How to treat a moldy bud?

I just harvested today the top cola of my nirvana's Blue Mystic and it had quite a lot of mold in it.
I have removed most of what seeds affected and cut the whole part down as it was ripe enough.

Now it is hanging to dry near my carbon filtered exhaust and I was wondering how should I treat it?

I thought of giving it the usual 5-7 days drying period, remove anything that still looks like mold, give it another 3-4 days to get crispier and jar it up, openening the jar longer than usual to let more moisture out.
Jarring it in a seperate jar of course to prevent contamination.

How do you treat your molded buds?

I scraped my molded buds with my hands and kinda pruned off any patches. So keep doing what your doing your idea after that. Use Isopropyl Alcohol to sterilize.

The only "treatment" you should give it is to cut it up into individual smaller buds. This way you not only get to inspect the inside of the colas, but being smaller it will dry quicker. Mold fucked up my giant NL buds a few months ago. I must have thrown at least an ounce and a half away. And then I cut up the rest into smaller buds for inspection. The look of that mold really grossed me out.

if it's moldy, throw that shit away! it will funk up your lungs mang!!

THC vaporizes at around 365 degrees, most mold vaporizes at 100-180 degrees Farenheit. Put it in the oven at 210 degrees for five to ten minutes. Should cure it of most of the water, and all of the mold should theoretically dissapear, or at least be "dead", while the thc will remain, un-vaporized. Mold spores are what is harmful when inhaled. I've eaten moldy bread before, and inhaled plenty of mold while scrubbing crawl spaces. Its a risk but I'd say its less a risk if you nuke it in the oven first to make the mold no longer "active" or viable. i'm no doctor or scientist tho. at your own discretion and risk

mold sucks, i just cute the one side off and dried it quickly in oven, now its curing... not sure wut it will smoke like

drumbum3218 said:

THC vaporizes at around 365 degrees, most mold vaporizes at 100-180 degrees Farenheit. Put it in the oven at 210 degrees for five to ten minutes. Should cure it of most of the water, and all of the mold should theoretically dissapear, or at least be "dead", while the thc will remain, un-vaporized. Mold spores are what is harmful when inhaled. I've eaten moldy bread before, and inhaled plenty of mold while scrubbing crawl spaces. Its a risk but I'd say its less a risk if you nuke it in the oven first to make the mold no longer "active" or viable. i'm no doctor or scientist tho. at your own discretion and risk

Click to expand...

Exactly. Heat it in your oven to around 140-150 degrees for 10 minutes (NO MORE!!!!). That will kill the mold but leave the THC intact. Now it WILL make your smoke a bit harsh, unless you remoisturize it a bit (try putting a few fresh fan leaves in it after you seal everything back up in its jar), but it will salvage it and keep you from having to throw away the fruits of your labor.

Good luck and good growing my friend!!!!!

Sakca said:

I scraped my molded buds with my hands and kinda pruned off any patches. So keep doing what your doing your idea after that. Use Isopropyl Alcohol to sterilize.

Click to expand...

Using alchohol will remove the THC. THC melts into alchohol.

REFRIGINATOR said:

The only "treatment" you should give it is to cut it up into individual smaller buds. This way you not only get to inspect the inside of the colas, but being smaller it will dry quicker. Mold fucked up my giant NL buds a few months ago. I must have thrown at least an ounce and a half away. And then I cut up the rest into smaller buds for inspection. The look of that mold really grossed me out.

Click to expand...

I will do that.

drumbum3218 said:

THC vaporizes at around 365 degrees, most mold vaporizes at 100-180 degrees Farenheit. Put it in the oven at 210 degrees for five to ten minutes. Should cure it of most of the water, and all of the mold should theoretically dissapear, or at least be "dead", while the thc will remain, un-vaporized. Mold spores are what is harmful when inhaled. I've eaten moldy bread before, and inhaled plenty of mold while scrubbing crawl spaces. Its a risk but I'd say its less a risk if you nuke it in the oven first to make the mold no longer "active" or viable. i'm no doctor or scientist tho. at your own discretion and risk

Click to expand...

I'll do that as well. I'll go for 180°F (82C) for 5 minutes twice.
I'll pop it in the over before its dry so that the inner moisture will be re-distributed while cured.

thewinghunter said:

mold sucks, i just cute the one side off and dried it quickly in oven, now its curing... not sure wut it will smoke like

Click to expand...

Lets hope for the best.

Mr.GreenJeans said:

Exactly. Heat it in your oven to around 140-150 degrees for 10 minutes (NO MORE!!!!). That will kill the mold but leave the THC intact. Now it WILL make your smoke a bit harsh, unless you remoisturize it a bit (try putting a few fresh fan leaves in it after you seal everything back up in its jar), but it will salvage it and keep you from having to throw away the fruits of your labor.

Good luck and good growing my friend!!!!!

Click to expand...

Thanks alot for the input ;D

DAMN PEOPLE.

I've just toasted my buds on 100C for 5 minutes and my whole apartment smells like a fucking coffeeshop!

That thing STINKS.


Lets hope it will do the trick however.

I think you're best bet is to make iso hash out of it. My first harvest had a little mold in one of the colas and it made the entire bud taste terrible...even the parts of the bud not visibly affected by the mold. There's really nothing you can do other than making iso hash.

But I sure wouldn't smoke that shit.

I just found this link...http://dope.org/drugs/marijuana/misc/moldy.weed

The author cites scientific studies, not hearsay, and says many of the molds are deadly. Read the entire article. It's worthwhile.

