Silverback discussion about Mould.

DuskrayTroubador · Sep 25, 2014

RetroGrow said:
Milk. Skim milk to be exact. 10-1 ratio of water to milk, sprayed on plants. Will kill PM and plants love it. Will not hurt them in flower.

Will this work post harvest?

The only reason I ask is because the next time I go to my plants I'm chopping.

gunnaknow · Sep 25, 2014

I wouldn't spray anything on your plants post harvest, just cut off the moldy leaves and any effected buds. If most of the buds are covered with PM then dry them quickly and then make bubble hash with them. Then rinse each bubble bag through thoroughly with fresh water before collecting the hash. If you want to go the extra mile then you can extract the hash in ISO and filter out the waste trichs with coffee filter paper. Any residual PM fragments and spores should then only be present in trace amounts.

Kygiacomo!!! · Oct 18, 2014

gunnaknow said:
It looks as though I was the first, still active member, to reply to Silverback on IC. I feel proud to have talked with him, RIP Silverback!

Kygiacomo, choose your strains carefully. Those with loosely packed calycyes and dry, fluffy looking trichomes, tend to promote better air flow and trap less moisture. Topping the plants so that they have multiple colas also makes it harder for any mold to spread.

hey bro yes i have read nearly everthing that silverback had to write..that guy is a genious and is critical that we keep this knowledge alive for future generations to pass on down from a very wise man..i cant wait for next year outdoors..im going with serious6,biddy early,green posion,early skunk,easy sativa,purple maroc and sweet purple..gonna go hardcore on the preventive measure next year with the rec dose of greencure..i did spray it on some the buds that was infected and it stop the mold from forming and it allowed me to get a extra 2 weeks of flowering in which was critical but next year i know it will be no issue at all after useing it and seeing what results i had after i was already infected..gonna use the SB method and i gurantee it that it will be sucessful.. and yes bro u are very lucky to have met him i wish i had but after reading so much of his words i feel like i do weird enuff...RIP shine down from above ganja brother

Kygiacomo!!! · Oct 18, 2014

gunnaknow said:
Sorry, I should have mentioned that I meant topping and training. You can train the new shoots so that the plant doesn't become too bushy. However, I have always preferred LST to topping, so I don't know why I didn't just suggest to train the plants.

I remember Silverback's old thread on horizontal planting, and your contribution of pics on page 9. For those who aren't familiar with his thread, please see below:

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=81797

hey bro since u been around here awhile is there anymore old threads that silverback talked about botrytis prevention?

gunnaknow · Oct 18, 2014

Kygiacomo!!! · Oct 26, 2014

hell ya!! thanks alot gunna..i been reading and rereading everthing that guy wrote..i am a member on all other growing sites and to be honest this one here has been the best place for info..i have learned so much from icmag thanks again gunna..

Payaso · Jan 7, 2015

Silverback certainly had a lot of knowledge! This was an interesting thread indeed.

Team Microbe · Jan 8, 2015

Guest said:
EDIT:I forgot this question. A few years ago i first read about salycin and its potential effect on mould. I experimented with the aspirin in the gallon of water and couldn't document any dicernable effect. Again, bieng raised on a farm, i know that plants abosrb different chemicals in different ways so i moved to salycin that was suspended in a vehicle that facilitated tissue absorbtion such as those used for morphine patches or birth control. I used a product called Aspercreme but there are many of these. I think the HEAD ON that is always advertised may be one. These aspirin product are designed to be absorbed and I have had real results from this approach. I think it may increase mould resistance by as much as 30%. My question is this: Because the aspirin seems to be systemic in nature, is it being replicated in the plant and is one smoking aspirin with every joint. As someone who remembers the old days of cholchicine treatments, this is a concern to me and I hope others will express their findings.

This is a rare occurrence; Me correcting Silverback... but this thread needs a little truth to it so I'll add my 2 cents about what I've learned through 1st hand experience when it comes to fungal pathogens (botrytis, powdery mildew, etc).

