I can' decide if i should use a chemical fungicide, not sure if its a risk to my health, but I have to prevent PM! I've had couple successful grows until PM appeared during early flowering in my last grow. I tried to battle it with sulfur spray, chemical fungicide, milk, garlic spray, hydrogen peroxide spray.. in that order but not all at once of course. Maybe i just started a bit too late cuz nothing helped. The PM slowly spread across the scrog and in the end i had to trow it all away. Now i just started a new batch, trying to make up the losses of my last grow, but i'm a bit scared that it will happen again. I'm thinking to use a chemical fungicide (contains Dithianon and Difenoconazole) that was recommended to me by a grow shop here. Apparently its safe to use for fruits up to 3 weeks before harvest. I would intend to use it once in veg and prolly one more time before the plants start to produce buds. However a guy from another grow shop told me he would never use that product for his grow. Not sure why. Even online i read some articles stressing the risks of using chemical fungicide on marijuana. Do harmful chemicals stay inside the plant and will that be inhaled or why is that?
In regards to my last grow I'm not sure how it even started because i had about 3 good harvests in there already under the same conditions. If anything, the rH is rather low at 25-35%. Maybe it's because i let it veg too long, the scrog got too dense and prevented an effective air circulation? So all this i had to throw away...... I replaced all equips to avoid bringing spores into my new grow. However i kept the tent and inline fan, but washed them with bleach to be safe.
All my life I've battled Pm, and other fungi and its various forms, my strategy has been Defense ...with the continual use of Neem Oil 1x time per week via foilar spray, at watering, puts an oily sheen on the leaves, and good for bugs Assault on infection, with box cutter, and paint Neem on the wound, leave the plant in a warm dry room with a fan on medium for 8 hours And avoid growing this time of year for 2-3 years just to avoid this weather cycle, or enlarge your grow room and improve ventilation, wash down the grown room and gear with lots of hot water and bleach at 15%, thats the bit I just hate ...lol Once you have a major infestation you may continue to grow it out, but cull the plants as the Pm takes over, then use the canna for BHO or COOKING ONLY, avoid smoking at all costs and avoid these chems. DITHIANON http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdbterm+@DOCNO+1583 Difenoconazole (aka TEBUCONAZOLE, AZOXYSTROBIN) http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/search/a?dbs+hsdbterm+@DOCNO+7448
Thanks for your contribution Vostok. You're completely right about defense. I had to learn that in a hard way, that's why i'm trying to find the right preventive measures this time. Thanks for the link regarding the chemical ingredients. The thing I dont understand is, how the chemical fungicide will affect my health, if spray it on the plants before they produce buds? It just seems to me that the chemical fungicide that was recommended to me will have a higher chance of working, while other organic methods just may or may not work.
Indeed there are many great anti fungal sprays out there, but the truth is the guy who invented them did not know or care about growers lungs or general health, many anti fungal chemicals have been devised for other reasons, like tinea or athletes foot, then developed as a spray to cure mold on roses for example, copper is used a lot in garden chemicals mixes, although great for women with blood issues, it don't stop the wine industry using copper as a cleaning solution, and who cares if copper is 20% of a bottle of red wine, ...again as a example I've used organic Neem Oil for years it's the hippies and horticulturists favorite tool, you may recognize the smell as it smells of grow shops or plant stores, just don't apply it to close to harvest as Neem is an acquired taste ...lol to my blog: http://forum.grasscity.com/blog/1093/entry-9709-neem-oil/
I'm going to read up on neem oil, seems very promising. I also found some articles suggesting sesame oil being used as fungicide as well. Do u know something about that? Since u mentioned not to spray too close to harvest...Do any of these products affect the taste when applied before buds are being produced? just making sure I'll get the full taste out of my plants.
I once sprayed my buds with neem then allowed to dry and smoked it about a week later ...trust me you don't wanna do that again, many bigshot growers with bigger egos will bullshit that they can do it, lol ...is much fun to watch, is harmless, but man the taste is gross, for this reason I advise many not to use Neem if harvesting within the next 2 weeks or so, neem does break down with sunlight very quickly thus I apply every 7-10 days for bug and Pm prevention, and ease of before harvest, and give the buds a good blast of sun/uv to clean things up real good sorry never hear or used of sesame oil, tho popular in Chinese cooking ...lol
A safer (and less smelly than neem) idea would be this- http://www.myorganicflowers.com/powderymildew.htm Granny
Vostok, since i dont have neem oil at the moment i used the recipe i found online, because i coincidentally have a bottle of sesame oil in the kitchen: A homemade formula: Soak three ounces of crushed garlic in one ounce of neem or sesame oil and 100 proof or higher drinking alcohol or 70% or higher rubbing alcohol for a day or two. Strain. Then soak the garlic in a cup of water for a day. Strain. Mix the oil/alcohol, soaked water and 1 tablespoon liquid castile soap in a gallon container. Then fill with water and shake. The formula is ready to use. Now my garden smells indeed like a chinese restaurant. I'm still in veg but I'm a bit worried it may affect the taste of the buds. Hi Granny, yes I'm aware of using milk. I used it already early in veg. I'm planning to rotate different fungicides every week or so...
I might have f'd up the grow, or maybe not... i hope not! I did use different organic sprays (mentioned above) in rotation for PM prevention during the first 4 weeks of veg. But then the RH in the tent started to rise to 50-60% and the scrog got increasingly packed. To be honest, my short term memory forgot that i even made this thread right here! Fearing that the organic sprays wont stop another PM outbreak, i decided to apply the chemical fungicide once in 4th week veg then reapplied right after the 12/12 switch, with only very few tiny pistils here and there. From last application to harvest will be 10 weeks in between. The particular product that i used is intended for fruits and based on the label can be used up to 3 weeks before harvest. Vostok posted links of studies on the chemicals in contains: DITHIANON http://toxnet.nlm.ni...erm @DOCNO 1583 Difenoconazole (aka TEBUCONAZOLE, AZOXYSTROBIN) http://toxnet.nlm.ni...erm @DOCNO 7448 Reading that made me totally regret that i even used it...but still i'm hoping that the toxins of this product will present no risk by the time the buds are harvested. After all, it was recommended to me by a friend who works at a grow shop. Plus by the time of harvest, most will be new growth that never got in contact with the spray and i can't imagine that the dosage in this fungicide is the same as they tested the animals with. Whats your opinion on this? Will the buds be safe to smoke? This is how it looks at the moment, 8 days in 12/12