Opar’s First Grow: Blue Dream & Bubba Kush 2.0, 2019

[Opar]

Wow. Those buds look amazing @Opar. And the yield you're going pull down is crazy. Happy for you bro..great job

thanks @Sparkey224 , looking forward to the end.... feels like forever! How did yours end up? They were looking awesome!

 

[Opar]

Damn.....

Pwm? Powdery white mildew?

 

[Opar]

And are these balls?

 

[Mushie1005]

It does look like those are balls just pick them off u may end up with a few seeds some place in a couple buds

 

[Opar]

Nobody said it’d be easy damn

 

[Backlipslide]

No don’t take those off. Their not seeds, they’re empty. Once pollinated they will turn into seeds

 

[Silverfox125]

If you do get seeds they would be feminized so that’s a plus.

I’m with @Backlipslide. I’ve only seen them come late in flower but I leave them on.

it doesn’t look “hard” enough to be a male flower but keep an eye on it. It would really surprise me if that plant hermed because as far as I can tell you have stressed it very little or none at all.


Silver

 

[Opar]

Going to spray apple cider vinegar solution tonight after lights out... temperature swings were likely the cause of the pwm... I’m venting outside through a window.... so overnight lows are getting quiet low.... I may start venting into the living area and close the window to prevent such a large variance... just hope the daytime highs can stay below 80.... also I’ve been feeding to runoff and letting the run off evaporate... that’s a lot of extra moisture.... RH at canopy height is still high 40’s... but that added moisture source can’t be good... Turkey vaster time I guess... I did pull one plant from the scrog, so I could access the other three...

In future I’m definitely going to be more careful about spreading out the colas from the centre... way too thick in there (clustered). PWM is barely present, I cut everything I could see, will do the same on other three, then spray , looks like an h2o2 bath on harvest!

 

[Silverfox125]

I’m researching the mildew now. We will want to get that fixed fast as it looks like it can spread.

remove the leaves that have it even a small amount.

 

[Opar]

Thanks @Silverfox125, geez I feel like chicken little .... literally thought the sky was falling

 

[Silverfox125]

I wouldn’t worry about the temperature variation. Sometimes that leads to really cool phenos.

it looks like it may be humidity is just a touch high. Is there anything you could do to lower it ?

do you have a circulation fan inside the tent?

we will get this taken care of and coast home my friend.

 

[Opar]

Yes, I have 2 oscillating monkey fans ( well, 1 stopped oscillating) and a clip on fan... I think I will add 1 more fan on the bottom and I will stop leaving run off in the drip trays... after I spray the hell out of them tonight... hopefully this will keep it in check, once grow is complete I will deep clean everything

 

[Silverfox125]

definitely remove all signs of the pwm.

Is it in flower or just on leaves?

 

[Silverfox125]

Man that’s surprising with all those fans.

do you think it’s just flowers growing to close to each other?

 

[Opar]

Man that’s surprising with all those fans.

do you think it’s just flowers growing to close to each other?

yes, too much liquid evaporation below the canopy.... my guess, I never should have thought letting the runoff evaporate (lazy) was ok, combined with density of canopy and poor defoil ... I skirted them but did not thin the middle, so quite clumped in at centre of the plants

 

[Backlipslide]

40 to high 40’s isn’t all that bad for an RH... that shouldn’t have been the problem. Hmm I’ll have to think about this one hang on.


White Powdery Mildew, also known as White Powdery Mold or just “WPM” to cannabis growers.
White Powdery Mildew is usually a minor annoyance that can be easily fixed, but if you don’t catch it early, WPM can turn into a catastrophe that ruins an entire marijuana harvest!
For those who haven’t experienced WPM, imagine circular patches of a living, breathing, fuzzy, flour-looking substance showing up on your plant’s leaves without any warning. From there, the mildew can easily spread to other leaves and buds, rendering the buds unusable.

White Powdery Mildew is completely reversible up to a point.
This will arm you with the information to stop WPM’s proliferation before it even has a chance to take hold!

What IS White Powdery Mildew?
White Powdery Mildew is a rapidly reproducing (both sexually AND asexually) fungus who only knows how to do two things:

1. Eat your plants
2. Make more White Powdery Mildew

Fortunately, White Powdery Mildew is easy to spot since it creates white patches of fungal growth that stand out against the green leaves of a cannabis plant.
It can be removed from plants with proper treatment if spotted early on, but any buds with WPM should be discarded as they most likely contain many more spores than your eyes can see.


What causes White Powdery Mildew?
High Humidity

• WPM needs moisture to thrive, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it needs water. Having a grow area with high humidity is all WPM needs to get started. This seems to be a bit problematic since young cannabis plants grow best in relatively humid environments (40% -60% RH). Luckily, high humidity usually only becomes an issue when it’s combined with the next cause (low/no airflow).
• People who live in environments with extremely high humidity (such as the southern US or anywhere in the UK) can purchase a dehumidifier to control humidity in the grow area. This is especially important during the flowering phase when humidity needs to be much lower (45% rh) to prevent rampant growth of WPM and bud mold.

