As long as you can control it that’s very impressive. at what rate did you apply this again?? Teaspoon a gallon? Did you use any dishsoap at all? I just finished up my lactic acid bacteria. Can’t wait to try it on my zucchini this year. Hoping I don’t need it on anything else.
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Well I thought I could with weekly sprayings at least, but now I’m not so confident. You should have a much easier time controlling it outdoors.
I’m putting a shotglass (30ml) into a 500ml spray bottle of filtered unchlorinated water. I’m pretty sure that’s overkill and most people use far less. No dishsoap or other additives as I’m worried they could kill the bacteria.
Did you eat the cheese curd that formed? I’ve tossed a bit of mine onto salads and it’s actually pretty good lol
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When i remake LAB and the curds look the same … i will try it. Little nervous this first time with no one to see my results. Looked like cottage cheese. Gave a couple bites to my dog and he liked it…my wife on the other hand thought it was gross. If she had been more receptive to the idea i would have made cheese. As it is i couldn’t bear to throw it out. Its been in a ziplock a few days in the fridge. Too bad the LAB isn’t 100% effective on the powdery mildew. Perhaps the soap is necessary to prevent the LAB from beading up, making little islands of refuge for the PM spores in between the lab droplets ? Doubtful but worth asking on the KNF thread maybe? This PM sounds like a bitch to deal with. How close are you to harvesting? Pm on the buds or just fan leaves?
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Well at least your dog enjoyed it haha. I pretty much eat like a dog anyways 
Dish soap or some sort of wetting agent would be nice to help the spray cover everything and to have a longer contact time. I’ll ask over there if anyone knows if it will kill the bacteria.
I’ve been fighting this for months. I have some plants at about 4 weeks now, and some 1 week into flower and more about to go in. At this point I’ve got it heavily managed, so when I say I’ve seen it in a room I mean I’ve seen like 2 small specks within all the plants in that room. Then I defoliate and spray immediately…
It often will show up right on a big fan leaf that is directly under the light and swaying in the fan breeze 24/7, which leads me to believe that most of the stuff I read online about PM is completely untrue. My humidity is about 45%.
When it hits a budding plant usually you’ll see it on a lower bud leaf first, then it creeps back in towards the bud and will get buried in there eventually. It only seems to get on leaves though, never the buds themselves but it will get into where those leaves meet the bud and ruin it anyways.
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So outdoors in our veggie gardens of the past, i was able to keep PM at bay with essentially what your already doing, at the time was using a baking soda, canola oil, soap and water mix.
The baking soda like you already know was just for changing the pH to an alkaline state in order to knock out the PM, the soap was to act as a surfactant and to break up the oil, and the oil to cling to the leaf surface and other reasons i cant remember now, now obviously different on smoking buds and i avoid as such.
But maybe something to look into is the pH of PM as lactobactilus cultures like you have also been using is on the opposite side of the spectrum being acidic vs alkaline of your potassium bicarbonate.
Now all my garden issues whether the PM came back or not was directly related to other near by plants “neighbors” that had PM that weren’t being dealt with by them, so had to resort to just spraying every 5 day to a week or or so.
Also humidity in the room vs in the canopy is obviously different, but consider also those spores can be hanging out or around your fans or in areas that allow them to survive.
So no real answer to your problem…
Happen to have any shots of the rooms in issue in your other thread ?
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When I had my mold issues the problem was coming from the underside of my intake hole. It was a perfect breeding ground since there was a reservoir above it with splashing and condensation dripping down around the hole.
I had no idea because it was well hidden and there weren’t really any warning signs but when it happened I torn apart my cabinet and sure enough there was a whole ecosystem of spores living around the intake being sucked up into the tent.
Outdoors with PM it always happens on shaded leaves with low airflow high moisture. Whenever I had it in my garden I just plucked off anything with visible damage and made sure there were no wet shaded parts of the plant. The sun did the rest with UV, which I’m sure you’ve looked into but it may be an option as well if used safely.
