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Dean
Today we’re talking about bad drought and mould and some of the pesky fungal diseases that you can face during your cannabis growth journey. And we’re going to be looking basically at four different products today that we utilise or have started using over the last sort of grow season and last couple grossed I’m joined today by Luke who’s going to be giving us his expert opinions and joining me in the discussion I think mould and bud right especially this time of the coming to the end of the outdoor season is is a big issue. We saw it in the indoor space recently, you know, trying to push the stuff a little bit a little bit long or maybe just trying to hope for those, you know, their final little bit of THC to to to develop, but it’s an issue that, you know, I faced a couple times, especially with big Bhadra Bajra, specifically with big, dank colas. And, you know, I was out on a hemp farm this this past weekend, they were saying that they’ve recorded the highest, you know, rainfall in in years. So, it’s a perfect time to be coming in with this. And I thought it would be cool to chat about a brand new product, which I use for the first time this season. That’s a product called Bio sulphur. So what exactly is the bio sulphur. So powerful product I’ve must say. And it’s basically a fungicide that contains an elemental sulphur, the elemental sulphur will help prevent the growth of disease or fungal diseases like powdery mildew and botrytis, it works by preventing the spores of these diseases from germinating and growing. And it’s also because it’s such a powerful product, it’s also you can use it against mites and some other pests. Now, when you spray the sulphur, you kind of get that this white it looks like pm that’s appeared all over the plant that that basically forms a literal sulphur sulphur layer on the outside of the leaf. And then you’re able to kill off completely any spores that might be there, but you can’t see it. Luke, have you used the when exactly do you use the sulphur from from your experience and seeing people seeing people using

Luke
it only in the veg time. Don’t ever use it in flour, just during veg. And I think it’s very important to follow the instructions and also wear protective gear if you can, gloves and most of them protecting your coat and afterwards I know you and I were speaking a little bit about it, it’s it’s important to make sure that you are inside your gear of the using something like this, right?

Dean
You’re on the bottle it says don’t use for anything else. But I think if you give it a nice, good clean. I mean not everyone has five spraying canisters, you know, so I think give everything effect clean afterwards. It’s like like Luke said it is powerful. And it is a product that should be used with some caution. But it’s it’s organic in the sense that it’s you know, it’s, it’s, it’s an element and it is super powerful. And it will just help you it will give you the peace of mind that at the end of your veg period. There is no traces of any kinds of party module by traitors and then you can start to move into some of the into some of the biologicals.

Luke
Yeah, for sure. 100%. And I also think that something that goes with this is product called the bio try code now it’s not necessarily there to you know, assist in with with pests or sorry, it does help with pests, but with mould and stuff like that. It’s a biological insecticide that contains the spores of the fungus tracker DOMA Harzianum. I don’t know if I butchered that. But the fungus colonises the root zone, and it creates like this beautiful protective barrier around the root zone. And it protects against you all your soilborne pests and diseases. So root aphids, thrips, pythium, etc, etc. It also helps stimulate root growth and enhances the nutrient uptake. So, you know, in hand with the sulphur maybe protecting the the outer actual mass of the plant, you’ve got your bio tracker that’s working its magic in the soil, which helps with the the plants to immune system, right.

Dean
Yeah, exactly. I mean, if the plants weak or weakened by loads of different pests, then now all of a sudden, it’s just way more susceptible. And I mean, you’ll also often see it when you like leave your plant, if a plant sort of goes dries out too much and starts drooping. Maybe a couple of days later, you know it just pays for the first time because you’ve killed off all your biologicals as well. I think this is exactly that, you know, if you’re not protecting the plant’s immune system, you’re opening yourself up to attack and you know a lot of people grow in urban areas and in the urban areas, you’ve just got plants, hundreds of different species coming in at all angles, people gardening all the time. So you know, if you’ve got a weak plant in a urban environment, you’re gonna you’re gonna face issues, and I think on the you know, the bylaw cycles is super important going into the flowering stage or especially because you you can spray some of the biologicals, early and flower and that allows them to penetrate into where the buds are going to be developed and start to build up a resistance and a super one that’s become sort of, you know, one of the main products that I’m using in my in my biological arsenal at the moment would be the bio tracker that Luke mentioned. And then also another product called AQ SF one specific one that that we use called Bio AQ SF. And basically what is it it’s a microbial insecticide that contains the bat bacterium Bacillus T, I’m not going to try and pronounce it as I have in another episode, but BTi produces toxic toxins that specifically targeting kill for mosquito and fungus net, it is commonly used for cannabis cultivation, but other kinds of cultivation as well. And is, is excellent in preventing the spread of diseases like powdery mildew, which which can also be carried by sort of bugs in the in the Grow space. So once again, another biological with both of these biologicals, I must just say the biologicals always worked better as a preventative and in a cure, like if you’re not building up your biologicals over time, you know, a big a big sell for spray and then three to five weeks off now spraying every week for the with the biologicals, that and then they become strong, and they build up colonies on the planet. And in the in the substrate, if you kind of facing an advanced level of powdery mildew, if you’ve got bad rot, you know, then they they might help slow it down. But they’re the powdery mildew is already sort of dominating that macro space, and then they don’t seem to be seem to be as effective. So yeah, like IPM as you grow more becomes more and more important. I mean, we all slack off on it sometimes, you know, especially if you’ve got a lot going on, but it actually shouldn’t be something that you slack off on, it’s as important as it’s watering.

