Mold Found at Harvest

I posted this to an older post i made but no responses....guess i should have started a new one so.......
(Yesterday) I waited 10 more days and decided today to cut my indoor grown plants. The pistils are about 80% brown. The trichs just seem to be stuck in this milky state with occasional amber. The pungent smell just felt like it was getting borderline like rotten fruit. I just couldnt help that it had to be time for nearly 11 weeks in flower.
Anyway - The giant cola on the plant on the right looks to have some mold? when I peel it open.
I see some white sticky sreas...is that mold? It seems to be just in that one giant cola on the one plant and I cut it all out. I dont see it on the smaller buds.
I saw a video by Jorge Cervantes..... Should I washed the remaining buds in diluted h2o2 (last night). Rinsed in clean water.
Anyway....I cut out the suspect areas on that large cola and inspected the rest and didnt find anymore.
Should I cut the remaining large buds up into smaller buds for drying or do i wait til when i jar/cure?

Well that sucks. It's too bad that you had to cut early due to mold. I would probably break the buds up some.

Ok - Thanks for the advice. I have them currently drying on two makeshift "racks" in my 2FTX2FT grow hut with 4" inline fan to draw old air out and new in.
See anything wrong with this setup? (Totally dark, temp is 70F and 50%RH)
How much smaller should I cut them up?

I would open up all buds.. The mold will grow until they are dry..

Yes that is mold. Sorry for your loss. It sure sucks to find it.

Bud rot like that is systematic. So even if you aren't seeing the webbing it has already spread all through your plant. I would suggest tossing the infected plant in the trash because it is not healthy to use once there is rot.

HydoDan said:

I would open up all buds.. The mold will grow until they are dry..

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By open up - do you mean cut them up into the little nug size like to fit into jars for curing?

growslut said:

Yes that is mold. Sorry for your loss. It sure sucks to find it.

Bud rot like that is systematic. So even if you aren't seeing the webbing it has already spread all through your plant. I would suggest tossing the infected plant in the trash because it is not healthy to use once there is rot.

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Thaks for the help - I found the webbing on that one cola on that one plant and no where else. Since the two plants were grown right next to each other since day one does that mean they both are infected even though you cant see it? Does the h2o2 wash/rinse not help at all?

Lake Marine said:

Thaks for the help - I found the webbing on that one cola on that one plant and no where else. Since the two plants were grown right next to each other since day one does that mean they both are infected even though you cant see it? Does the h2o2 wash/rinse not help at all?

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Sure. Glad to help. And your plants are impressive. I think most folks on here always tell folks to wait to harvest, but I believe its better to chop early and avoid these problems. My guess is if you had chopped before the cola got so huge it would not have got rot. Its just the risk everyone runs growing big plants.

The rot is already throughout the plant you found it on and that one should get trashed. If you haven't seen any symptoms on the second plant, it is most likely fine.

I've done the rinse, not to get rid of rot but just to clean the material. It does compromise the final product. I don't think a wash would make the product usable. Some people will use process rotted bud with alcohol, but I still don't think that is safe

Lake Marine said:

By open up - do you mean cut them up into the little nug size like to fit into jars for curing?

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Yeah, nug size would be best.. That way you can look at everyrthing.. See what you got..

I had mold on a couple plants and just very time consumingly cut out the rot. Never had any issues. I’m not saying smoke moldy weed but people IMO go a little overboard about it. I’m sure growing up we all toked weed that had a lil mold and was sprayed with God knows what. Just my $.02

BodegaBud said:

I had mold on a couple plants and just very time consumingly cut out the rot. Never had any issues. I’m not saying smoke moldy weed but people IMO go a little overboard about it. I’m sure growing up we all toked weed that had a lil mold and was sprayed with God knows what. Just my $.02

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I agree but it looks like the OP has two small plants. It's not like he has pounds to trim. Might as well give it some TLC to make sure it doesn't rot while drying.

Chuck em in a h202 bath, watch the mold fizzle and then get a direct fan on them for a few hrs. Resume the normal dry / cure process.

Mold is nothing to sneeze about. It turns into some unhealthy shit when combusted. I have some on it here.

BodegaBud said:

I’m sure growing up we all toked weed that had a lil mold and was sprayed with God knows what. Just my $.02

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I thought exactly the same thing...can remember more than a few times some questionable weed way but back then...who knew what one was toking. I ended up throwing away any questionable colas or buds and "isolating" that plant.

sirtalis said:

Chuck em in a h202 bath, watch the mold fizzle and then get a direct fan on them for a few hrs. Resume the normal dry / cure process.