But first off, I'm asking everyone to never ever spray pesticides on flowers (or even when you begin to see pistils forming in early flowering) because whatever we're spraying will wind up in our pipes. Would you crush Aspirin up and pack a bowl with it? If not, then don't spray it as a foliar. Simple as that. Anything that isn't organic should never be used in a setting where the plants you're growing will later be consumed in my opinion.

Team Microbe · Jan 8, 2015

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"

The Secret to Preventing Bud Rot

This entry will explain what we as outdoor growers can do to prevent fungal diseases from ever occurring, how they even manifest in the first place, and a few other things we can do in order to really ensure a healthy harvest. I know all of you hate clipping out botrytis buds as much as I do - there's no worse feeling than hiking out to your patch in October and being forced to leave half of the plant on the ground next to your stalk due to these different types of fungi. Before addressing this problem we must fully understand the process of infection in order to prevent it from ever happening. But before getting to that, I'll start by saying that the key to beating these pathogenic spores is by growing extremely healthy plants. A healthy plant cannot be infected. By anything. Not botrytis, not powdery mildew, not bacterial diseases (leaf spot), nothing. But before moving on, what do I mean by a "healthy plant"? You'll find it quite interesting how similar we humans are to our beloved cannabis plant, and all plants for that matter...

Plant & Human Immune Systems

First off, we must all understand that fungal/bacterial spores are everywhere we go; they're in the air at all times. In the time you took to read that first sentence you inhaled hundreds if not thousands of these spores. That's right! But wait, why aren't we getting sick from them? It's because we have functioning immune systems. I'm about to make a very eye-opening relation between human & plant health that too many growers aren't aware of, and it plays a HUGE role in preventing bud rot so bare with me here...

We as humans have a built-up resistance to pathogens that enter our bodies - solely due to these functioning immune systems. The majority of this system resides in our guts too, this comprises of millions and billions of gut flora (microorganisms). Microorganisms can be beneficial or non-beneficial by nature, so a healthy immune system simply means the beneficial populations are out-numbering the non-beneficial.

Beneficial gut bacteria

It is Nature's Law that every living organism has an immune system comprised of microorganisms. This is a very important fact to keep in the back of our heads while gardening because we are indeed working with nature, are we not? So with that being said, it is vital that we understand that plants are no different than any other living organism in that they too have functioning immune systems they rely on to maintain high levels of plant health. Human health is centered around the gut, while plant health is actually centered around the soil it grows in.

"Living organic soil"

Did you know that 1 tablespoon of soil in the forest contains more than 1 billion microorganisms?! It's true, and these are the very microorganisms that dictate whether the plants growing from it are sick or healthy. I like to call it my army - microbes are the key factor when it comes to plant health. I won't turn this into an organic soil post, but in short I can tell all of you hard-working growers out there that organic soil is your best friend. I look at the microbes as an army of defense while I'm not there, and without them my walls are bare and infiltration of fungi spores can and will occur at any time.

What if the plants aren't grown in soil though? What if there are no microorganisms present in the medium? Well, the best analogy I can think of is when a person goes through chemo-therapy. Feeding synthetic bottled nutrients and chemicals to a plant does the same thing chemo does to a patient - it kills the immune system. Wipes it out completely. Zero. Zilch. What happens when humans don't have a functioning immune system? You guessed it - infection occurs. The same goes with plants, when we don't provide that plant with any immunity then we're leaving it to fend for itself. That's why this thread really spoke to me, I felt like I really needed to let people know how I've beat the dreaded fungus and not only that but why I beat it - rather than listing a product or an integrated pest management regimen (which I will also be including later after this entry).

