HELP! My TGA Genetics plants may be *TOO* good....(mildew on leaves)

[saeon-tsion]

Well, I've been growing some new strains (SAGExChronic, Caramella, TGA's Vortex and 3D) which all seem considerably superior to the G13xBSH/"Super G" plants that I've been growing so far this year -- and which I am growing in a second enclosure under a 400w HPS next to the first one, which has all the new strains under a 600w HPS.

Well, virtually all of these plants started outdoors at one point or another. Most have only been brought inside in the past couple of weeks.

In the "Indica" enclosure, I can live with minor problems like losing some bud to mold or bugs, though so far they all seem OK. But in the "sativa/new strain" enclosure, while I also haven't noticed any mold on the buds themselves yet.....I have discovered rapidly spreading white stains on parts of the leaves which are covered in dense trichomes -- unlike the leaves of the "Indica" plants, which don't have anywhere near as much resin on the "sugar" leaves.

This shows how awesome TGA's genetics (and some of the other strains I've managed to successfully grow out despite many many DOA/ruined seeds I've had to write off this year) are.....but it apparently is also a weakness when it comes to mildew.

What should I do?! At first I thought I could nip it in the bud by cutting off the affected leaves but then as I rotated the plants and examined them more closely.....I discovered many more spots. It's not quite at catastrophic levels yet, but it's getting there fast and will almost certainly be a very serious problem (probably helping other types of mold get into the buds by killing tissue and clogging up air spaces between calyxes) for this crop which I have been looking forward to for almost six months!

The medicinal effects of this new crop are virtually guaranteed to be a head and shoulders above what I've been using for the past six months (G13xBSH/G13xBSHxG13 and other G13 back/outcross strains which are closely related, almost pure Indicas all, and while having decent medicinal effects, aren't on the same level with my new stains).......so I need help in saving it from serious trouble!

Both growing enclosures are in a cellar that while currently dry, has been subjected to numerous water spills/minor flooding incidents over the past several years and when I let big cola'd buds get too dense, I almost always see some amount of mold. I've learned to live with it.....but this new crop is too precious, and this mildew problem is something I haven't had to face before....

....in short, HELP! :eek:

[RatherBBurnin]

hmmmm only thing i can think of is a sulpher burner for inside... but after this run you should take the time to clean ur whole room with bleach etc. and try and prevent this from happening rather then just living with losing some buds to mold every grow.... that would piss me off beyond belief..

[Marco Renda]

I have had the same problem with that strain myself growing it outdoors. I had to cut both plants down and will just use them to make bubble hash as there is no way that I would smoke mold / powdery mildew.

Maybe this strain should only be grown indoors

Take Care and Peace
Marco

[onus]

One suggestion: Increase the air circulation. Make the area extremely breezy. This will help carry moisture from the plant into the ambient air, and therefore decrease mold production. Blowing a gale, so to speak, will help penetrate the air flow through those dense buds. Plants can handle a lot of air flow before they start to suffer.

Hope this helps.

onus

[Pothead Pete]

about 3 years ago I too had a powdery mildew problem. If it not oo close to harvest you could try Advanced Nutrients "Protector" to try and curtail the problem. For future grows a DEHUMIDIFIER will really go a long way in keeping powdery mildew at bay as the mildew seems to thrive at a higher humidity. Try and keep your humidity at or below 40% and powdery mildew should be a thing of the past.....that is for INDOORS of course. God Bless and good luck with your grow!!:cool:

[saeon-tsion]

about 3 years ago I too had a powdery mildew problem. If it not oo close to harvest you could try Advanced Nutrients "Protector" to try and curtail the problem. For future grows a DEHUMIDIFIER will really go a long way in keeping powdery mildew at bay as the mildew seems to thrive at a higher humidity. Try and keep your humidity at or below 40% and powdery mildew should be a thing of the past.....that is for INDOORS of course. God Bless and good luck with your grow!!:cool:

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions -- and to you Pete, for the blessings and well-wishing :-)

I do my best to keep humidity down, but both my grow enclosures are in the cellar so controlling that is tricky.