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This is exactly what i did though i left the additional fans on overnite. I am also water curing the plant in question and "normal" dry then cure the other.

Though painful... i threw the big cola away that had the fuzz. The whole cola was dense and firm as cauliflower. It also had a different smell. I scrutinized the fck out of all of the rest and didnt find anymore. I know spores and all and cant see them but I feel like the remaining buds were ok. I did have them separated in my "rack" so I knew which plant was which. Even though i removed the moldy cola i took that questionable plants buds and am water curing them. Idk if I'll do anything with it but I just couldnt bring myself to throw the whole plant away that had a bad cola. I'm drying the other plant and will cure "normal".
I did have a plant of same size i grew outdoor of the same strain that I harvested a few weeks ago. It also had some bud rot on its main cola. I tossed that cola, washed the rest in h2o2, rinsed, dried and currently two weeks into curing. Though Im sure doing the wash reduces some potency the trichs are still there and it is a perfect one hit buzz to me. I also had a really small plant that I did a "test" water cure at the same. I jarred the buds and changed out the water until clear then dried and in its jar. After two weeks i tried this morning....very mild with little if any flavor and the buzz is about the same. (I use a mighty dry herb vaporizer)
I do have a few questions on mold resistant strains for my next grow...should I start a new thread or drop them here?
This first time grower appreciates all the advice!

Lake Marine said:

I do have a few questions on mold resistant strains for my next grow...should I start a new thread or drop them here?
This first time grower appreciates all the advice!

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I've heard that water cure ruins the flavor.

Feel free to ask the questions here. There's quite a lot already discussed on RIU, so I'd do a search as well.

The way I see mold-resistant strains is you have multiple roads to go down. First, do you prefer sativa or indica? Sativa typically is more mold resistant because of it's lanky structure and airy buds. The only problem is long flowering times if you're growing outdoors and can get caught in November rains. GSC crosses have been good to me because they are golf ball sized nugs and don't have giant colas.

Your post said you grew indoors and still got bud rot. IMO your problem is your indoor environment is too humid. You have full control, so use a dehumidifier. Even if you pick a sativa and grow in your humid room, you will get budrot so try to address the problem at the source.

printer said:

Mold is nothing to sneeze about. It turns into some unhealthy shit when combusted. I have some on it here.

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Im not taking it lightly and thanks for the link - i will take a look at this info me likey read about some weed! In hindsight I wish I had researched better prior/during the grow. These indoor plants were grown with average ~35RH @85F with a lot of air flow. With the low humidity I didnt think id have a mold issue. (PS: Me mum was born in Halifax...i hope to visit someday!)

sirtalis said:

Your post said you grew indoors and still got bud rot. IMO your problem is your indoor environment is too humid.

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My 2X2X6 indoor grow "hut" was monitored at ~35RH @85F. Its in my basement that is heat pump conditioned averaging ~50RH @70F. The grow hut is warmer and drier i guess bc of residual *warmth of the LED lights. It has two fans and one is a 4" inline fan and its pulling in room air and exhausting to outdoors. The hut is not ideal but its a perfect size for me and though the plants were stunted it produces a perfect amount for me per grow.
Idk why but i think the issue was due to waiting too long as they really started to smell iike rotting fruit and they were so dense and sticky. These plants were an indica autoflower that i planted from seed on June 4th and started flower first week of July so however many weeks that is. The pistils only went about 80% brown and the trichs just stayed at a chalky white. All of the feedback i had gotten was to wait for the brown and amber but maybe these plants weren't going to get there due to strain and environment.
I'll ask some more questions in a bit and take you up on more advice!

Lake Marine said:

Im not taking it lightly and thanks for the link - i will take a look at this info me likey read about some weed! In hindsight I wish I had researched better prior/during the grow. These indoor plants were grown with average ~35RH @85F with a lot of air flow. With the low humidity I didnt think id have a mold issue. (PS: Me mum was born in Halifax...i hope to visit someday!)

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I trashed a plant this last grow with the one beside it being fine also. It sucks, I did not think twice about it after reading some of the stuff there. I trust information in papers rather than advice on someone's web page. Decided to keep the links around for others.