The Process of Infection

Powdery mildew post-infection

There are many genetic varieties of both Powdery Mildew and Botrytis but all persist through the winter months in the form of sclerotia or mycelia. In the spring, both the sclerotia and the myscelia produce conidiophores which grow millions of asexual spores (conidia) that are then spread by wind and rain. Like mentioned above, there is not avoiding these airborne spores. We breathe in, and even smoke some that land on our trees while we're rolling joints up everyday without second thought. Again, we have functioning immune systems to combat these pathogens - so the key to avoiding them from infecting our plants is to utilize the power of nature and grow in a well-balanced organic soil that contains all the necessary macro/micro nutrients. If we accomplish this step, the rest is Easy Street folks... it's that simple.

You see, when we grow plants with microorganisms in the soil that provide this functioning immunity for the plant - all worries of fungal and bacterial disease fly out the window. This is how - Healthy plants that are supplied with everything needed in the terms of macro/micro nutrients allow that plant to build up and store fats in the form of lipids. These lipids form on the coating of the leaves, and provide this waxy-looking film on them. This layer of lipids is KEY in fending off airborne spores. I repeat, this layer of lipids is KEY in fending off airborne spores. Without it, the leaf surface is susceptible to anything that lands on it.

So say for example I have 2 plants growing side by side in the same location, say a humid swamp environment for example. The healthy organic plant with functional immunity that has already stored lipids will grow in this swamp from seed to harvest without any disease or fungal outbreak, every single damn time. The plant next it grown with synthetic nutrients will allow every spore that lands on it's surface an opportunity to settle down, germinate, and spread infection to that plant systematically.

The way this happens is the spore lands on the leaf, and releases an enzyme called Calcium Pectate. This is just a fancy word meaning the enzyme has the ability to break down pectins. Once the spore has released this enzyme and the pectins are broken down, the leaf is now sporting what we would look at as a big flesh wound. Anything that gets inside that wound, or the plant in this case; will and can cause infection. This is why so many chemical and synthetic growers are having these problems, just like me when I was growing using these methods. The day I stopped feeding with chemicals and started adapting these organic regimens was the day I conquered bacterial & fungal airborne spores. I'm proud to say that I've been powdery mildew and botrytis-free since 2012, and you can too if you adopt these methods I and many others have to prevent bud rot or anything else from ever happening. Please trust me on this folks, I've been through hell and back and I'm here to report on my findings in hopes to stop at least one grower from leaving a pile of bud at each of their holes next October.

My personal experience

You're probably wondering why I'm a nerd about this stuff, and what led me down this path. Long story short, I had a pretty bad outbreak 3 seasons ago and when I dried the crop indoors it spread to my indoor crop as well. This was a very low point in my grow career, I literally broke down and considered shutting down my indoor grow and saying "fuck it" to next year's outdoor. I got drunk out of spite that night, went to bed and woke up the next day with some hidden motivation that I pulled out of somewhere and decided to push my ego to the side and admit I wasn't a very knowledgable grower. This was an extremely humbling experience, and I didn't know how to handle it since I was pretty cocky beforehand. It's like I've lost my credibility as a grower, at least in my own eyes.

Anyways, before this PM outbreak from Hell I lost 40% of my crop the year prior to Botrytis. I just thought that's the way it goes, and everyone has to go through it. Boy was I wrong...

In both 2013 & 2014 I came out 100% mold free. This was ground breaking for me, I literally cried the first day I harvested in '13. I walked out there, and the first plant I approached was with gloves and scissors in hand just ready to clip out my losses for the season. But what was this?! No mildew? No botrytis? Not possible I thought. I had followed some grower's advice on switching to organic soil, but I didn't think that was the reason for my success at that point in time. I busted out my headlamp and inspected again. Nothing. Completely clean herb. I got excited and wanted to celebrate but I figured it was just that plant/strain. 2nd plant was clean, and the 3rd, and the 4th, and 5th. All 20 plants were completely mold-free and I had an entirely different problem on my hands now - too MUCH bud. I had planned for only taking back half of that harvest and now I had too many pounds of bud to dry at my home location. I ended up making 2 sessions out of it, and dried the 2nd batch a few weeks after the 1st one. When I went back for the 2nd half of the crop on October 22nd there still wasn't any mold, and we had gotten a few heavy rain storms in that period of time. I celebrated when I got home, and with the harvest money I threw everything out that I had in the grow room and switched over to an all-organic routine. I've been running soil ever since...

