The Importance of Having Preventive Treatment for Fusarium
The legal cannabis industry in North America is the hardest hit by Fusarium because licensed growers must have their product tested for fungus and a wide variety of other contaminants before it goes to market. When Fusarium Oxysporum and Pythium spores enter a farmer’s irrigation system these microscopic spores are virtually invisible and are impossible to detect. By the time they have infested the roots of an entire crop, the symptoms of mass plant wilting leave no time for correction or remediation with conventional measures. By the time a farmer spots mass wilting of the crop, it’s too late and the crop is ruined. This situation can become a nightmare for even the most experienced, educated agricultural specialists when all the soil used by the farm becomes contaminated as well.
Why Fusarium Thrives in Cannabis Farms
In our uncultivated “wild” soils, Fusarium behaves just like most wild fungus and mushroom species and is harmless and even beneficial to some plants. But when exposed to artificially man-made conditions of large-scale agriculture, either out in the open fields or in the greenhouse and indoor facilities, Fusarium runs rampant, morphing into a lethal monster for crops. Scientists studying this species and its similar behaving Pythium relative, have already determined that they thrive in controlled agricultural environments precisely for the same reasons crops do.
Many large-scale commercial marijuana operations have recently experienced a sudden proliferation of Fusarium Oxysporum and Pythium infestation due to the ideal conditions these marijuana cultivators strive for. But instead of co-existing unobtrusively with plants as they do in the wild, they take over and can easily overrun and wipe out entire crops if left unchecked. Specifically, the growth cycle for marijuana is so relatively short compared to other cash crops, Fusarium doesn’t necessarily have enough time to completely destroy the plant but has just enough time to infect the precious marijuana buds.
This is article 2 in our 4-part series on Fusarium and How to Treat It. If Fusarium is affecting your cannabis crops, or other crops, we may be able to help.