I run the blower/carbon filter system at full bore, and i'm setting up the circulation fan to run when the lights are off -- before they were on the lights' timer (though the ventilation blower runs 24 hours)......

Now my big choice is to try to treat the affected leaves with baking soda-water, or cut them all off.....not quite sure what to do.

I'm about 2-3 weeks from harvest, depending on the exact plant or strain. I don't have much in the way of money presently, so a sulfur burner isn't in the budget -- and since the enclosures are in the cellar, the sulphur would end up in the cellar (whatever managed to get through the carbon filters).....could be a health risk for my family. Much the same reasons why I haven't invested in a CO2 system as yet.

I do have a dehumidifier, but I haven't wanted to use it for energy cost reasons.....however, I think I'll go ahead and start running it ASAP.

So what's the consensus.....does rubbing off the "powder" and spraying the areas with baking soda-water make the most sense, or do I need to cut off all the infected leaves right away?!

[onus]

I wouldn't bother with rubbing the mildew off of the leaves. I would suspect that you're more likely to spread the fungus around than to arrest its growth. There will still be fungus on and in the leaf that you can't just rub off, ready to grow back immediately. On the other hand, I don't really see the reasoning behind an immediate removal of the affected leaves because it sounds like the plant is so infected that you are very unlikely to eliminate the mildew altogether, anyway. But the leaves are still providing support to the plant, and you would eliminate that if you removed them.

In my climate in the US SW, powdery mildew is indemic on some plants during transitional seasons when it's not hot enough or dry enough to keep it down. For example, crape myrtles nearly always have powdery mildew on their inner leaves where the air circulation is poorest. And those crape myrtles just keep on growing. My point is that the powdery mildew does not seem to have much of an affect on its host plant.

If the leaves have mildew, though, I'd bet the house that the compact buds have mildew. The question you're going to have to face is whether you're willing to smoke those buds, eat them, or try to extract the cannabinoids with alcohol, etc. My gut feeling is that for folks with a healthy immune systems such common fungi pose little risk. But I am not a scientist, far from it. My reasoning is simply that such fungi are always present to some degree. On the other hand, we don't routinely go around purposely inhaling the powdery mildew. You're going to have to make your own mind up on this one. The prevailing wisdom is simply, Don't.

onus

[saeon-tsion]

I can't write this crop off, and I can't really afford (nor am I really able) to process it all into ISO hash. I have been desperately awaiting the improved meds that will come from it....I'm barely hanging on to what little quality of life I have left =/

I've looked carefully at all the buds, and so far no signs of mold or mildew. And I probably made it sound like there is more mildew that there really is.....there's at least a dozen or so small patches (a square centimeter or less usually) on three or so different plants -- all TGA plants, apparently, with lots of trichomes on the affected leaves.

I can live with traces of PM in my buds; I vaporize and the leaves will either be tossed out when harvested, or I'll make ISO hash from them (unless I manage to get my hands on a bubble bag kit before then) for use in edibles primarily.

I don't have any major issues with PM or other mold, otherwise I would have reacted to the exposure of simply being in the cellar with the plants in the first place.....and the medicine is vitally important to my survival/sanity.

Thanks for the advice, all....I can certainly use as much as the community is able to provide. I'll keep an eye on the problem, and possibly post some pics soon.

[saeon-tsion]

Well, just before shut-off of the lights this evening, I went and had a look at things.

Apparently, all but two of the plants are OK with only the tiniest hints of PM on a couple of spots on their leaves.

The two plants that are most heavily affected both appear to be TGA (probably The Third Dimension plants, IIRC), and almost all of their lower secondary leaves have majority of their surface area covered in PM.

