OK, so i did something really stupid last week. Powdery mildew was all over my leaves and staring me right in the face, and for some reason it just didn't register. Like, seriously, WTF was wrong with me. I've been gardening for many a year and have seen powerdry mildew on my roses and other plants, but this is my first cannabis plant, so for some reason i just didn't make the connection.
and since the weather was going to be reasonably warm for another two weeks, although rainy, i decided to push the harvest. When i finally chopped her yesterday, the mildew had taken over and destroyed about 20% of the buds (grey, powdery mold), with the rest of them looking OK, but dreadfully limp and unhealthy.
I friken panicked - it was a sizable yield, with the plant being perfectly healthy just the week before. i therefore searched this forum and the Googlatron and everyone was recommending giving the plant an H2O2 bath. I was so leery to try this, at it sounded like such a drastic measure, and i didn't want to loose all those trichomes that I've been cultivating and talking to every morning (lol), but I'm very happy to report that this trick is a life-saver and saved the harvest.
So for those of you that are leery about having to do this, or don't know what to do, don't worry, it works out without any problems and is very easy to do. Here's the scoop:
- you will need to fill the bathtub up high enough with a mixture of water and H2O2 to be able to submerse your stems/buds
- the general consensus for the ratio of H2O2 to water is 1 cup Hydrogen Peroxide (@ 3% volume) to 1 Gallon (80 Cups ) of water. now, since i was in panic mode, I pushed the ratio to 1.75 cups H2O2 to 1 gallon. of water (more on this at the very end)
- gently put the stems in the bathtub and push them under the water. keep doing this to get all the air out of the buds so that they stay under the water.
- set a timer for 5 minutes.
- gently agitate (key word being "gently") the stems to get flow into and around the buds. i grab a stem from the bottom and move it back and forth (left and right) inside the tub, very slowly. continue and repeat with all stems until the timer goes off.
- when the timer is up, i just hung them up on the soap rack pole to drip-dry for about 5 minutes so that they won't drip all over the floor when carrying them to your proper drying location. Note: you do not have to rinse them, as H2O2 is just water with an extra oxygen atom attached, which will dissipate naturally into the air on its own and not stay on your plant. you also want this oxidization process to occur as it's also part of the mold killing process.
Side, Side note: if you have gum desiese or problems, put a mouthful of H2O2 in your mouth, swish it around for a few seconds, and then open you mouth and keep it open to let the air oxidize the O2 (1-2 minutes). you mouth will foam and tingle. that's the oxidization process working, and killing the infection in your mouth. no more bleeding or infected gums if you do this about once a week. Brush your teeth when done. CAUTION: DO NOT SWALLOW
- after the stems are dry enough to not drip all over your house, move them to your basement or drying area.
- set the fan on high and directly onto the hanging stems. you want maximum drying power at this stage to dry all the water as quickly as possible
- after about 15-20 min. either turn the fan around so it blasts their back side, or simply turn the hanging buds around so that their other side is now facing the fan.
- check after another 20 minutes, and if the buds are dry (no longer water logged), then you're done and can proceed with your regular drying regime.
Results:
when i checked the buds again this morning with my 30X jewelers loupe, there was no sign of rot or mildew (
YAY!!!), and i was absolutely impressed that there was very minimal loss or damage to the trichomes. As far as i could tell, the trichomes were almost as perfect and abundant as before the bath. (Phew!)
Ratio Addendum:
if you're worried about using a too much H2O2 or too strong of a solution, don't. i had one choice bud sitting on my dresser from yesterday's harvest, that looked to not be effected by the mildew, so i just let it sit there to see if if would develop any sign (now that it was away from the rest of the infected plant). Sure enough, the mildew was starting to take over the bud this morning. therefore, as a test, and as per comments on the net that H2O2 does not dissolve or dilute the thrichomes, i decided to put this statement to the test.
I therefore dumped the one bud in pure H2O2 (@3%) for 5 minutes, pulled it out of the cup and let it air dry for a couple of minutes to get some oxidization action going, and then gently rinsed it under the tap. I then held it in front of a fan to dry it.
I'm therefore happy to report that the bud is looking perfectly healthy without any signs of rot, and there was absoulte minimum degradation or damage to the trichomes when looking under the jewelers loupe, before, and after. Yes, there was probably some loss, but nothing really noticeable or to panic about.
I only wish that i had taken pictures of the whole process for everyone's benefit, including what the milew looked like on the leaves, as well as the bathing process, but as i said, i was in total panic and just toke action without thinking about recording it.
