Thanks sb! I'm hopeful every time I start one of these projects.
Thank you BudMan! I use the unscented Dr Bronner's on my plants because I figure using the peppermint adds another oil to the mix I may not want on my pistils, since I use it for bugs in flower.
Wonderful. I didn't realize they made an unscented one. I will get this one next time I'm at the health food store. Thank you so much...
Hmmm...Okay folks, let's talk about powdery mildew (PM).
As most of you know, I've used many different sprays to try to knock down the PM that persists in my environment, and I have settled on neem until pistils, and then citric acid spray (0.25%). A little while back, canola oil was brought up as a possibility and one that I hadn't tried. It's cheaper than neem oil, and "[t]he Canadian Pest Management Regulatory Agency banned neem oil for use as an insecticide in 2012," (source) so I thought I would see if it works so our Canadian brethren will have an alternative.
@Regrowth and I had a conversation about canola oil dilution rates, and from his research he had found that there are a number of the canola oil products available with dilution rates ranging from 2-2.5%. @CBD BudMan has used another product with canola oil that is a 1% dilution, but he's of the mind that that concentration clogs the stomata on the leaves and could be creating a problem with transpiration (confirmed below*).
So I kept digging around regarding the canola spray and PM and found this research:
https://circadiancropsciences.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/PM-and-DM-Control-Cooking-Oil.pdf
It's a (South) Korean study from 2008 and seems well-researched and documented, and on the plus side, it's written in mostly non-technical language, dealing in percentages and ml rather than molecular weights and such.
Here are the cooking oils they tested:
They found that a 0.3% canola oil mix (with the addition of an emulsifier) worked the best among their tests without leaving the leaves oily (*as a 1% solution did). 0.3% (or 3ml/L) is much smaller percentage than in commercial products out there.
NB: The study said the effects lasted about 5 days.
There is also a discussion in the paper regarding emulsifiers to make the oil more stable in water, with an eye toward organic farming methods (you know how the Koreans are big on natural farming), but I'll be using Dr Bronner's unscented castile soap for mine.
I also learned from the paper that they emulsify in a blender (rather than just shaking a bottle), so I'll be using that, and testing out the smallest amount of Dr Bronner's that will make the mix stable.
To try and replicate their results, this weekend I'll be blending 500ml of distilled water with 1.5ml of canola oil (0.3% solution), and adding 1 drop of Dr Bronners at a time to the blender to see what it takes to emulsify it.
And in order to run this test, I have been intentionally growing PM on my Candida mother for the last week:
The things I do for y'all! Stay tuned for the ongoing results.
Ohh are you at the Jubilee as well??CL
Welcome to the world of Cannabis my friend!I am so guilty of that….. the losing track part
I just got some unscented Dr. Bronner's Pure-Castile Soap.
@013 I use this as well, under the name Actinovate Lawn & Garden. Love the stuff and it's really good against Botrytis cinerea too. I get mine from Amazon... (no affiliate commissions of any kind)Greetings Shed,
Doing the drive by thing, no need to duck I’m only blasting info not hot lead….
Yikes PM… have you ever tried or researched streptomyces lydicus? Its a bacterium for killing nasties like pm. Not cheap but if it works then its worth price of admission. Arbico Organics carries it.
Let us know what you discover
@013 I use this as well, under the name Actinovate Lawn & Garden. Love the stuff and it's really good against Botrytis cinerea too. I get mine from Amazon... (no affiliate commissions of any kind)
I Love My Girls...
all! It's been a little bit since I've been here (very busy weekend) and I've got a few things to go over, but let me just do the Tuesday update on the seeded Candida harvest from Sunday and Monday. for hanging around for the Candida seed-making process!Glad to help BudMan!
LOL! Testing is currently underway...
Most folks use the peppermint oil version (it's nicer to brush your teeth with and also masks ant trails). And I use 4 Tbs/gallon (same mix as the video) when I'm using it for pests.
Thanks for the recommendation 013! I haven't given any bacterial methods a try, but if the cheap methods all fail I might have to head down that road. @seaofgreen18 recommended Bacillus subtilis strain QST 713 (brand name Cease) which is supposed to work for PM and botrytis when alternated with potassium bicarbonate.
Nice find, thanks!
What a beautiful bowl of Candida potential! Nice work sticky fingered Sir! 10 days before the pistil?
Sunday was flip day 64 and the plant looked like this:
It was barely drinking, so I took a few seed pods off from various spots, and they all looked like this:
Good enough for me, so I went about taking off the buds individually from the stems:
Here's what I ended up with:
For the record here are the roots:
I put the flowers in a box with a fan on them for the rest of the day, and closed it up with the dehuey on overnight.
Then I spent almost all day Monday breaking apart each flower on a seed hunt. This literally took 6-8 hours of searching, re-searching, sifting, sorting, and cleaning out the vegetation. In the end, here is what I ended up with:
I threw out the pale ones, along with the mashed up flowers:
Which leaves me with these:
I have them out drying for a couple of weeks, and then I'll test germinate a couple to make sure they're viable. Remember, these are not for sale, only to be handed out as gifts for those in need.
Finally, one main lesson I will take away from this is to flip the STS plant a week to 10 days before the pistil one so I don't miss any of the early pistils. My sense is that the pale seeds would have turned into more viable ones if I had gotten them pollinated earlier.
Quotes:
Glad to help BudMan!
LOL! Testing is currently underway...
Most folks use the peppermint oil version (it's nicer to brush your teeth with and also masks ant trails). And I use 4 Tbs/gallon (same mix as the video) when I'm using it for pests.
Thanks for the recommendation 013! I haven't given any bacterial methods a try, but if the cheap methods all fail I might have to head down that road. @seaofgreen18 recommended Bacillus subtilis strain QST 713 (brand name Cease) which is supposed to work for PM and botrytis when alternated with potassium bicarbonate.
Nice find, thanks!
Thanks GDB! I figure if I'm going to put all the effort into the process I should put the effort into harvesting the seeds. And I tried to keep my back and neck in alignment the whole time so it didn't hurt too badly. So far so good.
Thank you Otter! Yes, flip the STS-sprayed plant 7-10 days before flipping the one that will be pollinated. That's that I meant by "the pistil plant" even though it doesn't yet have pistils at that point! I clarified it above.
plenty of finger hash?? Will you make anything with the trim?
Thanks Keith...sure feels like it!You earned every one of those seeds.
LOL thanks MedSci! These seeds are so much better than lunchroom milk ever was (which isn't hard).WooHoo! Awesome update!
Mighty FINE work on the Fem Seeds! I look forward to the Tutorial!
Last time I got a Lunchroom Milk they were $0.05, I will be Happy to reimburse you!
Thank you GV! No finger hash and all the trim in the trash. I've sprayed it with neem, didn't wash it, and still have plenty of legit Candida flowers in jars for whenever I need to made CBD oil. This plant 100% served its purpose and will now be composted by the City of Los Angeles' Sanitation Department!
on the thread. Sometimes forget where I’m posting. CL
