Viewing microorganisms (PM) with microscope?

Advanced Techniques
#1

Hey all, this is something I don’t know anything about so forgive me if these are crazy questions lol.

Would it be possible to view microorganisms (specifically powdery mildew) with commonly available microscopes?

I’d like to know my enemy a bit better and be able to see how much PM is around my basement, where it is, and what it’s doing day to day (growing/receding etc). Is there any way I could take samples from various spots around my basement from concrete, water puddles and other surfaces and analyze if PM is present and how much?

If that’s possible I think I could monitor it day to day as temps/humidity changes to get a better idea of how to stop it. Also I can identify ‘hotspots’ that may be proliferating the PM for me to focus on.

Is any of that realistic, or would I need lab quality equipment? I’m willing to spend a few bucks to try this, but nothing insane. Any advice or information would be appreciated!

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#2

A quick Google gives this little paragraph.

An intricate method of powdery mildew identification is that of using high power microscopes in order to view the surface patterns of powdery mildew spores. These spores are rarely larger than 20 microns (0.02 of a mm) and as such it is necessary to use a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to see the level of detail necessary

Soooooo I think it’s not that easy to identify under a regular microscope.

To be honest my advice would be clean up Once a week or so as not just PM spores will be present and stuff can float in on the air so prevention is probably a good shout wether you could find it there or not.

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#3

Well I guess that settles it, looks like it’s a bit (way too)advanced for me haha.

I keep stuff pretty clean, at this point I’m convinced there’s some sort of ‘source’ of the pm down there that I need to eradicate. I’m thinking next step will be ripping out all organic materials and doing a full mould spray down there.

Thanks for the info!

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#4

Yeah unfortunately sometimes with problems the only way is to do a full deep clean. It’s just you mentioned water puddles and that’s Prime breeding grounds for bad things. Don’t want those in your basement wether you are growing there or not.
What’s your ventilation and circulation like in the grow room?
Also things like paint peeling and if you have a window down there you can check around and on it for mould or condensation which is another indicator. Just have a peek about and if it’s not like some of the shiny clean grow rooms posted on here then there’s room for improvement. To be fair mine isn’t up to scratch but I’m not hitting any problems yet :crossed_fingers: and I’m doing my best to clean it all up especially now I got one of those little cordless Hoover’s haha, any reason to pootle about and sniff the plants without fussing with them I count as a plus.

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#5

I have a 1000X digital microscope, it will see PM no problem might not be able to identify the spore type but you will see its early stages. I was messing with mine last night checking for spider mites I found some PM from my flower room plants beginning on a couple of leaves. I looked at the keif from the G99 I chopped yesterday to see if there were spider mites in it after washing the buds, I didn’t see any but it still put me off smoking it lol.

If you are a clean freak dont look at your hands with one, you will have nightmares even if you clean your hands 10 times a day.

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#6

You should try looking at the inside of your nose :rofl: I tried that once and my tongue. Great fun if you aren’t damaged forever by it.

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#7

I looked in my ear as well as my my nose and mouth lol. Looking at cuts is not good, I see all these black strings, not hairs, hairs look like telegraph poles, compared to these black string things that weave in and out of the repairing skin.

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#8

Yes I think I’m going to have to bite the bullet and do a full deep cleaning. My basement is more like a cellar, there floor has channels in the concrete that run water to the sump hole.

It’s often completely dry, but water will stand in the channels sometimes if it’s been wet for days. Believe it or not the humidity stays around 45-55.

Anyways I think one of these channels, or some old rotting wood shelves down there, are harboring the pm and breeding it when they get wet. I’ll need to disinfect everything with concrobium or something similar…ugh

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#9

That thing sounds awesome. Was it expensive? Do you hold it like a pocket scope or view things like slides?

I’m pretty shaky for my 50x cheapo scope not sure how bad it would be at 1000x :thinking:

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#10

$30 on amazon, connects by micro or normal USB to PC, phone or tablet, software is OK on the PC, not so good on the phone as the ads keep freezing the screen. They sell some with stands, wish I got one now, my hands shake, but to get a good picture I have to have it resting on what I am looking at pretty much. I put leaves in a plastic bag to keep them flat and then slide the end of the scope over the bag.

Just found this one with a stand, and its wireless, wish this was available when I bought mine.

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#11

Buy an ozone generator and give it a solid shock treatment after the deep clean.


Or if you’re hardcore…

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#12

I’ve considered it, I’d have build some sort of containment as the air is shared with the rest of the house. Do you mean shock as in pool shock?

Edit: you mean with the ozone AFTER cleaning…got it duh

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#13

Wow really nice, I might add that to my next amazon order…I’m sure I’d use it all the time for stuff in the grow

#14

I bought one of these. I am not happy. It maxes out around the magnification of my camera’s zoom. The mechanism that is supposed to zoom further instead adjusts focus.
Also, most of the (necessary for Android) 3rd party software is crap and ad riddled, often so severely that the tool is unusable. Which most of the time it is anyway.
It is better than trying to focus through a standing mechanical scope because it takes pictures but mine is not as impressive as it looks.

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#15

Good to know, thanks. It has that China sort of look where they tend to exaggerate the product.

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#16

You can see the ‘wet webbing’ look to PM with a cheapo hand microscope 50x. A ‘lung room’ is something to look into, but controlling the growroom environment, is job #1. PM has a few weird preferences, and I have always had to ‘grow it out’ of the bloom room by finishing runs, and torching what is left, cleaning up, bleaching, painting and starting fresh. Airflow is a biggie, warm and fresh over hot and dry, yet a humid environment is also a nursery for PM Its nasty shit and moves fast.

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#17

Thanks, that lines up alot with what I’ve observed. It’s still hard for me to understand it, especially why it shows up more aggressively sometimes. I can’t seem to equate it to temps, humidity or even the basement being damp overall.

Its like a freak strain or something, it’s probably been lurking down there for 100 years just waiting for these juicy jungle plants lol

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#18

You twist the silver ribs to focus, you press the little red button on the side that says zoom and it should zoom about 4-5 times before going back to the lowest setting.

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#19

My tent air is filtered through a furnace filter mounted on a sealed cardboard box.
For a hard clean try two spritzer bottles, one with vinegar the other with hydrogen peroxide. Spritz with one then the other - they have to mix on the surface.

Cheers
G

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#20

“should” being the operative word. Most of the time it won’t even show the image. Some mysterious conflict. Google has been fucking with permissions and getting somewhat draconian in their demands on developers. Stuff breaks when the OS updates. That’s bad form.

I have what I need.

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