Hello fellow growers,
I flipped to 12/12 56 days ago, 49 days since pistils and 42 since small buttons + end of stretch. So days since flower depends on when you start counting 
I experienced some mold/bud rot and decided to cut my losses harvest them next week. Trics are most cloudy some still clear but I cant control RH without increasing the temperature by several °C (lung room is giant staircase of our house). At the moment i average 50% but temps are min. 26°C (even at night) and shoot up to 31C.
Im doing a wet trim to lower possibility of mold and reduce RH at harvest and plan on doing a bud wash. I did a lot of research but have some final questions:
-
Im supposed open the buds and look for rot inside. Do i do that before or after the wash? How do i go about not breaking buds / destroying trichomes?
-
Read baking soda/lime juice, h202 and more can be used for the wash. What ingredients are best against mold?
-
I wont be able to achieve 60F during drying. At the moment best i can get is 71-72. As far as i understand it isnt the worst if its a bit warmer just not optimal, right? I read in the guide by bergman, that with mold you want a speedier drying anyway
Couldnt find a clear answer to those 3
Greatly appreciate the advise!
Help a fella bag his first grow! 
Cheers Zero
Moring to ya. Ima fallow along to see what others say because yesterday i just decided to harvest because of a bud rot problem unfortunately so i feel your pain. Icant help with much but i will tell you that i did the fallowing to be extra safe.
- Wet trimmed everything and did a thorough inspection of the trimmed buds. Including opening up the buds. (I threw away a large portion of my total harvest. Just wanted to be on the safe side of things)
- I did a 2 part wash. Firstly swooshing buds around in a Baking soda/lime juice/water combination then rinse in plain water. (Did this step twice). Then i did the same process in a water/peroxide mix and a plain water rinse. (Twice)
- Let them drip dry for a couple hours then into the drying room.
Best of luck to ya 
2 Likes
Other than bud rot, why do people do a “bud wash”?
2 Likes
How did you inspect them? Did you break them apart? Or just bend them a lot? Mine are sticking pretty firmly together
And how did you mix the solution for wash? I heard a lot of different approaches. For example h2o2/water 50/50 others stated using 8oz. 3% h2o2 per gallon of water
Did you use straight tap water?
Some say RO or filtered water others use tap
1 Like
Apparently more of a thing outdoor growers do since they gather dirt/dust, insect shit and eggs which are not ruining bud but not a nice thing ^^ and apparently makes bud look nicer
2 Likes
I kind just bent them open. When they are still freshly wet they dont break apart as easily (in my experience) i also turned them over every way and just examined them thoroughly.
I was able to cut out a lot and save some buds but most of it got tossed due to the severity of the rot on the inside of the bud. Just wanted to be on the safe side with that.
I did about 2 cups equal parts lemon juice/baking soda in 5gallons of water.
Same for the peroxide/water wash too.
This took me a little over an hour but i kinda tossed the buds and swooshed them around in the solution. I did my big buds first then the smaller cut up pieces.
Single/small broken up buds b4 wash but after a trimming.
Bigger whole buds. Same thing
Also i used a crap ton to distilled water. Should went with RO woulda been much cheaper. To my knowledge you wana use as plain of water as you can get. Sorry that took awhile 
3 Likes
Most outdoor growers do it to wash off all the gunk that gets on the plant throughout the regular day. Also washes away buds eggs poop ect like @sklxzero mentioned.
And helps kill off potential mold spores that may be lurking. Just cleans the bud up for good clean smoke.
1 Like
Are these pics with the rotted bud or are those only clean ones?
If i find rotted bud i’d toss it without washing it right?
Also i plan on branch drying but i guess the method is still the same just may take some more time when i cant toss them in all at once
After i took the pic i had to take a couple buds out because i noticed i missed some spots. I was able to cut it out cleanly enough that i flet the rest would be ok. The are pics of trimmed buds not washed.
I think its a judgment call. If i could cut out or pic away the rotted spots enough i kept it. If it was more severe like in multiple spots on the same bud, it got tossed.
Should also mention i use a bud trimmer, so i had to cut down the branches to fit in the trimmer.
A hand trim with the braches with the buds on them would probably be more ideal imo. That way you can dry them as a whole branch like u mentioned.
1 Like
A bud wash also removes dust and lint.
1 Like
Cat/dog hair and dead critters, too.
1 Like
I may be wrong, but at high temps and an RH of 50% you shouldn’t be getting bud rot. Rot dies at temps over 75 from my understanding and prefers 55% RH or higher. You might try increasing and or filtering the air intake and increasing ventilation out.
3 Likes
Ok so theres hope salvaging something
How do you go about the little fan leaves growing out of the bud when wet trimming?
At the moment im plucking them out of the bud and very large/pointy sugar leaves? Cut or leave?
1 Like
All that said I plan to do a wash similar to that described on my indoor grow. It’s supposed to be completely safe and improve flavor. See linked video from the guy that brought the method to market. If you search around on here he has an updated video that states 20 seconds in the wash water.
1 Like
My RH was averaging 65% with peaks after watering or at night around 73% i cranked it down by directly blowing the air of the dehumidifier into the tent through the intake vents at the bottom
That raises the tent temperature quite a bit though
Found another spot with weird sugar leaves:
Is that rot or smth different?
Tried pulling it out but it stays in place (i even ripped the tip off)
Ye thats one of the vids i saw as well and he uses plain hose water
1 Like
Man that sucks. Yeah better ventilation or bigger dehumidifier is the cure I think. Managing the balance with how RH and Temp interact can be a real pain though. Maybe a small dehumidifier in the tent but I heard they can wreck Terpenes. I intentionally heat all night though just to avoid the humidity spikes. I use the ac infinity thermoforge on super low settings with pretty good results but I have to keep my lung room within about 5% of goal RH and 10 F of goal temp for that. What do you use to vent out now?
1 Like
@Myfriendis410 I should have already tagged you. He knows a ton about the wash process.
I’m just going to use the three bucket rinse and hang dry with fans for a couple hours until they don’t appear to have outside moisture anymore. I think you don’t even technically have to rinse though due to the vapor pressure of H2O2.
My experience with bud rot revolved around caterpillar infestation. Louper moths lay an egg on flower and the worm burrows into the center; killing the flower. Look for dark brown or black spots on your bud and see if it easily pulls out. Inside that would be an insect larvae.
Bud wash in peroxide only. Leaves no residue unlike lemon juice etc. 1 cup in a 5 gallon bucket. No need to rinse unless trying to dislodge debris mechanically. Peroxide will break down immediately into water and O.
6 Likes
