Out of curiosity - do you lab test for mold and what are the results if so? Spores on plants may not show in visible mold colonies - and yet still have a health impact on those susceptible. As we are seeing from recent studies - even if you think you are mold free - you probably are not.
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Not as much as a highly concentrated/unstable peroxide! The carbon filter in your reverse osmosis system will neutralize the chlorine. That’s the reason it is there.
Btw, most municipalities have moved/are moving to chloramine disinfectant (i.e., chlorine mixed with ammonia) due to the carcinogenic byproduct called trihalomethane. Chloramine is about 5 times stable than chlorine and generally requires active carbon instead of the pressed carbon block (for the same size filter) to remove it.
If your source water is 50 ppm or more, you are either using reverse osmosis filtration or you need to be as the compounds in the water will compete with and change your nutrient mix. Also, stay away from pumps that have disparate metals exposed to the water as it will create a galvanic reaction, which will also affect your nutes.
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Still not convinced that H202 is more dangerous to the downstream ecosystem than NaClO - no salt buildups or extra chlorine to be processed. Chloramine is more of an issue in water management than chlorine. If we want clean water for our kids and grandkids - this might be something we want to start thinking about as we become the next massive boom industry.
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Reverse osmosis is great for your intake - how do you manage your waste water?
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Unfortunately this is only a panacea - the mold still exists in the grow - the spores are still in the buds. We just don’t see large colonies. Just cause we don’t lose buds to botrytis does not mean that we don’t have a mold spore outbreak of some other species which can cause issues with health.
For consumer protection there will ultimately be a level of treatment required for the different cannabis products. It is inevitable that public health and safety will kick in as the product reaches full legalization status.
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Minimize waste with recirulating nutrient delivery as a first step. Secondly, reverse osmosis techniques can be used to concentrate what is left.
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As the article I linked earlier pointed out - 100,000 or more mold spore species exist in reality, albeit a microscopic one, and there is damn little you can do about that practically speaking. Below a certain level for practical commercial testing they are undetectable and cause no harm.
Just as with arsenic in drinking water standards, there will be a maximum contamination level, above which will require treatment or, more likely destruction of the infected plant. To avoid that only requires proper management of the potential so that it doesn’t develop above a certain threshold:
- Remove carbon food sources like dead plant matter,
- adequately control the humidity (don’t have dehumidifiers leaking on the floor, and cover any reservoirs in the room),
- and wipe down the (non-porous) walls with bleach (or H2O2) when resetting.
I think we’ll see a lot more ass-kicking over pesticides and growth hormones than undetectable mold.
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Well the big licensed producers here in Canada have had a reaming over illegal pesticide/fungicide use - now they are talking about irradiating to provide ‘peace of mind to the medical consumer’. I think there will probably have to be some sort of post harvest treatment as well as extended testing. Having a clean grow might not be enough. It might be like milk and the pasteurization requirements of that. Still early days - but it never hurts to do some scenario testing and planning for future paths the industry might take.
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Another article related to mold issues:
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Nice blog article on the sad state of cannabis produced by the federal govt:
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This is a good overview of gamma radiation - a number of the big medical producers in Canada are using it now.
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Interesting article. It mentions that terpenes can be evaporated through the radiation process so I wonder if that affects the flavor or effects at all.
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The weird thing about using gamma radiation is that all sorts of protective measures need to be used while using it, and it still doesn’t get rid of everything. You need a chunk of radioactive material (IE Low-grade uranium), some means of handling it, and some means of storing it. But using low-grade uranium also makes it less effective. Using high-grade uranium would make it more dangerous.
If I wanted to DIY gamma radiation… I’d buy some old Fiesta bowls.
UV light seems like it would be a better means of sterilization. It’s generally much safer to handle.
Theoretically it can, but it shouldn’t. Since gamma radiation is essentially made of high-energy photons, it can generate heat (particularly when it hits dense materials, such as lead or liquid water). That said, the action is microscopic, and unless you’re using a high-grade source of uranium (IE Fuel Rods), the heat generation should be negligible.
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I have sampled some of the Gamma Radiated material - it definitely has lost a lot of terpenes and has a strange flavour. As a connoisseur it definitely reduces the product to just another mass manufactured product of consumption.
I agree with @Hunter that UV offers a better option - does anyone know of it being currently used in production? What about ozone treatment as well?
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Seems like ozone evaporates terpenes as well. Use it only for exhaust!
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Oh, that’s not surprising at all. Ozone is highly reactive, given its unstable chemical state. That’s part of why it’s poisonous to humans.
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Plants (like humans) are covered in and full of fungi. How many of the ‘molds’ are actually due to the plant’s microbiota or simply coming in on air currents? If sustainable agriculture is moving to use the plant’s microbiota (fungi and bacteria) to increase plant productivity while reducing resource requirements (water, nutrients, and pesticides) then how we identify molds needs to be addressed. I have mold allergies as well but how much of that mold is destroyed by curing or in the process of incineration? I don’t think the industry has data on that. Do the labs checking for molds do so at the species level? If not, they could be identifying phylosphere fungi that are beneficial to the plants or fungi applied to the plants as a biocontrol, as mold.
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Here are some places to look for the growing recognition and interest in differentiating friend from foe in the plant’s phyllosphere. How far testing labs have come in terms of their ability to include the latest science is a question I don’t know how to answer except to call labs and ask them -
are they identifying to the species level?
How are they id’ing - using PCR or microscopy?
Are they researching the literature to look for updated plant interaction histories (e.g. Fusarium used to be a pathogen regardless of the species but F. oxysporum is a mutualist in many plants, ditto for Trichoderma harzianum (sp?)). I don’t have the bandwidth to do this myself but if others are interested in a divide-and-conquer approach I’d be happy to help organize.
http://www.nature.com/nrmicro/journal/v10/n12/full/nrmicro2910.html
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I share your condition and sentiment
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