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Pith Necrosis

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2021 7:03 pm
by Mark_Thompson
Just a few pics, only one plant slowly heading downhill while two others in the exact same potting mix look phenomenal. Maybe I didn’t mix it well and one ended up with all the N? Not too worried about it. Sunrise Bumblebee is the victim.

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Re: Pith Necrosis

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:23 am
by Shule
Wild. I had never heard of pith necrosis. Great to know lots of aerial roots could mean other things besides dicamba drift or the plant just being vigorous with its roots.

Re: Pith Necrosis

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 12:31 am
by Amateurinawe
Me neither, and I have one plant displaying al! the symptoms, I thought it was just advantageous root growth but appears so high up on the stem.

Re: Pith Necrosis

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 1:26 am
by Mark_Thompson
I’ve had some plants that were terrible. Stems just ripping themselves apart sprouting adventitious roots the whole length of the stem. Those were in cheap potting mix with a bunch of my home compost. So I’m trying to get away from that. Weird thing is I’ve never had one in the ground do it. It’s supposed to be bacterial so I wouldn’t expect just the potted ones to be hit with it.
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Re: Pith Necrosis

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 6:14 am
by bower
That last pic looks wicked bad, Mark!
You don't know for sure it's pith necrosis though, unless you've split open the stem and seen the necrosis inside.
My plants had symptoms one year that led me to believe there was p.n. (which they survived) but when I cut them down at the end of season the stems were whole and pith white no sign of infection. In the end I concluded it was some type of edema.
Pith necrosis iirc comes from some Pseudomonas sp. bacteria in the soil. The brown rot in the vascular tissues in the main stem is then the reason for bumps and adventitious roots higher up.
But plants especially in containers do routinely produce adventitious roots, especially when the plant is vigorous and fast growing and it just wants a second or third pot to root down into LOL. Not enough soil volume for the high vigor.
That would explain why the plants in ground are unaffected.

Re: Pith Necrosis

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 11:07 am
by Mark_Thompson
Absolutely correct, not for sure until the autopsy. That last really ugly pic had it. I’m just going off history for my current plant that’s sprouting so many adventitious roots, end of the season I can cut it up and do a big reveal.

Re: Pith Necrosis

Posted: Wed Jun 09, 2021 1:22 pm
by Amateurinawe
[mention]Bower[/mention] thanks for that. The plant in question was rapid growing and in a small pot in the greenhouse and it was rubbing against the wall. I'll keep a close eye on it but it seems to be throwing out lots of growth.

Re: Pith Necrosis

Posted: Fri Jun 11, 2021 2:09 am
by mama_lor
I had it once, the first year I started the new garden. The growth was insanely vigorous, never had before or after. The stem split in a few places and it was black inside, and there was occasional wilting. In the end it didn't seem to matter, the plants grew well and produced until the end of the season. At that time I assumed it was some anomaly caused by the overly strong growth.