Could I run a heater in my tent for a while and sterilize powdery mildew that way?

Farmer's Hat

Farmer's Hat

Well-Known Member
dopenixon said:
Yeah I’ve heard that. I want to scrap my plants though and sterilize an empty tent to make sure the spores are dead.
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Dont give up on them yet. Try the baking soda water. Spray them down every 2 days. The pm should be gone after you spray them down 4-5 times. In addition to running a dehumidifier in your basement, Im willing to bet that will get you to the finish line.

Also, you can soak the flowers in isopropyl alcohol when you harvest. You could turn all the flower into hash afterwards.
 
tstick

tstick

Well-Known Member
Phytoplankton said:
The downside of UV light is that it degrades THC rather quickly, at about 0.5% an hour!
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But how long does the UVC bulb need to be on in order to kill spores? Like, if you got one of those UVC sterilizing wands that you run over packages, etc....That kind of light wouldn't need to be on for long enough to cause degradation, would it? Or just have it come on for less than a minute every so often.....?
 
thumper60

thumper60

Well-Known Member
dopenixon said:
Powdery mildew showed up on this run about 4 weeks into flower and I can’t get rid of it. I am about to toss the plants and restart so I am wondering if I could just crank a few space heaters in my tent for a few days to kill any spores.

I’d like to avoid spraying everything down with chemicals and such and cleaning fan blades and grills and cords etc. as far as I know, powdery mildew is my only contaminant and I heard heat will kill it.
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It might work in the tent But where did the spores come from thats the real problem? If the pm is not to bad we dont have pics so we dont know It can be held off with some simple cheap sprays.
 
P

Phytoplankton

Well-Known Member
tstick said:
But how long does the UVC bulb need to be on in order to kill spores? Like, if you got one of those UVC sterilizing wands that you run over packages, etc....That kind of light wouldn't need to be on for long enough to cause degradation, would it? Or just have it come on for less than a minute every so often.....?
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According to what I read, 1-3 hours, dependent on distance and intensity.
 
420AD

420AD

Well-Known Member
Jjgrow420 said:
I'll 4th or 5th the ozone generator. Easiest, and best way of doing it. I got mine a couple years back and super happy I did. Bonus, when you go out to work you can run it in your kitchen or living room to freshen up the house. Just make sure it has a good few hours to degrade back to oxygen, and give it a quick windows open for a few mins so it's not harmful to inhale.
Doctor zymes, bleach, peroxide, hypochlorous acid, are all good cleaners and also will kill spores etc. good for a secondary 'make sure' on top of the ozone
Make sure to clean all little cracks and crevices, especially anything made with cloth material.....
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I saw dyson is using a robot with UV-C leds to sterilize plants in veg to prevent it.

For me the only thing that really worked, once I got infected was cleaning everything including the air filter and then let the ozone generator do the rest.
 
420AD

420AD

Well-Known Member
The only thing that helped a little when I tried to save my pm plants was canna cure.
But I had to spray it every other day or so and I'm not sure if soapwater wouldn't have done the same.
 
Nizza

Nizza

Well-Known Member
I live on the east coast and we have bad humidity in certain times of the year. Temps are OK but humidity is crazy..

I always ran a dehu and plenty of airflow and still had issues. Once I added a UVA light during flowering I didn't have it again. When you go outside and really look alot of trees have it. My theory is it just carries it's way in as a spore and is waiting to thrive and even if imperfect conditions it will still make it's way. The UVA seemed to have helped.

Also added an intake pre filter.. perhaps this allows the plant to breathe easier and have an even better immune system. It always seemed like the plants to get PM were the unhappy ones. what a waste of bud but great learning experience for me. Make sure your monitoring humidity 24/7. It could also be a night time humidity spike causing this.

I'd clean everything with simple green, rinse, then h202. Then heat it up like you're saying but if there are already affected plants sadly it's systemic and when the buds get fat you will most likely see it again. Look into how spraying with milk works if you're desperate it will help harbor beneficial bacteria to help get rid of the systemic part, but you'll still have to deal with why it happened in the first place

Uvc is dangerous it will degrade your equipments plastics be careful!

