxide.

I do not have pics of the cracks on this plant, but I noticed it again on my Strawberry Cough. I knew exactly what to do from the other plant so I got to it.


After cleanup (the white stuff you see is diatomaceous earth)


Pics of the bagseed plant a few days after cleaning


Generally the base of the stock was pretty dry. I didnt notice any sludge like substances or smells. Both plants are the biggest in the garden and are healthy. I can understand if this was stalk rot as it looks like it started just under the soil like and crept its way up the stalk. I give them about 3-4 gallons every 4 or so days and the humidity is pretty high up here in MA.
I plan to clean with h2o2 a few more times then patch up the damage with that tree tar patch stuff.
Is it possible that this could be caused by pests? I check the top layer of soil (pine bark mulch/coco) and usually see tons of mites, little beetles, pill bugs, millipedes, centipedes, and many other insects. The other day I found out that theres a mean fungus gnat infestation particularly bad in the bagseed plant and smaller presences in the rest of the pots.
(ONLY the outer tissue was affected)

If your plant doesn’t have any symptoms I would just say it’s rapid growth, like stretch marks on people

Manguy said:

If your plant doesn’t have any symptoms I would just say it’s rapid growth, like stretch marks on people

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I thought that initially which is why I didnt pay any mind of it for a week or so. But the cracks kept spreading up the plant. Between the woody inside and the outer tissue was a layer of black grime, which is why I believe it to be some sort of fungal rot. The tissue was coming off in clumps where I scrubbed with the tooth brush.

Heres a really crude shitty visual I drew on paint lol. But this is what it looked like at the start!

It's a very advanced case of pythium.

Plug it with some sort of bees wax or something and add silica to your feed for a bit. From what I see other people saying about this problem is vigorous growth, it’s brown and dying (from what I’ve read) is the oxygen killing off a little surrounding area

Renfro said:

It's a very advanced case of pythium.

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Wouldn’t Pythium be coupled with vigorous leaf decay or symptoms

Renfro said:

It's a very advanced case of pythium.

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If so, is this something ill be fighting through to harvest, even after cleaning and patching with the tar? I havent noticed really any spread on the first plant after cleaning with h2o2. It would make sense why it would be spreading with all the fungus gnats I got now.

Manguy said:

Plug it with some sort of bees wax or something and add silica to your feed for a bit. From what I see other people saying about this problem is vigorous growth, it’s brown and dying (from what I’ve read) is the oxygen killing off a little surrounding area

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Thats the plan. I have been feeding silica between .5 - 1 tsp/gal of water since the very start. Ill try my best!

Manguy said:

Wouldn’t Pythium be coupled with vigorous leaf decay or symptoms

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Yeah man thats the mystery. The whole plant even the roots coming off right under it seem white and healthy.

mattypacks said:

If so, is this something ill be fighting through to harvest, even after cleaning and patching with the tar? I havent noticed really any spread on the first plant after cleaning with h2o2. It would make sense why it would be spreading with all the fungus gnats I got now.



Thats the plan. I have been feeding silica between .5 - 1 tsp/gal of water since the very start. Ill try my best!

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Keep us updated!

Probably root rot that made its way to the stock

I’d bet your roots are rotten to hell

Plants with rot can finish sometimes, might make it

SCM 831 said:

I’d bet your roots are rotten to hell

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Well thats the thing, the roots directly underneath the infection (seems to me) are doing fine.

Bagseed plant - I scraped away as much as I could at the base. The second pic looks moist, was taken right after I sprayed h2o2 on the area.

Strawberry Cough - if you look closely where the arrow is pointing, it almost looks like it ate around where the root meets the stalk.


IF the entire root system was affected, and the damage was so bad that it progressed all the way to the stalk, wouldnt there be telltale signs of root damage shown above ground? All the plants made it through Isaias yesterday with 25-30mph sustained winds and up to 50mph wind gusts. With catastrophic root damage im sure the plant would have toppled over, no?


I went and checked all the other plants, and besides these two the rest are fine. I took away a bit of dirt right at the stalk on all of them just in case. Either way, it is some sort of rot, and with the high presence of fungus gnats I need to be more careful with my waterings and check the mulch/top layer of coco more often.

Heres a full pic of the plants. The 2 on the outside are the ones with it.

I can’t see that being a natural split

DaFreak said:

I can’t see that being a natural split

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Nope, it actually wasnt even a split at all. Those carving looking empty patches were where the decay happened between the woody inside and outer skin.

Your plants are beautiful, maybe it outgrew the infection, I personally have never grown anything with a trunk like that so I don't know. My plants would be dead with a gash like that.

DaFreak said:

Your plants are beautiful, maybe it outgrew the infection, I personally have never grown anything with a trunk like that so I don't know. My plants would be dead with a gash like that.

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Thanks man. Im hoping for a positive outcome, and based off of what im seeing its fairly likely. I put a lot of time and effort into these plants and getting hit with all these curve balls sucks. The best thing about it though is the learning experience which is priceless.

Root rot usually effects the roots near the bottom of the pot where the moisture is last to dry out. I would let them dry out as long as possible before watering and hope for the best. Strawberry cough is my favorite strain !

Update on the rot situation

Spread to a total of 5 plants now, 2 cases in the past week. Every single plant looks great, I've been treating with h2o2 once a week and its stopped spreading once cleaned but leaves behind nasty scars.
I think I may have found the source of whats causing this to happen. In the entire garden area in the back yard, we have been putting down black mulch every season for maybe two decades now. Every single inch underneath the surface is infested with termites, probably a terrifying number of them. I noticed a handful in the Strawberry Eclair pot, probably feeding on the pine bark mulch. I pulled back the mulch where the pot sits on and to no surprise there were dozens. I came back a little later and witnessed a full on ant vs termite war, the ones in the pot were being dragged out by the ants lol.

Anyways, I was cleaning one of the stalks earlier since I noticed it was happening to this one too and I saw a few termites hanging out underneath the skin, there was a decent chunk of the stalk missing. Although no other types of plants in the garden are affected, and I didnt have a problem last year, I think with the drought conditions going on they are choosing my plants as their food source. Its really strange though, I never saw termites present on any of the other stalks when I went to clean the areas. Termites would explain a lot, but theres still so many other variables that I cant pinpoint termites being the problem completely.
Resilient plants...what a tiring season. The good news I guess is that mother nature must be running out of shit to throw at me lol. Luckily health has been in check which could change at any point in time, just gotta make it another 8 weeks.

It does look like chewing damage from an insect.