Is UVC lighting destroying my bud?

[Maralti]

Hey GN,

First of all I would like to say this is my first post on GN, so hello! I’ve been on GN since the beginning but only as a voyeur until now. I’m loving this community. A lot of knowledgeable and helpfull people here!
Which brings me to my first post.

I just realised I might have been destroying my bud while drying it! After having 2 harvest infected with botrytis beginning the end of last year I started researching what I can do to kill this fungus. Yes I know prevention is better than curing, but due to circumstances I’ve had a bad growing room with uncontrollable environment with botrytis as a result. Anyway I found out about UVC lightspectrum and it’s desinfectational properties. So I started radiating my bud while drying to 1) kill any looked over pieces of budrot and or spores on the bud and 2) prevent budrot from happening all together. I finally have a proper grow room again where I can take care of my ladies the way they shoudl be taken care of. Everything is automated and controlled as it should be.

First harvest gets chopped. Everything looks as it should. Drying going good. Cured the bud for three weeks now… but they just don’t smell!! No sweet, pungeant aroma of weed. Just a boring little scent of something that’s supposed to resemble weed. I was about to start pulling my hair out. Why? What went wrong? I couldn’t pinpoint it! It was nearly driving me crazy! Then I decided to think back. Go to the basics and analyse everything. It hit me! The UVC light treatment while drying the bud! That must be it. So I started doing more research on UVC lighting. I found quit a lot. Even articles claiming UVC lighting can destroy plant DNA. But no real research with documentation and no article talking specifically about UVC killing the aroma of the bud. I’m on my second harvest now and can’t wait to finish so I can dry and cure without UVC to test it out. But in the mean time I was hoping that someone here can help ease my mind with a definitve answer and/or research on the subject. In any case I’m going to post a follow up after to share my own findings on the matter.

Thanks in advance, and happy growing everbody!

[hoppiefrog]

Uvc produces small amounts of ozone which will kill the flavor and aroma. It doesn’t effect the plant much at low levels while growing (the plant is constantly producing terps and flavinoids while alive) but i would imagine after harvest exposure would be much different.due to the plants lack of production.also the uv spectrum is harsh and would degrade the quality of your cannabinoids.i thunk when cannabis is radiated to sterilize canabis it,it is done as quickly as possible and is done with a powerful uvc light.also i believe it is ground up first to expose all materials to the light. Btw welcome and tks for the post & i hope this helps

[Maralti]

Thanks for the quick reply! Then that does answer it. Can’t wait to finish up the harvest and smell my beautiful bud again. I can’t believe I overlooked this for so long. Was so focussed on the botrytis problem that I implemented UVC lighting in the drying process as a standard procedure without picking up on the negative effects of it on time. As promised a follow up post wil come with the new batch.

[hoppiefrog]

Good to hear.u should check out these prokure packs.im going thru a bud rot infestation myself this crop

[hoppiefrog]

[hoppiefrog]

U can sterilize your fans ballasts /whole rm & ventilation system

[hoppiefrog]

Still need to clean first

[hoppiefrog]

Most of my gear is 10yrs old and has been in bad storage at times

[hoppiefrog]

Best of luck my friend;)

[Maralti]

Thanks. Hope you don’t lose to much of the harvest. I’m gonna look into the prokure pack. What I’ve been looking into is beneficial fungi mixes to add to my soil to help prevent bad fungi from overtaking the soil mix. Other methods i’m looking into implementing are CADS ( Continual Air Desinfection Sysytems). Also UVC lighting but not directly on the crop. I’m attaching something for you on the CADS.

Best of luck and thanks a lot (213.4 KB)

[hoppiefrog]

Np at all and tks;) im a organics guy myself so always interested in benificials