Blue Widow grown in soil down in the swamp (2014)

The swamps I grew in for 2013/2014 in were the same I've grown in the years before, the same ones that suffer from lingering A.M. humidity and fog. Moisture always gathers at the lowest elevation, and this swamp was IT in that area. I took a hygrometer out there one morning on Day 50 of flowering and it read 92% relative humidity. So I was growing in insane conditions, but the organic routine I've been following for the past 2 years has simply allowed the plants to reach peak health (or what I call peak genetic potential), thus eliminating any possibility of fungal pathogens to bypass the lipid-producing waxy layer on the leaves in order to germinate. They simply dried out due to lack of water!

This method of growing not only saves the grower from worrying about whether or not they're going to harvest a bumper crop that year, but it also opens up the doors when it comes to possible site locations. We can absolutely grow in these humid environments like swamps and bogs, without worrying about fungal take-overs. This puts the guerrilla at an extreme advantage in the outdoor game, because they now have the option of any clandestine location that they want (for the most part) instead of ruling these locations out due to high humidity levels in the air. Knowledge is power in the outdoor game folks, and power allows for success.

So I've covered the importance of plant immune systems, the process of infection, and my personal learning experiences so far. In the next post I wanna share my soil recipe for growing both indoors and out in my clandestine patches, along with a few other tips that can go a long way in the terms of saying goodbye to our dear friends Botrytis (bud rot) and Powdery Mildew....

Team Microbe · Jan 8, 2015

A proven regimen

A proven regimen

This entry will comprise of the methods that were so generously passed down to me, and in turn I'm passing them on to you kind folks. I can't understand growers who hoard methods or tricks of the trade, it's down right selfish. We are a community and without community we are on our own.

My Soil Mix:

1 pt. Peat Moss

1 pt. Rice Hulls

1 pt. Compost

Mixed with:

Acadian Kelp Meal @ 1/2 Cup per cubic foot

Neem Cake and Karanja Cake 50/50 Mix @ 1/2 cup per cubic foot

Crustacean Meal @ 1/2 cub per cubic foot

Gypsum Dust @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Brix Blend Basalt @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Glacial Rock Dust @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

Oyster Flour @ 1 Cup Per Cubic Foot

This recipe includes all the macro/micro nutrients needed to express a plant's full inherit potential, and will yield far better results than any store-bought soil. Plus, it's cheaper when you mix it yourself like this so the grower really is on the winning side in this one.

Indoors I mix this up and wait for the amendments to break down (takes 3-4 weeks tops) before transplanting into. Outdoors I do the same exact thing, mix a month prior to planting (so beginning of May for 42N)

The following plant was grown in this mix, and all other 11 plants in my garden were this healthy as well -

Silver Lotus by Bodhi seeds - week 6 of veg

Notice the waxy lipid layer on the leaf surface here, this is what I was referring to in the first post describing the importance of lipids. Incase you skimmed through that entry, lipids are only produced in a healthy soil setting where the plant is allowed to produce excess fats which they store in the form of lipids; which create this protective "barrier" against fungal and bacterial spores. This should be our goal - a shiny plant.

Same plant, week 6 of flower

While we're discussing organic methodology, let's de-bunk that myth about soil not yielding as well as hydro. This plant would yield 1-2 pounds if thrown outside in late May.

Again at week 9, just before the chop

All I'm trying to prove is that this recipe works, and it yields as well. For outdoors, I just buy a nutrient kit from Buildasoil and mix it in with the native soil along with the compost and rice hulls. It makes it really easy, and I know all my holes have the proper nutrition to grow healthy and resistant plants. The nutrient kit is found here:
http://buildasoil.com/products/the-clackamas-kit

Aside from soil recipe, I wanted to list a few other factors that can influence fungal outbreaks for cannabis outside. These include:

Strain Selection

Some strains are fit for outdoor conditions, while others aren't as much. This comes down to the breeding process, which strains were used as parents, and which latitude the breeder bred the strain at. A tip would be to finding a breeder that grows in the same climate as you, as well as the same latitude. This ensures that their harvest dates are right on with yours. For example, a strain that's bred at 30N that claims to finish by October 1st will finish at upwards of October 25th at 42N.

