Healthier Indoor Spaces
Best Practices to Manage Powdery Mold in Cannabis Cultivation
What first presents as a subtle discoloration of a few fan leaves on one cannabis plant can quickly become a facility-wide problem that reduces yields, lowers the quality of finished cannabis flower, and precludes flower from sale in regulated markets. It’s known as powdery mildew on plants, and it’s one of the most common problems that cannabis cultivators face.
Powdery Mildew: The Scourge of Cannabis Cultivation
Though it’s not inherently harmful to humans except in cases of prolonged exposure or those with mold allergies, powdery mildew, also known as powdery mold, can wreak havoc on cannabis crops. This common pathogen can stunt plant growth, negatively impact flower production, and weaken plants, leaving them more vulnerable to other problems.
Preventing Powdery Mildew in Cannabis Cultivation Environments
Powdery mildew prevention is essential, as it is common, fast-spreading, and difficult to remediate. What can cannabis cultivators do to protect their crops?
Sanitation Best Practices: Effective Cleaning and Disinfection Protocols for Cannabis Grows
As a baseline, cannabis cultivators should uphold good general sanitation practices. Workers should follow strict entry/exit procedures, wear protective clothing, and regularly sanitize surfaces and equipment. Ideally, each piece of equipment should be sanitized between contact with each plant, though this can become time-consuming and expensive, especially in larger operations.
Though thorough sanitization procedures are important in indoor cannabis grows, they can only do so much.
Powdery mildew on cannabis spreads primarily through the air, so it doesn’t matter how clean the surfaces in the grow room are — spores can still waft from one plant to the next without any shared physical contact.
Environmental Control: Optimizing Temperature, Humidity, and Airflow to Inhibit Mold Growth
One of the benefits of indoor cannabis cultivation is the ability to precisely regulate environmental conditions, including heat, humidity, and airflow. This control over the ambient environment can also help manage powdery mildew.
Maintaining
consistent temperature and humidity levels can help to control powdery mildew on cannabis. However, this approach is limited in its efficacy, as cannabis plants and powdery mildew thrive in relatively similar atmospheric conditions. Cultivators attempting to create the ideal environment for their cannabis plants often find that they have inadvertently created an ideal environment for powdery mold, too.
Allowing ample airflow can also help prevent powdery mildew — until a point. Once the mildew is present, airflow can rapidly distribute spores throughout an entire cannabis grow room, as they primarily spread through the air.
Integrated Pest Management: Incorporating Biological and Cultural Controls to Suppress Powdery Mold
When sanitary and environmental measures to control powdery mildew fail, many cultivators turn to treating their plants with chemicals and biological compounds meant to inhibit the development or spread of the pathogen. Though these compounds often have some efficacy, their effectiveness varies significantly depending on their specific chemical makeup, when they are applied, and even the cultivar they are applied to.
Additionally, options are limited;
few fungicides are approved for use on cannabis plants, and many legal markets disallow the use of any fungicides. Other compounds have some effectiveness, but many cultivators and consumers are wary about applying additional chemicals to the plants they consume.
Air and Surface Sanitization: The Role of Advanced Technology in Managing Airborne Mold Spores
Since powdery mildew spreads primarily through the air, it seems evident that this is the place to begin when attempting to reduce mold and mildew in indoor agricultural settings. Now, exciting new technology is beginning to make this idea applicable in cannabis cultivation settings of all sizes.
Responding to a Powdery Mildew Outbreak: Effective Containment Strategies
The methods discussed above are typically used to attempt to prevent powdery mildew. Containing or eliminating it once it appears is considerably more difficult.
Cultivators can try to isolate infected plants, but powdery mildew is pervasive and fast-moving. Once it appears on one plant, it’s likely already spread to others.
Many of the techniques that cultivators turn to, including aggressive chemical application, are hard on the plants, stressing them out further and potentially causing more crop loss.
Creating a Powdery Mildew-Free Future: Sustainable Practices for Long-Term Success in Cannabis Cultivation
As the cannabis industry grows, so will the demand for high-quality cannabis flower and processed cannabis products. Cannabis cultivators have the exciting opportunity to grow their businesses and meet this demand if they can effectively scale up their operations.
We need to grow better, safer, and smarter cannabis more reliably — and that means leveraging innovative technology to control common pathogens like powdery mildew.
Heightened awareness of the effects that pathogens are having on our lives is creating an opportunity to rethink, in innovative ways, the solution for protecting our indoor environments.
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