Bud Rot & Mold, Late Flower, Trying To Salvage

[GrEeNdAyZ]

Hey 420 People,

I was a little reluctant to post my trials of the day. I'm pretty embarrassed that I have lost part of and will most likely loose more of a White Widow that is almost at the finish line to a mold. On Wednesday I was looking for opinions on weather to start a flush or continue feeding. Here's the plant then.

And this is the plant today.

This pissed me off, this was perfect yesterday. "quad bud" four flowers of the top of the same stem.

At the moment there are still lots of great clean flowers though

Decided to try and save what I could. Removed the visibly effected branches, some were DOA.

Cut out the bad,mainly the tops and gave them a rough trim.

I did pull some of the rot apart and found what I guess is a white mold, not powdery mildew. I had spots of that here and there on both my plants but managed it with fungicide.

Used Doc Bud's wash method. 4 5 gallon pails, 1 - cold tap water and 250ml bottle of hydrogen peroxide, 2 - cold tap water with 1 cup lemon juice and one cup baking soda, 3 - hot tap water, 4 - cold tap water. 30 seconds of vigorous agitation in each bucket.

I have used Safer Brand products (insecticide, miticide, fungicide) as a preventative all season. The weather in Southern Ontario has been crazy hot and humid for a while and I have been concerned about rot but didn't expect an out break to go so fast. Although a few weeks ago I was sure neither of my plants would finish due to frost, lol.

I did spray early yesterday morning with just fungicide. I get good coverage but don't over do it. So I'm totally at a loss with the speed of this.

I know I read it somewhere but can't find it now, a foliar spray of water and hydrogen peroxcide...I can't recall how much peroxide to mix in...anyone know?...would this be at all efective?

 

[GrEeNdAyZ]

Just gona bump my own thread.

 

[BluePhoric]

Damn, this occurred real fast ! It's so sad.

The weather is too hot and humid for this time of year and for the maturity of the buds.
It's gonna be like that a few days, then it's gonna rain probably.

I have absolutely zero experience with mold, so I'm afraid I can't help really help.
Maybe you could do an early harvest on the more at risk buds, and leave the rest of the plant mature more ? Your garden seems pretty much shielded from wind. Maybe the plants would benefit from some aeration ? Temporary fans ?

Do you want me to get a more experienced grower in here, like Pennywise, maybe he could help more... ?

 

[Hippie66]

Wow that is a shame. What a beautiful plant too. Mold and bud rot are a bitch, and nearly impossible to predict. Buds get thick and dense, and the moisture builds. Even in years of drought, the morning dew alone may be enough to do it, if they don't get enough sun/wind to dry them out. I'm sorry about your lady. If it were mine I would salvage what I could while you can, as in my experience, it's gonna continue to spread. Also when shopping seeds look into mold resistant strains. Especially for outdoors.

 

[GrEeNdAyZ]

Hey BP, ya it came on real fast. At this point it's only maybe a 1/10 of the hole plant so there is still lots there. My other plant is at this point ok but mold is certainly airborne and I can't fix that. Lol. If you think you can get the attention of someone that is more experienced than me that would be awesome. If I'm missing a way to contain it more than I am now, I'd love to try it.

I'm just trying to get fresh Trich pics now and taking them both now is ok, I have tried to be ready for anything all season including this problem...hoped it wouldn't happen but it is what it is. Was just hoping to run a good flush for a couple weeks. I wanted to go through the hole process start to harvest, dry and cure using all the best practices, and I have, but now I get f@@ked by something that I just couldn't control. Lol

I can't smoke it any more and edibles and CCO were always in the plan and I think, if I have been reading correctly, even the parts I have drying now will be ok for that purpose. I was hoping to impress my family and friends that do smoke it with some real nice stuff...we'll see.

Thanks man!

 

[GrEeNdAyZ]

Wow that is a shame. What a beautiful plant too. Mold and bud rot are a bitch, and nearly impossible to predict. Buds get thick and dense, and the moisture builds. Even in years of drought, the morning dew alone may be enough to do it, if they don't get enough sun/wind to dry them out. I'm sorry about your lady. If it were mine I would salvage what I could while you can, as in my experience, it's gonna continue to spread. Also when shopping seeds look into mold resistant strains. Especially for outdoors.