Breeders like http://hybridsfromhell.net/ focus on hearty outdoor strains that are resistant to mold.

Some of the more well-known strains that fit this category are:
-Blue Widow
-Church
-KC-33
-Blueberry Headband (and many other strains from the Blue family actually)
-Blue Hashplant
-Timewarp
-Spontanica

Caterpillar Infestations

These motherfuckers are on my shit list, the only way to avoid them I've found is (don't mean to promote anything here) BT. This is a product sprayed as a foliar spray during veg, and will deter these things from climbing up and nibbling on the foliage. What happens is that they bite our flowers, and this kills the surrounding flower. This also opens up the door for infection since the lipid barrier is broken, exposing the cell membrane. Sometimes Botrytis infections are solely caused by caterpillars, and not humid conditions at all. I've found that they really go after the strain C99 for some reason... I'll never grow this again outside despise the fact that I now grow organically. It must be the terpenes or something.. I can't put my finger on it though. So spraying BT is a wise choice if you've ran into these things before, but discontinue use once you begin seeing pistils form. It says you can spray it on the flowers up until harvest, but to me this is anecdotal and shouldn't be claimed unless scientific evidence is gathered. I wouldn't pour BT into my bong and try to smoke it, so I won't spray it on pistils let alone flowers.

A Reliable IPM Routine

Integrated Pest Management is another role we should all take in prevention. Like they say, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". Preventing outbreaks from ever happening is WAY easier than combating them after they appear. It's actually the only way to do it, since powdery mildew and botrytis are systematic infections (meaning they are like AIDS in the fact that they cannot be ridden). Locking in a solid IPM routine despite whether you grow organically or not is a wise decision on any grower's part. I'll share mine real quick:

(For every gallon of foliar spray)

-1 tbsp Neem Oil
-5 ml Agsil16H (potassium silicate)
-1/4 tsp Aloe Vera powder

*Add neem first, then the Agsil16H to act as a wetting agent. In a separate mixer (I like using protein mixing cups to break up the aloe) I'll mix the aloe with a few cups of water to add lastly. Quality Neem Oil is the backbone to any IPM routine, I source the stuff straight from India under the brand name Ahimsa:
http://buildasoil.com/products/neem-oil-organic-from-india
^This is actually the same site I use to source everything I use for my outdoor/indoor gardens. Jeremy is the owner and knows his shit 10x better than I do, he's not about the $ and sources quality materials for cheap and passes those savings onto us.

So that's about it folks, this routine has yielded the best results for me and I recommend it to anyone looking to improve their plants' performance and resistance levels towards plant pests and diseases. I hope this helped :tiphat:

Kygiacomo!!! · Jan 8, 2015

Great info here from page 1 all the way through..great post TM bro!!..i come online last year in late august bc i was already in full flower on some strains and i found this silverback thread *RIP ole timer i know u are digging holes wherever u may be* and it litterly saved a few my plants..it allowed me to flower 2 weeks longer on some strains..i didnt have to chop early and get many premature buds..i will for sure be on the prevention plan this year! i never knew u could prevent bud rot i thought it was all up to mother nature and genetics if they got botrytis or not..

P.s this thread should be be a sticky

Team Microbe · Jan 9, 2015

Kygiacomo!!! said:
Great info here from page 1 all the way through..great post TM bro!!..i come online last year in late august bc i was already in full flower on some strains and i found this silverback thread *RIP ole timer i know u are digging holes wherever u may be* and it litterly saved a few my plants..it allowed me to flower 2 weeks longer on some strains..i didnt have to chop early and get many premature buds..i will for sure be on the prevention plan this year! i never knew u could prevent bud rot i thought it was all up to mother nature and genetics if they got botrytis or not..

