Looking for some feedback from those following along. I realized that I had a powdery mildew outbreak in my tent, and am concerned that I may have mis-identified pollen in place of powdery mildew.
Here are the photos that I thought were pollen:
Here is what I took on some leaves pulled yesterday that I am 100% sure is powdery mildew:
In addition to the similarity in the photos, the male I had never dropped any pollen when put in water and was let to sit out for a few days. I’m concerned that this may not actually be a seed project any longer. Anybody have any thoughts?
In terms of the powdery mildew, I defoliated the most affected leaves, sprayed them down with Dr Zymes, and removed the fifth female plant from the tent so everyone has their own space now. Before they were all touching leaves. I’m sure they caught the PM from their time outside. There is a reason it’s not recommended to shuffle plants between inside and out, and this is it. Pair that with five plants in 3 gallons in a 2x2 and it’s a recipe for powdery mildew.
On the upside, females 1-4 are looking pretty good. Guess it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world to have them unseeded. Right now they are on day 50 of flower, and would theoretically have been pollinated 12 days ago, meaning I would have to take these plants to a minimum day 80 of flower to have mature seeds.
What’re you wondering about exactly? Are you thinking any seeds that may result from this grow shouldn’t be shared because of the PM? Or are you wondering if any seeds are gonna be produced at all, because of the PM “pollen”?
Personally, I think that seeds made from “infected” plants probably shouldn’t be spread around, although I really have no rationale for that. I’m sure plenty of “breeders” have sent seeds out from infected plants.
The rest of the plants look good, though! Haha. Sucks about the PM, but, like you said, a bunch of plants in a 2x2… Odds are good that something like that’s gonna happen…
it doesnt seem like a big outbreak unless there is plenty more not shown in the pics.
If WPM was only on a couple leaves then you can still save it - improve air circulation, lollipop slowly this week to reduce foliage, and give them a good spray with a mix of water and milk (30-40%milk and 60-70% water). if you want the science data behind this ill look for the study, but it has worked for me.
if WPM was on buds too, then its time to cut your loses. Jorge Cervantes would still just wash them with H202 at harvest and use them for edibles.
If you are worried about WPM and using seeds that you are producing, i have no knowledge of that. But i dont think pm would do anything to the seeds. you can always disinfect seeds with H202, i always do anyway.
Sorry I was a little confusing in that question. I am concerned there never was any pollen to begin with, and it was powdery mildew all along, meaning there aren’t actually going to be any seeds produced. So basically, I don’t want to let the plants go to like 85 days of flower, if there aren’t even going to be any seeds.
Not a huge outbreak, and Dr Zymes has worked well for me in eliminating powdery mildew in the past. I am confident getting everyone more airflow, and continuing to spray over the next week will solve the problem.
Definitely nothing on the buds, but I will be sure to wash them using Jorge’s recipe after harvest just in case.
Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess I just had a confusing post where I was really asking, does anyone else think what I initially thought was pollen look like the powdery mildew I found yesterday? I certainly do.
I’m a little disappointed at the thought there won’t be any seeds potentially, but things can’t always work out perfectly. Plenty of time to try something in the future again. And who knows, maybe there will be some seeds, but given the male dropped no pollen after it was chopped, I really don’t think there ever was, at least not any significant amounts, as all the pollen pods were dropping off rather than opening. Learned some lessons about not putting too many plants in one place, and making sure to keep my males well fed. Onward through the fog!
I didn’t even think of that. That’s another good point. If the whole purpose of making seeds is to produce good plants, would seed parents that were not at their best produce good seeds?
How many days has it been since you introduced the male to all the females? I always get a little impatient and will sacrifice a bud or two early on to see if they’re starting to produce seed. You can usually tell pretty quickly when they’ve been pollinated, the bracts will swell and they’ll get kinda hard feeling once they are producing seeds. If you break open the calyx/bracts, you can usually tell if they’ve been pollinated
I don’t have much experience with PM (fingers crossed that I won’t have to), but I think the pollen will easily wipe off the leaves, while PM will not wipe off as easily. That could be one thing to look for going forward. I’d say stick with the Zymes and trim any lower unhealthy looking leaves and hope for the best. Good luck man!
Wouldn’t it be just genetics after the seed germinates? I’d think the reason for not sharing them would be the possibility of the seeds not being viable.
Or at least too many of them.
From my (limited) experience pollen doesn’t tend to stick to leaves really. It’s more like flour or something and will just roll off the leaves with any air or leaf movement. Maybe a very thin dust-like coating remains at most. If there’s a lot of still air or lack of movement pollen dumps could pile up on the leaves. For a while with the Goji male I was pouring pollen straight into open centrifuge vials and almost no residual pollen remained on the leaves.
I take a pair of pruning sheers often and lightly press on the swollen calyxes and see how much give there is. That’s usually a safe test to determine whether or not there’s a seed inside.
Agree completely. A very light squeeze on a sacrificial bud should be fairly obvious. The buds feel kind of hard just as @iamyou_youareme said.
As for PM potentially overwintering on seeds, that does sound like a reasonable concern to me. I don’t know enough about the mode of infection with powdery mildew species to know if it would be a potential problem and whether or not spores would come into contact with the cotyledon as a result. I tend to agree with the better safe than sorry approach unless someone with extensive knowledge on it can chime in and give the green light that it’s OK. Also the viewpoint that saving seeds from infected plants would in a sense be selecting for PM susceptible plants would be a worthwhile consideration.
