Battling bud mold and humidity...

[ShLUbY]

i have a strain of black domina that is very susceptible to bud mold. It grows very big dense chunky colas under my 600 HPS. As you all know, it's always that last week of flower when you inspect inside a dense cola like that and just feel disgusted when you see the start of it coming on.

I'm to the point where i don't even want to flower this strain in summer time because the humidity here in MI is so great. I've been trying to dehumidify my basement with a 60pint dehumidifier but it's just not cutting it.

I really want to put the dehumidifier in the tent (5x10x6.5), but i'm concerned about the heat that they produce causing high lights on temps until i can get my AC unit in there. I have eliminated lots of feet from my ducting run. I have an 8" CanMax fan, with Can 66 filter. I was running two passive 6" air intakes and today just opened up another of the 6" ducts because I think i had too much neg pressure (very tight tent walls when zipped up) and I'm wasn't exchanging enough air to help pull the humid air out.

So I guess my main question is: Is the night time the most crucial time to control humidity to prevent bud mold??? I always read <50% during flower and ideally 40% near the end of the run. The problem is I'm learning about VPD and humidity and air temp are relational to the opening of the stomata (and 50% is best at 70 deg F at the highest temp). Having higher temps and low humidity isn't correct according to VPD chart. So during light hours does humidity only matter relative to air temp for stomata to function??? While during dark hours, would you just try and drive down humidity because stomata are not functioning due to photosynthetic processes shutting down to help prevent the mold?

Guy at the store gave me the tip to use toothpicks to keep my cola nugs peeled apart from each other to improve air circulation for the bud and help prevent the mold from happening... I'm about to try anything to get this to stop. tired of having to shred apart my colas to pick only the unaffected nugs.

 

[DirtyMcCurdy]

I feel your pain man. I'm in the same boat with a strain I run. Nice colas but you want to puke when you see that fuzzy white mold inside.
I too need to upgrade my ac because, as you mentioned, VPD-you can't just dehumidify the shit out of the room if the temps are too high. My guess is would be to keep it as cool as you can so you can run a much lower RH in the room.
That is what I am going to try once I upgrade the ac.

 

[a senile fungus]

@Dr.Who

 

[james murphy]

heres a trick...take a small piece of bud out of ur kolas every 4 inches..dab w alc on wound as to not get any infections.. and it allows the cola to get much more air and less botrytis...saves me lbs outside

 

[ShLUbY]

@Dr.Who

yes the Dr. is awesome. hope he has some time to help me out.

 

[ShLUbY]

heres a trick...take a small piece of bud out of ur kolas every 4 inches..dab w alc on wound as to not get any infections.. and it allows the cola to get much more air and less botrytis...saves me lbs outside

I'd do the toothpick method before i did this. there will still be spots of bud mold in the really tight areas of the colas. i want to eliminate it, not have less of it.

I feel your pain man. I'm in the same boat with a strain I run. Nice colas but you want to puke when you see that fuzzy white mold inside.
I too need to upgrade my ac because, as you mentioned, VPD-you can't just dehumidify the shit out of the room if the temps are too high. My guess is would be to keep it as cool as you can so you can run a much lower RH in the room.
That is what I am going to try once I upgrade the ac.

thats what i figured about the VPD. I just have to AC my tent then (which sucks cause i dont want to take up the space but it's a must i guess!). I just got the unit. I guess I'm going to need to slow down my 8" max fan so i don't suck all the AC out faster than it can produce it lol. Tent is only a little over 300cuft, my fan is way more powerful than that so if i get a speed controller i'll just dial it back to help cool it down, and get the humidity below 50%, which is what i want anyway.

 

[DirtyMcCurdy]

I'd do the toothpick method before i did this. there will still be spots of bud mold in the really tight areas of the colas. i want to eliminate it, not have less of it.



thats what i figured about the VPD. I just have to AC my tent then (which sucks cause i dont want to take up the space but it's a must i guess!). I just got the unit. I guess I'm going to need to slow down my 8" max fan so i don't suck all the AC out faster than it can produce it lol. Tent is only a little over 300cuft, my fan is way more powerful than that so if i get a speed controller i'll just dial it back to help cool it down, and get the humidity below 50%, which is what i want anyway.

If you need to cool your lights/hoods but you won't want to run much of an exhaust on the tent now that you are cooling with ac. Like you said it will suck out all the cold air.

 

[budman111]

If you are getting budrot you have very poor circulation so get more fans and prune some leaves lightly, don't go cutting the buds like someone else says, that's a retarded solution.

 

[cannabiscult666]

Yea budrot indoor is an environment issue...I've grown very very mold prone strains in different climate with huge differences in results....I'd say more fans and less temp differential to start...then a dehumidifier on a hygrometer...

 

[ShLUbY]

i have increased circulation and I still got the rot unfortunately. i have three 16+ in fans in that room now (5x10x6.5).

