White Mold Cannabis is also known as White Powdery Mold, abbreviated as WPM. If you are a cannabis plant grower, you should have been familiar with this sort of infestation meddling with your plants.
If this is your first time growing cannabis and you are not sure if you have encountered any before, here are some hints you can use to identify the mold: 1) it often appears as white spots on the leaves and 2) the leaves are riddled with round patches of flour-like powder.
If these are what you encountered last time, it most certainly was WPM. And as you are not familiar with the infestation, chances are you are also not familiar with how to get rid of it.
WPM spreads easily from one plant to another and while it is categorized as something minor, if you do not do something about it quickly, it will ruin the entire harvest in the end. It could occur out of nowhere on a leaf and then spread to others and buds, in which case the buds are pretty much toasted anyway,
White Mold Cannabis knows only two things in its entire life: eat everything it attaches to and reproduce—and it reproduces at a pace so rapid it might be too late for you to do anything.
Its white color makes it easy to identify, though, so the first time you encounter one, you need to do something about it. So, what causes this mold to grow on your plants?
- Humidity
High moisture and WPM is a match made in heaven. But this doesn’t automatically have anything to do with water. Growing plants in an area of typically high humidity are enough for WPM to grow.
- Little to no airflow
While high humidity provides an environment for WPM to thrive, poor airflow allows it to settle down.
- Little to no ventilation
Spores will see a higher opportunity of landing on leaves in a growing area with poor ventilation.
- Leaf to leaf contact
Moisture will build up when leaves are touching with one another, which leads to a convenient environment for the WPM to grow.
So, how to get rid of WPM? You can use the following homemade remedies to deal with WPM:
- A mix of milk and water, 1:9 ratio,
- 2 tablespoons of baking soda per gallon of water,
- 4 teaspoons of neem oil per gallon of water,
- 1 teaspoon of 35% hydrogen peroxide per gallon of water,
- A mix of SM-90 and water, 1:5 ratio.
Or, you can just use water and some paper towels. Wet the towels with water (you can use tap water) and rub the mold off each affected leaf. Make sure you don’t jostle other affected leaves while rubbing on one so the spores don’t get spread around.
Wet paper towels (or cloth) will make the spores stick to it, making them less airborne in the process. Paper towels are preferable given that they can easily be disposed of after use.
Source: http://www.growweedeasy.com/white-powdery-mildew
