Looking for information on botrytis spores in soil.

I'm hoping some of you folks can help me out.

IC and other forums+ the net are full of great info on how to treat and prevent botrytis but I'm having a hell of a time trying to find good info on treating soil to kill the spores.

Treating your outdoor plants if you live in a cool humid climate like mine is a must but thats only half the battle.
The real fight is trying to eradicate the spores which can lie dormant in the soil for years.

Any articules, links or personal experience would be greatly appriecated.

Hello Cookie monster, I don't know if it is the same botrytis that affect wine grapes allowing Sauternes and other late harvest wines a high sugar content at harvest. You might try UC Davis or UC Fresno for possible research on that subject.

You can bake it in the oven, it's an old school sterilization method. Be aware though that spores are pervasive, once you have the mold, you tend to have spores around forever. That's what spores do, they're super durable "seeds" for new future colonies. Even if you were to somehow oven-sterilize every ounce of soil on your property, it'd just drift in from next door the next time it was windy.

Your best bet is to reduce ambient humidity as much as feasible, feed your plants a solid diet that's rich in silica, and prune to keep extremely dense thick buds and leaf overlap to a minimum. Remove branches that will dip to the ground with rain or additional bud weight well prior to bloom. Plants with airy light buds seem to be more resistant to mold or at least minimize the conditions that favor mold. Genetic resistance to disease is a BIG part of it. I have grown in areas with 70-90% humidity all harvest season long with frequent rains, there's really no way of preventing 100% of mold in my experience. Silica definitely helps improve resistance, as does air movement in general and judicious pruning to increase space & airflow through the plant.

FrijolElVerde said:

Hello Cookie monster, I don't know if it is the same botrytis that affect wine grapes allowing Sauternes and other late harvest wines a high sugar content at harvest. You might try UC Davis or UC Fresno for possible research on that subject.

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I'm not great at identifying the various forms of botrytis but it seems to be botrytis cinerea which does affect grapes from what I've read.
Cheers for the direction bro

geopolitical said:

You can bake it in the oven, it's an old school sterilization method. Be aware though that spores are pervasive, once you have the mold, you tend to have spores around forever. That's what spores do, they're super durable "seeds" for new future colonies. Even if you were to somehow oven-sterilize every ounce of soil on your property, it'd just drift in from next door the next time it was windy.

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Thats the problem Geo, come late August mould settles in on everything over here.
We seem to have a perfect climate for the bloody stuff and a lousy climate for growing mj.

Plants are being treated with organic products which can be used daily and are topped once a week to turn them into bushes.



The food crops surrounding them will all be harvested by the end of the month leaving plenty of space to train the main branches well apart before flowering sets in.
The last thing I want is large cola's that will mould so bushing them then staking out the branches makes sense.

Thank you for the sillica tip, i'll be heading to the grow store in the morning to pick up something.

I'm begining to wonder that if I covered the ground in panda plastic would it reduce the risk of infection.

Many thanks for the replys all.

Cookie monster said:

I
I'm begining to wonder that if I covered the ground in panda plastic would it reduce the risk of infection.

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A plastic ground covering would reduce splash from the soil on rainy days, that's a big source of mold starts, because it introduces a LOT of critters to the leaves all at once. I use a fairly thick layer of perlite in my strawberry beds for the same reason. Mud + leaves = problems.

You may also want to consider pruning them in the future to have a 1-2' space between the ground & the first branch, this will also cut down on direct contact between dirt & plant tops.

As far as products I have used both potassium silicate (great for fireproofing things too) and silicate clays in the past with good success.

I use chopped straw on my strawberries for the same reason and for the slugs.

Pruning off the lower branches is something I'd overlooked, nice tip thank you.

Looks like it's time to sharpen and sterelise the pruners and treat the fresh cuts with an anti fungal solution

the dreaded botrytis aka: budrot, my worst enemy outdoors - really takes the fun out of it.

IMO pointless to treat soil as its airborne & everywhere when forest plants start to die in the fall.

some things i've been doing when flowering starts:

lime powder on ground around area to raise ph thats not ideal for botryis

keep dead weeds cleaned up near plants

lots of foliar spray prevention.

* important to keep bug crap off leaves

* Couple of heavy water / natural soap spray washes to clean off plants of bug poo, dust, pollen.

