# Puff of white powder when bud is broken - Powder mildew?



## indtune (Nov 25, 2012)

**HELP IDENTIFY POWDER MILDEW**

I just harvested, dried, and are in the process of trimming. As a medical patient for asthma, I am conserned with mold and mildew.

* *Reasons to believe infection of Powder mildew**

I noticed when I break the bud from the main branch to trim, there is a fine puff of white powder that whisps off. This also occurs when I pull bigger feeder leaves off the bud, and break open bigger buds. It's very fine, and lighter than trichomes. The powder doesn't fall to the tray, but gets whisped into the air. When handling the branches to trim off the buds, my hands feel powdery after time - not sticky like normal. The secondary branches with buds attached have a fine light brown hue to them, almost as if the branch was dropped and got a little dust on them. And, to boot - after trimming for a couple days, 10 hours a day, I developed a horrible chest cold, and experienced the worst asthma attack I've ever had - I'm 27 and have had asthma since the 3rd grade - in which my albuterol inhaler did not help, which has never happened either. Everyone trimming ended up with some kind of conjestion, although the host of the house was sick two weeks before we started trimming.
Our grow was outdoors, and in a region with a relatively wet fall season. The plants in question were chopped while it was raining and taken straight into a shop to hang. Plants were still wet, and no dehumidifier was used, but oscillating fans were used. It rained for almost 2 weeks, and the tempature didn't get above 50F the majority of the time, making dry time 2 weeks+.
One plant did get cut before the heavy rains, hung by itself in a large shop for the majority of the time, and doesn't seem to be affected. 

*Reasons to believe no mold is present*
The shop used to dry wasn't cleaned to a T - some say the stuff on the branches could be dust. The buds look just fine when trimmed up - no crumbling, no discoloration of the inner stem (that I know of), no spiderweb-looking stuff on the bottom of buds. It smells nice, even after being jarred and properly ventilated. Leaves did not have signs of powder mildew. As said earlier, my cold, as well as everyone else's, could have been contributed to the host's recent cold bug. There was very little grey mold we had to cut off while still growing, and little obvious mold to trim off while trimming. 

I immediatly stopped trimming after the night of the horrible asthma attack, and noticed the puff of powder the next day after looking closer under a brighter light. Friends are still adament about my "paranoia", and I really don't want to have to turn my whole crop into bubble hash.

Can anyone help? Also, if it is powder mildew, what else can I do with the buds, besides bubble(water) hash?

Thank you!


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## WeedHopper (Nov 25, 2012)

That can never be a good thing.


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## BackWoodsDrifter (Nov 25, 2012)

Yur budds should never "puff" when yual breakem open but yual should just keep to puffin yur nuggets in yur pipe, be the only PUFF yual should see friend

BWD


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## King Bud (Nov 25, 2012)

Yup, that's powdery mildew.

Trash it all.

Sorry for the loss 

Better luck next time


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## indtune (Nov 25, 2012)

Yeah, I was prepared to hear that... My colligues, on the other hand, are having a hard time coming to grips... With nothing but the arguement "yah can't trust everything you hear on the internet..." Although I'm the only one doing my damn research...

I've noticed people are trying to make bubble hash, BHO, and ISO with their moldy and mildewed product. I am familiar with all process, and their arguements as to why they think it is safe.

Bubble - mold/mildew floats to the top, trichs sink, filtered... bubble hash w/ no mold... 
New reseach tells me that spores are smaller than trichs, so even  if the majority of spores float, your bound to get some that not only end up in your product, but make their way farther through your bubble bags than some trichs.... 

ISO - the alcohol kills spores, evaporate your liquid, and wham... ISO hash w/ no mold...
Deeper into it- The alcohol kills the spores, but dissolves the toxins into the solvent, and thus into your ending product...
*Same with BHO...

Cooking - people say its fine... Also read that toxins are MORE toxic if injested rather than smoked...

I've also read some molds are toxic, while others, like PM, are not. PM seems to only effect those with low immune systems and respratory problems... I have my medical card for asthma... GO FIGURE. 

I am of a conscious mind, and want to deal with a Marijuana Pharmasist - not a drug dealer... This said, I don't know how comfortable I am about another patient partaking in this product either... 

level of safety? I know there's shady people out there, that, if it looks ok... They're gonna sell it to you... I don't want to be one of those people...

Scientific backing is always helpful in persuading your colligues into being more conscious about the medicine they are producing... 

again, any help is always appreciated. Thanks for your time guys.


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## WeedHopper (Nov 26, 2012)

Mold is different then Mildew. I have made ISO outta PM Bud and never seen nor tasted a difference. Mold on the other hand carries some bad shet. Course my buds were not puffen out powder. Thats a little to much Mildew to me.
I personaly would trash the product you are describing. And never give such crap to other PPL, no matter what yur partners think. No PM Weed should be given to a MJ Patient,,ever. Your colligues need to back off and think of the Patient,, not thier pocket books.


