How-To Spot Mold Hyphae In Your Garden and Jars

[Shadimar]

The bud glistens in the morning dew.

Eagerly you chop your harvest, plant by plant, and haul it out of the tucked away corner of bush that was its home for the past few months.

You hang it up to dry,eventually placing it into glass jars as you know you should. You've sampled little bits along the way as it's been drying and wow, is it ever good!

But one day, maybe a new jar maybe the same, you reach for a bud and a puff of dust explodes off of it. "Odd", you think, and then proceed to pack or roll as normal.

It probably slaps you on the first hit. That harsh musty aspect that's probably been in the background since harvest but you may have dismissed it as the resins expanding your lungs to make you cough and produce a unique flavour.

But no, face it: You've got mold in your gold.

Whether on fresh or dried plants, mold will take similar appearances. Naturally the type dictates what it looks like if it gets to the stage of complete fuzziness, but before that the molds are going to cause the pistils to shrivel up and turn grey in stark contrast to the surrounding hairs that are either still white, changed color, or even dried and as far as receded into the calyx as these mold-stricken pistils have been given something of a dusty and mummified appearance by the mold.



The body of the mold is analogous to the mycellium of a mushroom or the spreading vines of a strawberry or ground-crawling tomato plant and resembles silky threads lightly strewn about the flowers almost as if the colas were outside a barbershop when a silver-haired man was getting a shave.



In the above pics you can see how they also share the same glassy-rod look that trichomes do. And speaking of..



At first glance this may appear to be particularly resinous, but those spikes are all mold.

The web below, however, is no confusion as this is a clear sign that the bud cannot be consumed. If it were jarred then the rest of the jar must be examined for mold.




And finally, I'll wrap up this opening post with one final pic that highlights a loop of mold filament with the rest of the pic outside of the focus. As I happen to take better pics I'll post here, but in the meantime if anyone else would like to join in then we could potentially save a lot of headaches for growers with pocket microscopes who aren't 100% sure what to be looking for.



Oh, one more from the wiki page below. This one of Penicillium Hypha which is a reasonably close visual match to what often hits cannabis.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypha

[gelu65]

Great article, are there any good uses for this product? Can it be saved somehow? Marco used his to make hash and swore by it. Any other hints or warnings. Jerry

[Shadimar]

Thanks, Jerry

I wouldn't try to make bubble with it unless it were very, very lightly hit but I understand that others do use the water&ice method to separate the plant matter from the resin, however the aflotoxins are still a concern.

I've done Qwiso with gently hit bud, the iso kills any live mold and spores but there is still the problem of toxins and so that's why I've only used very lightly hit bud and an extra short wash.

BHO is a third method but again I've read that the mold is not entirely removed even with this method, although there was a post here about using a filter syringe to separate the spores but I'm not sure if the toxins were accounted for.

The bottom line is that if you colas are fuzzy then the plant is lost, but if you've caught it right at the beginning you may be able to salvage it keeping in mind that some people would smoke the bud without noticing the mold (but they shouldn't ).

[nohibition]

Excellent Post Shad


N

[Shadimar]

Thanks, nohib (h&w, I see you, too )

[airedog]

Thanks Shad.

Had some Colombian Gold go well into June indoors. Got a bit of mold starting in a cola against a wall. Ended up breaking colas down, taking closeups and blowing them up on screen. Lost a few colas but saved the harvest. One jar went manky about 1 year in.

Mold allergies work in a 'key fits lock' process; kill the organism, but if it's still the right shape, you get a reaction. And that's the best case, aflatoxins can kill.

Erowid has one of the best explanations out there, for cannabis related issues.

https://www.erowid.org/plants/cannab...ritings3.shtml

In the meantime, the Great Wall is almost there and weather is staying damp. I've cut out some bud rot, but seen no threads, so far. Can't see the bud inside my plants that are from 6 yo 10' in diameter. Rain, off and on, for at least a week, starts Friday.









Bud taken early, is better than bud, taken early; if you catch my drift.

[Shadimar]

Let's hope this civil works project comes to completion before the rain hits.

The upper cola flowers aren't going to ripen in time but the trichs might possibly fall in line and produce potent bud regardless.

