Grand Daddy Purple Clones Start To Finish!

[Goldengoose7]

Ahh golden that sux about the PM..im glad to see youve got it handled!! Last spring my roses out front got it real bad... It was an issue fosho....that would be dope if you can post th mold pics soon..looking forward to them...peace

This kind of problem at the end of the flowering cycle is a pain in the ass, no question!

I know that Rose bushes are especially susceptable to this particular fungus. I keep my humidity levels around 45% so I am surprised that I got this in there. Must have come from one of the recent additions from outside. I've got several smaller plants in there now too.

Anyway...

Here is an infected GDP leaf under the microscope.

Powdery Mildew Fungus 80x

Hopefully I caught it in time. Would hate to have to toss all the buds from this latest flowering cycle, but I know that it isn't healthy to smoke anything that has this stuff on it!

 

[CannaVince]

No way that shit dangerous !!! Need to handle it!!!! Those pics are dope thanx golden..

 

[Goldengoose7]

No way that shit dangerous !!! Need to handle it!!!! Those pics are dope thanx golden..

No doubt about that! I think I caught it in time. All the plants I sprayed with the Baking Soda and then Skim Milk/Water are free of the fungus!

Hopefully the 90 degree days we are having right now with low humidity will kill off whatever spores remain on them. In terms of their physical appearance, they look fine now. Will continue to monitor and continue spraying with the Milk/Water until everything looks clean.

 

[Goldengoose7]

Oh!

I failed to mention a VERY important last step when spraying Baking Soda solution on your plants! If you get any on the actual flower tops, especially a plant in early flower, it will cause the hairs to turn red/brown within 6-8 hours of contact! Even after a spraying of clean water right afterwards.

The Milk/Water won't do this, so it is safe to use on flowers. Still... You need to be careful cause even too much water sprayed on flower tops can cause them to turn red. Has happened to a few of the tops on GDP 1 already.

Can't be helped sometimes when you are trying to deal with something much worse than some premature red hairs. New hairs should grow in to replace them over the next week or so. If not, I will cut the tops off and force the plant to make more! Somewhat drastic, but I have more GDPs where these came from!

Here are some outdoor shots of GDP #2 now residing outside for her last few weeks before harvest time, possible remaining fungi issues not withstanding...

The only WHITE you see on those leaves right now are Trichomes. For now at least, the mildew appears to have been erradicated! Will report on the condition of all the affected plants in a few days.

Thanks for watching!

 

[herbswork]

Nice work G! I just noticed a little PM on mine too.. pesky pesky..I've been using 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar in 1/2 gal. H20 and alternating with spraying compost tea/water. The mold seems to be abated for now...

I like your baking soda and milk/water remedy though, the results appear to be undeniable..and I recently had someone tell me I should be spraying them with alkaline fluid (like baking soda) rather than acidic...thoughts?

 

[Captain Kronic]

I can't say it any better than Ed, so here is what Ed says about PM and baking soda et al.

I'm also pretty sure that you will have to stay on it since this is an external application and PM is systemic!

Also, if you are worried about the flowers... don't spray, use a sponge w/solution and wipe that shit off.

Powdery mildew spores float in the air and are everywhere. They need the proper conditions to germinate: a surface that contains nutrients on which they can grow, temperatures over 60?F (16-20 C), high humidity and a slightly acidic environment. Once the spore senses these conditions , it germinates, sending out a hyhae which seeks out a stomata. It enters the tissue and lives off its nutrients, eventually killing the tissue. The downy mildew powder you see on the leaf is the reproductive organ of the plant, which is releasing spores into the air.

Once the spore germinates, it survives in a wider range of conditions. Lowering humidity does not eliminate the infection. There are several things you can do to eliminate it:

Plant Shield is a foliar spray which kills many types of foliar and root fungus. It is not a chemical but a microbe, trichoderma harzianum strain T-22, which feasts on the fungus. It is totally harmless to non-fungal organisms so it is safe to use. It takes 2-10 days to control the disease. It is available from ITS: 800-375-1684 or 303-661-9546.
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Neem Oil is available in many formulations. It is quite effective on powdery mildew, with results noticeable in a couple of days. It is available in garden shops, nurseries and the net.

Armicarb or Kali-Carb are made from potassium bicarbonate. Potassium is a plant nutrient and the bicarbonate makes it soluble and alkaline. Powdery mildew cannot grow in an alkaline environment. The mold dies.

Baking Soda, bicarbonate of soda, is a home remedy. It contains sodium so using it too often will be harmful to the plant. Use one tablespoon per gallon and spray the leaves thoroughly.

Alkaline water controls powdery mildew. Use a water with a pH of close to eight. Some western waters have higher pH. The pH should be lowered to the low eights. The pH of acidic water can be raised using pH Up, available at garden shops.