Temps were in the low 80s, and nights were not much better at 74 being the lowest when it happened again. I really think it has been an environment issue. I have since bought an AC, and I'm working on getting it tuned in to the grow the past 10 days or so. I have another 2 plants of this strain at 4 weeks right now. I'll toothpick the bitches if i have to this round lol.

If you are getting budrot you have very poor circulation so get more fans and prune some leaves lightly, don't go cutting the buds like someone else says, that's a retarded solution.

i would have never considered cutting bud sites lol. i'm trying to get the maximum!

I'm also wondering if plant health has anything to do with it too. Maybe if it had a better immune system this would help prevent the mold from starting.

 

[james murphy]

trust me livin in the east coast my family has collectively dealt w molds and so forth for long ass time, (that eat a garden over fkn night...let me see u go arould w toothpicks try to do 8x8 trees..lmao, its about genetics and being as creative as u can on such a scale ...alllegedly. peace and trinity grease. spray em all down w camp dry...

 

[james murphy]

i have increased circulation and I still got the rot unfortunately. i have three 16+ in fans in that room now (5x10x6.5).

Temps were in the low 80s, and nights were not much better at 74 being the lowest when it happened again. I really think it has been an environment issue. I have since bought an AC, and I'm working on getting it tuned in to the grow the past 10 days or so. I have another 2 plants of this strain at 4 weeks right now. I'll toothpick the bitches if i have to this round lol.



i would have never considered cutting bud sites lol. i'm trying to get the maximum!

I'm also wondering if plant health has anything to do with it too. Maybe if it had a better immune system this would help prevent the mold from starting.

 

[james murphy]

u lose 10 grms but have 100 grams that arent powdered...even a light powder is unseeable w the eye and can b very destructive to lung tissue,. its medicine ..not a place to inoculate spores in ur lungs...

 

[james murphy]

im talkin outdoor..but can be applied indoor..if u get footlong nuggets that are fat as cans and thick like donald trump lol...and its a strain prone to that shit just watch it and use a blade to create areas to get o2 to giant nugs..or dont..just passin on wat works for us

 

[Stoneybaloney5]

Botrytis indoors? Ha your fucked

 

[innerG]

A lot of indoor mold I've heard of has been in tents - is there a way you could open the tent but darken the room during the 'night' cycle?

Also, do your fans run all the time or just when lights are on?

 

[ShLUbY]

A lot of indoor mold I've heard of has been in tents - is there a way you could open the tent but darken the room during the 'night' cycle?

Also, do your fans run all the time or just when lights are on?

fans run all the time. never shut them off. current set up now would not allow me to open the tent. the problem is my basement i fear. it's just freakin humid basement. I'm leaning towards a sealed room and supplying my own CO2 around the same PPM as atmosphere. Or just staying away from this strain until weather cools off and the dry season comes in.

Botrytis indoors? Ha your fucked

why am I fucked? how bout you offer help or nothing at all. botrytis spores are everywhere. you can get them inside or out. but yeah i fear once they are in the room... its going to be hard to get rid of them. that's why i'm trying to get the environment under control to prevent it from happening. i'll also be using the toothpicks to keep colas airy.

 

[Stoneybaloney5]

If there in the buds and you still have more than a couple weeks id probably just kill everything if your not too far away and its not too bad maybe you can salvage some but you dont want to be smoking on any nug which had mold on any part of it

 

[innerG]

fans run all the time. never shut them off. current set up now would not allow me to open the tent. the problem is my basement i fear. it's just freakin humid basement. I'm leaning towards a sealed room and supplying my own CO2 around the same PPM as atmosphere.

If you have a tent, can you just move it up into a room with more regular humidity?

 

[ShLUbY]

If you have a tent, can you just move it up into a room with more regular humidity?

I've been thinking about this... but my only option is to take over the spare bedroom in our house, and I don't think my old lady is going to be ok with that haha. I'm considering losing the tent... and/or getting a new one. I wonder if the spores like to hide themselves in the stitchings and liners of the tent, and when you get in that and work around and bump walls and stuff they get released. I dont know. All I know is i've caught the bud mold before it was visible (on the outside of the bud) every time. You see that one leaf that just doesnt look right (because it's dying) and then peel that bud open and boom there's the mold. It only affects one strain I grow but man... It's a good strain and I'd hate to dump it because of that but... i'm getting a lot of new stuff in my garden soon so it's not outta the question. Just hard giving up a plant with killer smooth smoke, great buzz, and yields 1.5-2lbs per 600hps.

A friend of mine also got bud mold with this strain. I gave him a couple baby clones. Went over there on harvest day a few weeks ago and inspected his buds and sure enough he had it too due to density (he didn't know how to look for it though). He has no flowering tent, its just a room. his house is clean. Spores are everywhere whether people realize that or not. It's environment that dictates whether or not they can grow and infect plants.


What about Ozone? doesn't that kill spores and smells? what if i ran that in the basement?