Powdery Mildew - Throwing in the towel - Help with reset

Critical Canuck

Active Member
I ended up with PM when I started flowering my current grow.. I've tried unsuccessfully to stamp it out but it just keeps coming back, small patches here and there. The problem is I'm half way through flower and now I'm finding it up on lower sugar leaves. I've hacked and slashed and removed plants and I'm now down to two. I actually stressed one to hermie and had to pull it already.

My environment is ok, RH is around 36% , I have three fans and trimmed as much as possible the plants. I've tried H2O2,milk, etc. I've removed the two plants, disinfected my tent and put them back and it just persists. It was never full blown, just small patches on the leaves. I had hopes to wash at harvest but being as persistent as it has I don't want the risk in the final product.

I've decided tonight to toss everything to start over. Including the clones I have.
Does anyone have a process for decontamination/timing before it's safe to try again from seed?
I'm in a basement growing in a 4x4 tent, passive air intake but exhaust to outside.
Anything but sulphur burners, not keen to use them, I have a house full and it's never empty.

Thanks
 

Hobbes

Well-Known Member
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CC I have an AirROS that Renfro linked above. I've only had it for about 8 weeks but it beat back PM in my first grow - still had a bit at the end of a 13 week strain. I've had no PM in my next crop so far.

I've had good luck with Dr Zymes Eliminator.


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green_machine_two9er

Well-Known Member
As for resetting to mitigate mold for future grows. bleaxh solution will work. But think like a spore. Insides vents and fans and all equipment for that's matter. Get an intake filter that can keep out mold/pollen/bugs. And finally if you get clones from outside sources. Think about just growing seeds And take your own babies. Pm really isn't super picky on environments( even though we all fear humidity). It came from somewhere. Either outside on you, or has been there all along, just waiting to flush

I second dr Zymes. Or nuke em is basically the same thing. I've seen nukem take out pm outside in last week and of flower for some friends.
 

Rurumo

Well-Known Member
For your next grow, rotate different natural and bio fungicides each week. Use Southern Ag Bio Fungicide (root drench and foliar), potassium bicarbonate, and a neem/silica spray, on the plants right up until the buds start forming, then cut them off and keep the humidity below 50%. Treating the plants with something that stimulates resistance, like Regalia (regalia is one of the best ISR stimulators, though expensive)...or even aspirin water or Chitosan are also good-foliar chitosan right before flower helps prevent both PM and botrytis according to studies. Once you get it, it sucks, I know-I would at least try potassium bicarbonate now to see if you can save your plants. Nurseries use Ozone generators, which the others mentioned, just be careful since you mentioned you have a lot of ppl around. Sulfur and copper sprays can also work on more serious infections. Also, supposedly some people are treating PM with those agromax UV bulbs which is quite exciting. I may keep one around with a cheap t5 strip just in case I ever get PM again to experiment. Be sure to clean out the tent really well with h2o2 and the room it's in as best as you can-mop, vacuum, and maybe run a hepa filter, and use fresh filters on your tent intakes. Good luck!
 

Critical Canuck

Active Member
Am I crazy tossing the whole grow because I'm starting to see small spots of PM in the lower sugar leaves? I can't seem to get a definitive answer from other threads. I don't want to bother with bubble hash or anything. I'm not hurting for finished product, so I'm thinking better safe then sorry.

Also am I correct in thinking that just having these plants with PM is the main reason I can't get rid of it? Like they are the primary source of new spores and no matter how I treat it some of the fungus doesn't get killed off? My hope is just removing all of the plants/organic material and giving everything a thorough clean will kill the cycle, then it's just back to prevention.

I will start one seed after this as a control and make sure I can get through a complete grow without another recurrence.
 

Hobbes

Well-Known Member
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CC how far into flower are you?

If under 3 weeks I recommend a full defoliation and a spray down of the stem and branches with Dr Zymes Eliminator.

Pics?

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Critical Canuck

Active Member
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CC how far into flower are you?

If under 3 weeks I recommend a full defoliation and a spray down of the stem and branches with Dr Zymes Eliminator.

Pics?

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Mid-late flower, 6 weeks in now. Things look great at a glance, but when I get in there really close to some of the lower sugar leaves I start to find small patches of PM. Plus it's really crystally so it's hard to pick up.

If I use a small flash light and pull the plant out of the tent the PM stands out more.

One example here, zoomed out and then close up:
8A1E34E7-FA93-4CD9-BF9D-D554E8189CEF.jpeg 8D60BE28-85A3-47E4-BF52-32658F496840.jpeg

The two plants:
2F184A40-ECF2-4B79-A3C7-27F1CF7655DF.jpegB8A039DA-4AFF-44C0-97C5-E664C3155091.jpeg

I'm not really sure what the threshold is for when to consider the buds non viable. I've seen it range from once you see it it's garbage to it can be heavily infested but just wash it when you harvest and it will be fine to smoke.

Now I don't like the idea of pitching it if it can be salvaged, but my understanding is once I see it on a bud(sugar leaves) it's over.
I can even remove the lower bud portions to ensure I get all the OM off of there and then spray again, with milk or h2o2 or baking soda..
 

Critical Canuck

Active Member
actually now that I closely examine the buds there's quite a few spots, they're just very hard to tell from the trichomes. The leaves are clean, it's the buds. So chop now and wash or toss?
 

PJ Diaz

Well-Known Member
I don't see any fans in your grow space. Lack of air circulation is one of the biggest contributors to PM. Get that in check first.
 

Critical Canuck

Active Member
I don't see any fans in your grow space. Lack of air circulation is one of the biggest contributors to PM. Get that in check first.
The two pics of the tent show two of the four fans in the grow space. A bar fan mounted horizontal blowing across the canopy and a 12" oscillating fan in the corner behind the plants. Then I have a 7" honeywell not in the pic that's on the floor pointing up to the 6" 440 cfm inline exhaust fan that's also not in the pic but pointed above my lights. I don't think air circulation is a problem. Neither is humidty, it's at 37%.

I'm 6 weeks in, I have PM. Even if I didn't have fans, adding them now won't make it go away. I'm on the verge of tossing them, I'm just doing a last minute sanity check to see if it's worth trying to salvage them.
 
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Hobbes

Well-Known Member
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I had the same situation and I baked the bud at 150 F to kill the PM, then I used the bud for edibles. Digestive fluids will digest the spores.

Good luck.

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