Questions for next season (spring) experienced growers only please!

Hey, does anyone have any tips on going against bud rot/grey mold/botrytis? Last year I had some fat indica buds molded on me due to being so fat and with rain/humidity.

I will mostly likely use a prevenative spray or solution to combat against this but I am wondering if anyone has had experience with mold sprays?

This year I will be using skunk #1 clones instead of the fat indicas and hopefully this "mold resistant" strain will be more mold resistant.

Also please add any prefrecenes for your outdoor guerrilla grow so that I might be able to take a few tips and intergrate them into my knowledge.

All info is much appreaciated thanks.

Best advice I can give is to try breeders from either BC or the Netherlands.

http://www.sanniesshop.com/heribei-en.html

There's one, I'm sure there are several others that have developed wet climate strains.

Good luck!

If stealth isn't a huge issue you could force flower early but sounds like you are may be guerrilla growing. Anyway it's a good way to beat the rainy season and your flowers finish while it's warmer.

If you can't force flower early then try to plant them so they get nice air flow. Don't grow in the bottom of a valley with a stream or swamp where it gets foggy every morning. Try and grow where the plants will get good sun a couple hours after sun up and all day til sun down. Shade, lack of wind and moisture are a good combo for mold.

Some strains are definitely more mold resistant than others. Go with outdoor strains that have mold resistance in the description and maybe research what other outdoor growers say about them.

Ya gotta have mold resistant strains. Nothing else will do it.

imo topping helps...its better to have more smaller buds than one huge moldy top...

ok here's the big secrets i've learned about outdoors.. if you know the strain goes for a long time and you think it'll go into the winter, you need to figure out a way you can cover and force flower so it finishes early. This method is also used to finish plants before the "dew point" season comes... The dew point is the main cause of bud rot and can be controlled much easier by making sure your plants get 1-3 hours of morning sun. the dew hits your plants in the mornings and then the sun will evaporate the moisture from the plant and really make a huge difference. took me my first grow to realize this but really, its super important. A way to also control it is make sure you have 1' or so from the base to the foliage of the plant for every plant. this allows a channel of airflow to get under the canopy and rise up through it. It may not seem that important but it can make a gigantic difference. just make sure that bottom 1' of your plant is completely bare, even if theres bottom branches that go past the 1' just clean off whatever may dampen the air flow. The other trick is air pots. these air pots allow the roots to cool and though, it doesn't necessarily prevent mold, it prevents heat stress during the peak heat hours of the summer. Putting plants in air buckets and then on a deck or elevated off the ground a teeny bit will allow the root mass to stay nice and cool on a breezy day. There are also treatments you can use; that work as incesticides too. I really liked a spinosad treatment i found and applied with a hose-end sprayer. I bought a product called "spreader sticker" that helps any type of foliar spray to adhese to the plant better, and it worked wonders with all of my infestations. but yeah my biggest advice is to know where the plant gets the best morning sun, especially late season because it will evaporate the dew off of the plant. During mid-flower you can get away with leaving it in the $ spots with good mid-day sun just be very careful. Also important to LST buds away from eachother. i drill holes into the pots and tie down what i want, with ease.
edit: also!~ when your in late flowering dont let your plants get rained on!!!!... the rain washes away trichomes and can also get the buds too moist and mold... very good idea to buy and easy up or something so they're protected from rain; which will also snap branches! hope this helped bro!

how does rain wash away trics? that smells like bs to me...(not trying to troll...show sauce)
my plants get wet...i use a leaf blower to dry off my plants after rain...they still got trics...
also....you can use dish soap as a sticker...

thanks for the info guys.

Hey man hopefully i can help you out here (or at least try to) Skunk #1's characteristics (depending on what specific strain you get) Seems as if you grow outdoors
https://www.cannabis-seeds-bank.co.uk/homegrown-fantaseeds-homegrown-skunk-1/prod_915.html
it is easy to grow, air should circulate around it, has stong stems and shouldent break in wind. indoor or outdoor strain, indica and sativa.....
if you start growing mid may you could flowering from 8-14 weeks, (not sure what conditions determine flowering) but if you start in mid may, when light conditions change from 12/12 (late july or mid auguest) flowering cycle will begin. It will take from 1.8 months to 3.2 months (8-14 weeks) for it to be finished. (so anywhere from october to late november) theyll be done flowering make sure they can get a bit of wind and healthy growth and theyll be perfect, good morning sun is the trick, lots of dense water in the ground from the night and the sun to help it. you could be harvesting from october to late nov.

I agree. A good mold resistant strain, That produces high yields, and quality buds.

Bingo. Plants need air circulation. I also highly agree to remove the bottom branches - but also for additional benefits. First of all, bottom branches will get little light, have little to buds (of lower quality), will encourage problems with mold, rot and wetness. Removing low branches will also help strengthen the main stem. Light and wind will penetrate and help strengthen the plant against diseases and moisture. Yes, sunlight actually helps the plant fight problems. Dark spots is a heaven for trouble. Also, low-lying branches that are almost touching the ground will also give easy access to the plant to various pests. The less access points are to the plant, the less bugs will climb it. It is also much easier dealing with possible pest problems this way - only the main stem is to be looked at. I usually apply natural insect-killing powder around the base of the stem and that deters most of the problem-makers. And with no low-lying braches, or branches that touch nearby objects, the bugs have nothing to climb on.