To prevent recurrences, lower the humidity in the space. The humidity goes up in the evening because as the air cools the air's water-carrying capacity goes down. The same amount of water in the air results in higher relative humidity at lower temperatures. This occurs when the lights are off, a favorite time for spores to germinate. To prevent this, use a dehumidifier, which pulls moisture from the air resulting in a lower humidity.

Nice work G! I just noticed a little PM on mine too.. pesky pesky..I've been using 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar in 1/2 gal. H20 and alternating with spraying compost tea/water. The mold seems to be abated for now...

I like your baking soda and milk/water remedy though, the results appear to be undeniable..and I recently had someone tell me I should be spraying them with alkaline fluid (like baking soda) rather than acidic...thoughts?

 

[Captain Kronic]

Goose... fighting the good fight and winning... HOORAAA!

 

[clayhead]

Hey GG7
I agree with the Capt. You are fighting the fight and beating it ! I too had some mold issues but just before harvest. I had to trim out the mold and went far enough away from the problem to get it all out. Then gently wiped out area
Then I read your solutions ...... Thanks so much ...I like the baking soda and milk/water treatment, very organic! Did your treatment disolve the webbing or did you have to pull it out after treatment ?

 

[Goldengoose7]

Nice work G! I just noticed a little PM on mine too.. pesky pesky..I've been using 2 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar in 1/2 gal. H20 and alternating with spraying compost tea/water. The mold seems to be abated for now...

I like your baking soda and milk/water remedy though, the results appear to be undeniable..and I recently had someone tell me I should be spraying them with alkaline fluid (like baking soda) rather than acidic...thoughts?

Hey Herbswork! Welcome to my GDP thread!

I would think that Vinegar would be far too acidic to be safe to use all over the plant, especially one in flower. The baking soda is pretty strong stuff too, and as I mentioned, if you get any on the flower tops it will turn them red and could delay new growth by several days. I'd venture a guess that Vinegar would do the same thing to flower hairs if not washed off VERY quickly with clean water.

I find the skim milk and water mixture to be the safest and most effective way to treat this long term because it is safe to get on the buds without screwing them up. It also acts as a foliar feed for the plant, so rather than stressing the leaves, it most likely helps them, while also ridding them of the parasitic fungus infection!

Some of the proteins in the milk break down the cells walls of the fungus and their contests leak out killing the organism dead. While I didn't do a before and after under the scope to see what effect it had on the actual fungus material, at least as far as the fan leaves go, the stuff was totally gone.

I think the final spray of distilled water after the 24 hours of the milk staying on the leaves and buds washes away all the dead fungus material. At least that is what appears to have happened with my GDPs since I can find no trace of PM on them now.

I am sure moving them outside into the still rather intense summer sunlight didn't hurt the process! When indoors under artificial light, it is a lot harder to get rid of cause the conditions are much more favorable for the fungus to reemerge.

I believe it was a Wikipedia entry on PM that mentioned that the fungus can't survive in temps over 80 degrees, so perhaps heat is another way to fight it indoors. Just let your flower room get into the 80s and try to keep the humidity down under 45% at the same time.

This stuff is definitely a PITA! We don't have many legged pests around here we need to deal with, but this PM is all over the place up here in the Sierra. I was noticing yesterday that a bunch of the ground cover on the north facing side of our property had PM all over it.

Gonna spray that whole bed down with baking soda/water today since that may be ground zero around here for the spore's origin.

 

[Goldengoose7]

Goose... fighting the good fight and winning... HOORAAA!

Thanks Captain and also thanks for posting that info from Ed R's site! Good info there!

Odd he didn't mention the Milk/Water method since Rose gardeners swear by that cure and with Roses being even more susceptible to PM than Cannabis is, there are thousands if not millions of Rose growers out there using it all the time to kill off PM on their Rose bushes.

 

[Goldengoose7]

Hey GG7
I agree with the Capt. You are fighting the fight and beating it ! I too had some mold issues but just before harvest. I had to trim out the mold and went far enough away from the problem to get it all out. Then gently wiped out area
Then I read your solutions ...... Thanks so much ...I like the baking soda and milk/water treatment, very organic! Did your treatment disolve the webbing or did you have to pull it out after treatment ?

You're welcome Clayhead!

Haven't seen a trace of the fungus on the leaves since the first round of treatment on Sunday. I think the water spray the next day in the sunlight washed away all traces of the dead fungus stalks and their spore making nodules. At least I can't find any trace of PM in recent microscope checks of the GDP's fan leaves.

GDP #1 which was also infected but not as badly seems to have been slowed by the stress of the Baking Soda solution getting on its flower tops. At least it hasn't seemed to be growing as many flower hairs as before.

Now that the problem appears to have been dealt with, I decided to back off the 14/13 light cycle in there and bring them back to a 11/13. I can't rule out that the additional light hours may be adding to the plant's stress level, not helping it as I originally thought.