Thanks for the kind words Hippie66...trust me, it means a lot to me!

 

[Pennywise]

The trichs are all cloudy so you could harvest now and salvage all you can. It will just be more of an up high, no couch lock.

 

[GrEeNdAyZ]

The trichs are all cloudy so you could harvest now and salvage all you can. It will just be more of an up high, no couch lock.

Thanks pennywise...I'm fine with the uppity high...without a proper flush, was going to use Flawless Finish, am I giving up much in quality and flavour?...not that it would matter if I loose it all.

 

[Pennywise]

Exactly and bud rot will spread like wildfire, if it was me id chop it and save all i can.

 

[GrEeNdAyZ]

Awesome, Thank You!

 

[Sooey]

Bummer. I seem to be in much the same boat. My plants were doing great; CBDream, outside in pots/dirt, about two weeks from harvest. I had to leave for a week so I sheltered them as best I could. I came home to find that one plant is covered in mold...almost every bud. Two others can be saved in part but I will lose most of one, part of another and some on the third. They were all beautiful when I left then Hurricane Jose hit. Damp, dark, hot and humid in the north east today so I may be sunk. I could cut what I have and be happy with what I get or I could bring them in out of the dampness and hope for the best. Bummer. GrEeNdAyZ-DIY...I feel your pain.

 

[Koren55]

It showed up fast on one of my SAD plants. I cut out the infected parts and immediately harvested. Used a hot dry room to dry the buds quickly.

After drying I inspected each and every stem and bud. Many more were infected that showed no obvious signs. Green on the outside and brown/white on the inside. I tossed every bad one and the ones surrounding them.

I put the dried buds in pint jars and will cure them over the next few months. As I do I'll monitor each jar for color changes. If indecency buds turn brown or grey, I'll toss that particular harm. As it is I probably lost 35% of the harvest.

One thing to note, everyone advises to dry the harvest fast. If you use a warm room like I did, expect a lot of terpenes to be released into the air. I had the one plant with 27 stems with colas/buds. Even though we taped over the drying room's intake air vent, my entire home smelled like a pot farm. Amazing....

 

[TorturedSoul]

Wow that is a shame. What a beautiful plant too. Mold and bud rot are a bitch, and nearly impossible to predict. Buds get thick and dense, and the moisture builds. Even in years of drought, the morning dew alone may be enough to do it, if they don't get enough sun/wind to dry them out.

It doesn't even take morning dew. If a plant gets hot, it transpires moisture as a way to cool itself via evaporation. Which works great with airy buds and decent wind, lol - but with reasonably dense plant structure, it'll be releasing moisture which can often just pretty much remain. And if things are dense enough, a light breeze isn't going to do much.

I hope you manage to harvest something that isn't moldy. I'm sure you're well aware that the mold spores weren't hand-delivered to only the buds that you've already seen issues with. They'll be all over/throughout the plant.

My lungs are shot and my health isn't exactly stellar... I'm not dying or anything (at least no doctors have told me - because I don't go to doctors, lol), just not what I once was in terms of overall health. If I found my plant in that state, I'd have to toss all of it just to be sure. I grow indoors these days, and I'm not sure what I'd do if ONE plant out of several exhibited symptoms. I sure hope I never have to figure it out <KNOCKS WOOD UNTIL ONLY A PILE OF SPLINTERS REMAIN>.

 

[GrEeNdAyZ]

Figured I should provide a follow up. To Sooey and Koren55, sorry about your unfortunate outcomes. Not much that can be done I guess except to learn and share with others. Probably what bothers me the most is the amount of effort I put in vs the eventual outcome. For me, i spent 6 months planning this grow gathering all the information I could from these forums and acquiring all my supplies. Spent another 6 months growing and caring for these plants. I was very proud of them until i discovered the mold. I thought they had great structure and looked absolutely beautiful in my yard. Then in 6 day's, disaster strikes and 12 months has come and gone. Oh well it is what it is.

