Um, wow... (Mold/Pest-Related)

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Originally Posted by MMJinColorado

This strain recently won 2nd place at the Aspen Cannabis Crown. I feel sorry for anyone who was up there judging, based on these pics. It's either some really severe and weirdly web-like powdery mildew or an equally bad mites problem... what do you experienced grower types think?

I want to make clear that I'm not in the business of disparaging any dispensaries or anyone in general for that matter... I am, however, in the business of spreading information to MMJ patients, especially where safety might be involved. Judge for yourselves if this is something you wouldn't mind smoking (it's a bit hard to capture it well, as retaining focus on something so small and with depth is near-impossible with my microscope)..

Perhaps the bigger worry to MMJ consumers beyond the fact that tainted meds were supposedly good enough to win the Crown (I didn't smoke any of the sample I have for obvious reasons, but it smells great and I could certainly see it placing in a competition) is that from my understanding, the samples competing were supposedly all tested by Full Spectrum for mold and pesticides. If that is true and this strain got through their testing regimen, I don't even know what to say, and I will be uber-paranoid about everything I smoke, tested or not...

Just had to put this out there somewhere... I hesitate to publish the pictures and the info on my blog without giving the dispensary a chance to respond, but at the same time, I worry about anyone who is going there to purchase "prize-winning" Grape Ape and end up with a collapsed lung after the vaporize their purchase and don't kill the spores...

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Looks like fungus mycorrhizae to me. May or may not be harmful but should dq the sample.

I do not know where those pictures came from. We did not submit any when we went to the crown. and further more there would be no way we could have won if there was mold or mites. For one a lab tested it for those items. and two There was quite a few judges and someone would have said something. We have some grape ape at our shop right now and if anyone would like to come and check it out please come by.

I can assure you that if I were to have mold or mites there we would have not even entered. Sorry that you guys got ahold of some pics that are saying it is our product.

Mahooka
Mahooka Meds | Providing Patients with Safe, Legal Medicinal Marijuana

Actually I took the pics myself (two separate buds that came out of the same bag, there were spots all over both buds in various places) last night and would be happy to stop by with the sample that I received from an anonymous source who attended the Crown to let you look at it. This is why I was hesitant to post anything about it... I wanted to give you guys a fair shot to respond since I thought I remembered seeing posts from you here.

Anyway, I will come by in the next few days with the sample so you can take a look and see if it is in fact your Grape Ape. Hopefully that will help put this to rest. As far as the comments on the compeition and entering with a moldy product, I suppose it's possible that the mold came after you submitted the samples, but it's all over the place either way. I'll come by soon though, I don't want bad information floating out there if this was simply a sample that went bad after the fact or if it isn't even your Grape Ape. I trust my source though, so I don't think they'd just lie about what the product is (or somehow store it so badly that it gets mold even after it was well cured and dry for the competition... not bloody likely).

I'll emphasize that it was fairly tough to see.. not sure what the lighting conditions were for the Cannabis Crown, but I'd wager that they weren't bright enough to see this mold hiding deep in the crevices of the buds without the aid of a 420 Scope or something along those lines.

(this post made useless by MMJ's post above, he snuck in!)

Dorje113, it does look like mycorrhizae, but doesn't that normally develop in the root system below-ground, and not in the canopy where buds would be forming? Just seems like odd placement for a symbiotic root fungus... that's the best guess so far though, as it does look extermely similar.

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Originally Posted by MMJinColorado

Dorje113, it does look like mycorrhizae, but doesn't that normally develop in the root system below-ground, and not in the canopy where buds would be forming? Just seems like odd placement for a symbiotic root fungus... that's the best guess so far though, as it does look extermely similar.

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It's not necessarily a symbiotic type of fungus, it could (probably did) come from airborne spores that just happened to have good enough conditions in the bud to start growing. There are so many types of mycorrhizae... it could be from any one of a number of types of fungus.

I wouldn't condemn the grower from this evidence though, this is growing plants, not a clean room laboratory. The contamination in the pics could happen to ANYONE without their knowledge unless the grower is inspecting every bud with a magnifying glass.

There is a mold that has hit my crop twice now. Grown outside in Santa Cruz CAlifornia. Has anyone seen the plant stems of the stuff from Colorado? Mine starts with the fuzzy spors on the stem and then creats a black spot on the stems up further, anything above that turns limp and withers.

Last year it hit just before harvest with some of that webbing or mold only visable when the bud is broken open, and inspected. Lost almost 3/4 of the crop last year. In good concience I couldn't put it out there.
I have noticed some spots on a couple of the stems and cut it off. Don't know if that will leave the wound exposed for more infection. Tried sulfer dust, didn't stop it. Just sprayed with vinager on the stems two days ago to try to change the ph to kill it. Haven't seen the result of that application yet.
Anyone have any ideas how to stop it this year.

By the way the same, and I mean the exact same plants from clones:cool: are growing inside and they are pristine, no problems.

That mold among the trichomes in the pics can also arise during storage by over hydrating stored meds or simply storing your meds improperly (yes, even when using canning jars). When most folks look at that they don't even know what they're seeing right there among their trichomes. I don't mean to sound like a dweeb but I occasionally examine stored herb with my "Dino-Lite" digital computer camera just to make sure nothing develops during storage. Mine is USB and magnifies 10-300x. A little overpriced at around $300. Well worth having though if you care about the quality of your meds.

I think lead hit it. Not to call anyone out, but the some of the winning buds found their way into our shop for sale...looked ok but had the "stuff" (since nobody agrees on what kind of powdery mildew it is j/k lol). I pointed it out and he got kinda mad/offended. I think it probably was a good, FRESH med....BUT if you jet pack it still fresh into plastic...I think this is what happens. Hot day+herb in it's 1st week of drying+air sealed plastic+drive from aspen/mts to denver minimum=nasty disaster.

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Originally Posted by MMJinColorado

Also, I have two different buds with multiple spots all over them... it's definitely not a case of a nug falling into some of that fake spider web shit they put up on Halloween or some other innocuous piece of fuzz. It's either mite webs or mold, and with the prevalence all over the buds and the area it was generally located (where the fan leaves would connect in between bunches of calyxes), I'd knock mite webs out of contention.

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Yeah it's hard to see. Looks like some kind of web--but you can look for mites under the leaves of the plant--(if it's your's?) Mites are a real problem in growing--as they adapt very quickly to the sprays used to get rid of them--and become ammune to them. If one has them it's a constant battle.

But if they got on the bud itself--I would consider the mite problem out of control.