Luke
Oh, yeah. 100% And like you said, prevention is always better than cure, right? So rather than get get in there and have your regimen set out and stick to it to prevent these kinds of things were happening, but also an understanding that some genetics are more susceptible than others to get powdery mildew. So yeah, it does happen. But what you can use as well, it’s a copper count N It’s a liquid copper fungicide that helps prevent the growth and the spread of fungal diseases down to powdery mildew, black spot, etc, etc. It works by creating this protective barrier on the surface of the plant, which makes it very, very difficult for fungal spores to germinate and infect the plant. Then again, I also wouldn’t use this in in the yo yo flower stages you know rather than stick with your biologicals, if you can and and use this in your in your vegetative state, I don’t know what your experiences have been with with that the more

Dean
more experienced with the cough account then the then the sulphur I think the carpet and the sulphur or similar products in the in the stages that you use them in the in the vegetative period. But more I have more experience with the copper than then the software like I said, but I have a feeling that sulphur is a better product between the two. But it also depends on what you guys have access to, you know where you are and who stopped with and stuff like that. And then yeah, I mean, just in closing, these aren’t all the products that we that we use, you know, I really liked the synergistic microbes we’re getting some microbes into into us into some IPM you know, that also helps with building up the bit of resistance also like the wetting agent that you’ve done wetting agent which there’s no according to the white papers it doesn’t look proven to kill party pm specifically but I have seen it sort of seem to help sort of wash it off or control a bit of growth if you do have have it kind of appearing doesn’t mix well with copper that I said forms it’s like forms it’s like sludge that you’ve got to basically throw away your your spray bottle afterwards. And then I also really liked the Eco baths range of products. We’ve got our disease pro we’ve got our pest Pro, which are very similar to the biota eco bio, you know, AQ SF so for me the the having a sort of powerful product in the veg stage and then going into your flowering stage and trying to build up a bit of resistance would basically be the my strategy. Luke, do you have any final final notes for anyone? Anyone listening?

Luke
Yeah, I think you look going and having your your regiment following your regiment for the power module and pests is essential. You need to stick But in terms of backdrop, though, it’s a little bit more, a little bit more tricky. You know, we experienced two or three heads with with bad rot in our space recently and that, you know, we, you lose a couple of heads, you open them up, you have a look, you’ve got to investigate and you can’t consume that at all either. You know, so you got to be careful. Watch out for it. If you do have it, get it out of the space immediately. Don’t dry it with the rest of it. Chuck it in the bin. And you should be good to go. But yeah, keep up with those regimens. And you guys will you guys will be good. Now guys.

Dean
So I think that’s a super important point. You know, the, the bad ride is something to look out for. And it’s scary when it does happen. So if stuff looks like it’s going from colour to black and white, it’s time to get in there. But it generally you know, if you’ve got super bad dank, big nugs that you haven’t changed, you haven’t also grown a load of you might you might be susceptible, and it goes we didn’t chat anything about sort of, you know, environmental issues and stuff like that today. This was specifically a product episode. We’ll come back in the future with some chats about airflow we’ll chat about some pests as well. But for today, that’s it. Apologies for last we missing one episode. We’ve had a bit of a crazy time. So for the first time ever in our history, we didn’t release an episode, but we’ve got loads of cool content coming out. We’ve got loads of cool podcasts. We’ll see Andy back relatively soon as well. So guys, we appreciate the support as always and till next time peace out guys is