Three Critical Facts About Powdery Mildew

In the cannabis industry, there may be no more frightening pair of words than “powdery mildew.” Growers keep a sharp eye out for this devastating fungus, which shows up on cannabis crops all over the country, and are constantly monitoring the industry news sources for the development of a powdery mildew spray that can reliably eradicate and prevent its growth.

Here are three critical facts to know about this unique threat against cannabis and how growers can use the power of hypochlorous acid to protect their crops from it.

1. Powdery Mildew Spreads With Humidity

As a vigorous attacker of plants of all different types, powdery mildew is able to survive and even thrive in a wide variety of humidity levels. But as long as the temperature is warm, more humidity means more ability of the fungus to spread quickly to other plants. The distinctive white spores, which resemble sprinkled flour, will show up on more leaves throughout the crop until the entire harvest is threatened.

This is bad news for cannabis growing operations, which strive for relatively high humidity levels and a consistent warm temperature. Because the ideal growing conditions for cannabis and powdery mildew are similar, it is even more important for growers to identify products that they can use to discourage fungus propagation in their grow rooms.

2. Powdery Mildew is Persistent

In researching solutions to prevent powdery mildew, farmers and cannabis growers encounter rather discouraging warnings concerning the persistence of the fungus. Once it colonizes the leaves of a plant, it is extremely difficult to save the individual plant itself; instead, the standard advice is to destroy the heavily affected plants and attempt to prevent the disease from spreading to nearby healthy plants.

It is also very important to avoid carrying powdery mildew spores from infected plants to healthy plants on garden tools–frequent cleaning is necessary when mildew is an issue; otherwise the simple process of pruning and caring for plants in a crop can distribute spores throughout it very quickly.

Even without these negative activities taking place, powdery mildew spores naturally spread effectively in the same way that most mold and mildew spores do–by floating through the air until they land on a surface favorable to growth, such as the leaves of a cannabis plant.

3. Hypochlorous Acid Is Effective Against Powdery Mildew

As growers across the United States search for a powdery mildew spray that can solve this severe problem, hypochlorous acid is quickly gaining a reputation for effectiveness. While there are many different chemical based fungicides that can kill and prevent powdery mildew, growers are extremely hesitant to introduce those products into their crop due to health and safety concerns for the final harvest. While hypochlorous acid is proving itself again and again in grow rooms against powdery mildew, it has the enormous benefit of not posing a threat to cannabis plants. This gives growers peace of mind that they can give a product like Greenlyte^® a chance in their operations without worrying about it harming their crop.

Greenlyte^® uses hypochlorous acid as its primary active agent to attack not only powdery mildew colonies, but many of the other infections that show up in cannabis crops as well. Just as in a wide range of other industries that PCT serves with cleaning and disinfecting products, the field of commercial cannabis production is discovering that hypochlorous acid meets the criteria that they have for eradicating disease without jeopardizing the health and safety of their employees.

Greenlyte^® for Cannabis Production

Produced from potassium chloride through the process of water electrolysis, Greenlyte^® uses well understood mechanisms to target and destroy harmful pathogens. Paired with its effectiveness is the important fact that using Greenlyte^® does not produce any VOCs, thus helping employees avoid threats to their respiratory health. This is especially important in an environment like a grow room, where any airborne chemical particles would tend to remain in the air and cause severe issues for employees with chronic respiratory conditions.

To learn more about Greenlyte^® and ongoing research into its role in powdery mildew prevention, cannabis entrepreneurs can get in touch with PCT directly and speak with an expert consultant.