Musty smell from grow box

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

I potentialy have a major problem, I was reading the FAQ section last night and was reading up on mold and one of the things I was reading that if you have a musty or moldy smell comming from you grow room it is a sign that mold has infiltrated your grow area.

My plants are 6 weeks into flower and trics are emerging rapidly. the buds are 25 % red hair on some plants to no red hairs on others, almost all trics are clear I am at a point now that I would be devistated to lose my harvest to mold.

I have inspected the room and plants and buds very closely and do not see any signs of mold just the smell. Could it be in the soil?

Unfortunatly the ventilation is not as good as I would like so the humidity can rise at times above levels it should be ( i cannot give a number due to I don't have a humidity sensor.)

What are my options and what exactly should I be looking for? the pic in the FAQ section is not very good.

If it gets down to it I would rather harvest early then loose the crop.

[Weedhound]

How big and dense are your buds Jerry? I don't like the sound of that at all. Whats your room humidity and what kind of fans have you got for ventilation? Got any pics?

Get some fans....air, air, air. Consider a good fungus spray. (I like Serenade). I had mold INSIDE THE BUDS so I'm wondering if that's where your problem lies.

Get yourself something to measure rh.....they are cheap. Also STRONGLY consider a dehumidifier. If the problem is bad enough, yes you could lose a lot of the crop.

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

WHERE DO YOU GET SARINADE!!! ?

I have been looking on line and Can't seem to find it.

As for bud size Pretty damn big, a single bud is the size of my thumb.

As for the equipment I have a plan but I can't do it now. I was going to reinvest after this crop. I do have another crop ready to go in the box in 1 or 2 weeks. So I am thinking Harvest Now possibly avoiding major loss, compaired to minor loss to early harvest, figure out the problem, then start the next generation after major disinfection of box and room.

[Weedhound]

: Serenade Garden Disease Control - Safe, Effective, Organic Control of Fungal and Bacterial Diseases : (http://www.serenadegarden.com/) You want to use something organic that is safe to use up until the day of harvest.....if you don't have a hydro shop near you hit a nursery or something.....get SOMETHING asap.

Let your crop go as long as you can.....spray fungus spray and get a fan going in there....blow air on your buds constantly....moving air will help but the real key is your humidity. Lowering the rh is the one biggest thing you can do for them. Six weeks just isn't long enough to give you a good high....be like picking unripe tomatoes.

3 things:

Lower rh to 30's
Spray fungus spray
Keep fan blowing and air moving around buds....increase air circulation.

That's pretty much the standard for holding molds and funguses at bay.

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

I went to my hydo store and it was F-in closed for new years and won't open until Wednesday @#@#!@#%#@Arghhhhh.
I did go by my local way overpriced nursury and found this stuff. I don't know if I want to use it. says organic but sulpher is the active ingrediant, I don't want my buds to taste like matches.
here are some pics of the spray.

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

Lights on!

I could finally open the box and smell has disipated :) humidity is down:) little relieved:)

I am not going to use that spray unless told otherwise.

did try and get some close up pics of the suspected plants.

I have thought of one senario that may point to the smell. I did flush them 3 days ago. I am using MG moiture control will it give off that type of smell when drying out?

I say that because the plants look ok to my untrained eye.

[Weedhound]

If it were me I would go ahead and use it.I've heard good things about Safer....if you are in week 6 right? Turn your lights down and make sure you have a fan going until the stuff is dry and keep your lights VERY EASY on them for a day or two. Work to get your rh down as well.

Jerry, I'm pretty much telling you how I would treat these plants if they were mine.....mold and fungus scare me to death and I'm as careful as possible about it. When I found mold in my buds it was in the largest ones and you literally had to break the buds open to see the mold. I actually found it by accident while doing something else.....and I had pretty good conditions going on at the time too. Stress to your plants will allow these things to get a grip and hold on; just fyi.

Yes, I would spray, I woud get an oscillating fan on them and get your rh down to the thirties if possible. If you can improve conditions you can get a handle on the mold and limit the damage....assuming there IS mold.

One way to check imo is to VERY GENTLY pull on the bud and sugar leaves. Moldy ones will break right off and be mushy....that's actually how I discovered the problem with mine. I pulled on a sugar leaf to move the plant and it literally just broke off. When I looked very closely I could see the problem.

Good luck.

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

Currently working on fan just taking a smoke break

pulled on leaves nice and strong.

humidity has droped but will rise at next watering. Working on that.

Keep light down Hmmm. I can't tone down a 600w hps. I do have 5 - 2 bulb t-12s 3 with 6100k bulbs though 2 with 3100k. might work for a day.

spray the plants.

ok will get this done in the next few hours

Thank you very much Weedhound!!

Happy New Year.:)

[Weedhound]

That sounds good....yes, if you can't raise your light WAY up use the others for a good 24 hours.....I really fried the tops off some good buds spraying mine and not raising the light enough.

The spray will hold things in check....assuming there ARE things to hold in check....otherwise it will help any new mold/fungus from starting up. Air movement is the other thing you can do easily.

Good Luck.

[PharmaCan]

Jerry, I have a couple clip-on light fixtures with 65w cfl's that I use for circumstance like this. The plants aren't going to grow with those lights, but at least they will think it is still daytime.Anyhoo, the clip-ons are real handy for if you have to turn the lights off during daytime hours.

PC :smokin:

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

Well I took them out and sprayed them down in the bathroom had to take some pics while I had them all out.

Put a larger fan and removed the can filters from the exaust to improve air flow for now I already hat 2 t-12 fixtures in the box so I just unpluged the 600w. this should get me thru till wednesday and I can upgrade my ventalation system. I definatly do not want to go thru this again.

Sorry didn't rotate before download.

[Weedhound]

Sounds good.....nice plants. :thumbsup:

[PharmaCan]

Nice looking buds, Jerry! :thumbsup:

PC :smokin:

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

Phewwww!

Checked on them before lights out everything looks good so far no burns or drooping :)

Thanks Weedhound and Pharmacan as you can see by the pics why I was about to flip out with the potential loss and damage to this crop.

I did do a very thurough inspection of every plant , pulled on leaves gently pulled buds away from the stems, used a loupe to look very closely at them and only saw butieful clear tric's, so my conseses is I caught it in time before any real damage was done:)

only true way to find out is after harvest.

One question should I wait one more light cycle before pluging in my hps?

Again thank you both and have a great and healthy New Year:)