I've heard airros works well i think it may be a hydrogen trioxide generator or something. It generates a special ozone that will really make sure no germs harm your plant. Expensive and hard to afford for most hobby growers
 
Greengrouch

Greengrouch

Well-Known Member
Using an intake fan with a filter box instead of the built in mesh vents on your tent is a game changing preventive measure. Weather you save them or not this and a bleach wipe down of your tent and equipment is something you should do when you reset for your next grow.
 
ttystikk

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Nizza said:
I live on the east coast and we have bad humidity in certain times of the year. Temps are OK but humidity is crazy..

I always ran a dehu and plenty of airflow and still had issues. Once I added a UVA light during flowering I didn't have it again. When you go outside and really look alot of trees have it. My theory is it just carries it's way in as a spore and is waiting to thrive and even if imperfect conditions it will still make it's way. The UVA seemed to have helped.

Also added an intake pre filter.. perhaps this allows the plant to breathe easier and have an even better immune system. It always seemed like the plants to get PM were the unhappy ones. what a waste of bud but great learning experience for me. Make sure your monitoring humidity 24/7. It could also be a night time humidity spike causing this.

I'd clean everything with simple green, rinse, then h202. Then heat it up like you're saying but if there are already affected plants sadly it's systemic and when the buds get fat you will most likely see it again. Look into how spraying with milk works if you're desperate it will help harbor beneficial bacteria to help get rid of the systemic part, but you'll still have to deal with why it happened in the first place

Uvc is dangerous it will degrade your equipments plastics be careful!

I've heard airros works well i think it may be a hydrogen trioxide generator or something. It generates a special ozone that will really make sure no germs harm your plant. Expensive and hard to afford for most hobby growers
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UVA and UVB really help trichome production, too.
 
waytoofaded

waytoofaded

Well-Known Member
Nizza said:
I live on the east coast and we have bad humidity in certain times of the year. Temps are OK but humidity is crazy..

I always ran a dehu and plenty of airflow and still had issues. Once I added a UVA light during flowering I didn't have it again. When you go outside and really look alot of trees have it. My theory is it just carries it's way in as a spore and is waiting to thrive and even if imperfect conditions it will still make it's way. The UVA seemed to have helped.

Also added an intake pre filter.. perhaps this allows the plant to breathe easier and have an even better immune system. It always seemed like the plants to get PM were the unhappy ones. what a waste of bud but great learning experience for me. Make sure your monitoring humidity 24/7. It could also be a night time humidity spike causing this.

I'd clean everything with simple green, rinse, then h202. Then heat it up like you're saying but if there are already affected plants sadly it's systemic and when the buds get fat you will most likely see it again. Look into how spraying with milk works if you're desperate it will help harbor beneficial bacteria to help get rid of the systemic part, but you'll still have to deal with why it happened in the first place

Uvc is dangerous it will degrade your equipments plastics be careful!

I've heard airros works well i think it may be a hydrogen trioxide generator or something. It generates a special ozone that will really make sure no germs harm your plant. Expensive and hard to afford for most hobby growers
Click to expand...
If UV light was effective against PM, we wouldn't have it in the wild. I'm not discounting your experience, but the science simply doesn't back it up.
 
Farmer's Hat

Farmer's Hat

Well-Known Member
waytoofaded said:
If UV light was effective against PM, we wouldn't have it in the wild. I'm not discounting your experience, but the science simply doesn't back it up.
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Thats a valid point.

I would also like to point out, just in case it hasn't been mentioned yet, genetics is super important. Im not exaggerating when I say that I have grown plants outdoors next to pm infested squash plants, and my cannabis plants were perfectly fine! No pm!
I have also grown some pathetic weak cannabis plants, and they got ravaged by pm under really mild humid weather.

Most modern indoor strains are bred for looks and potency, not for pest and mold resistance. Its something to keep in mind.
 
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