OnlyAftrDrk
Active Member
My last three harvests have been disasters, however I think I have finally figured out Botrytis (bud rot) and why it has attacked every grow I have had.
I moved house 1 year ago after having countless effortless successful growths a great little grow room under the stairs in my previous house in a completely different area of my city.
My current house is situated very close to the coast in a wetlands area, very humid and cool. Perfect whether for bud rot. We dont have stairs anymore so my last three grows have been in the garage.
For the last three grows I have been getting hit by but rot in the flowing stage and I have tried all sort of different things to stop it.
Heres what I have been seeing:
Plants get into 2-3 weeks of flowering or later and then start developing red pistles very quickly
Once a pistle turns red it only takes a day or two at the most of the rest of the buds to go the same color
its not a golden Delicious looking red but a grey brown with a hint of red. Greyer at the start, redder as it progresses
I quickly trim the buds as they look good go smell, smell great. I do a quick dry just to make sure. The first day after dry they taste OK but each day after that no matter how crispy dry the bud is they progress worse and worse. Starting from what tastes like a slight perfume chemical taste they progress to dirty socks taste to just plan disgusting.
So what have I been doing so wrong?
For a long time I thought it was 100% environment. Moving house, location and now growing in the garage I thought it must be humidity.
For my last grow I was able to control the environment a little better. I monitored the temp and humidity and yes while it did get cool and humid it wasnt too high or too cool. Just touching the danger zone of 21 degrees Celsius and over rarely went over 60% humidity. Even if it did I have a fan on the room at all times. It was very well ventilated.
So I did some reading and I did some more analysis in what I was doing.
In my old house I used my own designed flood and drain table which seemed to me an amateur affair. Since I moved I upgraded to a bucket hydro system and watering circles.
After reading about the kinds of methods that lead to bud rot I read that over watering and over nuting can lead to bloated tissue and mold/bacteria.
One thing I noticed in all my grows in this house that I didnt pay much attention to at the time was the fact that they the tissue and branches were so soft, much software and engorged then I was used to in the past. Also they were much more mushy and easy to cut. Cutting down my previous stalks almost needed a hacksaw.
I am sure I have figured out the source now.
1. The watering rings and water pump I am using is flushing a much greater amount of water through the plants the before. In fact I never see the coco even remotely dry at all.
2. In the bottom of the buckets there is always an amount of water that doesn't drain in my last few grows I have seen roots grow down to this level.
3. I have been pumping up to .26 EC into these plants in the final stages of flowering in an attempt to get bigger plants.
My solution will be to water less frequently. Maybe even once per day if it stays moist the whole day. Also I will set up some kind of pump system to make sure no water remains in the buckets after watering and third I will go no higher then .22- .24 EC.
Thoughts?
I moved house 1 year ago after having countless effortless successful growths a great little grow room under the stairs in my previous house in a completely different area of my city.
My current house is situated very close to the coast in a wetlands area, very humid and cool. Perfect whether for bud rot. We dont have stairs anymore so my last three grows have been in the garage.
For the last three grows I have been getting hit by but rot in the flowing stage and I have tried all sort of different things to stop it.
Heres what I have been seeing:
Plants get into 2-3 weeks of flowering or later and then start developing red pistles very quickly
Once a pistle turns red it only takes a day or two at the most of the rest of the buds to go the same color
its not a golden Delicious looking red but a grey brown with a hint of red. Greyer at the start, redder as it progresses
I quickly trim the buds as they look good go smell, smell great. I do a quick dry just to make sure. The first day after dry they taste OK but each day after that no matter how crispy dry the bud is they progress worse and worse. Starting from what tastes like a slight perfume chemical taste they progress to dirty socks taste to just plan disgusting.
So what have I been doing so wrong?
For a long time I thought it was 100% environment. Moving house, location and now growing in the garage I thought it must be humidity.
For my last grow I was able to control the environment a little better. I monitored the temp and humidity and yes while it did get cool and humid it wasnt too high or too cool. Just touching the danger zone of 21 degrees Celsius and over rarely went over 60% humidity. Even if it did I have a fan on the room at all times. It was very well ventilated.
So I did some reading and I did some more analysis in what I was doing.
In my old house I used my own designed flood and drain table which seemed to me an amateur affair. Since I moved I upgraded to a bucket hydro system and watering circles.
After reading about the kinds of methods that lead to bud rot I read that over watering and over nuting can lead to bloated tissue and mold/bacteria.
One thing I noticed in all my grows in this house that I didnt pay much attention to at the time was the fact that they the tissue and branches were so soft, much software and engorged then I was used to in the past. Also they were much more mushy and easy to cut. Cutting down my previous stalks almost needed a hacksaw.
I am sure I have figured out the source now.
1. The watering rings and water pump I am using is flushing a much greater amount of water through the plants the before. In fact I never see the coco even remotely dry at all.
2. In the bottom of the buckets there is always an amount of water that doesn't drain in my last few grows I have seen roots grow down to this level.
3. I have been pumping up to .26 EC into these plants in the final stages of flowering in an attempt to get bigger plants.
My solution will be to water less frequently. Maybe even once per day if it stays moist the whole day. Also I will set up some kind of pump system to make sure no water remains in the buckets after watering and third I will go no higher then .22- .24 EC.
Thoughts?