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Yes I thought about the pH factor in regards to lacto vs potassium bicarbonate. I haven’t actually checked, but I’m pretty sure you’re right and the lacto will be acidic. But considering it seemingly has the same ~7 day window as pb I find it preferable as it’s essentially just pure water.
The pb had a tendency to burn pistils, and I’d rather not have soap or oil on my buds even if it is benign. They’re both just bandaids in the end sadly…
@TrevorLahey at this point I’m convinced the problem lies in the environment, and no matter how much I spray or start again with new plants I’ll continue to have issues.
The conditions you’re describing by your intake matches my whole basement lol. Gross standing water in places (not a ton but still…), areas with stagnant air, and just an overall dark ‘dankness’. It’s a total breeding ground.
UV is something I’ve come across in very vague terms so far, but I found this the other day and it might be my most promising option:
I believe it’s a UVC lamp. No way in hell I’d pay $500 for one so I’m looking into DIY options. But basically the idea is that I could expose basically my entire basement to this daily until I’ve eventually fried all or most of the spores/mycelium.
It’s apparently quite dangerous to the eyes and skin also, so I’ll have to be 100% certain about that before I go further with the idea as well.
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The other thing I think I’ll do is steal one of the heating ducts that goes to the house upstairs and run it to the very back of the basement. This will give a constant supply of warm, cleaner air to that area that will then get pulled across the whole basement to the return I have installed at the front.
Over time all the air down there should get completely exchanged/refreshed which should drastically reduce spore content and density.
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id work on rectify the basement issues through cleanup and improvements whether sealing, or airflow or dealing with other issues
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Its incredibly dangerous make no mistake and is the nuclear option in my opinion. And if you do decide to play with this make sure you know all the risks and the protocols to keep yourself and family safe.
I can tell you first hand how gross and moldy a basement can get as that’s exactly what happened to me following the previous story from my post above.
After I tore apart my cabinet and saw the mold I decided to ditch the whole cabinet and cut it all up and take it outside. Then I started looking around my old 7x11 grow room and would see some mold here and there so I started tearing the walls open only to see that there was mold everywhere in my basement where I couldn’t see it.
So I will offer a strategy that worked for me. Its not going to be easy but I promise you’ll feel better whether it fixes your PM or not.
Materials Required:
- Concrobium (this is used to kill off any mold or mildew and leaves a residue that protects against it for up to a year. It’s the final step in this process, think of it as a treatment)
- Moldex (or another no scrub mold stain remover, it also kills mold but you’ll be mostly using it to bleach away any stains you find prior to using the concrobium)
- I highly recommend a dehumidifier for when this is all done.
- Other useful tools: Rags, bags, shop vac, drill, hammer, gloves, respirator or suitable mask (N95? Lol) Bleach, Peroxide, scrub brush, scour pass, you know the drill.
Let’s turn the yucky basement into a grow lab
Taking half measures isnt going to cut it in this case, you’re going to need to gut the basement and remove almost everything down there that has a potential to rot or have mold on it. Get hyped and ready to stone cold stunner this moldy ass basement.
If you can, finish your run and/or move your plants somewhere else that you can keep em for a few days while you get this done, you’re not going to want to do this with plants nearby as you’re likely to stir up more spores from cleaning that will make it into the grow.
Got a truck? No? Can you get a truck or some way to remove all the junk you’re going to remove and take it to a dump or and enemies front yard.
The easiest way to do this is to just literally rip and tear and start grabbing everything you see and dragging it out of the house, even stuff you want to keep. Make a pile of it outside on a tarp or whatever and try to seperate the things you want to keep from the things you dont.
The goal is to have nothing left in the basement that isnt bolted down.
Then you need to start your inspection. Is it a finished basement and does it have drywall or plaster walls? Inspect every nook and cranny with your eyes and nose for mustiness you shouldnt have to look hard in a basement. Maybe even some exploratory holes or removal of panels to check.
