Hope after devastation

[Greenpassion]

Hi all. I wanted to write in and tell you guys that after the devastating event of PM and having to close down both grow rooms, I've once more started another grow in only one room. This is after I bombed the entire upstairs with a mold bomb (after having to destroy 14 beautiful plants, 7 of which were a mere 10 days or so from harvest) and broke all equipment down and sterilized it all with Physan 20, which is a commercial greenhouse disinfectant.
Now I spray my plants every 7 days with a copper fungicide, and daily wipe down all surfaces with hydrogen peroxide. All 10 are thriving. I'm doing autos this time as in my tiny mind I believe that they have such a short life span and could 'outrun' any fungus that may be there! So far, no sign of any problems. What a lesson this has been. I was always super clean and careful, and went 2 1/2 years with absolutely no problems with PM or rust. That said, I'm no longer trusting anything other than 'stepped up' diligence!

[Canuck147]

Sounds great Greenpassion - Every watering in the kitchen sink i do is followed by wiping down the inside of my tent with chlorox wipes - and so far everything is good with me too - and the bloom light remains off.

[Cali]

Greenpassion Glad you are back on it again Growmie and hope you are successful all the way thru harvest this time around. IPM is very important in my opinion. I see it as exercise or vitamins for us humans to stay in shape instead of waiting to get sick and trying to throw everything and the kitchen sink at it trying to get well. There is a bacteria that soil growers use and at the moment I can’t recall the name but I will search it up and post it here for you, this bacteria is great for PM. I learned about it from a guy that grows outdoors and claims all his neighbors plants have PM but his plants don’t get it because of his IPM sprays on the foliage. Maybe you can apply that to your grow and help you avoid PM.

[Greenpassion]

Cali, I just now saw all these responses. None of them are coming through in my Yahoo email. I am so sorry for not responding sooner. I'm going to take your advice.

[Cali]

Greenpassion I believe the name is Bacillus Subtilis look it up and see how you can get it or use it. Hope that helps out.

[gbauto]

Damn!
Sorry to hear about anyone losing a crop.
PM usually shows up because of environmental conditions.
Airflow seems to help me a lot.
The other suggestion for PM-ipm would be wettable sulfur.
You can only use it in veg, but a good drench will eliminate PM.

[Greenpassion]

I never saw any of these responses until now! That said, as I think I posted earlier, every Sunday I spray all surfaces of each plant with copper fungicide. Now the first round of five are in their third or fourth week of flowering. And it struck me that I do not know whether or not I can use this copper fungicide on flowering plants! Does anybody know? It is bonide liquid copper fungicide. I did not get any answers in reading the instructions through. Has anyone else had experience with this? And also I will have to start checking call responses on the site instead of relying on my Yahoo. Which is a shame because I think I missed quite a bit

[gbauto]

Rule of thumb is don't spray anything during flower.

[echdk3]

Damn sorry to hear about your past troubles, that is truly devastating. Did you ever come up with any specific reason that you had WPM? Any specific lesson you learned and the rest of us can learn from?

[Greenpassion]

echdk3, what I know is that it is possible to get p.m. even when your environment conditions are as close to perfect as you can get. My humidity has never been too high, I have moving air, good air Exchange, and an extremely clean growing environment. I can only ascertain that the ladybugs that I can't seem to keep from coming into all rooms of my house, have carried it in. Or, the spores are getting in to the intake of the portable AC units we have up there in both rooms. That said, I think as long as I am growing in this house, I'm going to have this issue.
On another note, the ones that we did Harvest, that we did not have to destroy, we washed thoroughly once they were trimmed. I never knew that you could wash cannabis , but it is a growing practice. They came out beautifully. And I'm hoping that if I continue to use the preventative copper fungicide throughout the flowering., washing the buds will take off any residue. Any thoughts on this?

[echdk3]

That’s crazy to know it can happen even with great conditions. This hobby is really a lesson in patience. I’ve never washed cannabis, that sounds a little stressful!

[Greenpassion]

Actually washing cannabis is incredibly easy! You take your trimmed buds can you put them in one of those plastic bins that holds 5 gallons or so. Filled with water add a few cups of hydrogen peroxide and swish the buds around in them for a minute or two. Then hang to dry and you're good to go! You can actually see the PM rise to the top of the water. And the buds once hung and dried taste just fine. We are making this a routine practice after every Harvest.

[dropinbiking]

Damn that sucks you got hit so hard, it's a hard lesson learn but a tough one, makes you a better grower. I got absolutely destoryed by spider mites and fungus gnats... What a learner that was. You nailed it on timely inspections, weekly cleanings. I want to go to an awesome scrog setup, but I do like the benefit of separating my plants individually to go over them and keep an eye for that stuff before it really kicks your ass.