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## Growdude (Nov 26, 2012)

I thought PM does not just fall off, in fact it wont come off?


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## indtune (Nov 26, 2012)

WeedHopper said:
			
		

> Mold is different then Mildew. I have made ISO outta PM Bud and never seen nor tasted a difference. Mold on the other hand carries some bad shet. Course my buds were not puffen out powder. Thats a little to much Mildew to me.
> I personaly would trash the product you are describing. And never give such crap to other PPL, no matter what yur partners think. No PM Weed should be given to a MJ Patient,,ever. Your colligues need to back off and think of the Patient,, not thier pocket books.


 
I'm guessing that you saw PM on your product that you turned into ISO, correct? here's the thing - the PM on my product would have otherwise gone un-noticed had I not been a stickler and had a keen eye. The puff and the stems texture are the only characteristics - like I said, the buds look, feel, and smell fine. I think I'll give it a go with the ISO, and give a disclaimer to anyone who injests it, and keep it away from patients with respiratory problems - since that's the only thing I've seen mildew effect is people with respiratory issues. 
It seems as though it isn't a huge worry for you to injest your ISO that had PM, so I gather it will be relatively harmless... I'm sure we've all smoked bud with worse mildew than this...

Thanks for the help.


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## ston-loc (Nov 26, 2012)

I lost a ton to PM this year. On the plants. Always started on the leaves. Not til it got really bad, did it work its way up onto the buds. Having powder puff out of your herb when you break it apart obviously sounds bad, but I'm having a hard time believing its PM if you hadnt noticed it until now. 

Id love to hear others thoughts on that.

The PM i got this season, wasnt really powdery in a sense that you could blow it off either. I mean it would smear off dusty-like with a touch. But I never saw any dust clouds from ruccusing the branches.


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## indtune (Dec 9, 2012)

ston-loc said:
			
		

> I lost a ton to PM this year. On the plants. Always started on the leaves. Not til it got really bad, did it work its way up onto the buds. Having powder puff out of your herb when you break it apart obviously sounds bad, but I'm having a hard time believing its PM if you hadnt noticed it until now.
> 
> Id love to hear others thoughts on that.
> 
> The PM i got this season, wasnt really powdery in a sense that you could blow it off either. I mean it would smear off dusty-like with a touch. But I never saw any dust clouds from ruccusing the branches.


 
This is a good point - the plants had no sign of PM during grow at all, or during drying for that matter. The only sign was some brown and grey mold, which was obvious and easy to cut out. Some of the buds are a bit crumbly, which are getting thrown into the hash bag. 

It's been, what, a couple weeks since I posted about this? Kind of been dabbed out since then, might have forgot about posting???

I've been trimming what I have left, being a bit more gentle this time around, so I don't stir up too much - whatever it is... I haven't been wearing a mask, and I have no symptoms. The cold I had lasted a couple weeks, but I'm good now. I can still feel a little powery texture on my fingers when I'm trimming, but I still get finger hash which is imediatly smoked... No symptoms from anyone. 

I've made some BHO from some of the smaller buds, and... woah... Best wax I've ever made. Taking the biggest dabs you want, smooth as butter. My girlfriend and I have been smoking on it for about a week now, and no symptoms. Actually, after buying ourselves G pens, I've noticed that my breathing is better. I haven't really smoked a lot of the herb in the past couple weeks or so, but friends have... And no symptoms from anyone. 

I'm still leary of smoking a ton of the herb, but it smells pretty dank being jarred for only a couple weeks. AK-47, YAY! And this wax... It's the bee's knees


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## trillions of atoms (May 20, 2013)

If you don't see/smell any mildew... And the buds are frosty and dry its probably just sone of the crystals breaking off and flying into the air. It happens to me when I'm quickly pulling a dry bud apart that's really frosty.

You can see it better if the lighting is right  

What it sounds like to me? :confused2:


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## zipflip (May 21, 2013)

hows he prefilter on ur intake? could it be ur growin in a dusty environment its pulling air from? ive had this issue when i first started growin and didnt pay mind to prefiltering m,y intake.


> The shop used to dry wasn't cleaned to a T - some say the stuff on the branches could be dust.


 ... regardless if ur intakes near the floor     and dependin on ur intake prefilter pore size u may be still gettin dust thru it, tho very small dust particles. maybe why ur only see a real fine poof of dust like.   
  also are you certain theres no pollen balls or nanns in them buds ur crackin open?  might it be loose pollen poofin out them buds and on leaves taht maybe that fell from buds higher up?  JMT


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