If you find mildew or mold in or around the walls it’s best to rip out the whole wall and anything around it that could have been exposed and replace it with a new panel or even leave it open with just your vapour barrier and insulation exposed. Obviously you’re not going to be removing studs from your frames but disinfect them thoroughly if they have any on them.
Once the basement is gutted you’ll need to inspect your grow space and dismantle it if possible and/or look for any areas out of reach and if theres mold on them you should strongly consider replacing them or even rebuilding.
Disinfect and clean every square inch of your grow space the way you normally would. Then everywhere else in the basement clean and disinfect every square inch of it too.
Set up some fans and preferably a dehumidifier in the middle or the basement.
Start by going over any mold or mildew stains with the Moldex (or alternative stain remover) this stuff is awesome just spray it and it foams up, leave it sit for about 5 minutes and the mold stains just disappear like magic.
Once dry this is where you’ll go over your entire basement and every square inch of your grow space with the Concrobium product. Be liberal with it and hit everything. Theres bleach in these last two products and it gets pretty strong so have some ventilation or a respirator and a GTFO plan should it get too strong.
If you have carpet down there, you might want to rent a cleaner to get it clean too but this wasnt the case in my scenario.
Run your dehumidifier 24/7 for the first week, then put it on like 55% for a few weeks after that.
Remember to clean and disinfect any items you plan on bringing back into the basement. Avoid bringing any cardboard into the basement as that’s just asking for trouble.
Your basement and your whole house will smell so much better and you’ll have the peace of mind knowing its clean.
This process is pretty much the same thing a mold remediation service provides but they cost thousands of dollars as opposed to doing it yourself which is $50 in cleaning supplies and a bit of time.
I know this is long winded but I have been there with musty basement blues and I know it can be hard to make a gameplan and get motivated to tackle it so I’m hoping this advice helps.
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Wow thanks dude. Sounds like you’ve been through quite a battle as well haha. Believe it or not I’ve done mold remediation in the past, much of that stuff is all too familiar
When I moved in I did all that EXCEPT the concrobium… ripped out anything porous, bleached etc. Also added a cold air return to get air moving. Had I done the concrobium maybe I wouldn’t be here now? To be honest I forgot all about that stuff, it is great btw
I guess the reason I didn’t go that far was that there never was any visible mold down there, just those stupid water channels. Once I took everything out and gave it air for a while it smelled ok so I guess I thought I’d be good…
I’m working on a game plan now, and I think it will look alot like your post. I’m also thinking I can figure out how to build a UV air purifier (UV-C bulb enclosed in a box with slow fan pulling air across it. Then I could clear everything out, spray and run this for a few days to kill anything else that gets disturbed into the air.
I think that’s what’s going to need to be done, or just shut down lol. Either way I’m not too excited about it!
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With small plants can the leaves be simply hand-washed & scrubbed a bit with somethin’? Will good sunlight kill slight PM?
I’ve discovered this crap this morning. 
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Would shock treatment from an ozone generator do anything?..or daily doses to kill the airborne spores?..any benefit at all you could think of?
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I haven’t read the whole thread yet, but I had a battle with it this winter. I never did get a handle on it once it took hold. It hit almost every single plant of 15.
So, since then I finally bought the Green Cure and it actually seems to have kept the PM from coming back in a little Rosemary plant I have in the window sill. I bought the plant at the grocery store in the veggie dept. It immediately started showing the PM and nothing I put on it kept it clean.
I was hesitant to try the GC. A little pricey, but I did and it hasn’t come back on that little plant yet after a month.
Another thing that I’m almost convinced works really well is starting the plant with Silica in your mix. It strengthens cell walls and seems to prevent it from taking hold. I’m only reporting what I’m seeing. I ran out of it before my last run and I never used it at all. That run stayed infected.
I have 4 plants growing inside now and they are beautifully green and healthy looking and no sign of PM. This is with all of my clones in the same closet from the last run and they started showing the PM again.