Tortured Soul, your absolutely on point. Mold spores just do what they do...In fact, the initial partial harvest that I started this thread with, within just a few days drying proved to be unsuccessful and showed signs of rot and had to be disposed of. My lungs are completely compromised so there was no way I was going to fuck around with mold. I always intended to give away/share more of anything I kept for myself, so again, no pissing around.

Trying to harvest something, I removed only branches that I was as confident as I could be were clear of the mold. This proved to be mainly smaller flowers and popcorn from the bottom of the plant. Obviously, the larger and more dense the flower, the easier the mold can take hold.

This was all I felt comfortable with from the White Widow.

Here's what was left that I felt unsafe about.

All of that went in to a big garden waste paper bag. I had hoped that my Gold Leaf wouldn't be effected but it was inevitable that the mold would make it the 15 feet across the patio. Here's what it looked like before I took it down.

By the time I was done with it I was too depressed to take anymore photos. Both my plant were 5 to 6 feet tall and 5 feet across. They should have both been great big yields but shit happens. I did get, from the Gold Leaf, 3 times what I did from the White Widow.

In the end I'd estimated that I destroyed 80% of each plant. I don't have a scale yet and what I do have is still drying after 5 days but just as a visual guess compared to the ounces I normally buy I think I have about 15oz and maybe another 3 or 4oz of trim...again just a big guess.

Just my own observations here...everyone has seen photos of fan leaves yellowing and dieing back...I believe these photos show what you would see with a mold...these leaves don't dry, they brown and stay soft as they die.

 

[Sooey]

Oh, Man, GrEeNdAyZ-DIY, that really, REALLY sucks! Such beautiful plants and about twice the size of mine. I am on the eastern edge of Mass where this late dampness has contributed to the demise of my 4 plants. I was away last week for all of Hurricane Jose. I was worried about wind damage and did not consider all the moisture that was heading our way. That combined with the freakishly high heat and humidity we had this week was the last straw. Not sure when the mold first started but when I got home on Wednesday it was obvious that something was very wrong. Like you my lungs are shot, Sarcoid, so smoking is out of the question. I was trying for a tintcher for pain relief and anxiety. I will try again but like you, it is not a fast process. Research and acquisition all take time. But I still want the usable end result, so I will do what I need to do until I have success. From your pictures it looks like you will get something for your efforts so, well done!

S

 

[BluePhoric]

This was all I felt comfortable with from the White Widow.

Here's what was left that I felt unsafe about.

Isn't there a way, with the parts you felt "unsafe about", to remove all no-molds parts, keep every green bud-parts, chop the healthy buds in small pieces and lay them to dry real fast ? Or even put in a dehydrator, or oven at 240, to decarboxylate and make edibles (ex: cannabutter) or even make ice hash, etc ?

I have no experience with bud rot and molds, so maybe I dont even make sense...

Sorry for the loss of your plants. Next year, why dont you try to grow Auto-flowering plant outdoors ? Several (or many) small plants, more rustic, with smaller buds (less mold problems), faster grow cycle and a chance to do 2 harvests, etc. Less problematic than big-tall slow growing "mostly-sativa" plants i think. If I grew outdoors, that would be my approach I think.

 

[GrEeNdAyZ]

Oh, Man, GrEeNdAyZ-DIY, that really, REALLY sucks! Such beautiful plants and about twice the size of mine. I am on the eastern edge of Mass where this late dampness has contributed to the demise of my 4 plants. I was away last week for all of Hurricane Jose. I was worried about wind damage and did not consider all the moisture that was heading our way. That combined with the freakishly high heat and humidity we had this week was the last straw. Not sure when the mold first started but when I got home on Wednesday it was obvious that something was very wrong. Like you my lungs are shot, Sarcoid, so smoking is out of the question. I was trying for a tintcher for pain relief and anxiety. I will try again but like you, it is not a fast process. Research and acquisition all take time. But I still want the usable end result, so I will do what I need to do until I have success. From your pictures it looks like you will get something for your efforts so, well done!

