Harvest two and half is done, and it's all garbage

I had a problematic grow this last time. I had some seeds that were gifted from a friend, that were regular seeds. I grew 4 and 3 turned out to be male. In hindsight, I wish I had let the whole crop go seedy, but I didn’t. The 3 males were culled, and I learned that the threat of a male plant isn’t quite as ominous as I supposed. They let themselves be known, and it’s not really so subtle that if you are paying any attention you will miss.
In December, I had another friend who tried supercropping, but was surprised by the crazy looking revegging plant, which made him think he had a hermaphrodite. I took on his problem child and grew it out. I wasn’t prepared for the density that the supercropped plant took on and didn’t take the necessary steps so that airflow wasn’t impaired. My white powdery mold problem started there, but I didn’t know what I was looking at. I think growing this plant is a constant learning experience.
Both plant ended up with infections of white powdery mold. I tried to treat it, and it seemed like I had some success. External signs of WPM are pretty easy to get rid of.
This particular plant I didn’t know the genetics, but based on the thin leaves I guessed that it was sativa dominant. When the trichomes were mostly cloudy, I harvested. Given the problems with the WPM, I washed everything. I used a quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide to 4 gallons of water and a rinse in plain water. 5 minute soak, then rinse, then I used a fan for 2 hours to try and dry everything. Given the risk of reinfection, I dried the plants aggressively at 50% humidity with all fan leaves removed. By 4 days later, the buds were pretty crispy. Using a microscope to look at the buds, everything looked good.
Tonight, while doing the final trim, I took apart the biggest colas, and I’m finding mold deep in the buds. Without really looking with the microscope, everything would look okay.
I don’t smoke very much at all myself, and I grow mostly for my wife so she can sleep better. It’s a fun hobby for sure, and I feel good about growing thinking that prohibition cannot come back when everyman can grow. This plant is harvested, but I wouldn’t feel good about anybody smoking it.

So for now, my plan is to extract it all in coconut oil. I read that the real answer for this problem is a BHO extraction, but that sounds kind of flammable, so I am not really down with that. But polar is polar, so if mold isn’t extracted in butane, it shouldn’t be in coconut oil.

I’m already planning on my next grow but have a lot of sanitizing to get through. I ordered an ozone generator to nuke the area in my tent and am looking at filtering options for my intake. I’ve decided to have a grow journal for the next one with known genetics to get more input and learn about training plants for better airflow.

But, this harvest is done, and it’s a failure EXCEPT man have I learned a lot about airflow and what mold looks like. Win some lose some.

2 Likes

Learned a lot no doubt. I wouldn’t want to ingest it in the form of edibles myself unless it was solvent extracted first. I think you’re right on with the BHO. Flammable af and scary but if it were me its that or supercritical CO2 (which we all know is nothing you or any sane minded person is just gonna jump into) or I wouldn’t touch that bud.

You’re doing all the right things especially growing known genetics next time. If you want to help your wife sleep you don’t want to unknowingly be growing a sativa.

1 Like

Could still make some hash out of it. Freeze it, use bubble bags, get it to 160 and maintain for 30 minutes. Which is probably overkill, but should still yield decent hash.

not to mention the freezing process will suffocate the spores too.

2 Likes

Thanks. I had another plant that I just harvested, and it kind of looks the same maybe not as bad.

@Mich can you point out what you think is powdery mildew?

I thought the powdery looking areas where the stalk go into the bud were too white to be trichomes. Now I’m not so sure. Tonight I’ll dig into my real camera lenses and try and get some actual macro photos instead of using the cheap scope. @KeystoneCops

Smart idea. If you can look at it under any type of magnification it should be pretty obvious

You can try. I’d be surprised if you have lenses that can get closer than a camera phone.

A microscope would be ideal.

@Deez Deez, you said something that got me thinking about the rain. I grew these plant indoors, but I was spraying with Plant Therapy and the places that I’m seeing the frosty areas is where any runoff from spraying would have collected.

1 Like

Gotta be honest I don’t see anything I wouldn’t smoke

4 Likes

I trimmed her up, and she gave me a seed!

I always just throw those out.

Magically appearing seeds are nothing but trouble. They’ve got a much higher tendency to herm out during flower for no good reason. Some folks will roll the dice and come up lucky, but once you’ve had that bite you in the ass once I guarantee you won’t wanna do it again. Nothing is more depressing than a plant five weeks into flowering that goes full Hermie and you’ve just got no choice but to kill it.

I get it, seeds aren’t cheap and a free one is tempting especially if all you want is to grow more the weed you just grew.

5 Likes

I think I’m with @Deez on this.

1 Like

I never saw one before, so I will listen to you. Seeds are the cheap part of the whole thing. :grin:

Help me out here on the hermies. I have one strain that I regrow every year. I let one plant go way past prime harvest time. It always creates a few seeds in the lower branch buds. I use the seeds the next season and have always got female plants (this year is Gen#4). I was told that since the plant was full female when the harvest was delayed a few weeks, that the seeds formed will always spawn female plants. Is this not true?

2 Likes

Herm seeds will always produce female plants just with a higher tendency to herm in the future.

We’re taking genetics so it’s all probability.

1 Like

Thank you.