Emerging Diseases of Cannabis Sativa and Approaches to Management – Zamir Punja, Ph.D.

Emerging Diseases of Cannabis Sativa and Approaches to Management – Zamir Punja, Ph.D.

Tags: Agriculture, Contaminants, Disease, Mold, Powdery Mildew

Cultivation of Cannabis sativa L. (marijuana) plants has increased the incidence and severity of previously unreported diseases. Hydroponically-grown and field-grown plants are susceptible to infection by root, foliar and flower-infecting pathogens. The causal agents of browning and rotting of roots were identified as species of Pythium and Fusarium by PCR and sequence analysis of the ITS region. A rot of the flower buds was associated with Botrytis cinerea, as well as Penicillium olsonii, and to a lesser extent, P. copticola, causing penicillium bud rot. Powdery mildew was found to be caused by Golovinomyces (Erysiphe) cichoracearum sensu. The pathogen was detected on vegetatively propagated cuttings. These cannabis pathogens can reduce product quality and disease management practices need to be established. Promising biological control agents and nonfungicide products are being assessed on cannabis. In addition, use of disease-free plants as starting material and sanitation practices and water management should reduce disease outbreaks. Avoidance of wounding to the roots and inclusion of disease-suppressive planting mixes are recommended. Management of powdery mildew remains a challenge and biocontrol and nonfungicide products are being assessed.

5 Comments

  1. @auclair102 on July 23, 2024 at 1:40 pm

    I really enjoyed talking with you at CNB in new-brunswick if i would have connected the dot i would have remember this video when talking with you I am so sorry



  2. @patmerrick6377 on July 23, 2024 at 1:44 pm

    I have a outdoor large plant and the very top is slowly dying it’s way down and the surrounding plant is fine. The process is relatively slow and has been in flower nearly 2 weeks. Can it be stopped and what could it be ?



  3. @geomundi8333 on July 23, 2024 at 1:57 pm

    you really think you can circulate water around all these plants and not spread disease? hydro is terrible but when financiers who have never grown pot get started, guess what they always invest in. lmfao when they fetch nothing for their terrible crops in face of better growers



  4. @jondoe3561 on July 23, 2024 at 2:16 pm

    Lol it’s a plant, you get spores…. No other plant is grown and smoked like weed. I think we’re going to find it pretty impossible to get totally "safe" product.



  5. @geomundi8333 on July 23, 2024 at 2:21 pm

    thanks Confined Cannibas Growing Operations for breeding resistant strains of current diseases and promoting monocultures that foster new ones! wow big business is good at raising animals or growing pot. Funny how they think disease is ineviable; you’ll hear same stuff from pig or cattle farms… its inevitable they all get sick and diseased "that’s just how it is"…. yeah, at your hellhole operations. big farming ruins life for the crop and the unfortunate employees