P.s this thread should be be a sticky

Thanks brother! Nobody needs to worry about botrytis ever again, it's definitely beatable!

GEMiNi GENETiCS · Jan 9, 2015

Great post ™!

Wealth of knowledge bro .... I can't wait to see your next OD journal!

gunnaknow · Jan 10, 2015

An interesting report, TM. I agree with much of it, but I would like to address one of your points.

Team Microbe said:
Healthy plants that are supplied with everything needed in the terms of macro/micro nutrients allow that plant to build up and store fats in the form of lipids. These lipids form on the coating of the leaves, and provide this waxy-looking film on them.

Both fats and waxes are lipids. They are deposited as epicuticular and intracuticular wax.

The epicuticular and intracuticular wax layers may be slightly thicker due to the plants having adequate nutrients, but I would suspect that the increased shininess that you reported is largely due to deposits of silica. The rock dust and basalt in the mix are rich in silicates, which are broken down by microorganisms in to silicic acid, before being taken up by the plants and deposited in complex matrices as silicon dioxide (silica). This makes the tissues much tougher and harder for pathogenic fungi to penetrate. It also happens to make the leaves more shiny.

As you suggested, another possible reason for your findings is that rich, organic soils enable soil microbes to flourish. The mycorrhizal fungi form a symbiotic relationship with the plants, and are able to induce systemic resistance in their hosts, protecting them from pathogenic fungi, bacteria, viruses, etc. Certain species of Trichoderma and plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are also able to induce systemic resistance in plants.

Crustacean shells contain chitin and chitosan, the former being a major component of fungal cell walls, the latter found only in certain fungi. Soils amended with chitin, chitosan or crustacean shells show increased suppressiveness toward plant pathogens, promoting the growth of the aforementioned beneficial microorganisms.

Chitin amendment increases soil suppressiveness toward plant pathogens and modulates the actinobacterial and oxalobacteraceal communities in an experimental agricultural field.

A long-term experiment on the effect of chitin addition to soil on the suppression of soilborne pathogens was set up and monitored for 8 years in an experimental field, Vredepeel, The Netherlands. Chitinous matter obtained from shrimps was added to soil top layers on two different occasions, and the suppressiveness of soil toward Verticillium dahliae, as well as plant-pathogenic nematodes, was assessed, in addition to analyses of the abundances and community structures of members of the soil microbiota. The data revealed that chitin amendment had raised the suppressiveness of soil, in particular toward Verticillium dahliae, 9 months after the (second) treatment, extending to 2 years following treatment. Moreover, major effects of the added chitin on the soil microbial communities were detected. First, shifts in both the abundances and structures of the chitin-treated soil microbial communities, both of total soil bacteria and fungi, were found. In addition, the abundances and structures of soil actinobacteria and the Oxalobacteraceae were affected by chitin. At the functional gene level, the abundance of specific (family-18 glycoside hydrolase) chitinase genes carried by the soil bacteria also revealed upshifts as a result of the added chitin. The effects of chitin noted for the Oxalobacteraceae were specifically related to significant upshifts in the abundances of the species Duganella violaceinigra and Massilia plicata. These effects of chitin persisted over the time of the experiment.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23811512

Chitosan in Plant Protection

Chitosan utilized as a soil amendment was shown to control Fusarium wilts in many plant species [20]. Applied at an optimal concentration, this biomaterial is able to induce a delay in disease development, leading to a reduced plant wilting [58]. Similar results were reported in forest nurseries suffering from F. acuminatum and Cylindrocladium floridanum infections. These infections were dramatically reduced upon the use of chitosan as soil amendment [59]. Aspergillus flavus was also completely inhibited in field-grown corn and peanut after soil treatment with chitosan [45]. Part of the effect observed by chitosan on the reduction of soilborne pathogens comes from the fact that it enhances plant defense responses. The other part is linked to the fact that this biopolymer is composed of polysaccharides that stimulate the activity of beneficial microorganisms in the soil such as Bacillus, fluorescent Pseudomonas, actinomycetes, mycorrhiza and rhizobacteria [60,61]. This alters the microbial equilibrium in the rhizosphere disadvantaging plant pathogens. Beneficial organisms, on the other hand, are able to outcompete them through mechanisms such as parasitism, antibiosis, and induced resistance [62–65].