Your scope will tell you

[gelu65]

Airdog we will be needing the addy of that grow if you don't mind. Looks great sir

[airedog]

It's damp here this year and the strains i chose are prone to mold and bud rot. I've clipped rot out of a few small branches and saw some of those threads in discarded buds. Enough that i'll be random checking the healthy looking colas before i jar any. Ordered some large C-Vault style canisters, but they'll store strains currently in glass, and i'll cure in glass then transfer to steel,once i'm sure no mold is present.

Here's a pic of a discarded bud, a real shame as it's sticky as all get out; even with mostly cloudy and a few tan trichs.



Its relatively easy to spot the rot on the outside bud, i'm sure there are hidden pockets, deep inside, ruining much larger sections of bud. They'll force an early harvest.

[Husbandnwife420]

wat a shame bro

[Husbandnwife420]

some nice lookin plants ther

[samhigh]

airedog being that your close to the house could ya run a drop cord and put some fans on em, I hate it for ya what a beautiful grow ya got going. one of those big 4 ft shop fans may help. good luck the rest of the way.

sam

[airedog]

Time will tell; next year first consideration will be mold resistance. Looks like i'll be doing hydro after all, this indoor season. Gotta Tangielope i want to try, and some Sensi strains, if there's time. I also have an UnderCurrent system that's been cluttering my front hallway for a while. I'll uncrate it and give 'er a go. See if the less nutes claim is true.

In the meantime, whenever it rains, my new mantra is the last 3 of the old 10 words you can't say on television.

[nohibition]

Maybe spreading branches to allow better air circulation would help. I'm always in awe when I see your plants AD.


N

[airedog]

A friend who grows locally told me the bud in the picture is the result of moth larvae. Moth lays eggs and larvae hatch in branch,,eating their way out; bud or colas near by become more susceptible to bud rot.

[nohibition]

Great info AD. I never worry about a moth or two flying around my plants, I'll be more careful in the future.

N

[Shadimar]

Moths lays eggs that hatch into caterpillars.

You may remember reading me post about tossing them into spider webs last year when I'd find them inside.

[airedog]

I'm just passing along what Shad and others have been telling me.

[Crazy_Eagle]

As soon as the rain started here in b,c any buds over a foot or more started to mold..I lost a lot this year to mold it just wicks right up the center! Next year for me is going to be autos and fast finishing strains!!

[airedog]

Sorry to hear of the damage you sustained CE. There is some salvageable bud, i hope?


I just took most of the tops off the largest plant; mostly cloudy trichs, a few tan/amber; son't be couch lock, but should be good. Friends are putting wooden extensions on my fence posts, and running a tarp above the plants. Hopefully that will do the trick. Tarp is above tops and ends and bottom sides are open. I'll run a fan during the clear times, with a propane heater if needed.

Next year, i'll space planters better; select mold resistant strains; and, have a framework in place for clear plastic or tarps. Live n learn.

[Shadimar]

If you wanted to try again with a few plants of the same strains, @Crazy_Eagle, there are always the options of topping to produce multiple thinner colas less susceptible to mold as well as Supercropping and LST to turn those single large colas into rows of mini-colas that look almost like clones - the branch will lay on its side and the buds will all stand up to face the sky so it will become a cannahedge more more surface area exposed to the air.

Another (some would say drastic) method to combat/prevent mold is to strategically clip a bud from each dense cola in order to allow airflow into the centre. This would also allow you a chance to examine the interior of the cola as well as the removed bud for both maturity and disease.

As you well know: once mold is visible on the outside of the plant, it is quite likely that the inside has been conquered. Granted the hyphae have to start somewhere, but what I mean is that by the time a novice easily notices something fuzzy with the naked eye, it's already too late.

[airedog]

Starting this evening, we'll get rain almost every day for the next week. Took tops off my large plant in the foreground, to allow clearance between colas and tarp.

[Husbandnwife420]

very good bro
good luck

[airedog]

I know we'll be using our black light flashlight to check the bud once it's cured in jars; if it fluoresces, there's likely mold contamination. The friend who helped me tarp everything told me that his wife lost part of a lung and they believe it was due to moldy medical bud.

[nohibition]

Scary stuff AD, good luck and be careful bro. Looks like you're having a back yard camp out.

N