Fighting Fungus

In today's article we will go over the different methods of making sure your garden is never hit with fungus again. The two main offenders are powdery mildew and botyris. Both can be easily avoided if you follow the advice below.

The 1st area that we will go over is humidity both PM and botyris love high humidity. In order to control fungus keep you Vegetative humidity 65 degrees or below and in flower 50% or below. Humidity gets very critical once you pass the 4 week in flower.

The 2nd area we will go over is systemic protection. Most products for fungus are on contact or a temporary PH change on the leaf surface to make it inhospitable for maybe 7-10 days and then the problem comes back. There are several products on the market that will go far beyond the contact kill or 7-10 day band aid. Both Bayer disease control and spectracide immunox have systemic protection that actually soaks into the plant material, and will kill the fungus at its core. It also provides about 30 days of protection against many types of fungus. When used twice, 1 week apart at the end of veg and the 1st week of flower, it is very unlikely that you will see any mold.

The 3rd area is potassium silicate one of the most over looked nutrient supplement on the market, but after years of research on potassium silicate has reported positive results on many crops against numerous diseases, pests and environmental stresses. Silica alleviates rust and powdery mildew and inhibits botyris on various crops. The University of Pretoria has also had some promising results on avocados against Phytophthora, a serious root rot disease, limiting production It was originally thought that silica only played a physical role in plants. Now there appears to be no question that it plays a biochemical role in gene activation or de-activation. Research from Canada on gene activation showed that of a huge number of genes are switched on in silica-treated plants to defend the plant. It's a whole new field of research and a whole new way of thinking. Green house studies have shown that with 100 ppm of silicate in the reservoir, powdery mildew was inhibited by up to 70% with no fungicides at all.

The 4th area I would like to go over with you is flushing and how important flushing agents are. Regardless of what nutrient recipe or brand or even what PPM you feed at. When it comes to avoiding boytris you will want to use a flushing agent "Clearex is a scientifically formulated isotonic drench solution, which binds with the excess nutrient salt and safely leaches it from the grow media. Clearex is isotonic to create a safe osmotic environment which prevents bacterial and fungal infections often caused by other leaching methods. Clearex is a multi-beneficial water treatment solution used to prevent irreversible wilting and enhance the flavor and yields of your vegetative plants. Leaching with tap or deionized water can lead to hypotonic conditions which cause cell lysis with outflow of essential electrolytes and nutrients; This causes tissue damage leading to serious pathogenic disorders such as bacterial and fungal infections. Clearex is isotonic to create a safe osmotic environment, which allows plant cells to maintain an optimal turgor pressure during treatment." That is a quote off of botanicares web site. Basically to break it down what they are saying is, when you start your flush at the end of your cycle and you go from a reservoir containing 1000 ppm of nutrient solution and you change it to a 0 ppm solution, the plants freak out and try pulling in extra water trying to get nutrients that do not exit any more. What happens now is the plant swells with so much water the calyx begin to burst on the inside. Not only that the swelling makes the flowers sopping wet and super dense from the excess water. That my friend is the perfect breading ground for botyris, open wound and high humidity  inside the flower and it has the perfect environment to wreak havoc. What Clearex does it replaces the nutrients with electrolytes this makes the plants use a normal amount of water and keeps them balanced.

The 5th area is cleanliness after every run it is important to clean all of your equipment and grow area. If you have a boytris outbreak in order to kill the spores it takes 12oz's of bleach in 1 gallon of water and the surface has to stay wet for at least 10 minutes. There is a better alternative to bleach, restaurant sanitizer. It does not have a harsh smell, and it can get on your clothes and skin with out damaging anything and it is very concentrated so a couple of cap fulls in a gallon of water is all that is needed. I like to get a 1 gallon pump sprayer fill it up, and add a few cap fulls and spray the room down top to bottom. After it has sat for 10 minutes turn on all you fans and dry it out. The sanitizer is also good for soaking all of your supplies, scissors, buckets, you name it. I even keep a spray bottle by my door and before I go into the grow room I spray the bottom of my shoes as a precaution.

If you follow these guidelines and still are hit with a fungus attack chances are you have very weak genetics and they should be disposed of. Thanks for reading the article check back often for the latest hydroponic info, trends and honest product comparisons.