Dreaded Problem: Mold Help for Everyone

an11dy9

Well-Known Member
I wanted to start this thread for myself and others. Its that time of year and I'm seeing alot of posters suffering from mold as I am.

I have many questions to ask about mold and hopefully others will use this thread to ask and share knowledge about preventing and combating this deaded problem of mold.

Mold can be tough. This is my first time experience it and I'm sure others can say the same, especially those of us in the Northeast. My area has almost double the yearly percipitation already for the year, and its only October. Almost trippled the month of September.:sad:

First, what are some techniques used to prevent mold? After a visit to the local hardware store I found some fungicide in the garden department, I just started to use this on some of the plants.

My bud rot is the brown kind, you peel open the bud a little and see it all brown and dead looking, when you touch it, it seems give off a poof of "dust" probably spores I'm guessing. What is the name of this brown powdery dust?

Once the mold has been spotted, what method is used to stop or slow down mold growth?

Also, many of us live all around the world with different climates and constantly changing weather. Mold grows due to moisture caught within the colas, what conditions are ideal for mold growth? Will it grow when it gets down to 40 at night? Does it grow most when its 85?

I have also read some info about using Baking Soda and Hydrogen Peroxide solutions, has anybody used this successfully and at what ratio.

Any input or advice will be appreciated. Its almost heartbreaking to find mold, especially after all the work and coming this far. Thanks in advance!
 

Randm

Active Member
I had the same problem this year, more so than last year for some reason. The only cure for 'bud rot' is to surgically remove ALL traces from your plant and destroy the clippings. Prevention is a different story.

I use two different methods. For prevention I use Neem oil once a week at double strength. When I see any mold or mildew I use the milk and baking soda solution. at a rate of 1 part per ten of skim milk added to water with about two tablespoons of baking soda. Both the Neem oil and milk/baking powder solution can be used up to a week or so befor harvest.

That brown powdery mold is 'Bud Rot'. I have no idea what the scientific term is or a any other alternative to getting rid of it but cutting the infected part of the bud out.
 

steampick

Active Member
Mold always gets your plants before frost, I find.

I'm picking some off my outdoor Querkle daily now and will harvest soon because of it.

The baking soda spray apparently changes the ph level of the plant as mold needs a certain ph level to grow. Haven't tried it, though.

I just pick the moldly bud off and chuck it. Don't freak out about it and do anything rash (chop the whole plant down). Just accept that it will happen, especially
late in flower when the buds are dense and moist with resin. Indica-type plants seem especially prone, given their typical bud structure (tight and dense), while
sativas and their looser formation aren't as plagued by it.
 

obijohn

Well-Known Member
Could be budworm damage. You'll see a dead leave or 3 on the outside of the bud, open it up, it's black, wet, and has the poof of dust. That's how I tell I have them, if they aren't visible on the outside of the bud
 

wheezer

Well-Known Member
first off, be careful about "fungicides" in the garden dept. Most of em' are a sulfer based product that will totally fuck your flavor up bad. Secondly, baking soda only raises PH on the leaf surface, and will help with powdery midew,and does little for bud rot. That's the only info I have that I know for sure. Nothing else I have heard or seen really works for bud rot. If conditions are favorable for it to grow, it'll grow.
I was wondering about the temp thing...what temps it grows at, what temps it will not. Anyone have that info?
 

doser

Well-Known Member
Obijon you've been reading my mail. What I've been doing is at the first sign of a dead fan leaf I go ahead and cut that one but off of the cola as it is gone anyhow with time. Then I try to salvage what I can out of that bud and sometimes I get a lot sometimes I get a little but I generally always get that fucking budworm!! It's working ok now that the plants are about ready to harvest but I took a few licks early on. I didn't use any neem oil at all. Does that work?
 

obijohn

Well-Known Member
Should work fine. I've only seen one budworm this year a month or so ago, and sprayed the buds several times with spinosad. I have found a few affected spots here since I'm harvesting, but haven't seen a single worm, but I'm guessing that was from a month ago and it just kinda rotted being inside the bud. I'm hoping that's all it is, and not regular bud rot, aside from the past few days it's been warm and dry here. I'm knocking on wood that the plant with the biggest, fullest colas doesn't have the insides ravaged, I'll be harvesting that one tomorrow
 

good4u895

Member
So Out of curiosity I have had to harvest early due to endless days of rain which have started to make my buds mold and a few spots kinda slimmy brown not powdery so I cut those parts out very carefully can i hang them for a day by the complete stalks or should they be individual branches first time here for me very nice for beginners luck just shitty it rained for like two weeks and now were getting our first freeze tonight hopfully now that there hanging they will be ok or should i have brought them in the house instead of my shed? Any kind of step by step harvest help would be so awsome at this point and what do i do with the big leaves leave them on they fall off ???? Happy smoking
 