I sprayed them all last night so we’ll see how that does. I plan on getting silica into the feeding regimen on them to see how it affects them. I purposely haven’t spayed the clean plants yet that don’t have any. I should, but I want to see if they ever pick anything up without it and just using the silica.
I tried Serenade and it didn’t stop anything, just knocks it back some but must constantly use it on them and stinks like hell, too. Sulfur never has worked well for me. I’ve tried other stuff I’ve already forgotten but nothing worked very well.
Silica is a great amendment and I’m going to take special notice on this grow to see if my theory holds.
And, I was really impressed that the PM hasn’t come back on the little rosemary plant, that kept coming back regularly for 6 months. So, Green Cure has worked best for knocking it out completely so far.
That stuff is a MF’er. I never even saw PM before I moved here. It’s very low humidity here so I never expected to see it here but is and it sucks.
You can get the good Agsil 16H potassium silicate from “Build A Soil” for $20 for 1 pound with free ship. It should last a long time. peace
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Since I’ve started using silica, I also noticed that the stems get really thick really fast! Small dose for lanky seedling, for sure!!
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lol incase nobody has seen my writeups yet:
powdery mildew is an easy-to-kill fungal infection. It is not systemic. Kill it with sulfur dissolved in water. Crush up pellets of it, or use the sludge from defender. It will stink for a couple days, so use the extraction fan. I sprayed the plants twice during veg and never saw the white menace again. The following things will fail to kill it: milk, garlic, vinegar, peroxide, baking soda, triforine…etc. Soy…whatever it won’t work. First and last solution is always sulfur which is in milk and garlic. But don’t use milk or garlic, it will fail, only use pure sulfur, and I don’t care which form of it either. pellets, sludge, powder…whatever just spray that shit. You can spray and plant debris with bleach to kill the spores, if you want, but i recommend just cleaning that crap up off the floor. UCDavis was mistakenly saying pm could never be gotten rid of, ahem, but I can hand those phd’s their ass with a simple experiment. Get the plants in containment and spray them with sulfur and watch the pm die forever. The powdery mildew cannot live without it’s host, so it is plant specific. Creating a toxic environment for it will kill it forever in one go. mmm and I love organics vs synthetic arguments, lol they are always full of unsubstantiated claims. Truth is, in the weed smoking contest I am involved in, I defeated 20 other organic entries to come out in third place with my crazy hydro buds. I find anyone can botch a grow, organic or chemical, and come out with garbage buds. lol sorry about the cognitive dissonance… but imagine how the living soil grower felt when I told him the truth. It took growing mini melons as big as regular cantaloupes in hydro to convince my parents…who thought organic was the answer to flavour… that growing it properly in hydro made them the sweetest fruits they ever tasted. hehheh, even as I write this, I know peoples minds are shutting down and refusing to accept it.
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I’m glad to hear you beat this menace. Green cure is potassium bicarbonate which I tried for a while (and still use), but sadly was ineffective for me.
Also silica definitely does help in the sense that it ‘strengthens’ the plant and makes it more resistant. Calcium also has a similar effect, but I don’t think they’re enough to stop a more serious infection.
@JoeCrowe I’ve still yet to try sulfur because as far as I’ve read it’s just yet another ‘bandaid’ solution. I guess I should give it a go… what type of sulfur pellets do you crush up to spray?
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buddy crushed up the pellets from the sulfur burner and used those. I personally got some sulfur sludge called defender. Those experiments I performed on the original overgrow, so no chance to get back the data.
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oh just remember, drench those plants in the sulfur spray, don’t leave any toehold for the fungus.
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thanks for this. can you recommend a mixing ratio? time to dissolve? I can elemental sulfur in espoma soil acidifier & toss the gray iron or whatever. 
just skimmed through a plethora of DIY IPM recipes & i have zero interest in “cooking”. my attitude says “if sunlight won’t cure it then they deserve to die”.
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