Great thread here fella's, and I agree with the mood resistant strain being what you want. As for water washing off trichs , your right they aren't water soluble or anything, the thing I was worried about was water damaging the trics and also weighing down branches into each other possibly snapping them . I've used a hose end sprayer to apply pesticides with spreader sticker and wasn't worried at all about knocking off the trics, I just wanted them to be pest free
When I was careful was during hurricane like weather (wind n water) be sure to watch the weather station toward the end of season

tricloud said:

If stealth isn't a huge issue you could force flower early but sounds like you are may be guerrilla growing. Anyway it's a good way to beat the rainy season and your flowers finish while it's warmer.

If you can't force flower early then try to plant them so they get nice air flow. Don't grow in the bottom of a valley with a stream or swamp where it gets foggy every morning. Try and grow where the plants will get good sun a couple hours after sun up and all day til sun down. Shade, lack of wind and moisture are a good combo for mold.

Some strains are definitely more mold resistant than others. Go with outdoor strains that have mold resistance in the description and maybe research what other outdoor growers say about them.

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fuck force flowering, unless u got it in your back yard, even then i would reconsider, it sucks, and imo isnt worth the early harvest for the work u do for them

The best way to deal with pests on your plants is use your fingers to squish and kill the pests. Individually. Better than spraying too much of (NATURAL) pesticides and insecticides. Daily DETAILED inspections of your plants, if possible, are highly recommended. Under the leaves, stem, branches, buds, inside the darker areas, etc. This way you can catch and remove spiders long before they cause damage to the buds. I killed thousands of pests last summer, and had not a SINGLE bud lost to bugs or mold. It takes a lot of work, but in the end the results will be fantastic.

Mr.Marijuana420 said:

fuck force flowering, unless u got it in your back yard, even then i would reconsider, it sucks, and imo isnt worth the early harvest for the work u do for them

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Indeed, it is almost impossible to force flower a plant outdoors. It is possible (covering it with a black bag), but then you'll be attracting attention. And when the light does get through, even for a fraction of a day, it will mess up the cycle and negatively affect the product.

Colloidal Silver kills mold dead. You can spray any trouble spots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLyanlxytdI I have my own generator and have made the stuff for years. Up front it'll cost you no more than $80 and a couple of hours to make a lifetime supply. After that the only cost is your distilled water and a couple of minutes to set each batch up. Each batch starts to lost potency after it's sat around for a month or so. Scroll to the bottom of this page where it says "Even Dummies can make CS". Be sure to use only distilled water. http://www.zakairan.com/CosmicCookies/HealthCookies/ColloidalSilverGeneratorMakeyourown.htm#.UQg_ZWd9iSM

From my reserach I thought CS was used to induce self pollination?

Equitable Trust said:

Colloidal Silver kills mold dead. You can spray any trouble spots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLyanlxytdI I have my own generator and have made the stuff for years. Up front it'll cost you no more than $80 and a couple of hours to make a lifetime supply. After that the only cost is your distilled water and a couple of minutes to set each batch up. Each batch starts to lost potency after it's sat around for a month or so. Scroll to the bottom of this page where it says "Even Dummies can make CS". Be sure to use only distilled water. http://www.zakairan.com/CosmicCookies/HealthCookies/ColloidalSilverGeneratorMakeyourown.htm#.UQg_ZWd9iSM

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don't smoke bud with CS sprayed on it...CS can give you argyria
you don't want it....https://www.google.com/search?q=Argyria&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=8U1&tbo=d&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=FV4IUdGiJcrKigLp5oDYCw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAA&biw=1345&bih=638

Yeah I wouldn't use CS on my plants. Hashberry by Mandala Seeds is supposed to be a good outdoor Indicas strain with strong mold resistance. After picking a mold resisting strain I'd do a biweekly spray alternating between using a milk-water solution and sulfur dust.

Why use industrial chemicals to fight mold? I use a proven method that I came up with myself. 6% isopropyl alchohol mixed with common liquid soap, preferrably of natural/non-toxic sources. About 20-1 ratio of the antiseptic alcohol to soap.
Last year I inadvertedly damaged the stems of some plants because of a mistake, and plants started dying - nothing was working initially until I tried that method. Remove the offending substance/mold as cleanly as you can without scraping too much off the plant and causing irreversible damage to the stem, then heavily apply the spray on a regular basis until you see results - spray on anything except buds. I saved my harvest last year because of this mix. I had one plant infected with botrytis in early September, but with that spray the plant survived the month in its entirety until I managed to collect the harvest. Plants recovered remarkably. I think this mix also works well against fungi as well and other infections that may try to get inside the plant. I will be using it sparingly as a preventative spray this year, for stems only.