UV-C to prevent Bud rot and mildew

nunyabidness420 said:

That being said... I don't think an air filter and low pressure sodium lamps are the most effective method of utilizing UV to reduce pathogenic issues with cannabis grows.

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I don't know.

The fact is that in hospitals it does seem to work. But which bacteria, spores, viruses exactly ... I don't know.
In my country, we have an agricultural university that does research on it. But their results are not yet very clear or unanimous.

Well... I'll leave you with this then.

What is this pic about.
It looks like UV light, but what were you doing?

And how (if) would you work with UV light to prevent bud rot?
I know handheld devices exist. But with something that can stick around 24/7.

Keesje said:

What is this pic about.
It looks like UV light, but what were you doing?
And how (if) would you work with UV light to prevent bud rot?
I know handheld devices exist. But with something that can stick around 24/7.

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That pic is me using an earlier version of my UV light to highlight the only case of mold on my buds that I've seen since October 2019.
And that bud got it in the drying area, it didn't have mold while it was in the grow area.
To me it means there are spores in the air but the grow area doesn't foster their growth.

Just get a blank MCPCB, or as cannabis growers know it, quantum boards, and install some 280nm LEDs on it.
Mount it how you would mount a quantum board. Mount it where you want the UV to hit
You can add other wavelengths if you want UVA as well.
There's research supporting increased resin production with UV.
Forum members also support this claim.
Broscience? Maybe... but we know it kills microbes.


Even if you don't get more resin, 280nm kills e coli at 70% of peak effectiveness of 265nm UV.
This means it just needs more time to do the same job.
How effective is it against mold? I don't know.
Is it more effective than x nanometer UV? I don't know.
But I know you have it on long enough and stuff gets dead.

I've ran these anywhere from 15 minutes to 3 hours a day depending on how hardened the plants are.
That's 3 hours of killing stuff that's in the air, on pots, soil, leaves, etc.
Even if you don't kill all of them, you're likely to be killing significant portion.
This means it takes longer for them to reproduce to levels that will overwhelm your plant's natural defenses.
Maybe even never reach that level.

Your filter only kill what gets sucked into it at 30CFM and it uses 35 watts of electricity to do it.
Typical 4x4 air flow is like a couple hundred CFM?
You need over a couple hundred watts to cover a 4x4.
And once a spore has landed and stuck its not getting sucked into the filter so you can't touch it and it starts to make more spores.

40 watts of UV LED will kill your plants and whatever microbes growing on them, so you will never spend than that on electricity.
Just ramp up the exposure slowly.



280nm UV
Kills microbes, stimulates resin production (probably), uses less electricity.
I rest my case.

Flow rate needs to be slow enough for uv to be effective.

Use a hepa filter unit for prevention, much cheaper and eliminates spores which is the same thing your trying to achieve.

Bignutes said:

Use a hepa filter unit for prevention, much cheaper and eliminates spores which is the same thing your trying to achieve.

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Ha Ha! Reduces maybe but eliminate? No way.

I filter all my air but still have to go in and out of my grow room so all sorts of things can follow me in or be resident on my clothes or body.

Bio-lab procedures would have to be implemented to prevent all possible sources of infection. Who does that with a personal grow?

Hepa filters are very restrictive too so extra power is needed for air movement.

Bignutes said:

Use a hepa filter unit for prevention, much cheaper and eliminates spores which is the same thing your trying to achieve.

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I agree that a good filter will help a lot.
Also being more careful of what you touch before you go into your room.
But as OldMedUser already said: You have to get into your room. Not many of us have lab-type chambers.

Ok eliminate is a strong word, agreed, doesnt remove the source.

Keesje said:

There are some devicces for sale that claim that they help to prevent bud rot and mildew amongst others.
You hang the device in your room and it will kill the spores.
This is such a device:

View attachment 4676618

They are also placed in hospitals, kitchens, bakery's, dentist, etc. to help prevent bacteria and viruses.
Experiments show that they can work.

Now the device on the picture looks very simple. It is not much more then a steel tube, a fan and an UV-C lamp of about 8 Watt.
At least that is what I think if I look at this sheet from the company.
https://www.uvpro.de/fileadmin/Produktbilder/Umluftentkeimer/V50/Datasheet_V50.pdf
This device costs about $ 1000, which is a lot.

It looks to me that it is an 8 Watt UVC bulb inside a steel tube.
If I search for 8 watt UVC bulbs, they are less then $ 25.
Also UVC-devices for fish like koi are way cheaper.

So my questions:
- Is this a special UVC bulb inside the device?
- Would it be possible to build it yourself?
- Is there a danger that you could produce ozone as well with UVC in a steel bulb?
- And if yes, would it help if you would make the tube from PVC?

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i chose the clean light path and can definitely say that it’s magic. get under there with it, get in there with it, she likes it that way. at the climax, right before the end explore drastically over exposing and burning the fuck out of one test plant. burn her hard with uvc, most uvc lights also emit uvb but beyond that effect i have noted a curiosity occurring

as to the homemade uvc light, i ponder this also. it’s a great question. it would have to be portable though to get under the canopy...