Powdery Mildew, the Medusa
By: Captain Sunshine
Captain Sunshine and friends have seen the face of the Medusa. Known as, powdery mildew. None the least, common, unpleasant, unsafe, and can cause serious harm to the individual especially those with allergies and health conditions. This craft cannabis post by Captain Sunshine will cover powdery mildew and how to prevent, treat, and cure if able.
Powdery mildew or The Medusa appears when fungus spores land on the cannabis leaf and under proper environmental conditions will replicate. As well, The Medusa’s Powdery Mildew reduces overall yield, taste, and creates health risks for those with allergies. Indoor Cannabis under the affliction of The Medusa’s Powdery Mildew is never advisable for consumption. Once cannabis is struck by the wrath of The Medusa’s Powdery Mildew the cannabis is no longer craft cannabis.
Captain Sunshine and friends are aware that powdery mildew is a common fungal challenge afflicting craft cannabis conneseuirs, indoor gardening, indoor cannabis, and green thumb enthusiasts. Indeed, powdery mildew challenges have early detection symptoms. Yet, without proper detection and early warning your indoor cannabis will no longer be craft cannabis. Importantly, many craft cannabis conneseuirs are unaware that “powdery mildew” includes a diverse array of fungal species. As well, fungal species have common weaknesses, early stage detection of symptoms, and points of attack on the plant for the specific powdery mildew. Importantly, the craft cannabis gardener will learn to distinguish the unique species of powdery mildew in relation to other fungal diseases.
Importantly, as we do our routine checks of our indoor cannabis we observe the leaves every walk through. Sometimes, the indoor cannabis gardener may observe white or grayish spots on the surface or top of the cannabis leaf. However, one may think the speckles of dust like objects are remnants of the ceiling, dust, paint, or whatevers. Therefore, if the dust like substance does not blow off of the leaf with a regular breath, then observe with food safety gloves if the foreign substance will rub off. Consequently, if the white and grayish spots do not rub off you have been hit by the blight of The Medusa Powdery Mildew. So sorry. Whereas, if the spots are on the underside of the leaves it is downy mildew.
Know the face of the mildew, detect, prevent
Captain Sunshine is all too aware of cough friends who have seen powdery mildew before and fail to take action. Craft cannabis conneseuirs always take action. It’s ok if you have not before or have done so and did not appropriately complete the task. We forgive ourselves and start over.
Importantly, powdery mildew is often observable on the top of the leaf. As well, spots which are white or grayish in hue will cover the surface area of the leaf. Please note that powdery mildew is a serious issue for a craft cannabis gardener like Captain Sunshine and friends. Further, Captain Sunshine advises persons with allergies and health challenges to not ingest any of their plants with powdery mildew. Additionally, this is why Captain Sunshine fully supports regulation and testing of cannabis for health and wellness.
More so, epidemic powdery mildew challenges result in the browning of leaves, and decreases overall cannabis wellness, further increasing susceptibility to bud rot and other mold challenges. For indoor cannabis in soil the craft cannabis gardener must be sure to not overwater because an environment with too much moisture increases the prorogation rate of powdery mildew spores.
Captain Sunshine understands powdery mildew is special because powdery mildew does not require water to infect a plant. The mindful indoor cannabis grower observes shade within the garden and over density. Further, high humidity levels in the indoor cannabis garden can lead to disastrous consequences. Mystical evil creatures tend to show up in your indoor cannabis garden when humidity levels are too high. Thus, Captain Sunshine has a standard operating procedure of never allowing the humidity to reach higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit in our craft cannabis garden.
Additionally, all craft cannabis gardens have oscillating fans. Oscillating fans are beneficial for a multiplicity of reasons. None the least, oscillating fans decrease the likelihood or probability of spores successfully landing and propagating on our indoor cannabis. More so, Captain Sunshine has seen friends run experiments with light deprivation techniques, genetic testing, and other research to conclude truthfully low levels of lumens increase the likelihood of infection. Therefore, without appropriate Ultraviolet light and lumens for healthy plants your indoor cannabis will fall easily prey to our earths multimillion years of evolution spores, bacteria, and insects. Those things are the opposite of Sunshine for indoor cannabis.
