Pythium fungus, which is sometimes referred to as “root rot,” can be found in damp indoor crops, seedbeds, and greenhouses and can quickly spread. This fungus is extremely deadly and can destroy your cannabis crops in a short amount of time.
Pythium root rot is known for going undetected at first and then taking action once it has contaminated your marijuana, killing it before you could even notice it, and for remaining active for several years inside the soil medium once infected.
Pythium is hard to control because it is not only the cause of the death of so many cannabis plants but is also present in fresh water and even in mosquitoes and flies. It is therefore highly advised to detect it as soon as you can and get rid of it.
Fortunately, Pythium is fully controllable and avoidable with appropriate care, and you can find several treatments for this potent fungus.
How To Detect Pythium
Pythium detection in your cannabis system may be a serious challenge. Both indoor growers and outdoor out-of-bag soil growers are susceptible to root fungal blight. Pythium is significantly more tough to detect in soil grow systems.
If you’re a hydroponics grower, you should be extra cautious about Pythium. However, you have a major advantage, which is that you can check your cannabis plantsβ roots with your eyes, at least in most operational hydro systems.
This is clearly not possible with passive hydroponics systems such as “Hempy Buckets,” as well as most organic cocoa and soil grows.
A textbook example of root rot involves brown discoloration and a gungy clump-forming all around the roots. Unlucky farmers whose cannabis plants fall prey to this deadly disease may never forget it.
Pythium has a terrible, mildew-like odor in addition to its unpleasant appearance. The above-mentioned symptoms presented by affected cannabis plants frequently resemble a variety of other prevalent diseases, ranging from overfertilization to sunburn and various other diseases, adding to the difficulty in diagnosing root rot.
Leaves may curl, sag, and droop, and discolorations ranging from nearly white to speckled brown patches, and multiple shades of yellow, may drive a cannabis farmer insane with confusion.
How To Keep The Root Zone Pythium Free
The first approach towards an ultimate rich marijuana yield is to get your beautiful tiny beans to the right start.
Cannabis plants are susceptible to shocks and stress throughout the vegetative phase, particularly when it’s time for transplantation, regardless of culture medium. Therefore, the best strategy to avoid a fungal attack is to have your marijuana system as regulated as possible, from nutrition to environmental management.
Pythium targets overwatered marijuana plants, and it’s even better for the root rot if the plantsβ roots are resting in a puddle of water. Therefore, it is recommended to water your cannabis plant just when it needs it and make sure you have a good wet-dry cycle set up.
Pythium eventually dies in a well-aerated system. Hence hydroponics gardeners must make sure that the water in the tank is well ventilated. Aeroponics farmers wonβt have to do this step for obvious reasons, and thus their system is less susceptible to Pythium infestation!
Pythium loves a warm, low-oxygen pool to grow in, therefore hydroponic growers should invest in a good air pump to maintain that water bubbled and at room temperature. To maintain the root system healthy and free from Pythium, you should go for a misting air gap between the reservoir and the roots.
Air pots are meant to help with root pruning by allowing the roots to breathe, and they perform well in both traditional hand-watered soil grows and more advanced automation hydroponics systems. They are a bit more expensive than normal plastic pots, but you should still go for air pots since they are not prone to Pythium infection.
Complementing your feeding regimen with helpful bacteria and fungus may also help to promote healthy root zone growth. Nowadays, marijuana growers have tonnes of options when choosing friendly bacteria or fungus for their marijuana plants.
Some are more expensive than others, but even a little investment in low-cost Mycorrhiza or other friendly enzymes can pay off at harvest time.
How To Treat Pythium
When it comes to purifying your marijuana crops from Pythium efficiently, we have both good and bad news. Pythium can be cured and removed, which is the good news. However, the bad news is that it will be costly, and defeating an ingrained adversary is always a hefty price to pay.
There are specialized root rot curing solutions on the market, but you will find almost all of the most successful ones in the high-end price range. Furthermore, the bitter truth is that these expensive solutions are only helpful on indoor cannabis systems that are still in the vegetative phase when Pythium is first detected in them.
Scrapping the whole system, properly cleaning the grow setting, and starting again with new media and sanitary measures is the only way to assure fungal removal. If Pythium is wreaking havoc on your plants, it’s usually better to call it a day and clear up your grow so that you can start all over with new crops.
Fighting a Pythium infection is a battle of attrition because even if you win, the harm inflicted by Pythium is irreversible. As a result, the crops will usually be delayed to give time for the marijuana plants to restore their vigor, and marijuana production will undoubtedly suffer.
Final Thoughts
The Pythium root rot disease is undoubtedly a deadly disease that can ruin your cannabis crops in a short amount of time. You must stay well informed about this fungus and stay prepared to fight it because if not then your precious cannabis crops can be at extreme risk.
Prevention is the best solution to prevent deadly diseases from infecting your cannabis system, and the same is the case for Pythium. If you stay prepared in advance and take precautionary measures, you can stay assured that your plants wonβt be infected with Pythium root rot.