"Immunosuppressed individuals and asthmatics should never be exposed to molds,
especially _Aspergillus._ People using medical marijuana should take extra
precautions:

Ungerlerder et al. sterilized marijuana with ethylene oxide, reporting no loss
of THC from fumigation. These researchers also irradiated their dope with
high-dose Cobalt 60 (15,000 to 20,000 Gray Units!) with no loss of THC. _This
method is not recommended for novices._

Moody et al. evaluated waterpipes for smoking _Aspergillus_-contaminated
marijuana. Unfortunately, they found only a 15% reduction in transmission of
fungal spores.

In Chicago, goofy dudes spray their marijuana with formaldehyde. This kills
insects and fungi, but at a price. The treated weed, known as AMP, causes
anoxia and psychomotor retardation when smoked (Spector). According to
_Newsweek_ (Jan. 20, 1986), a few ill-intentioned dealers dipped marijuana in
rat poison or insecticides like Black Flag or Raid. They called this product
"WAC." Indeed. Have a nice day."

Jerry Garcia said:

I think you're best bet is to make iso hash out of it. My first harvest had a little mold in one of the colas and it made the entire bud taste terrible...even the parts of the bud not visibly affected by the mold. There's really nothing you can do other than making iso hash.

But I sure wouldn't smoke that shit.

Click to expand...

Jerry Garcia said:

I just found this link...http://dope.org/drugs/marijuana/misc/moldy.weed

The author cites scientific studies, not hearsay, and says many of the molds are deadly. Read the entire article. It's worthwhile.

"Immunosuppressed individuals and asthmatics should never be exposed to molds,
especially _Aspergillus._ People using medical marijuana should take extra
precautions:

Ungerlerder et al. sterilized marijuana with ethylene oxide, reporting no loss
of THC from fumigation. These researchers also irradiated their dope with
high-dose Cobalt 60 (15,000 to 20,000 Gray Units!) with no loss of THC. _This
method is not recommended for novices._

Moody et al. evaluated waterpipes for smoking _Aspergillus_-contaminated
marijuana. Unfortunately, they found only a 15% reduction in transmission of
fungal spores.

In Chicago, goofy dudes spray their marijuana with formaldehyde. This kills
insects and fungi, but at a price. The treated weed, known as AMP, causes
anoxia and psychomotor retardation when smoked (Spector). According to
_Newsweek_ (Jan. 20, 1986), a few ill-intentioned dealers dipped marijuana in
rat poison or insecticides like Black Flag or Raid. They called this product
"WAC." Indeed. Have a nice day."

Click to expand...

The link is broken.

I tossed away the moldy part - of course.
The rest I keep away, drying out after being toasted in the oven.
They will be tested before curing. If its bad - it will become screen hash. If its good - it will be jarred.

I do not intend to "cure" the moldy parts - they are in the trash can already.
Just tying to salvage whatever possible from the rest.

It was a huge bud. ;<

Sorry, here's the proper link

http://dope.org/drugs/marijuana/misc/moldy.weed

The point I was trying to make is that the rest of the infected bud isn't good either. It's already been contaminated. Just because you can't see the mold doesn't mean it isn't there. There are likely spores throughout the bud, making it 1) taste bad and 2) potentially VERY bad for you.

Even if you make screen hash there will still be contaminated plant material that makes it into your final product which you smoke. This is why you have to make iso hash, not screen hash or bubble.

I have nothing to do with iso hash. Don't like it.


I'm reading the article. it suggests this;

The secret to stopping bacteria and mildew is moisture control. Even grey mold
dies if plants are carefully and quickly dried. Oven-cured pot rots less than
air or sweat-cured crops. Sweat-cured _Cannabis_ (remember '70's Colombian?)
maintains a "tradition" of _Aspergillus_ contamination.

The oven-drying method inevitably leads to a harsh product. So most people
air-dry by suspending plants upside down with enough space for circulation.
Drying rooms should be cool and dry, preferably in uninterrupted darkness.
(Most storage fungi require light to sporulate and spread.)




I'll get the buds in a dark bag. It pretty cold where they are (around 17°C) and theres a lot of air circulation. Moreover, most of the spores should have died already.
The rest of the bud will be treated when harvested.

One time I didn't burp a jar for a while and some buds inside molded and I went bat-shit. Mold is sort of like mushrooms in that, if you see the outward visible signs then it has permeated through whatever medium. If you were to let the buds get very dry and then hand crumple, you'd see white mold spores "float" from the bud as its being crumpled.

Here's what I did, and at the very least it got rid of the moldy taste.
- Sprayed down the nugs (all 3-4 of em) with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. I read some shit in an undergrad microbio txt book about these 2 things possibly killing mold and damaging spores, so I took a shot.
- Then baked the buds to drive off the vinegar + h2o2 and man did that smell funky.
- Water cured the buds for an additional 7-10 days. This was to get any nasty taste out and perhaps wash out mold spores.

I smoked 'em. They didn't taste like mold and I didn't get sick. Other than that, I have no proof my process worked. Most people think that iso hash is the best way to go, and I don't disagree with that as a good plan. I guess it depends on how adventurous you are, how much you'd like to make some hash oil, and how prone you are to sinus/respiratory infections.

edit - it takes a hell of a lot to kill a mold spore, hence the iso hash method of just extracting chemicals in the buds. What color was the mold? if it was just white and doesn't fluoresce under black light, you probably won't die...just get a sinus infection.

@ OP, what makes you think that you killed any spores?