* keep plants sprayed with neem oil, organocide, monterey garden insect spray, to keep bugs from eating leaves, crapping & living on / in plant

* then when buds are filling in switch to coating the plant with Advanced Nutrients (Piranha) beneficial fungus microb spores - Combo that with Greencure on & off.

Thats my plan again this summer with all that spraying in flower the key is to hit them in early when the suns coming out so they dry off quick.

Hit them (right after) a rain when there still wet also.

Avoid spraying in full sun or in the evening.

My idea of hell is trimming a couple pounds of killer buds with spots of bad fungus rot.

When a plants infected its pretty much to late to stop it from spreading.

Good luck all

* oh yeah - found a great natural liquid soap that works great as a surfactant - coconut / vegatable oil based = seventh generation brand

Hey Cookie monster

Those of us that have fought this old scourge know it well. Tactical farmers list is excellent. Copy that down right away because he's developed it from fighting the shit for the past many years. Good advice TF. Its the same list we all have.

Unless your going to try and treat all of the acres around you, forget treating the ground because the spores that are 20' or a 1/4 mile away will flower as soon as conditions are right and the spores will fly around and land on every plant within 1000' of the release. Tf's suggestion to lime the surface under the plant is about all you can do.

Couple of more things to add to tactical farmers list;

E A S Y ON THE FERTS, You can create an enviroment that supports mould if excessive nutes are applied. The excess in then transpired through the leaves leaving a nitrogen rich surface for mould/mildew grow and develop.

Greencure: Use greencure starting around the 1st of Aug and continue weekly for 5 weeks.



Critical: Trimmming: Get rid of lower branches, inward facing branches, and any part of the plant that is going to spend all day, every day in the shade. Cut any branch,(now) that wont dry for hours even when the sun comes out. Because the sun is in the southern sky ALL branches on the back/north side of the plant are shaded for their entire life and the shading increases as the season gets later and the sun falls even lower in the southern sky. These branches will never provide much smoke but will be a constant mould opportunity. Cut every single one of them off today!!

Its hard to watch healthy branches fall to the ground and the beautiful plant reduced, but if you will cut them off today all future growth will go to the parts of the plant that recieve sun all day and your yield will actuallly be increased and the chances of moulding reduced dramatically.

Tieing/training: This can be used to seperate branches so that air circulation and sunshine are optimized.

STRESS plants that are stressed from drought, heat, floods, pests will be more succeptable to disease of every nature.

DS,

Great post and thank you, I'm growing in my garden which is surrounded by 7 foot walls on all sides so hopefully that might limit exposure a tiny little bit.
Probably not much tho.

Ferts I'm not as yet using any except for a bit of seaweed tea, the soil their planted in is where we dig in the compost heap every year for the past 20 years.
Thats part of the reason why I want to try and treat the soil.

Nice point about removing the shaded branches.

Tactical also a great post and you can be sure your advice will be followed to the letter


Aphids are a problem in my garden, from what I've read mould loves their shit ( honey dew ) but thankfully I have a wasp nest in my shed and they love to munch the little buggers.

Greencure and AN piranha have been ordered to add to the arsenel of weapons to go to war on mould.

Again great advice from all of you guys and if nobody minds I'm going to link this thread to the Irish outdoor growers group for others to view.

you could have a look at thianosan i have used it on onions and leeks for years

two more things came to mind, giving the plant a good shake in the early morning to remove some dew droplets doesn't hurt & IMO avoid a K dif to keep plant health & defenses up.

Tactical Farmer said:

two more things came to mind, giving the plant a good shake in the early morning to remove some dew droplets doesn't hurt & IMO avoid a K dif to keep plant health & defenses up.

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Thats something I normally do, it knocks an hour or 2 off drying up time no problem.

Anybody any input on using a dilute hydrogen peroxide spray?

Hi Cookiemonster, I was reading the 'Defoliation' thread here on IC and thought of you. Perhaps an experiment is in order? A potential problem is that the buds might get TOO BIG?!?! Yikes!!!

FrijolElVerde said:

Hi Cookiemonster, I was reading the 'Defoliation' thread here on IC and thought of you. Perhaps an experiment is in order? A potential problem is that the buds might get TOO BIG?!?! Yikes!!!

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Hiya Frijo, I dont think I'll have to worry about buds getting too big
Defoliation outdoors probably would not be a good idea, too many cuts on the plant to seal up and treat.

Good idea for those in drier climates tho