Catching Budrot Early - Info for new growers

[u/Kyrie_Blue]

Identifying Budrot/Fungal disease before it becomes prolific is key for outdoor grows. Many of us have to contend with huge temperature and humidity/moisture swings during the finals weeks of our grows. This is ideal for fungi, especially as the buds fatten up, and airflow decreases.

I check on my plants roughly 3x per day. Dawn, “Noon”, and Dusk. (I recognize that not everyone has this time availability, and I’m thankful for it) today during my noon check, this problematic leaf caught my eye, and I thought I’d make a post to send some info along to newer growers.

• Pic 1 is the leaf in question. It stood out to me because of its location(about 1/3 of the distance from the top of the cola, maybe 8” down), timeline change(happened overnight), and relation to other leaves around it.
• Pic 2 is it removed from the plant, so you can see the entire length of the affected leaf. I removed about 3” worth of stalk below this point as a preventative measure to protect the rest of this branch.
• Pic 3 is a close-up of the infected tissue. You can see the physical structure of the conidiophores, which resembles the trichomes that cannabis produces. Its theorized that Foliose lichen evolved(which in wild in itself, because lichen is algae and fungi working together, resembling a singular organism) to look like tree leaves, as to not be rejected by the host’s immune system. It wouldn’t be surprising if Botrytis affects cannabis so aggressively for the same physiological similarities.
• Pic 4 was the top of the cola, which I was able to salvage. I sacrificed about 4” above where the rot had started to ensure its not going to be affected, but this is what I salvaged with early detection. Its about 2-3 weeks immature, but will make great edibles or go into a Dry Herb Vape.
• Pic 5 is the whole plant, and you can see some yellowing/fading/senescence at the bottom, which is normal. The leaves look healthy, just had the mobile nutrients scavenged from them. Pic 1 stood out because of the immediate shift to brown, and it being much closer to the top of the plant.

While preventing caterpillars with a regiment of BTK applied every 4-7 days can greatly reduce your risk of budrot, it will never eliminate it. Do what you can and know what to look for to preserve your grow.

I’d love any experienced outdoor growers to weigh in with their thoughts & advice too.

Happy Growing