The remaining females in your images look great still on the positive side of things.
If they are pollinated, you shouldn’t smoke the seeded bud anyway, but the seeds can just be rinsed in h202 like someone said, I doubt it would get inside them.
It’s been about 15 days, I opened up bud and didn’t see any signs of anything, but it still could be early. Also will probably try a few more as time progresses.
You can totally smoke seeded bud! Generations of American stoners had only seeded bud! I vape 90% of my weed anyway, so I don’t have to worry about combusting seeds. Definitely no fun in joints to get that pop and headache!
Thanks everyone for the feedback! I’ll keep testing em to see how it goes. Won’t harvest with a bunch of immature seeds, but also will need evidence to see if they are seeded before letting them run really long.
Yeah definitely looks like PM, not pollen droppings. It’s clumpy looking instead of a real fine powder like pollen. I got the chills when you first posted those pics but was disarmed with your confidence. I hope it hasn’t spread to any other of your indoor tents! That shit spreads so fast it’s crazy. I’d be spraying anything that could have shared airspace with them with some sulfur.
I’m not sure what I’d do with the flowering plants. Probably just cut my losses and cull everything early then wash the buds. Even if you don’t see it, it’s probably actively spreading all the time.
This is a great perspective. Upon thinking about this further, if there would be seeds, I would just trash them. No point making and distributing out seeds that aren’t top notch. We all just want to grow the best plants, so why start with anything but the best?
I think I had a case of seeing what I wanted to see, and not thinking logically. In the future if you ever see anything that looks suspicious in my grows, feel free to speak up. I’m really a novice, and can always benefit from an additional set of eyes. I should have known better, and was blinded by wanting to have a successful seed project.
My feeling is as of this evening, is that I will cull everyone tomorrow, and trash it. I got into growing my own, so that I would be 100% clear on what I was smoking. I’m very fortunate to be rich in bud, to where I just have to ask myself, what’s the point in keeping it? PM behaves very differently outdoor, and can show up in small patches, and can be dealt with before it really spreads. I think growing in a confined space is a very different story, and I imagine there are spores everywhere. It’s no fun to have to admit defeat, but I’ve been beaten on this one. Too bad because the plants were looking really promising, but I’ve learned a lot through this process about not getting greedy with how much I’m trying to accomplish, and truly appreciate all the feedback provided today by those following along. Thank you for helping me think my way through this!
Said it elsewhere but I think that’s a great and healthy approach. A huge part of gardening (vegetable, herb, whatever) is about learning from mistakes. Often times people are held back by the inability to admit mistakes and formulate a new approach. Outdoor vegetable gardeners have it a bit worse because often times there are a whole set of overlapping variables, in addition to a limit of 1 or 2 growing seasons per year. By then there’s usually an entirely new set of challenges and environmental conditions.
It’s the people who can’t or won’t admit mistakes or learn from them that make me nervous, especially when it comes to consuming medicine via inhalation. That’s a big reason I’m not a fan of purchasing the overpriced medicine at the dispensaries. Personally I appreciate the ability to just end everything on a dime and definitely respect your responsible approach to this.
While it’s tough to admit defeat, you’ve definitely got the right attitude. Take it as a learning experience. Situations like these make me think about what @syzygy touched on… when your livelyhood/income depends on a crop, how many people are willing to cut corners to make ends meet? How many full time growers are willing to deal with total crop loss? It does make me thankful that I’m only a hobby grower and grow for my own needs.
If it were me, I would hit any plants you plan on keeping with some sulfur, like @schmarmpit was saying. It’s cheap, and you can find it at any gardening store pretty much. Easy to mix into a spray, but don’t use any oils with it, it’ll burn the plants.
Also, culling plants just gives you an excuse to grow more! Silver linings and all that…
Yeah, that’s kinda what I was getting at. Luther Burbank, baby… haha. “Accept only the best, reject all others.” Or whatever it was he said. Something like that, anyway…
Well, the deed is done. The plants are trashed, and the soil has been thrown out. Any lingering doubts I had this morning disappeared when I found evidence of PM on all the plants after their spray down. I sprayed down the tent with a light bleach solution, and will follow the advice received and pick up some sulfur to spray the remaining plants. While I was at it, I replaced my carbon filter, which I think needed to go as my humidity levels were rising, and probably contributed to this pm outbreak, and cleaned out all the little fans. Feels good to have a fresh set up.
This is how I’m trying to look at it. Ready to get the clones you sent me prepared to flower and move into the big tent after I spray it down one more time, and let it sit empty for a few days. I’m really excited about the T-1000 and the old school Blueberry cut!
Rainbow Belts 2.0 - Double Dosidos
Blueberry - T-1000
Flipped the tent four days ago. Had thought the PM was behind me, after spraying them down with sulfur, but it persists. Found some spotting on the Blueberry lowers.
@iamyou_youareme@schmarmpit have you guys used sulfur once you’ve flipped your plants? It’s still so early that I would like to give them another go with the wettable sulfur. I sprayed rather lightly the first time as I’m intimidated by it, but will give them a full drenching this time around.
Damn sorry to see it. It’s early enough that I would just get them back onto a veg cycle and take your time sterilizing. Strip as many leaves off them as you are comfortable, cut them WAY BACK, then do the proper protocol of 2 sprays, 2 weeks apart. Make sure to cover every plant surface possible. Having less plant matter will make your life easier and give you better chance of getting it all. Then, after you’re sure it’s gone, veg them out big and start flower.
