Whether you are growing your first cannabis plants or you consider yourself a pro, plant diseases tend to strike unexpectedly. Fungal pathogens are responsible for more than 85% of all plant diseases. These pathogens wait in the soil or in the air and sneak up on new cannabis plants or even fully grown pruned plants and strike.
Fungal diseases exploit all plant weaknesses and will leave your hemp plants prone to insect pests and more diseases. To protect your cannabis plants and ensure a bountiful harvest, you must protect your grow room or garden using savvy gardening practices and the best fungal treatment.
Bud density
Cannabis buds tend to increase in density towards the end of their life cycle. As the buds increase in size, their intra-floral ventilation tends to decrease. When this is combined with high humidity in the growing environment, the cannabis buds become susceptible to mold spores that are searching for hosts. At this stage, the best powdery mildew cure or prevention strategy is to prune your buds to prevent any susceptibility to bud rot attack.
Spread
Powdery mildew fungi tend to spread rapidly. When these fungi are bothered, they release a high quantity of infectious spores, which further spread this fungal disease. This results in damage to the buds and the stems, especially at the pruning wounds where it rots the entire stem. The cannabis buds have a stigmatic fluid that serves as the nutrient medium where airborne fungal spores grow.
Chemical attack
Botrytis or bud rot supports the formation of powerful chemicals, which destroy buds and cause necrosis in cannabis plants, including a variety of low molecular weight metabolites like oxalic acid, botryoidal, or HSTs. Bud rot also produces small RNA molecules that suppress the host’s immunity by causing gene silencing. Agrowlyte Plant Wash can be sprayed on plants to prevent any powdery mildew attacks.
The hypersensitive response
Plants naturally have responses that help them combat any pathogen attacks. One of the main responses to pathogen attacks is oxidative burst, which activates hypersensitive cell death around and inside the attacked area. This is known as the hypersensitive response and its aim is to cut off the food supply and keep pathogens like fungi confined to that specific part of the plant. However, botrytis and bud rot work as necrotrophic pathogens and use the dead tissue that is created to multiply. This simply means that the fungi exploit the defense mechanism of cannabis plants for their own pathogenic growth.
Botrytis or bud rot is a present danger to cannabis plants and cultivators need to focus on prevention rather than treatment or salvaging bud rot. You should maintain relatively high temperatures in the grow room, reduce humidity, and ensure the grow area is well ventilated. For cannabis plants that have dense buds or foliage, you should prune them and expose hidden areas to heat and light. Ensure that you adhere to proper drying and curing rules after harvest to prevent bud rot.
For more information:
AGrowlyte
9216 Bond St, Overland Park, KS 66214
(866)-949-5500
grantb@danolyteglobal.com
agrowlyte.com