how to avoid mold??
- Thread starter dalo818
- Start date
dura72
Well-Known Member
if your talking about mold after uv chopped then what u need to do is seperate all your buds in the drying room to allow air into them, i dry in my tent by hanging them all up and each day i go in and with my fingers i gently open the buds a little, i keep my fans on as well, after i'm sure its dry i put it in plastic tubs and pop it in the freezer, this stops it drying any further and becoming brittle as well as stopping any possibility of mold, mold can only appear where there's moisture so if u freeze it this cant happen
golddog
Well-Known Member
A good dry before you put it in glass jars to cure will help.
They all say "Dry it until the stems break".
This can be hard to do sometimes. The buds seem real dry and the stem is still bending. So you don't want to over dry them.
If you put them in jars at this point, the next day they may seem really wet. If you come to this point (you put them in the jars too soon), you can open the tops of your jars all day (for a few days) OR take them out and dry them some more.
If you don't dry your buds, your buds may grow mold.
Just my $ 0.02, been there done that
dura72
Well-Known Member
no, when they go into into the freezer thats any further drying/curing halted, kinda suspended animation if ur a sci-fi fan. curing is just a very slow drying process, either use a jar or a brown paper bag, personally i dont bother with it coz i'm a greedy impatient bastard but it does give u a more rounded and flavourful smoke. theres no real point in me trying to explain this coz theres loads of threads on the site that go into the full detail and explanation of the chemistry involved.
You can use a coper sulfate type spay in veg to kill mold. You can/should consider a UV germacidal light in grow room 10 min on 30 min off for three cycles per day. This will dramatically both increase potency and reduce the number of mold spores on plants and in growing area. Fans set to move gently accross plants all the time helps. Avoid spaying buds with water based sprays if your humidity is above 40% and temps are above 78 degrees F, from what I have heard concerning what temps/humidities to avoid if misting in flowering. Molds come in on air movement, but don't worry about that. As strange as that may seem it is a good air exchage that helps keep humidity and temps down that hopefully puts an end to any type of ripe invironment for mold spores to hatch/bloom. Invest in a good temp/humidity controller and set it to turn on your intake and exhaust fans when ever you go over the settings you feel works for your grow room/tent/box... I set mine at 80 degrees and 50% in early veg, 77ish degrees and 45ish humidity later veg, and once flowering looks good, say around 3 weeks after forcing, drop down a little more. I read in a grow book that mold blooms at 78 degrees and 40% humidity, not sure if that is true in general, but I will be there are several molds that would love that environment should they come floating in your window and find their way down the hall to the place were the kids are not allowed... Those bad boys really stink if you get them infesting your crop. Watch out rust spots on your leaves as they start to turn yellow. That means you have a type of leaf mold that will stunt your crop and rob your bud weight. Grey and Black molds can get in side the bud and just ruin your grow even when they look great on the outside. You can have huge buds that look so good only to find out the hard way that the inside is like jelly. You can treat that with sulfur. You can mix pure elementry sulfur power, ordered online for a few dollars, into wax and make your own sulfur candles to burn, buy a sulfur burner, or make your own burner with a few cans and a 60 watt light. You can even just heat sulfur with a torch under a tuna fish can. Smells real bad, and that is not a very good method. You need to turn off all your vent fans, keep light circulation fan going for air movement inside tent/box/room and keep fumes inside for a while, then vent them out. Take charcoal filter off before venting.
Drying: Good pratice to dry part way, put in jars over-night, then take out to dry some more after an initial dry for small batches. This can be repeated until you get it the way you want. Slow controlled drying is best, should be kept in the dark. Not sure how UV is used in drying process, but I suspect it has to do with germicidal treatments of buds. Keep in mind that UV must be germicidal type bulbs, not just a black light. Check out the GE bulbs, these have a full spectrum of UV's: GE's 48" long florecsent 36 watt G36T8 $70.00 list each order number 29499, or they make 36" long higher output 55 watt Germacidal bulb G55T8/HO/CVG. The germicidal bulbs all start with a G... and not the F... series. The F40... are not full spectrum, and black light is even more limited. Be careful with Germicidal bulbs as they can cause skin cancer. You may not get a burn, but your skin is having the DNA re-arranged, so only on when your not in the room/tent... or you might be in the box! That is also why you only use them 10 min on and then off for 30 min and only three times per day. You are giving your plants a veggie sun burn and their able to build up more THC to help block the rays, so burn one for me!
Drying: Good pratice to dry part way, put in jars over-night, then take out to dry some more after an initial dry for small batches. This can be repeated until you get it the way you want. Slow controlled drying is best, should be kept in the dark. Not sure how UV is used in drying process, but I suspect it has to do with germicidal treatments of buds. Keep in mind that UV must be germicidal type bulbs, not just a black light. Check out the GE bulbs, these have a full spectrum of UV's: GE's 48" long florecsent 36 watt G36T8 $70.00 list each order number 29499, or they make 36" long higher output 55 watt Germacidal bulb G55T8/HO/CVG. The germicidal bulbs all start with a G... and not the F... series. The F40... are not full spectrum, and black light is even more limited. Be careful with Germicidal bulbs as they can cause skin cancer. You may not get a burn, but your skin is having the DNA re-arranged, so only on when your not in the room/tent... or you might be in the box! That is also why you only use them 10 min on and then off for 30 min and only three times per day. You are giving your plants a veggie sun burn and their able to build up more THC to help block the rays, so burn one for me!
420God
Well-Known Member
Try and remember most of us are high, lmao!
Oh, if you want to buy a GE germicidal bulb you need to go to a wholesale electrical supplier who sells GE and do a cash sale. You will mostlikely have to order them as they tend not to keep these type of bulbs in stock. Call around and find the GE supplier in your area, you should be even able to give your Credit Card information to the guy and pay over the phone. The downside is that you have to pay ahead of time, wait a few weeks before they come in, then get a T8 fixture to fit your bulbs. Not sure if the HO will work in a regular T8 fixture, but the standard 48" 36 watt will fit most of the big box stores T8 fixtures. Walmart has one that works for about $14.00.
Well, if you want to really launch the THC, get yourself a germacidal bulb and really make some rocket fuel! Have you ever had 22.9 percent THC Super Lemon Haze from Green House Seed Co? I will bet they got those numbers confirmed for the Cup winning grow under VHO High Pressure Germicidal bulbs. I have heard that some people use UV B VHO tanning bulbs and that it works too.
420God
Well-Known Member
I'm actually going to be growing Super Lemon Haze my next round and was thinking about incorporating a UV B light into my grow.