I was watering today and noticed about 10 leaves had shriveled up, turned black, and had mold growing on them. Should i be worried/do something? Also my leaves seem to be turning a little yellow, I've been backing off on the water the past couple days because it has been raining hard. It could just be over watering or something to do with the mold idk. Any suggestions? thanks
If you have black mold on the outside, it's very likely you've got it on the inside of the plant as well. Stop watering completely. Let the plants dry out and get thirsty before you feed them again. You can cause root rot very easily when you keep the soil wet all the time. Invest in some neem oil. Get in the practice of feeding your plants cold pressed neem oil a couple times during your harvest. It's an anti-fungicide, as well as being a pest killer. Consider adding neem meal to your soil in the future. You'll never get mold again if you use neem, unless you are trying to mold them. Id cut off the dead stuff, check the inner stem for rot. It's pretty evident when you see it and hard to miss. If you can break off a nearby bud, check the center for mold. Once you have mold, it's usually pretty close to game over unless you act fast. Good luck. Edit: It's difficult to tell anything from that picture. Do us and yourself a favor from now on and try to take pics that are good enough, that if you submitted them as a homework assignment in school, you'd get an A. That way, we can actually see the problem. Multiple pics helps too.
I will return to take more pictures today, I have a iphone 4 and for some reason it wont focus on anything close up now so i have to hold my hand infront of it but still it takes shitty pictures. I can try to pick up neem but where would I find it? lowes? or a garden department in a store?
You can buy a quart of neem oil here: [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Dyna-Gro-Nem-032-Neem-Polish-1-Quart/dp/B000FFA08C/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1318833773&sr=8-4[/ame] and some neem seed meal here : [ame]http://www.amazon.com/Neem-Seed-Meal-Indian-Azadiracta/dp/B005OXO3OW/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1318833824&sr=1-1[/ame]
I dont think I will be ordering online, but I did call a local store and find out neem oil was only $10.76. The black mold was not inside the stems or buds either I checked today. The only mold we found was on a 2-3 more leaves on the plant. Maybe root rot didnt fully set in yet? Is neem oil really necessary? I'm also considering adding a 10 30 10 soil to help the plant bud a little stronger. It seems to be taking its time but I haven't been adding any nutrients the whole time it was growing. Would it be wise to just wait it out or try to replace the soil before it gets to far into flowering.
Its up to you. If you feed it neem in a tea solution, it will uptake in the roots and spread throughout the plant, preventing any type of fungus from growing in the future.
that is not black mold, but Botrytis. botrytis fungus' is also what causes budrot. personally, i dont like to use neem in my soil, as i feel it is too oily. i get worried that it may choke out my roots. there is an OMRI listed product out there called Actinovate which can be used as a soil drench + foliar spray. it is a predator fungi that feeds off other fungus (like the ones that cause botrytis). i recently used it for botrytis in my soil, and it seems to have worked good. i have never used it as a foliar spray, but it is listed in the directions. getting botrytis on your plants that early is a VERY bad sign. your not doomed, but since you are seeing signs you are going to have to keep up with it ALOT. botrytis can quickly ruin a grow in 5-7 days. make sure you remove all dead leaves from the plant + soil, because they are hosts for the pathogen. if any buds get affected, cut them off immidiatley. be very careful removing the leaves (or buds), as the spores will fall down and infect vegetation below.
Actinovate is available at local retailers? I can't order anything online as I don't have a po box or shipping address. Off the grid I have been picking off the leaves and will continue to do so. How can I prevent/cure this? Only actinovate? Or can I just water lots less and just let the rain water the plants. My other plant had 2 rotted leaves. I think it spread how to keep it away from my plants?
Also it's week 3 of flowering for this plant and it seems to be going slower than the other. I'm worried about it not making it in time for the cold weather coming. It was 56 the other day :/ Washington sucks
to get rid of any pest or pathogen in the soil, H202 is cheap and very effective. above the soil is a different story. Serenade may also help, but it smells like shit. there is another product called RootSheild which is like actinovate, but im not sure if it can be used foliar. one way to keep budrot down/out is to keep an RH of 40-50%. since yours are outside, its impossible to control that. neem oil also will help prevent budrot, but it isnt very effective of killing it when it is already infected. when i went to my local hydro shop they had it. im sure if your local grow store doesnt have it, you can give them money and they will order it for you. you just pick it up once it arrives. i used it a bit strong, and 1 $20 packet made me 20 gallons of solution. edit: yes, that does suck. botrytis favors cold weather, especially cold soils.
So I should get the actinovate because my plants are already infected? Is it possible to just trim off the infected leaves everyday and it won't spread to the buds?
there are probablly hundreds of thousands of spores on that one leaf you have there in the pic. chances are slim to none you wont have any other botrytis infections for the rest of the grow.
i should have added the chances are slim to none if you dont use any treatment for the fungus. you dont have to change soils. the H202 solution will kill the fungi in the soil.
H202 is hydrogen peroxide. you can find it in any grocery store. grocery store purchased H202 is 3% hydrogen peroxide, 97% water. use this at 20mL/gal of water.
also updated pictures. I cut off about 30 big and small leaves that had any signs of mold and threw them far away from the soil. I hope I got them all I also found 2 buds that had signs of mold starting heres pics. also what does darker purple mean on the leaves?