So.....ideas? I've pulled the two infected plants out of the enclosure, and set the circulation fan to run 24 hours (before only the ventilation blower stayed on after lights-out).....and also turned on the dehumidifier down there.

I have to decide what to do with these two plants, which appear to still be a few (2-3 would be my guess) weeks from harvest. They're dense, heavy and trichome-saturated, but few of the pistillate hairs have turned brown/red yet and I feel that it would be almost as wasteful to harvest now as it would be to cut off all the affected leaves or to simply toss the plants out....

My options at this point appear to be:

*Spray down the infected plants with baking soda-water, allow to dry and remain for a few hours, then rinse with a spray of clean water and allow to dry in a low-risk environment (e.g. in a clean room upstairs instead of in the open dirty cellar where they are now).....

*Cut off all the affected leaves and attempt to finish the plants in the enclosure

*Do one or both of the above and place the two plants in the secondary enclosure with less-valued G13xBSH plants so if there is any spread of the PM, the impact is reduced

*Harvest the two infected plants now and avoid further encroachment of the PM into the buds (though so far, I don't actually see any PM on the buds themselves, just on the secondary/bud leaves)

*Put the infected plants outdoors, possibly after one or both of the treatment options (baking soda and/or removal of infected leaves)....hoping that the cold will control the PM even though it's definitely wetter outdoors than in, most of the time

Thoughts? Suggestions?! This is one of the worst crises I have had in my home-growing life and I need to make the most of this situation!

[saeon-tsion]

well, there's some good news.....the baking soda worked like a charm! Looks like I'm golden.

Of course, the sodium residue has turned a lot of previously pristine white pistils a deep shriveled red.....but overall, it's a big time win for me. Looks like I've got this problem under control -- thank heavens.

[Subcool]

I just went through this a bit myself with Space Queen in hydro and one thing I would like to add. If you do not raise the temps and lower the humidity then you havnt solved the problem. While it takes spores to produce PM they seem to be everywhere this year and if your running under 40% humidity and under 70 degrees f then be very careful.
This shit won't live above 90 and 100 degrees f for one hour will kill it dead. I removed the infected plant cleaned with bleach water then spray sulfer then re cleaned with 409 then I heated the room to 107 for 3 hours using electric heat.

Hope this helps.

Sub

[nikoatnight]

I just lost my whole set up.......8 girls 3 weeks from chopping, 14 vegging girls 3 weeks from 12/12 and 2 mothers I had for a year!:eek: :eek: :eek: Never had pm before and thought it was suppose to b like that ( New Genetics ) I almost puked! Wellllll after 3 days of bleaching my whole house , a new start. So far so good,at a month.



Fungicide/ Powdery Mildew Spray

Fungicide/ Powdery Mildew Spray:


Ingredients:


1Gallon
Water
3 Tablespoons Baking Soda
1 Tablespoon Bleach
1 Teaspoon Dishwashing Liquid


Instructions:

Snip and remove leaves that are worst affected.

Mix ingredients with water.

Spray remaining leaves top and undersides.

Apply a heavier dose on leaves that have signs of infection and only lightly on unaffected leaves as bleach can actually harm and discolor the leaves.

Extremely important: Do not use too much bleach! Use no more than 1 part bleach to 10 parts water. We hesitate to recommend using bleach as it can harm your plants if too much is applied. Use it at your own risk and try to avoid spraying it on healthy leaves.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Got Milk!?

Some scientists believe milk has germicidal properties, and is effective against Powdery Mildew

Here's the recipe:

Mix 1 cup of milk with 9 cups of water.
Put the solution in a sprayer and spray the entire plant including the undersides of the leaves.
Do this twice a week and your powdery mildew problem should disappear.
Milk works in two ways: It has a germicidal effect--it kills the fungal spores-- and it also appears to stimulate plants in such a way that they become more resistant to the disease. In recent university tests, the milk and water spray was found to be more effective than the two most popular synthetic fungicides on the market today.