high humidity PROBLEMS

[sneek420]

Hello my fellow oz stoners. so im about 4 weeks into flower and noticed i had some fungus gnats and other little creatures...i think a couple mites also. so i went out, bought a hot shots no pest strip and put it in at lights on....with fans off....exhaust and all..

 

so the lights come on at 8:00....i went to work at 11:00....and came home on lunch to check it at 3:30. the temp was 96 farenheit and humidity was close to 90%....... i immediately turned all fans on and within 10 mins the temp was down to 80... when i got home from work the temp was back to normal at about 73 and humidity was normal at about 30-40%.

 

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR MOLD/MILDEW/ NETHING OF THAT SORT to grow in optimal conditions? do i need to worrY? the babies look fine but it smells like mold in the room, could be in the carpet or something is my guess because they look to healthy to be infected.

 

BTW.....figuring out that fans off when lights on is no good i put the no pest strip in on llights out with fans off. the humidity shot up to 90% again but the temp stayed 75. i just noticed it and interupted there night cycles to turn the fans on.....IMO high humidity is a big f'n problem and i wanted it corrected asap. so there sleeping for 2 1/2 more hours and wen they wake up im going to check the room out for mold or mildew or fungus of some sort. WHERE WOULD IT BE? HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO GROW? if its here how do i kill it? what % humidity is to high for flower?

 

THE HUMIDITY WAS AT 80%+ FOR NO MORE THEN 12 HOURS AT A TIME and only for the last 3 days.....while the pest strip was in the room, the fans were off. this resulted in high humidity.

 

please my brothers i need your help. im 34 babies deep and mold is a killer that could potentially wipe me out.

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hey Sneek420, Ok, mould/mildew, dude this is not good. You need increased airflow, fresh clean air is the best thing, you may find that you need a fan in the grow area to blow some air around and stop the air getting stale.

If you are misting them with anything or foliar spray, stop now. you need to take all the moisture you can away.

there are products you can buy that will help with your problem, I would take a trip to your local hydro shop and see what product best suits your problem. If you don't get on top of it the moisture will sit in your buds and rot them out or make them un-smokable.

Check that your plants are not sitting in water/solution and that it can drain away freely, maybe it's not foliar rot, could be roots? If you do use a spray to kill mould, if you find it, raise your lights a lil and spray it with lights on, so it does not just make more moisture collect in the dark cycle.

Maybe first check for leaks from your system onto the carpet, if moisture gets in there, it will produce mould and then mould spores will spread and ruin your crop. I NEVER grow on carpet. The smell could be that.

Dude, if you want more specific answer we need pics and a run down on what your system is and how it works, I'm just covering the basics. Goodluck with it and if you need any more advice just yell out. I can't advise you on mould sprays and stuff because i have never had to use them, they are a fungicide and require attention to the instructions for application. Peace. GH72

[Luke Skywalker]

Grasshopper has answered this to a large degree, but I would add one more thing. Run your fans 24/7, lights on AND off. It is a combination of darkness, high humidity and still air that allows moulds like botrytis to get a start, and they don't necessarily need the same conditions to continue to grow as they needed to germinate and start development. You are better off being well ventilated and cold than badly ventilated and warm.

 

There are a few products out there to help with mould, citrofresh/microkill comes to mind, but the first thing is to keep air moving at all times which will help keep the humidity levels down. As mentioned by grasshopper72 make sure if you're concerned about mould to cut out any foliar feeding for a while. Keep an eye on the colas, if a leaf on the side of developing bud suddenly turns yellow when all it's neighbours are green investigate quickly by opening up the bud and checking for moulds. If you find it, cut it out carefully with fans and lights off and bin it immediately. Cut into affected tissue about 1cm (1/3 inch) to ensure that you get all the botrytis as it moves through the bud.

 

Good luck and let us know how you go. If you're unsure about a diagnosis take some closeup pics and post em on here.

[The Hash Nibbler]

Thanks skywalker, i feel all warm and fuzzy inside. i actually got something right, almost =) GH72

[sneek420]

you guys rock, much thanks for the quick replys my mind is eased....a little bit atleast ..

 

so i was pretty medicated when i posted that first one...thats kind of why its a unclear ramble.

 

The setup includes 5 fans all on 24/7. 1 brings air in 1 is filtering air out. the other 3 are oscilating fans keeping air moving.

my problem is this...honestly i dont know if its even a problem i just wanted to ask the fellow ozstoners because of reply's like your 2, thanks again btw .

 

i recognized some bugs, ontop of my fungus gnat problem. i went out and bought a hot shot no pest strip, the kind that releases a penetrating odor that kills bugs. i decided to put it in my room on light on with fans off for 1 night....when i checked later, 71/2 hours into day cycle, the temp was 96 and humidity was in the 90's also. THIS WAS ONLY FOR AT MAX 8 HOURS...i repeated this 3 days in a row but for the second 2 days i put the strip in at night time so the temp wouldnt skyrocket with the fans off. even though the lights where off, with the fans off the humidity jumped to 90%...temp around 74...THIS WAS FOR AT MAX 12 HOURS 1 NIGHT AND 8 HOURS THE OTHER NIGHT...because when i noticed the humidity i interupted the 3rd nights night cycle and turned the fans on...... reading this once again sounds a little confusing but i hope you can understand.

 

my idea was to run that strip in the room 3 days in a row...12 hours each day with the fans off.... i pretty much did that, except the 3rd night i only went for about 8 hours instead of 12.... THE HOT SHOTS NO PEST STRIP DOES WORK BTW. not a single thing moving in there except the leaves in the breeze.