Overcome the Medusa
Craft cannabis gardeners understand first prevention and then early detection are key to successful indoor cannabis gardens. Once The Medusa’s Powdery Mildew is observable, isolate the cannabis plant from the other cannabis plants. If you have no attachments to the cannabis plant destroy it. Importantly, never use cannabis with contaminants in your compost. Seriously, standard operating procedures for Captain Sunshine call for complete eradication of all foreign microbes and environmental invaders. However, this is a non-extreme and is a standard for craft cannabis gardeners.
If you must face the Medusa, then you must, proceed as able
The following are environmental controls for mitigation of powdery mildew.
The indoor cannabis gardener must remove all leaves with white and grey spots as able to mitigate infection, reduce spore reproduction, and decrease overall infection in order to target treatment areas. Additionally, mitigate overwintering of spore sites. Importantly, the craft cannabis gardener always disinfects and cleans the indoor cannabis environment (greenhouse, grow tent, grow room etc.) and all tools in inventory and use. Disinfecting tools is a standard operating procedure for Captain Sunshine and team. Disinfecting tools is critical after every use and or before every use. Standard operating procedures calls for monitoring and tracking of all tools and dates of inspection for disinfection and appropriateness for use in the craft cannabis indoor garden. All craft cannabis gardeners behave this way, the Captain Sunshine way.
Further, an inventory which includes BioSafe, H2o2, Disease Control, OxiDate, and Sanidate are valuable tools for cleaning, prevention, and mitigation of fungal challenges. As well, The Medusa’s powdery mildew spores are survivalists and hundreds of millions of years of evolution in their DNA. Thus, powdery mildew, the epic Medusa of eons past plagues mankind still as she survives overwintering in plant tissue. You can notice the damage of the Medusa and therefore will remove excess foliage expressing symptoms of disease. To reiterate, never compost unhealthy cannabis.
Nuke the Medusa, Biological, & Chemical Warfare
An epic battle has arisen for your indoor cannabis garden. Tears have flown, sadness enters the heart in your cannabis. At last, emerges the use of sulfur, copper fungicides/bonide liquid copper, and bonide sulfur plant fungicide which battle existing fungal challenges. However, please note sulfur will not destroy The Medusa, yet merely piss her off and thwart her progress. Therefore, adjust your pH of your garden. Make sure your pH is appropriate, there are not fungus or algaer challenges in a reservoir; or pH challenges in your soil. Importantly, we can make our pH more alkaline to combat The Medusa. Subsequently raising our pH.
Further, spray all foliage with Neem Oil in order to reduce and halt reproduction of spores. Unfortunately, if your cannabis is in flower Neem Oil is never advisable. This is because Neem Oil has been scientifically shown to cause infertility in male and female subject mice and rats. If having children is a non-issue for you Neem away. However, this product is no longer craft and is non advisable for sharing with others without transparency in the growth process.
Fortunately, there are products such as Serenade Garden Disease Control (Bacillus subtilis) and Monterey Bi-Carb Fungicide. Accordingly, application of cannabis interventions for plant health is always after a Neem Oil application. Neem oil is a common practice among cannabis gardeners as a preventative measure and risk mitigating technique. However, Captain Sunshine’s craft cannabis garden is a spaceship bio dome in order to not require such risk mitigating behaviors.
More so, there are products such as Cease and MilStop. Both are useful products for bulk application.
Indeed, alternative cheaper applications exist. Research by Wagner Bettiol in his “Effectiveness of cow’s milk against zucchini squash powdery mildew (Sphaerotheca fuliginea) in greenhouse conditions,” demonstrates the effectiveness of cow’s milk against powdery mildew. Further, the scientific experiment applies milk at a ratio of 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50%, at intervals once and twice per week. As well as, applying other fungicides (fenarimol 0.1 ml/l or benomyl 0.1 g/l) in application once a week. Research indicates leaves having a lower threshold of powdery mildew with greater intervals and application. Conclusively, higher applications and concentrations of milk are more effective than fenarimol 0.1 ml and benomyl. Bettiol’s research demonstrates milk as an effective method for prevention and mitigation of The Medusa’s Powdery Mildew.