Bud wash after initial drying

[dabathor]

Hey y'all. First time grower here. I'm 11 days into hang drying my first harvest. Upon checking to see if the produce was ready for curing, I discovered webbing that was appearing within some of the buds and at the stems. Upon a closer look under the handheld microscope, I don't see anything that is alive, however, I do see some black dots which I can only assume is poop from mites.

Seeing as I am ready to cure at this point, does it make sense to do a Bud wash? And then dry again and then cure? Or is it too late?

I did not know about Bud washing until a few minutes ago when I discovered it on this site. Definitely will be doing that with all my future harvests . Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

[VetSmoke85]

I'd wash it as I wouldn't want to be smoking webs and poop. Are you 100% sure it isn't mould though?

 

[Roy Growin]

Hi @dabathor
Definitely rinse in H2O2 solution, you may have only seen the tip of the iceberg

 

[dabathor]

Thank you for the kind replies.

I want to say that I don't believe it is mould but I'm also not experienced enough to know matter of factly. I'm leaning towards not mould for a couple reasons. The flower itself looks great to the naked eye (I think?) and the smell is fantastic. The drying conditions have also been textbook: ~67 degrees F and 50-55% Humidity. Lastly, the black dots that I'm seeing under the microscope are few and far between and they're pretty much the same size all around. There aren't any clusters or anything beyond a single black speck.

I think it's worth noting that my basement, where I am drying, does have a decent house spider presence (cobwebs and stuff here and there). Perhaps it could be them causing havoc.

I'm going to move forward with washing regardless of whether or not I choose to consume this flower, simply for the learning experience. I would be okay if I had to throw everything out but obviously, I'd love to NOT have to do that.

I attached some photos from a nug. Would love to hear thoughts on whether or not it's mites or mould!

 

[Roy Growin]

Mould by the looks of it, get it off quick

 

[SmokingWings]

I'm 11 days into hang drying my first harvest.

11 days is a long way into the drying stage. I have experimented with washing after letting the buds dry for several days. One, two and three days seemed OK. Four days and it seemed like it took longer than I liked for drying to resume after washing and I figured that some of the sugar leaves had dried enough that they absorbed more water than the "greener" leaves had. Have not experimented all than much with really well dried buds.

I discovered webbing that was appearing within some of the buds and at the stems. Upon a closer look under the handheld microscope, I don't see anything that is alive, however, I do see some black dots which I can only assume is poop from mites.

Does look like a well developed mite colony was at work there with those web looking areas. The mites would have started leaving the plant within minutes, certainly under an hour, after cutting bud stems from the root system. Sort of along the lines of "rats leaving a sinking ship". Evolution probably programmed the mites to leave any branch that broke off in winds, etc and to seek out a branch that was still getting water and plant sugars.

I think it's worth noting that my basement, where I am drying, does have a decent house spider presence (cobwebs and stuff here and there). Perhaps it could be them causing havoc.

House spiders and common spiders are meat eaters. I have read several articles that these regular spiders will eat the Spider Mites. I leave most of the ordinary spiders that are in the basement alone for this reason. Outside on the patio I leave any spiders I find on the plants. I try not to bother them and I have not yet had any problem with mites on the leaves or flowers. Photo down below is of some florescent green spider that hung around for several days and built a web from the leaves to the screen over a window.

While Spider Mites are related to our ordinary spiders they are two different branches on the spider tree is my understanding.