 

BTW the fans are and have been on since the start 24/7....except the 3 days i used the no pest strip. I COMPLETELY AGREE WITH YOU GRASSHOPPER ON NOT GROWING ON CARPET...YOU SIR ARE A SMART MAN. AND yes sometimes when i water for 2-3 days after they are still siting in solution, i donthave the best drainage....could that be the problem? WOULD THAT CAUSE ROT IN THE SOIL, WICH WOULD HIT THE ROOTS, WICH WOULD HIT THE PLANT?!?!? fuck mold man.... i checked the babies out yesterday...they look fine, although i have no idea how to tell sighns of mold, as i am fairly new to this art.

 

thanks again guys, appreciate the feedback.

[mull]

Hi sneek, these hot shot pest strips sound interesting. Just looked up the msds and it doesn't sound much scarier than any other pesticides.

 

Just wanted to add, if you've killed all the adult bugs, the eggs will be hatching real soon, ready for a follow up dose.

But you are getting late in flower, strain dependent.

 

Oh yeah, leave them to wet to long and pythium can start talking to roots. Fungus gnats will help it out too.

A zyme product can help dying roots break down tidier.

 

You got soil medium?.. any perlite in the mix for drainage?

 

Best of luck mate

[Frazz]

what brought you to this situation, .. the insect problem?

is it not possible to prevent entry of insects to your grow room, cause i can assure you fungal gnats can greatly reduce your harvest if not completely wipeout any indoor crop almost as fast as mould

 

all da best

[The Hash Nibbler]

Theres a lot of love out there for ya sneek =)

Ok, you need to raise those pots up dude, you will rot the roots otherwise and thats where you get all your nute uptake to finish off your buds.

Try a multi zyme as Mull pointed out, easy to use dude, look out for house and garden multi zyme, use at 1ml per litre, that WILL fix the roots if there is any damage.

Dude, is there any chance of you using degrees celcius instead of farenheit? Kepp your room about 28C with lights on and about 50% humidity, with lights off 22C and slightly less humidity(should do this itself with lights off and fans on. Don't worry so much about what you HAVE done, concentrate on what you need to do now to ensure a successful harvest.

 

I am not so much up on the bugs department, so i will leave that for the others to help you with. I have had good luck bug wise. Next grow, piss the soil off and use coco or something, a lot of the time the nasties come in with the soil and are given a perfect enviroment with no predators, so they go nuts and breed their heads off, looks like your getting on top of that but be vigilant!

If you want to pop those strips in, just leave your system as normal, don't mess with it and put your strips in as the lights go out and take them out as they come on, problem solvered =) If you have fans internally just make sure they don't blow on the strips too much. You want the shit to circulate the grow box, so just let it.

Your doing fine man just get them up off that carpet(even if its on bricks or something) and next grow you will learn from these mistakes and take out Canna porn pages =) Best of Luck. GH72

[sneek420]

mull - ya i did alot of research on the strips because i didnt want to use chemicals...but also didnt want to spray in flower and i was to broke to buy some good stuff or even azatrol wich was still to expensive for me . It makes me laugh that you mention the eggs because as i went in earlier guess what i saw...more flyers . for zyme i use multi zyme by house and garden..been using since late veg. the coco we use was called.....just coir. a cheap brand of coco's from a local hydro store....and i think thats where the fungas gnats originally came from. its about 60/40 coco to perilite.

 

frazz - yes the insect problem did lead me here....i got bugs...wanted bugs gone....put strip in with fans off and that resulted in 90%+ humidity and 35.6 c for about 8 hours ...so i was worried about mold and that kind of stuff. ya these gnats are driving me crazy....i have had them pretty much the whole time and i can tell the difference. they stunted growth in veg and now there getting stuck in the resin on my colas....and on some leaves there everywhere...just dead and stuck... i might add that RESIN work 200% better then yellow sticky papers what would you rather fly into...a sticky bud or sticky paper?

bottom line these things got to go and any help on that would be nice....i have read the first 10 pages of bug problems with fungas gnats in the title btw so i no alot of ways.....new ones are always nice though

 

grasshopper72 - the image you have of my setup is probably nasty . the way i have described it i can tell why though. im growing on carpet but above that is 4 layers of tarp....assuring no way in hell the water would hit it. that would be horrible, right on the carpet.. but for anyone reading that may be doing that....get some tarp, its very cheap. I do although have a 2x10 strip of carpet in there that is not covered.....that was my concern where the mold would be...because the day i walked in and the temp was 35 c i noticed my resevoirs sweating.....and the water was dripping onto the carpet and had been for a couple hours. one of my res's is in a closet and was sweating onto wood...wich we have overflowed filling once so i worry about mold under the wood also. the sighn of mold is smell...but with the filter on 24/7 it would filter that smell out right? if theres mold under the carpet or wood i wouldnt see it either. could the spores of that ruin plants? Anyways

The first thing im going to do is raise them up...somehow. the temp is usually 24.3c and humidity between 30-50% lights on and like 21-22c 20-40% humidity light off. like i said up there a bit im usin coco's, "just coir" brand and am actually using that multi zyme.

 

Thanks for the reply brothers

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hey sneek =), no I had no dingy ideas of your grow area, just eliminating problems that might cause this lil kerfuffle or help it to continue. But I think you are on the right track and looking for the right things, temps and humidity are fine, I am so glad you are using that Zyme, cause now we can eliminate root rot, that stuff leaves a protective film on roots that protects against rot and nasty stuff.

raise the pots up still as a precaution like you said, sprinkle some bicarb on the damp areas of carpet ( don't get it near your plants nutes because it's like Ph down.), let it soak up any moisture for a few hours and vacuum it up. The rest you are onto already. Check under the tarp and make sure there is no moisture trapped between the tarp and carpet, tarps sweat too =). Ok dude, let me know if i can help with anything and If I got any ideas I will get back to you. GH72