SmokinOGkushTrees

Active Member
So Out of curiosity I have had to harvest early due to endless days of rain which have started to make my buds mold and a few spots kinda slimmy brown not powdery so I cut those parts out very carefully can i hang them for a day by the complete stalks or should they be individual branches first time here for me very nice for beginners luck just shitty it rained for like two weeks and now were getting our first freeze tonight hopfully now that there hanging they will be ok or should i have brought them in the house instead of my shed? Any kind of step by step harvest help would be so awsome at this point and what do i do with the big leaves leave them on they fall off ???? Happy smoking
https://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/28072-harvest-time-tutorial.html Good Luck..
 

Milovan

Well-Known Member
Baking soda is just a bandaid. Milk works best and used for most
agricultural grows. 1 part milk with 10 parts water. Can be used up
till harvest with no damage to buds.
 

Banditt

Well-Known Member
http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2011/02/stop-the-rot-how-to-fight-mildew-botrytis-with-natural-foliar-sprays/

Preventative measures work best. Spray serenade weekly. When you find a bud with rot in it, place a sandwich baggie over the effected area (to prevent spores from releasing onto your clean plant matter), then cut off the branch. Using silicate products can increase the plants resistance to such pathogens as well. Removing the effected areas and keeping the plants resistances high are really the only options.

Botrytis or bud rot thrives in high humidity and mild temperatures, 70+% humidity and temps of around 65 degrees are a perfect breeding ground for botrytis.
 

good4u895

Member
So if i spray 1 part milk to 10 parts water in a spray bottle it will rid the mold? is that what im reading? wouldnt that cause mildew or something? One person 4 plants doing by myself wanna do this right I watched the tutorial but it didnt mention anything about mold spreading ////// \m/\m/
 

ClaytonBigsby

Well-Known Member
So if i spray 1 part milk to 10 parts water in a spray bottle it will rid the mold? is that what im reading? wouldnt that cause mildew or something? One person 4 plants doing by myself wanna do this right I watched the tutorial but it didnt mention anything about mold spreading ////// \m/\m/
Personally, I am hesitant to spray more moisture onto my buds. I have been wrapping the rotten buds with a damp washrag and clipping the stem for complete removal. I am on my third day of 80% humidity outside with no end in sight and three weeks to go......and it is killing me!!!!!

If you do this, please let us know how it worked for you.
 

SmokinOGkushTrees

Active Member
So if i spray 1 part milk to 10 parts water in a spray bottle it will rid the mold? is that what im reading? wouldnt that cause mildew or something? One person 4 plants doing by myself wanna do this right I watched the tutorial but it didnt mention anything about mold spreading ////// \m/\m/
That tutorial was for Harvest time Brotha, i seen that u said "Any kind of step by step harvest help would be so awsome at this point " so i posted the Harvest time tutorial... Now about the mold and the milk spray shit idk man!!! So far no one said anything bad about it, so it might work.. I would just cut the infected part out, but thats only if u get to it quick enough!!! I had a Bud Worm problem at another garden not to long ago. We just picked them out, i noticed a few days after where the worms were at the Buds got rotten, we also just picked that off!!! The Bud came out great, im smokin on it now :fire: Also talk to Banditt, sounds like he know's whats up.. Im on the Urban Garden Mag site right now!!! Looks like some good info.. Going to save it to my computer for when the time comes!!! You might want to look into that a little more B4 you spray down your Buds with milk water!!! If u wanna do it right, look into it a little more and spend some good money at your Hydro Store!!! Here's my little collection so far and thats not everything, got more outside!!!


Good Luck with your grow...:peace:
 

doser

Well-Known Member
Well, the milk solution works AWESOME for powdery mildew but idk about mold. I would also be reluctant to spray more water on my buds so I don't use it for mold. I am also really really henky about spraying fungicides and such onto my plants. I'm not an earth cookie or anything but smoking chemicals is just wrong in my mind. As I am harvesting affected buds and letting the rest of the plant continue I am surprised at the quantity I am harvesting. It may end up that I am willing to accept the trade off of less product for less chem's. We all have our own level of tolerance to the chem's we allow into our lives and I kind of draw a line here. Seems prudent to me but if you're not worried about then I can live with it! At this point i have five clean plants and a whole lot of bud still on the plants so looking forward to one more week of good weather and then chop chop like a chinaman
 
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