Low/No Airflow

• White Powdery Mildew has a hard time settling in a grow room where the air is being moved. High humidity will give WPM the conditions it needs to survive, but poor airflow is what gives it the ability to settle down in the first place. In fact, a small (preferably oscillating) fan moving air in a grow area will prevent the vast majority of White Powdery Mildew woes.

Poor Ventilation

• If you have WPM spores in your grow area and the air in grow area is never exchanged for fresh air, the spores get multiple chances to land on your plants and reproduce. This happens most often in conditions where cannabis is being grown in a closed, unventilated space – such as a closet – and precautions aren’t taken to exchange old stale air for new fresh air.

Leaf-on-Leaf Contact

• Leaves that are touching each other will form moisture between them, and thus they become more likely to contract WPM. Untrained bushy/leafy plants with lots of new vegetative growth are especially prone since they will often have their leaves mashed up against each other as they try to reach toward the light.
• Advanced growers can defoliate some of the fan leaves that are completely shaded from the grow light to make fewer choice landing spots for White Powdery Mildew. Also, defoliation frees up energy for the plant to use when done correctly and increases yields!

There are quite a few products and homemade concoctions people use to treat WPM. Among the effective treatments are:

• Milk (1:9 ratio of milk to water)
• Baking soda (2 tablespoons per gallon of water)
• Neem Oil (4 teaspoons per gallon of water)
• Hydrogen Peroxide (1 teaspoon of 35% H202 per gallon of water)
• SM-90 (1:5 ratio of SM-90 to water)

Rather than go into these methods, I’m going to give you the simple strategy I use that gets rid of White Powdery Mildew on the first try, every time! Here’s my trusted 3-Step White Powdery Mold cure:

1. Remove White Powdery Mildew from leaves – Get some water (tap water works fine) and some paper towels. Wet the paper towels and use them to gently wipe the mildew off the affected leaves whilst being careful not to jostle any leaves with spores on them. Using a wet cloth will ensure that more spores stick to the cloth instead of becoming airborne. Note: While it isn’t necessary to use paper towels, their disposability helps to curb the spread of spores from one leaf to another.
   
2. Ensure plants have proper airflow and ventilation – Even if you have absolutely no airflow or ventilation in your grow room, having just two fans will drastically reduce your chances of encountering WPM while also benefitting your plant’s overall health. One fan should be oscillating if possible and should gently blow air over your plants. All the plants need is enough air to gently rustle their leaves which will make it hard for WPM to settle down. The second fan should be in your grow room pointing outward to exchange old air with fresh air. Having a fan pointing out of your grow room will force old air out of the room, and in turn, pull new air into the room. At this point, you’ll have new air coming in, being used and circulated, then kicked out. Keep in mind that two fans is a minimum.
   
3. Treat the infected plant with one of the options below to kill spores prevent future growth – Mix up your treatment of choice in a clean sprayer/mister. We recommend Lost Coast Plant Therapy (1oz/2btsp per gallon of water) or Growsafe (2oz/4tbsp per gallon of water) as a safe second option. Make sure to consult the instructions on your treatment of choice to find the recommended dosage. Wait until just before your lights for off for the day and mist your (newly cleaned) plants. Get all the leaves even if you don’t see WPM on them!

There you have it! If you end up running into White Powdery Mildew, give this advice a shot and you won’t have to deal with it past that first day. If you do end up using these steps, feel free to let us know if it helped you or not, or how you did it differently. When growers know just a little bit about this plant disease, it doesn’t have a chance!

So after going over all that... it could have been the water left out, with the combination of not enough air flow... maybe?

 

[Silverfox125]

Ya I read that too. The milk idea is interesting.

 

[Opar]

Thank you @Backlipslide and @Silverfox125 !

I did spray with a product called White Wash, some kind of frequency altered water. I sprayed the plants until they were soaking in it, too and bottom. I did this just after the lights went out and hope they dry out before lights on, although I’m not sure that’s an issue with frequency altered water.... I pray I didn’t just kill my bud...

Complicating factors:

1. defoliation - canopy needs defoliation badly, extremely crowded with fan leaves and tons of larf

2. Run-off - drip tray sits with run off from feeding and slowly evaporates over the course of a day or sometimes a little more. This evaporation is extremely suspect

3. Cleanliness - as the grow has progressed I’ve admittedly let things go a bit. Sometimes during feeding their is splash/overflow that hits the tent floor. It dries but leaves behind stuff, which may be growing the pwm for all I know.


4. Airflow - No under canopy air flow. Pwm seems worst on edges of canopy, leaves that are near or contact edge of tent and themselves.

Remedy

1. Defoliation - I’ve removed every part of the plant I could see the pwm on. I am debating cutting out the scrog and performing a heavy defoil of the canopy.

2. Run-off - removal of run off from drip tray

3. cleanliness - clean tent bottom and ensure clean drip trays to deny Breeding grounds for ‘whatever’

4. Increased fan count. I now have 4 6” fans for airflow... 2 oscillating and 2 fixed. I also have an exhaust fan.

 

[Silverfox125]

Good vibes coming your way

 

[Opar]

Well so far this morning haven’t found anymore pwm... although it’s hard to be sure with size and density of canopy... cleaning tent floor and drip trays and a good feeding, hoping that will do the job!