Does my plant have Fusarium Wilt?

If you're reached this page, my condolences. Fusarium Wilt is a bad cannabis disease that will kill your plants if it gets a foothold in your soil early on. If you've noticed entire branches or stems of your plant dying off, you likely have Fusarium Wilt and you're in trouble. Fusarium Wilt strangles your plant from inside the stems and branches, clogging them up tighter than a fat guy's jeans. You'll notice branches or stems turning dark gray or black, and once the branch is removed you'll notice the inside is dry and sometimes blackened. The vascular system of your cannabis plant is losing its ability to deliver water throughout, and the branches you see dying are the first casualties.

How do I prevent Fusarium Wilt in Cannabis?

Fusarium Wilt grows best in warm, soggy soil. Keep your soil temps down by insulating your pots from the ground with a wood plank and wrapping dark-colored pots with a white t-shirt to keep sunlight from warming the pots. Also avoid clones if you can since some cloneries might sell you diseased plants.

 How to treat Fusarium Wilt in Marijuana Plants

I wish I had a magic pill for your plant to take but I don't. One option is to remove the affected branch by cutting it off about an inch below the point where you see the fusarium has blackened the branch. That may slow it down enough to keep your plant going for another few weeks. If your cannabis plant is nearing harvest, another option would be to harvest your plant early and salvage what you can. Whatever option you choose, you need to remember a couple crucial things to prevent Fusarium Wilt from spreading to your other plants:
  • Wash your garden tools and hands thoroughly before touching other plants in your garden.
Treat this shit like Ebola. I'm serious. It's not going to hurt you personally, but you don't want it infecting soil in other parts of your garden and rearing its ugly head next year.
  • Throw away any plant material coming off the infected plant. Burn that shit if you can.
Again, you don't want your other Cannabis plants or anything in your garden becoming infected.
  • Throw away the soil from the infected plant. DO NOT REUSE SOIL FROM A FUSARIUM-INFECTED PLANT.
Fusarium lives in the soil. You cannot reuse that soil. Throw it out. Wash your fabric pot, or just throw it out too.

The good news: Fusarium Wilt is unlikely

This has been a pretty heavy discussion but in all honesty, Fusarium Wilt attacking your Marijuana plant is one of the worst things you can have as a grower. Luckily, it's rare to encounter in real life unless you're growing marijuana from clones that were diseased or you're letting your soggy soil sit for hours in the summer sun. Perhaps you've just had a budworm chomping on your plant, or a little bit of budrot that you can cut away and recover from. If you do in fact have Fusarium Wilt, I sympathize because I've been there but look on the brightside: perhaps you've won the Shit Lottery?