Always Bud Rot

I get bud rot every grow. Things I've tried:

• Raise the inline fan speed to keep humidity below 50%.
• Buy a dehumidifier and let it run 24/7 to bring humidity as low as possible. This is a proper $300 dehumidifier not a toy.
• Do a huge defoliation in week 3 to keep as few leaves as possible for less transpiration and better airflow.
• Put an additional fan below the canopy.

The pictures are as of right now. Day 9 of flowering, week 3 will be lollipopping and defoliation. Temp is 75F and humidity is 46% without the dehumidifier. AC infinity inline fan set to level 5.

The grow is in a 2x2. The room the tent is in is small, the dehumidifier is for a way bigger space so it's not underpowered. What do you think the reason why I get bud rot might be?

In my experience, strain dependent. Some just are more prone to rot than others.

Also the density of bud matters too but I find it's more strain dependent as I've had huge buds with no dehumidifier that didn't rot much and also grow rooms with much smaller buds rotting with humidity under 50s always.

Do you sterilize your tent before and after each grow? Spores are everywhere..

HydoDan said:

Do you sterilize your tent before and after each grow? Spores are everywhere..

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^^^^^^^^^ a full disinfection of your grow space is nessicary after any infection including all equipment/pots/raisers. Your carbon filters will not remove ALL PARTICULATES so your lung room should be stairalized as well. Personally I would save the effort and uncertainty, trash and replace the tent.

that space looks pretty cramped. i suffered from bud rot extensively until i bought a 1000$ dehumidifier and keep the rh below 40. now after this big investment i havent encountered this scourge -knock on wood-.

if you want to get rid of bud rot,
-keep the room clean and sterile as possible. clean the walls and the floors with bleach regularly. no plant material inside the room either like piled up dry leaves, compost bin etc.
-get an air purifier as well. daikin has some nice air purifiers that goes beyond just an hepa filter and a fan.
-keep the rh below 40 (preferably around 30).
-grow sativa doms.
-mulch your pots and switch to plastic pots to minimize the fungal load as grow bags usually have fungus growing all around.
-fans blowing under the canopy will only help make soilborne spores airborne.
-when defoliating take the leaves clean off from the main stems. no part of the leaf and the petiole should be left on the plant as it will also rot.
-open up your buds regularly to check for mold.

these basic precautions should improve your chances of avoiding bud rot.

You are definitely a candidate for doing a routine preventative spraying of something to fight pm, botrytis etc.
maybe look into zerotol you can spray all the way through flower. Theres lots of products out there, it’s totally something thats preventable indoors.You still need to be laboratory clean though. As much as possible.

SBNDB said:

You are definitely a candidate for doing a routine preventative spraying of something to fight pm, botrytis etc.
maybe look into zerotol you can spray all the way through flower. Theres lots of products out there, it’s totally something thats preventable indoors.You still need to be laboratory clean though. As much as possible.

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Here in Canada they banned everything, we don't have access to a lot of stuff that people in the US have. I'll have to see if I can find something.

VaSmile said:

^^^^^^^^^ a full disinfection of your grow space is nessicary after any infection including all equipment/pots/raisers. Your carbon filters will not remove ALL PARTICULATES so your lung room should be stairalized as well. Personally I would save the effort and uncertainty, trash and replace the tent.

Click to expand...

Damn this makes sense, so this is what it was. It's just the same tent with no treatment so I guess there's spores. I lollipopped and defoliated hard right now since the grow is already potentially compromised. Now humidity is at 38% but temps up to 79F from running the dehumidifier.

crimsonecho said:

that space looks pretty cramped. i suffered from bud rot extensively until i bought a 1000$ dehumidifier and keep the rh below 40. now after this big investment i havent encountered this scourge -knock on wood-.

if you want to get rid of bud rot,
-keep the room clean and sterile as possible. clean the walls and the floors with bleach regularly. no plant material inside the room either like piled up dry leaves, compost bin etc.
-get an air purifier as well. daikin has some nice air purifiers that goes beyond just an hepa filter and a fan.
-keep the rh below 40 (preferably around 30).
-grow sativa doms.
-mulch your pots and switch to plastic pots to minimize the fungal load as grow bags usually have fungus growing all around.
-fans blowing under the canopy will only help make soilborne spores airborne.
-when defoliating take the leaves clean off from the main stems. no part of the leaf and the petiole should be left on the plant as it will also rot.
-open up your buds regularly to check for mold.

these basic precautions should improve your chances of avoiding bud rot.

Click to expand...

Been having trouble with this myself. Just ordered the Daikin UVC LED Room Air Purifier. Thanks for the info/referral and hope it helps me!

NooobGrow said:

Here in Canada they banned everything, we don't have access to a lot of stuff that people in the US have. I'll have to see if I can find something.

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You don't have bleach or citric acid in Canada??
Edit: 70% Isopropyl alcohol will also work..

As someone said some plants are very susceptible, its sister can be very resisitant. Are you sure the humidity isnt spiking at anytime? If you are getting botrytis that easy you can bet the spores are everywhere all the time, trying to get rid of the spores is futile. At that humidity you shouldnt get much rot even on a susceptible plant.

You can still sterilize everything with hypochlorous acid. You can fog it or spray it. It’s a better disinfectant than bleach and totally non toxic and safe to use thru harvest.

Add 1 ml SiO2 to your feed. Bulletproof si

I grow in the same size tent (probably 20 runs through this set up) with the same temps and humidity and never had a problem with bud rot. I run two 6 inch fans (mid speeds) plus a 4" inline fan (never above 5) drawing air from the lower openings up through the canopy and out the top of the tent. At those temps and humidity there shouldn't be a problem. Very strange. Are those lower flaps open?

NooobGrow said:

View attachment 5369597View attachment 5369598

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ummm im not sure if im tripping but is that white mold growing ontop of your medium?

i bet some people are gonna say thats mychowhateverthefudge ontop but i highly doubt it lol i bet thats white mold.........

Vinegar works well for killing mold. I spritz my tent after every grow just in case.

boostedhonda said:

You can still sterilize everything with hypochlorous acid. You can fog it or spray it. It’s a better disinfectant than bleach and totally non toxic and safe to use thru harvest.

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Around the tent or directly on the plant? Mold for me always appears late in flower, so I'm not sure how to use this.

secretmicrogrow420 said:

ummm im not sure if im tripping but is that white mold growing ontop of your medium?

i bet some people are gonna say thats mychowhateverthefudge ontop but i highly doubt it lol i bet thats white mold.........

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I'm using a wick system, the salts rise to the top so thankfully no, it's just salt.

pegboy said:

I grow in the same size tent (probably 20 runs through this set up) with the same temps and humidity and never had a problem with bud rot. I run two 6 inch fans (mid speeds) plus a 4" inline fan (never above 5) drawing air from the lower openings up through the canopy and out the top of the tent. At those temps and humidity there shouldn't be a problem. Very strange. Are those lower flaps open?

View attachment 5369617View attachment 5369622View attachment 5369621

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They are open.