The eternal question... harvest early or leave to ripen and get mouldy buds? Thoughts please.

[reuben rubbish]

yet again my plants started to get bud rot at the crucial time(1-2 weeks left) and I panicked! Quick cut them down before it infests the whole crop! And I now have a lot of airy wispy bud that smokes fine but really doesn't look very great. My question is what should I have done? Left it to finish and suffer the potential of mold inevitably spreading, or just as I did chop it early?!? As I said the smoke is nice... a mellow initial hit then slowly creeping up on you... then bang, nicely stoned. I will mention that towards the end the plants were only getting any direct sunlight between 9:30-1:30. And were in a shitty plastic greenhouse. But they were looking so nice till that point of finding the offending mold!! Bastard mold!



Frisian duck by the way.

 

[vostok]

Lear to fight mold and win every time!

I use neem oil as a defensive action

and when I have mold

I simply put the pot in a trash bag

and invert the plant to a bucket of warm water and 10% bleach for 5 secs

then dip again in fresh water

that kills any mold, I then leave the plant in a warm wind for 2-4 hours to dry then re apply the neem oil

the neem flavor taste and smell is long gone by harvest

good luck

ps you can make it easier for your plants by drying them out

less watering

and ensuring you have a constant slight wind thru out

 

[reuben rubbish]

Lear to fight mold and win every time!

I use neem oil as a defensive action

and when I have mold

I simply put the pot in a trash bag

and invert the plant to a bucket of warm water and 10% bleach for 5 secs

then dip again in fresh water

that kills any mold, I then leave the plant in a warm wind for 2-4 hours to dry then re apply the neem oil

the neem flavor taste and smell is long gone by harvest

good luck

ps you can make it easier for your plants by drying them out

less watering

and ensuring you have a constant slight wind thru out

Mate my plants we're about 6foot tall, there is no chance of dipping those bad boys!

 

[vostok]

no local swimming pool is just as good

next season avoid growing so tall...?

 

[kkt3]

For me it’s an easy answer. Chop and enjoy your stuff. All that work gone to waste, I think not!!

 

[reuben rubbish]

Can you just pick the little bits of mold off as they develop, until the plants reach full maturity? Has anyone done this?

 

[BlazinDucks]

Can you just pick the little bits of mold off as they develop, until the plants reach full maturity? Has anyone done this?

I tend to take anything within 2 inches off around the rot. A lot of the time that means I lose the top along with it. You'll find that if its in one place, it'll most likely be in another place. That will then become a constant struggle in the days to come. Inevitably leading to chopping it in the end before its ready still.

Or you get lucky and its only in that one spot and you never see it again. That is highly unlikely this time of year. I chopped down a 7.5 foot plant that was 3 weeks to a month early because it became too much of a headache. I now have about 2lbs worth of buds that'll be turned into oil.

In the end its just a call you'll have to make, one way or another. You know your plant better than most.

 

[HydoDan]

I have battled bud rot for years.. Once it starts there is no way to stop it.. I have tried everything available nothing gets rid of it.. An early harvest is better than a mouldy mess..

 

[cannetix Inc]

I agree with everyone else here. Premature bud is at least smokable, but rotten bud is not. If its just powdery mildew on the leaves I would just cut them off, spray them with some copper soap and call it a day but bud rot is very persistent and can destroy your entire crop quickly.

 

[waterproof808]

Use regalia weekly as a preventative. Cut out any moldy bits as carefully as you can. Get fans on your plants if you can. Grow strains that were bred outdoors.

 

[shawn75can]

I had the exact same problem & I chose to chop. I tried the peroxide spray with soap but the weather was also shirty. Anyhow in doing so you chance less & end up with something right.

 

[vostok]

Can you just pick the little bits of mold off as they develop, until the plants reach full maturity? Has anyone done this?

see once pythium/budrot Pm./leaf mold/etc is active

set of by temp and humidity, its their spores that cause all that trouble

no sooner do you snip a bit here and there, then back again tomorrow for the same

at each cut no matter how gentle you are

millions of spores are released

that just go on and screw you over for the next day

use the mild chems! neem and bleach

good luck

 

[innerG]

I say chop

 

[too larry]

I had a terrible year with bud rot. I grow in the bush, and can't get to the patches but about once a week. I would cut out the rot, take a couple of buds above and below, then spray with a H2O2/H2O mixture. But in the end, I had to take most of them early. I lost a lot that I could have saved if I had chopped sooner. Anyway, oil takes less space in the freezer, right?

 

[vostok]

I had a terrible year with bud rot. I grow in the bush, and can't get to the patches but about once a week. I would cut out the rot, take a couple of buds above and below, then spray with a H2O2/H2O mixture. But in the end, I had to take most of them early. I lost a lot that I could have saved if I had chopped sooner. Anyway, oil takes less space in the freezer, right?

a buddy/ Ru did the same year in year out always the mold

and he didn't want to change his guerrilla grow ways

so I said ..just as the mold hits

bring them inside to your bubblecloner (diy$20.00)

and under a 250-400w hps

and finish them off from their 2-3 weeks to go

drop a teaspoon of nute every week into the water

no biggy there ..lol

 

[too larry]

a buddy/ Ru did the same year in year out always the mold

and he didn't want to change his guerrilla grow ways

so I said ..just as the mold hits

bring them inside to your bubblecloner (diy$20.00)

and under a 250-400w hps

and finish them off from their 2-3 weeks to go

drop a teaspoon of nute every week into the water

no biggy there ..lol

Indoors is not an option for me, so I have to roll the dice.

In June I had so little sun and so much rain, my plants thought it was fall and started to flower. The rain kept on all summer, and most everything had a little rot.

Most years it's too dry and I'm losing plants in my Darwin Dope plots to drought. It always stinks, but it's just part of it.

 

[OldPork]

In VA rot is an issue. But what I found this year is the plants that get the early morning sun are far less prone to rot. The buds dry out early in the day. Also there is no need to take the entire plant if you spot some rot. Just take the large colas and leave the mids to fatten up for another week or two. I usually harvest a plant in three waves, colas, then mids and finally one last trip to strip off those wonderfully strong popcorn buds.

 

[reuben rubbish]

In VA rot is an issue. But what I found this year is the plants that get the early morning sun are far less prone to rot. The buds dry out early in the day. Also there is no need to take the entire plant if you spot some rot. Just take the large colas and leave the mids to fatten up for another week or two. I usually harvest a plant in three waves, colas, then mids and finally one last trip to strip off those wonderfully strong popcorn buds.

Sounds like you've got it down... my plants only got sun from 9:30am till 13:45ish so probably didn't dry out enough to stave off the mold ... I thought about cutting in waves but once I started chopping it stank my house out so bad I just wanted to do it once and be done with it as my wife was not impressed by the stink!

 

[Bugeye]

NEVER harvest early! Fight until the end. Better to lose the battle than not even try.

Final word on the topic.

 

[too larry]

. . . . . . . .Also there is no need to take the entire plant if you spot some rot. Just take the large colas and leave the mids to fatten up for another week or two. I usually harvest a plant in three waves, colas, then mids and finally one last trip to strip off those wonderfully strong popcorn buds.

This is how I harvest.