how to stop mold

[Cakes]

Recipes

This one is good for plants that are budding:

2 teaspoons vinegar (9.86 cc/ml)

1 quart of water (1 liter)

Spray it once every three days. If it is sprayed on more than once every three days, then the pistils will turn color but the plant will keep growing more pistils. The spray will be absorbed by the plant and leaves no taste on buds later.

this cure kills mold by changing the pH on the surface of the plant

This one is most powerful and best for plants that are vegging:

1/2 teaspoon baking soda, or 1 teaspoon for stubborn control
(2.464 cc/ml or twice that much for stubborn control)

1 quart of water (1 liter)

It can be applied every day but it will turn the pistils brown. The plant will keep growing more pistils though.

When the baking soda dries, it will leave some white residue (since baking soda is white), so watch out that one doesn't mistake the baking soda for mold when one is trying to see if the mold is dead.

It is good for the plant if the residue is washed off of the plant between applications and also unrinsed residue can be tasted.

this cure kills by changing the pH of the plant surface too

or one can try milk like this:

1 part milk. use any kind, fresh or powdered; and the non-fats stink less. or one can use unpasteurized milk, or 'acidophilous' milk, or yogurt <they have more beneficial lactic acid floral elements so they work well. the lactic acid crew are predators on the mold that is trying to predate on the plant.

9 parts water

Spray on once every 5-7 days for a total of three applications.

semi-organic cures:

"Neem" oil
use according to package directions
can kill beneficial bugs and pollute habitats

sulphur burns
kills and prevents mold for more than a month
can be smelly and so do not use unless harvest is at least 35 days away
take care not to set anything on fire
can kill beneficial bugs/worms and little animals/frogs/lizards

to clean a grow room
use bleach

preventative measures

Keeping the air flow fresh is good to do. If the grow is very bushy, then the plant can have some leaves picked off to help with air flow through the plant. Air filters may help too since most mold spores are airborne. It would be good if the filter had anti-fungal/anti-mold properties. Like the HEPA bags for vacumns. Or maybe an ONA bucket with some bleach in it. the filter topic needs exploration.

Low humidity can discourage mold growth.

High amounts of potassium help make plant tissue tough and harder for mold to attack.

Foliar sprays with chitlin seem to help.
Not sure why chitlin helps, it may stimulate AFP production in the plant. AFP is the plant's natural AntiFungalProtein. Exposure to mold on one part of the plant will stimulate AFP production in the whole plant and chitlin is/was a creature partly related to the fungal family. AFPs can also be borrowed from other plants. Germinating radish seeds have lots and sprays or proximal trays of them might help. 70% of the tobacco grown has a radish gene implanted for increased mold resistance. Cedar has lots of AFP and that is why it repels moths and bugs. Austalian Tea Trees have good amounts. A hydrolyzed solution of AFP can act as effectively as a commercial fungicide but I have no tech; if you do then please link me up?

Cinnamon is anti-mold but no successful recipes yet. Foliar applications of cinnamon alcohol burned a marijuana plant terribly in a mold test but it may be that cinnamon elsewhere in the growroom could help.

[eyeseaire]

mold is a bitch. been fightin that one for a while now. All I have to say is that if you are trying to combat mold in a sealed space, (ie: air circulation a plenty, and Co2 added, BUT no ventalation to the outside, or outside air brought in) You will need a dehumidifier. I tried everything I could think of and the only thing that would bring down the humidity in my sealed room was a dehumidifier. When you have so much humidity,(80-90%) and no safe way to exaust it, you fans are just blowing around moist air, and if this is a case throughout the grow, expect bud rot.
Methinks I will need to exaust in the attic or somewhere somehow in the the summertime...

[eyeseaire]

also in my case spraying the pants was a two edged sword. On one hand it killed the mold, on the other hand, misting a bunch will make the humidity even higher... While the mold on the plants was gone, it only made the mold on my walls worse.

[Cakes]

A dehumidifier is an excellent idea. and bleaching the walls might be good for anyone that has growths starting.

[eyeseaire]

yep bleach worked great on the walls for controling the mold, but even with the dehumidifier it came back in about a months time, although only in small patches. like a square foot of mold compared to 3-4 square feet of mold.
If it gets a foothold it is very tough stuff.
In the end we decided to paint with a fungicidal paint. Im hoping with the dehum, and the fancy new paint my mold problems are gone. this was over a week ago and still no signs, but the bleach kept it away for that long so we will just have to wait and see.

[eyeseaire]

if only I could just open my fucking windows!

[Cakes]

!

[Cakes]

thanks for joining me in a moment of astounded horror at the thought of someone not being able to open their window.

eyeseaire, you are right about the mold being amazing stuff! I had almost forgotten how it is able to reappear after a bleaching. My shower used to drip and I could grow a healthy crop of black film in less than three weeks. My drip got fixed last year and so I am glad you brought up the issue of mold recurrance.

The fungicidal paint is a great idea and I came across this page about how to prepare surfaces, like using toxic primer and sanding down infected woodwork; these guys also agree that bleach is not a lasting cure and they mentioned that there are home test kits for detecting mold and they talk about places in the home where mother colonies of mold might be found, like on air conditioner/refridgerator coils:
http://www.moldadvisor.com/basement.html

and they said that in addition to HEPA filters for mold, you can also use an 'organic vapor filter' that is sold at homedepot and lowes and such; they called it a P100.

[eyeseaire]

thanks cakes that had a lot of great info on something I've been struggling with. I didn't expect to start sanding down to the wood but I guess its better than the mold getting to it.

[Chummy Anthony]

Cinnamon works awesomely well when you have or want to prevent mold in your soil. Remove surface soil and sprinkle cinnamon on surface, replace with new soil and say goodbye to mold. This is also a good preventive measure, just sprinkle cinnamon on surface of soil and stir in.
tokes:CHummy