Buds are are jacked up. Please help. (Possible TMV)

[stra8outtaWeed]

over nuted~looks to me like to much nitrogen late into the flowering cycle and some strains will do what i call a "foxtail" and have a bud shoot out of the bud..but yours looks very leafy to me which is caused from too much N and or light leaks in your growing space during flowering! :smokin:

[snowking]

Canna13is - I don't believe it's genetics because in my last grow I had both White Rhino and a strain called Early Girl Haze. Both plants were afflicted with the same problem. And I've grown several rounds of EGH very successfully with none of these deformities.

As far as TMV goes, there are plenty of other posts around the internet with talks of viruses. Some people say TMV affects cannabis some don't. Some people claim there's a cucumber mosaic virus that affects cannabis. I certainly won't argue semantics on a subject I know nothing about. So lets drop the "tobacco mosaic" prefix, and just talk about whether or not I have a virus. If I do, I have to scrap my entire grow and start everything over from scratch. That means mothers, clones, 2 generations in veg, and 3 generations in flower. It's kind of a big deal. If I don't have a virus, then I just need to figure out the problem and correct it. Not such a big deal.

Bigtopsfinn - I treat the coco like dirt. When I initially water it's very dark for the first day. Second day it's dry on top, but if you stick your finger in it there is obviously still good moisture in the pot. 3rd day the pots are light and ready for water and the plants still look very healthy. If I let it go 4 days the leaves start to wilt and the plants look thirsty. Bottom line is I've been growing for over a year on this watering schedule and I've had a lot of really nice crops. Crops that did not produce deformed buds with soft stems.

Str8touttaweed - There are no light leaks in my flower room. My nute profile is GH 3 part, Liquid Karma, and Liquid KoolBloom with some CalMag+. Not sure which one of those would contribute to excess N.

The reason why I initially gravitated toward a virus as an explanation is because I've been growing for over a year and I've had plenty of good healthy crops. I started with Early Girl Haze and then added the White Rhino. I've seen the same bud deformities in both strains, but not until the last 2 crops.

Also, I've read tons of post on nute excesses and deficiencies and you see a lot of talk about leaf symptoms but I've never seen anything regarding bizarre bud deformities like I'm seeing. (Other than the ICMag post I referenced earlier.)

Something that just occurred to me this morning is that I've been re-using my coco coir from grow to grow. I rinse it out with straight water in between grows, but I haven't been flushing my plants during veg or flower until my current grow (using water plus FloraKleen). I'm wondering if a single straight water flush isn't enough to clean out the coco. My expectation is that it would merely manifest itself as nute burn, not crazy bud deformities. I don't know. My next batch I'm starting with absolutely fresh bags of coco and I'll do a better job flushing as I go.

I'm going to be harvesting during the next few days. I'll get some better pics posted once I pull everything apart. I'll snip out some deformed bud sections, lay them on a white piece of paper and take some close-ups.

Thanks to everyone for posting. I really appreciate you taking an interest and trying to help. All constructive criticism is appreciated, and sometimes the wrong suggestion is what triggers somebody else to come up with the right one.

[bigtopsfinn]

Could be the re-used coco also... although it should last for a year with proper care.

I'd still suggest to take another look at your watering schedule. Coco is coco, and has different properties than soil. It's more like hydro, and should be treated as such. You can always try different watering schedules for different plants and see how that works out for you. I've been researching coco for a while now, and it seems that watering daily is the norm, sometimes you can water once every two days, and sometimes it's twice a day, depending on plant and container sizes. Even if you have previously been successful, there's always room for improvement, right?

Also remember to rinse out your new coco well before using it.

Here's an interesting read on coco...Growing on Coco: Busting the Myth - International Cannagraphic Magazine Forums

There's a lot of other good information in that section.

Good luck :thumbsup:

[Fo20Jay]

snowking- defiantly TMV, i am dealing with it as well. thanks for posting pics of flowered plants, i have caught most of mine in veg. the few that have made it to flower i may let go and use for hash. from what a have read your cause would be reused coco, TMV can live in dead plant matter and roots for years.BLEACH EVERYTHING!!!!! on your big clean up after harvest and get new coco and you should be back in business.

[LOC NAR on probation]

No Bleach.

Look into Physan 20 for cleaning. If you smoke cig's you can mix with a gallon of water for a handwash that kills mosaic virus. It also kills bacteria such as cyanobacteria and fungi and virus's.