S

Yes this hole summer season was so strange...rain to begin the season....then like you say the crazy heat and humidity through September. My hope was to play with CCO and make capsules for the same reasons as you so I hoped for as much as possible to have good volumes to wash down and of course I like cookies so butter is coming. I think I have enough to do what I wanted but not as much to share with friends and family as I wanted. I'm sure we'll both have better luck this time around...I've got a decent indoor garden planed and most of my lighting and climate control items already in hand...just need my baby girl and son-in-law to move into there new place this week...yeah!

 

[GrEeNdAyZ]

Isn't there a way, with the parts you felt "unsafe about", to remove all no-molds parts, keep every green bud-parts, chop the healthy buds in small pieces and lay them to dry real fast ? Or even put in a dehydrator, or oven at 240, to decarboxylate and make edibles (ex: cannabutter) or even make ice hash, etc ?

I have no experience with bud rot and molds, so maybe I dont even make sense...

Sorry for the loss of your plants. Next year, why dont you try to grow Auto-flowering plant outdoors ? Several (or many) small plants, more rustic, with smaller buds (less mold problems), faster grow cycle and a chance to do 2 harvests, etc. Less problematic than big-tall slow growing "mostly-sativa" plants i think. If I grew outdoors, that would be my approach I think.

There is always next year, I'm looking for strains that may be mold more resistant and maybe your right and a faster autoflower may be the answer.

I did try and save branches initially by removing the mouldy bud from the branch and drying the rest. The mold showed up on the drying rack with 48 hours...sencond time around and the eventual full harvest I stayed away from anything that had any indication of mold and was sceptical of any flower adjacent to a mouldy one...after 5 days on the rack I don't see any issue so I'm hoping I'm ok with it.

I had a look in the yard bag today well I was doing some fall clean up...pull a few of the discarded branches out to have a look...it's not pretty.

 

[Sooey]

Yes this hole summer season was so strange...rain to begin the season....then like you say the crazy heat and humidity through September. My hope was to play with CCO and make capsules for the same reasons as you so I hoped for as much as possible to have good volumes to wash down and of course, I like cookies so butter is coming. I think I have enough to do what I wanted but not as much to share with friends and family as I wanted. I'm sure we'll both have better luck this time around...I've got a decent indoor garden planed and most of my lighting and climate control items already in hand...just need my baby girl and son-in-law to move into there new place this week...yeah!

Excellent, sounds like you have it under control and are all ready to go. I have the space for an indoor grow but I'm not so sure about my lights. I have 3 sets of big shop style fluorescents in my basement but I'm not so sure those will do the trick. I'm looking at other light sets but that's as far as I've gotten. I'm intrigued by trying an auto fower for a winter grow but I'm trying to find one that will help with OCD/anxiety. I still have some research to do. I was just down looking at my plants and I think I will get enough to work with. It's a start.
Good luck with your grow and good luck with your baby-girl & S-I-L move. Hate to see them go but man, it feels so good when they are gone. It always helps to know they are happy and safe in their ouwn home.

s

 

[Koren55]

I went through each stem before hanging them and instill missed a few infected sections.

My stems were hung in my attic room where, due to the weather, it was in the 90s temp range. I had a fan on low to circulate air slowly, and my dehumidifier set to 40.

Doing that allowed it to dry in 48 hours. It reached a point where stems were snapping.

Then I went through each stem beginning at the fattest cola. If I spotted even a hint of brown rot, I cut it out and all the area around it. Then I broke all the buds apart to examine them. Ended up with popcorn sized buds, but I know they're clean. I even looked at them with a UV light to detect any bright blue fungal threads. Anything with a thread will be tossed. I'll continue monitoring them with a uv light as I cure them.

I'm not sure how the curing will go since they have little moisture in them. They're all crispy, but that should prevent and mold or fungus from growing.


And I don't plan on smoking these, they'll be used in a vaporizer.