Muddy
Proud deplorable!
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2011
- Messages
- 8,673
- Reputation
- 10
- Reaction score
- 1,551
- Points
- 0
- Currently Smoking
- OG Kush, Deep Cheese, Key Lime
On my last grow of some Female Seeds Ice I ran into some powdery mildew issues. Ice is an Indica dominant strain that produces big, tight buds and in general, doesn't have the highest tolerance to mildew. Even keeping my humidity low, below 50%, and providing extra air circulation, I was still getting mildew on the big fan leaves. Mildew can only grow at lower pH levels. Raising the pH level will kill the mildew. To accomplish this I used 1 teaspoon of baking soda to a quart of water. I checked daily for mildew and misted it with the baking soda solution. This proved very effective at keeping it under control. Even still, my canopy was so dense that I couldn't get to all of it. During harvest I found some lower buds were also molded. These were dipped in a five gallon bucket containing 3 gallons of water and 4 tablespoons of baking soda. These buds were segregated from the others and used for oil and extractions. Even though the spores were dead I still didn't want to smoke or vape them. So while I did lose some yield, I was able to salvage most of the grow.
After the harvest I decided to burn sulfur in the grow room to kill the spores that were present in the room. The sulfur will kill the mold spores on contact. I used pure elemental sulfur, placed on an aluminum pie pan and set on an electric hot plate. I adjusted the temperature until the sulfur was gently bubbling and giving off a vapor. I closed the room up and let the sulfur burn for 5 hours, checking it periodically. Note that sulfur is very caustic and can burn the throat and lungs, so a respirator should be worn to prevent exposure to the vapor. Once the burn was complete I vented the room well to remove the excell vapor. I've since down two grows, one of a sativa dominant strain and one of an indica dominant, and have had no further issues with mildew. So it seems the sulfur was effective in eliminating the spores present in the room.
Any electronics in the room or anything that contains copper or silver, including the silver solder used on LED diodes, should be removed from the room before starting the sulfur burn. Sulfur is corrosive to both silver and cooper and the burn I did many have been a contributing factor in the failure of my Kind LEDs.
After the harvest I decided to burn sulfur in the grow room to kill the spores that were present in the room. The sulfur will kill the mold spores on contact. I used pure elemental sulfur, placed on an aluminum pie pan and set on an electric hot plate. I adjusted the temperature until the sulfur was gently bubbling and giving off a vapor. I closed the room up and let the sulfur burn for 5 hours, checking it periodically. Note that sulfur is very caustic and can burn the throat and lungs, so a respirator should be worn to prevent exposure to the vapor. Once the burn was complete I vented the room well to remove the excell vapor. I've since down two grows, one of a sativa dominant strain and one of an indica dominant, and have had no further issues with mildew. So it seems the sulfur was effective in eliminating the spores present in the room.
Any electronics in the room or anything that contains copper or silver, including the silver solder used on LED diodes, should be removed from the room before starting the sulfur burn. Sulfur is corrosive to both silver and cooper and the burn I did many have been a contributing factor in the failure of my Kind LEDs.
Last edited:
