BWC BayArea's Largest Solo Grow to Date

Getting rid of PM

doughboy79 said:
just so people are aware, PM has a couple of cures..................One of which is (i actualy did it due to lack of choice, fan was busted) raising the temp to 104+ degrees, i know what your thinking......cooking the plants
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U tried this b4? How are u sure that the powdery mildew was dead?

doughboy79 said:
i havent seen the plant herps since, i think it is plant herpes imo) another one that i'm not going to look up the exact info right now cuz i'm tired, was milk, aparently milk is one of the most effective ways of erradicateing Powdery mildew.......*again i'm too lazy curently to look up the article and tell you exact messurements but i'm sure its out there on google somewhere waiting for you* needless to say ive been battleing PM for almost a 2 years now and i think i finaly got rid of the shit...........nock on mothafuckin wood!!
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Gonna need some verification. From my experience and all that I've read indeed PM is like herpes (I've made this comparison in other posts). Just as Herpes occurs in human in the form of an outbreak. Because people can take meds to supress the outbreaks doesn't mean the disease is cured. If u read back in the journal u'll c this has already been adressed. Clones from infected mom. All subsequent clones were eventually infected. 1st and 2nd generation. I treated with a couple of methods, that and help from this community is how this grow was semi-successful. Thank u for ur input. Yes I have read about the milk (sounds stinky). I used H2O and baking soda as well as a fungi stat. Thanks for ur input.
One last thing. Powedery Mildew spores are said to be almost ubiquitous. It just takes the right conditions for it to take off. I've read in the Medical Marijauna Grower's Bible by Jorge Cervantes once the PM can be seen it has been in the plants system by a couple of weeks. I'd give u a direct quote but the book's not in front of me. :peace:
 
A Review of Fine Points and Lessons Learned

Ok this post was a great suggestion by brother Weedtastic. A Summary if u will.


  • 1st. In the beginning I had a "sick girl" w/purple petioles and stem. I diagnosed with a phosphorus deficiency and harvested her this way. Bud were sparse and lots of foliage dropped and leaves yellowed veins reddened
    purple_stem.JPG
    We saw this again later in the grow, this time effectively treating it on some plants as u can see the reddening was clearing up here
    reddened_petioles_regaing_health_color_9-12.jpg
    . I interpreted the green spots amongst the red as recovery. Before this grow I thought that the stripping/reddening of the stems were normal.
  • I also learned that Cannabis can take a higher PH range than 6.5. I was taught 5.5-6.5, no more. I like 6.3-6.5 for deep chunk strawberry cough for my soil mix. I had PH problems because in the beginning in an attempt to keep PH around 6.0, I was watering around 5.9 which caused some contorted leaves, a tell tale of PH problems. This was easily remedied by raising the PH of future feedings. I gradually raised it from 5.9 to 6.4
  • Next lesson, spraying in flower. The bud set on this strain was more sativa dominant with spear shaped buds IMO. Buds were fairly dense, but not rock hard at harvest or by end of cure like indica varieties. This worked to my advantage of no bud rot (I'm assuming). 1st I sprayed the triple potted plants I dubbed "the triplets" (didn't get the spelling right till like 1/3 of the way thru this journal). These girls were sprayed with Green Light Neem Concentrate due to being in the presence of other plants with mites. None were found after spraying (all were sprayed but they were the only plant from the perpetual harvest remaining in flower). This hindered resin production as well as slowed the last half of bloom down. End product had no neem taste.
  • I also learned that I had been flushing incorrectly (1st flush). The 1st method should only be used for 1 gal or smaller pots (for soil/soiless grows). The 2nd is the correct way and will suffice for pots light enough to lift w/out straining.
I had issues early on with unequal air pressure pushing and pulling on the unstable, 9' plastic wall supported by velcro strips. I played with the fans switching them around to see what worked best. I finally asked for outside help and left the old intake ducting as a pressure release valve to keep built up pressure from tearing plastic wall down by always having an opening for air pressure to escape.I bent the ducting in to a "U" shape to prevent light from entering through the ducting. I also bought a fan speed controller to lower CFMs on my most powerful (8" 479/419 CFM) fan. This explanation may be difficult to follow please refer to journal posts #21,32,43,44,and 49. The resolution is explained n the posts. What I never mentioned (at least I don't remember) was that the solution was temporary to get me thru this grow. The wall was hardly ever flat. Either concave or convex. I opted to deal with the convex wall because it created more space for the canopy inside the room. The main contributing factor to never being able to solve this problem was the AC was inside of the grow room drawing intake air from inside as needed depending upon the varying temps. How does one compensate for that? I figured next time I could leave the backside of the AC exposed to the outside of the reoom drawing air from outside w/out interfering much with the pressure.
  • When humidity became an issue, an exhaust port for the AC's hot air was opened and ducted into the attic. I cut plywood to the measurements of the attic opening and used a hole saw to make two 4" hole for exhaust. The intake fan helped w/humidity as well. On cold nights I plugged a space heater in and placed at the mouth of intake duct to usher in warm air.
  • The main pain in the ass was the powdery mildew. Coming from an infected mom, all DCxSC cuts had it. So throughout the journal this was a struggle. 1st I sprayed with baking soda and water. I didn't measure just poured and shook. The 1st batch seemed too weak so I uped it twice I believe. Nothing seemed to help. It would dry and the baking soda would be left on the leaves with PM damn near growing on top of it. Then I was recommended Serenade Concentrate fungistat from a trusted associate. I did a review on this product in the Product and supplies review sub forum.
  • Security was an issue but I was fortunate enough to not have any incidents. Dunno how the shit missed me, lol. Currently looking at possibly switching locations
  • Next I think was the supercropping.Picked this up from Weedtastic's 1st white russian in soil grow and ran with it. I did notice that when supercropping in flower, it slows the buds development down. Weedtastic and I "spoke" briefly earlier and we maybe considering the possibility that it wasn't putting the bent branches behind the others. It may have just decreased the yield on those branches. With that said, unless head space is very limited, I think I'll only be supercropping in veg. However, the supercropped branches had buds from the tip to the stem (almost) with nice kinda uniform growth(in terms of comparable size). It also allowed for at least 3 tops per plant
  • Light leaks were another issue. The panda plastic had some pin holes in it and over time the humidity and heat had taken its toll on the glue on the tape used to seal light leaks around edges (ceiling and 2 side walls). I didn't have any hermies that I noticed or any weird growth as a result. Next run I want to fix this small problem.
  • This grow was more work than anticipated, and I believe it suffered for that because I'm kinda lazy and the rest of life doesn't stop when something's wrong in one aspect of life. So some plants and duties were neglected. Room wasn't cleaned regularly (the way I'd have liked to clean) due mostly to overcrowding limiting my workspace. There were too many plants in the space or I didn't configure it right. I drew up a rough draft floor plan w/measurements but didn't factor in the size of plants depending upon the size of pots causing plants to grow into each other making it harder to monitor foliage. I also will have more that one circulatory fan (1 for both sides of the room).
  • The fact that I did soil and coco coir grows simultaneously caused me to neglect the coco pots because there were more soil pots. Being that I haven't mastered one style I recommend that people (especially new grower's) master one style of growing before trying another unless abandoning the previous method all together (I bet I don't take my own advice).
  • The unpredictable weather this year made drying a chore. It was extremely hot some days and ok the next. Which caused at least one harvest to dry too fast. I added lemon peels to the jars during curing to correct. Buds came out sticky and a little damp but no mold and its all gone with minimal complaints.The meds still worked,lol. A lesson learned none the less.
  • Although this AC worked for the time, I don't recommend it (this particular brand/model). On some of the hottest days it seemed to blow hot air as if it weren't on. I had my fair share of problems and frustrations with the Everstar AC 8000 BTU from Home Depot. Think I'll try to get one next year built for greenhouse/indoor growing.
I would like to conclude my journal on this note. I will probably take a day to review this to make sure that everything I want to say has been said. I appreciate everyone's encouragement and input. If anyone has any questions or suggestions about what was or wasn't addressed please ask. Thanks again BWC BayArea.:peace:
 
Well you did have alot of trouble but still worth it in the end right?? Your journal is great and kept up well. I got lucky with the powdery mildew being outside was able to burn sulfur for 4 hrs just 1 time at the start of flowering and the oder is gone after about a week or so and no taste on the trial bud. Wouldn't recommend indoor use though...lol Thanks BWC for some excellent reading and tips...
 
Thanks for sharing your grow with us BWC. So sorry to see the scourge or powdery mildew but nice work on the salvage.

We hope you'll update with a smoke report.

We're moving your journal to our completed archives

Much respect from 420 Magazine. We look forward to your next initiative ;)
 
Yeah dude i agree your grow, and your journal are both excellent and kept up well....i would like to do a journal but i'm much too add to sit down and come up with anything half as good..........i would like to fight you for the orignality of calling pm herpes tho....ive been calling them that since i first got them last year at the begining of 08.....haha, we thought at first it was some kind of crazy tricrome patch on the buds...........AHHHH NOOO, we were wrong......Honestly yeah i'm almost 100% sure i lost the PM, again like you stated before they say it depends on the conditions.....but honestly i havent seen any sign of it...........nute burn yes, PM nope.....i honestly think the scortching summer did it *had to kill the light like 3 nights in a row because it was already 83 degrees from outside temp........once i got 6" can fan tho, it started cooling down conciderably* i would be skeptical too, i hate PM with a pasion and i hate the guy we got our clones from for giving it to us......altho we have been keeping the strain alive for 2 years now........anyways i just got my TDS meter so i'm going to test a plant's run off right now *i told you i'm random* laters bro, how did it smoke anyways?
 
The smoke is consistent with previous smoke reports. Some buds are harsher than others (due to when they were harvested). The PK isn't done drying yet but I did take a piece of a test nug and mixed the Deep Chunk X Strawberry Cough, Mazar I Shariff, and Purple Kush. I was high as a blimp. I dunno what was doing what, but the PK was a great addition for flavor. Love the scent and taste of purple strains.
 
This is a GREAT journal... But its been said ...ALL good things must come to a end. Sad statement in this case. Thanks again BWC BayArea!! Germinate soon.
 
lol ok, so how much did you have after all said and done?
 
Qp finished curing. Still have 5 jars curing now. Ran thru close to a half P since the beginning. I think I'll be finished around my goal......1 lb dry weight. 2+ oz of trim. A few bags of fans & stems. I got like 6lbs of butter so far. Still got more to make. It was a productive summer grow. At least it paid for itself, didn't cost me anything, and I got ok meds from it.
 
Firee Hazard

I meant to add this last week. When breaking down the room I noticed this>
Fire_HAzard1.JPG

I recall calculating the load and separating it across 2 circuits. The load was 600W, 400W magnetic ballasts, 8500BTU AC unit, 279 CFM fan, 419 CFM fan, oscillating fan, 12" 3 speed fan. The lights and the fans were all on one circuit. I try not to put much over 1000W per circuit. The AC was plugged in to another circuit in another room using 2 power strips one plugged into the other which was plugged into the wall. After a summer of this, this is the result>
Fire_Hazard.JPG
.
I realize I was very fortunate. This could have easily been disastrous. Please learn from my mistake, I know I have. :peace:
 
oh dont feel bad, my grow area has horibile circutry.........if you sneeze you blow a fuse, ive melted a couple timers so far...in fact i gotta have my freind come out to look at it today.........
 
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