Mold or Spidermites ?

[MesaBoogie]

Hi, I hope you can help me identify or teach me how to identify what I'm looking at. I tried a million ways to get a better picture representation of what I'm looking at but this is the best I could do. I found a few spots on the tops of my buds with a white fuzzy web like substance. At first I thought it was just trichomes but under magnification you can see it's string like structure, like a piece of fuzz almost. At first I thought it was spider mites but now I'm not so sure. I've checked the leaves for any signs of spider mites and I could not see any that match up with all the googling I've done. My humidity is in the 70's and my temps are between 59 lights out to a max of 72 lights on , with about a 68 average temp. My air circulation currently isn't the best. I'm in a 3x3 with a 4 inch exhaust fan exhausting from the bottom of the tent and one 8 inch fan blowing over the canopy of the tent. I'm about a week and a half away from harvest and wondering if I should chop early to avoid any furtherance of what ever this is.

 

[JP1]

Can't tell anything from that tiny picture but it sounds like possibly bud rot from your description. Does it break apart if you stick your fingers in there and spread it out? Spider mites are gonna make more of a "blanket" over the tops...

 

[420autoflower]

Can't tell anything from that tiny picture but it sounds like possibly bud rot from your description. Does it break apart if you stick your fingers in there and spread it out? Spider mites are gonna make more of a "blanket" over the tops...

 

[MesaBoogie]

Can't tell anything from that tiny picture but it sounds like possibly bud rot from your description. Does it break apart if you stick your fingers in there and spread it out? Spider mites are gonna make more of a "blanket" over the tops...

Yea the pic really sucks.. I'm leaning towards bud rot now as well. I didn't poke it with my finger but I used a bbq skewer to poke at it and it all seems to clump up easily on the wooden skewer. I've picked through the plant quite a bit and I can't find any inside the inner canopy where I would have thought there would be more signs of mold because of lack of airflow. And it's a pretty dense plant. I see no brown or signs of decaying under where I found the white fuzz.

It's the start of week 8 of flower so I'm guessing either way I better get it out of the tent and harvest. I know a guy doesn't want to mess around with mold. I'm hoping if I remove the 3 bud's that I found contaminated will be ok ? Or should I just chuck the whole plant ? I might cry a little as this was taking up almost half a 3x3.

pic of the whole plant

Larger image of single bud

(EDIT) I just noticed when zooming in on the bud pic you can actually see a little bit clearer another spot just to the right of where I did the blue circle. It's quite small but you can clearly see the webbing. It looks like it's forming between the brown pistol and the tiny sugar leaf.

 

[FarmerJake]

I see the fuzzy white to the right of the blue circle. Mold for sure you can see it is coming from the pistil. Pistils always catch air borne particles and I have found they are susceptible to mold because of it. 70% RH is too high in flower, you must get that below 50% and with thick buds like this maybe even lower. Plant looks great regardless nice growing

 

[MesaBoogie]

Was a sad day today. I did the harvest and found 4 spots where mold had started. Ended up throwing about a half ounce away so far. Anything that was near a moldy spot got tossed. Hopefully 6-7 ouches of good weed left once dry. I use the paper bag dry method (small lunch bags) and I'm guessing if I missed any mold I'll be in for a big ugly surprise when I open the bags. I see a lot of recommends to chuck the whole thing away. I'd like to hope/think I caught it early enough.....

Thanks guys for the feedback...

 

[Switch-Stack]

Wait, so what happened? I was really into this. Did the rest of the bud turn out ok?

 

[MesaBoogie]

Wait, so what happened? I was really into this. Did the rest of the bud turn out ok?

We really went through all the bud with an eye spy during trim. We probably spent almost 2 hours just checking it over with an eye spy. After it dried we repeated the process. I threw away about half an ounce, there definitely wasn't that much mold but we tossed anything close by the few spots we did find. I think we kind of got lucky and spotted the problem early.

However, after hours more research, I've learned a lot about this issue and if I ever encounter this problem again I will give them a hydrogen peroxide/water bath before drying. Maybe I'm going a bit over board but I think this might be good common practice even if I don't spot any mold. From my understanding of some of the reports I've read from testing done on cannabis is there is always going to be mold and mold spores present in cannabis.

I feel it's kind of like learning about the "bugs in your strawberries" thing when you check them under magnification. I just can't eat them anymore without giving them a good vinegar/water or salt/water bath. If you have never seen the videos of the bugs in your strawberries or the mold testing done on weed I highly recommend NOT watching them if your the slightest bit squeamish. Ignorance is bliss, strawberries have never been the same.

 

[MesaBoogie]

I was able to get a better pic of it in natural light. It's easy to mistake for trichomes, but if you zoom in you can see there are no heads on the trichomes but rather a silky layer of fine stranded webbing. It's very hard to spot on the plant without magnification. But I first noticed because I thought it looked just a little to frosty.

 

[Cannaficionado]

I was able to get a better pic of it in natural light. It's easy to mistake for trichomes, but if you zoom in you can see there are no heads on the trichomes but rather a silky layer of fine stranded webbing. It's very hard to spot on the plant without magnification. But I first noticed because I thought it looked just a little to frosty.

View attachment 1644947

Are there any long strands leading from plant to plant or from the walls of the tent or room to the plants? Those are definite signs of mites, this unfortunatly from the pic looks like the beginning of bud rot.