I am still experimenting with these longer than 24 hour cycles, but every time I seem to start to try running one, something happens to screw up the experiment and this makes the results inconclusive.

It is starting to appear though that a 14/12 or 14/13 cycle during the first 3-4 weeks of flowering IS NOT BENEFICIAL!

Still might prove useful during the last few weeks of flowering, however...

I found that the BBK plants seemed to respond to it when they were exposed later in the cycle at Week #6, but they also developed that odd issue with their leaves at the same time, so the jury is still out on that too. It might be that the extra light hours, while giving the plant additional energy, puts too much strain on the fan leaves and forces the plant to jettison them earlier than normal.

Maybe because it doesn't need them? I don't know. One of these days, I will be able to focus on the light cycle stuff without having to deal with other more pressing issues like the PM infection!

Thanks you guys for the suggestions and the input! Much appreciated!

Stay tuned for some new GDP photos coming soon!

Cheers.

 

[Greenie]

No doubt about that! I think I caught it in time. All the plants I sprayed with the Baking Soda and then Skim Milk/Water are free of the fungus!

Hopefully the 90 degree days we are having right now with low humidity will kill off whatever spores remain on them. In terms of their physical appearance, they look fine now. Will continue to monitor and continue spraying with the Milk/Water until everything looks clean.

I this photo!!! Purple is my favorite color too!

 

[Goldengoose7]

Glad you like the photo Greenie!

Hopefully, the move to outside doesn't screw up the full color change of the buds to purple. It should start happening over the next 7 days from today if it is going to happen at all. We did see some purple in the stalks of those trichomes, so we know there is some purple pigment in the right places of the plant right now.

However, we are entering a heat wave out here in Cali, so it may end up being TOO WARM at NIGHT for this one to change. A lot of folks don't realize that most NorCal Purple strains like GDP and Urkle do not turn purple for everyone. Their growing environment has a lot to do with it. GDP and Urkle both need cold overnight temps to really show any significant color change.

The purple color doesn't effect the quality one way or the other. It is more of a bag appeal thing. In fact, I have read in several online growing guides that the purple parts are less potent than the dark green parts. Personally, I don't know enough about that one way or the other.

The Dark Green we got in Spades! So its all good!

I was just hoping I could get a purple one to post here for a possible POTM candidate. Hopefully GDP #3 will deliver since it will be ready for harvest around the end of October and by then, our highs are in the low 70s with overnight lows in the low 40s.

Perfect late flowering GDP temp range to make a PURPLE GDP PLANT!

 

[Greenie]

I am also in Cali. And it if freakin hot today!
The photo... the plant looks like a deep dark purple to me/ into a deep green. So, to me, I call that purple. I have a purple prejudice you know?
I finally started a journal. This way, I don't post a bunch of my crap in other people's purdy journals

I didn't mean that in any other way than my OWN ... LOL

Here's to that Cali sun

 

[Goldengoose7]

I am also in Cali. And it if freakin hot today!
The photo... the plant looks like a deep dark purple to me/ into a deep green. So, to me, I call that purple. I have a purple prejudice you know?
I finally started a journal. This way, I don't post a bunch of my crap in other people's purdy journals

I didn't mean that in any other way than my OWN ... LOL

Here's to that Cali sun

Hey man! No worries! I like having folks participate in my threads and add comments! Keeps the thing in front of other potential new readers and adds to the conversation!

In terms of the GDP color in that photo... Your computer displlay might be more sensitive to the hints of purple in that shots. OR, you could be getting fooled by all the redish purple hairs on the bud caused by the baking soda solution used to treat the fungus hitting the hairs.

The color of the overall plant to my eye here in person looks like a ripe Hass Avocado looks. Very dark green, almost black in some places, with a few hints of purple in the veins of the leaves.

In terms of the heat, YOU AIN'T KIDDIN! We are already at 89 degrees which is warm for this early in the day. We might reach the high 90s which at 4500 feet is HOT! Our overnight lows were in the nice mid 50s where the GDPs like it for turning color, but now we will be lucky to get below 60 for this entire week!

Thats why I am not going to be surprised if GDP #2 doesn't turn before harvest day. We shall see.

OK, OK... NOW I am off to do the back hill watering.

 

[Greenie]

Correction : Greenie = 100% female

come water my flowers when you are done, and bring a

 

[Goldengoose7]

come water my flowers when you are done, and bring a

 

[Greenie]

You're on your way right? I'll have cookies ready!

 

[Goldengoose7]

You're on your way right? I'll have cookies ready!

Cookies sound great, but my Lear Jet AND my Bell Jet Ranger are BOTH in the shop right now.

 

[Greenie]

You're assuming I am not your neighbor? LOL