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2866471/

I would suspect that your plants fared better for a number of reasons, but primarily due to an increased silica content, induced systemic resistance, greater general health from the rich supply of nutrients, increased brix levels, and possibly also thicker epicuticular and intracuticular wax layers.

SurfdOut · Jan 10, 2015

Team Microbe said:
Thanks brother! Nobody needs to worry about botrytis ever again, it's definitely beatable!

Ummm, not exactly.

Team Microbe · Jan 10, 2015

SurfdOut said:
Ummm, not exactly.

Yeah it is, scroll up ^

SurfdOut · Jan 10, 2015

I have been using recycled organic soil for years and have been following Coot for sometime. I have also been ordering from BAS since they opened. I have plants outdoors flowering everyday of the year and almost got my degree in botany and have been working with endangered plants professionally for a bit.

PM is a piece of cake to get rid of however when you live in a Hawaiian rainforest botrytis is going to present itself everytime you grow an indica dominant plant here no matter how well my greenhouse is ventilated. So unfortunately your phrase doesnt exactly hold true everywhere, like we wish it did.
Happy farming my friend.

Team Microbe · Jan 10, 2015

SurfdOut said:
I have been using recycled organic soil for years and have been following Coot for sometime. I have also been ordering from BAS since they opened. I have plants outdoors flowering everyday of the year and almost got my degree in botany and have been working with endangered plants professionally for a bit.

PM is a piece of cake to get rid of however when you live in a Hawaiian rainforest botrytis is going to present itself everytime you grow an indica dominant plant here no matter how well my greenhouse is ventilated. So unfortunately your phrase doesnt exactly hold true everywhere, like we wish it did.
Happy farming my friend.

Oh well yeah obviously we can't throw any strain outside and expect it to perform well, but that goes unsaid to any outdoor grower that's learned this the hard way. No matter how high your brix count is you won't be able to run an indoor plant outside in a humid climate and expect it not to be susceptible to botrytis. I'm talking about if we're conscious about the strains we're running, we can easily beat this stuff. I've beaten it for 2 years in a row in the same swamp where botrytis literally consumed my crops years prior. Same 90% RH levels and everything, nothings changed. If I didn't have that swamp as a control in this experiment everything above would've been completely anecdotal, but I've seen it with my own two eyes and can promise you that you'll be able to beat it. Even in Hawaiian rain forests. Greenhouses promote botrytis more than the outdoors if it's not ventilated well enough. Think about it, if it's 70% RH outside the RH% inside that greenhouse is only going to be higher, and never lower. Maybe running a nice dehumidifier would work well since you're in a partially-controlled environment? Do you think that would do any justice or nah?

What strains do you normally run out there? Have you found any that don't mold up on you yet?

Team Microbe · Jan 10, 2015

GEMiNi GENETiCS said:
Great post ™!

Wealth of knowledge bro .... I can't wait to see your next OD journal!

Thanks bro! Likewise!

Have you done anything over the winter to prep for your season? I've been on google earth all week scouting for spots to explore on foot once the snow melts :biggrin:

SurfdOut · Jan 10, 2015

Hey dude, i guess i just found it funny that you said noone ever has to worry about mold again when that is the biggest worry in my life. Obviously greenhouses(mine is too big for dehuey) have thier peculiarities and 99%RH is norm on both sides of the film everyday. I do run acclimated lines but i cant just order anything and expect to pull it off when i live in the third wettest city in the US no matter how tight i run my ship.

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