Molded weed, need help

gb902 · Jul 5, 2011

Hi guys, 4 days ago I have bought about 5g of good bud, very sticky soft and moist. I have put it immediately in a small glass sealed jar, and conserved in a dark (but not cold) place, and opened it about 2 times a day to avoid any mold.
Today I have noticed a white mold, and now I have some questions.
Can I remove it and vape without any healt risks?
If yes, what's the easiest and safe way to remove it?
Now I am very disappointed because I don't know what I've mistaken, and don't want to throw away it all.

Thanks for any suggestion

Nycdeisel · Jul 5, 2011

Toss it.

Its not worth your health, I have had more bud mold then that, and that was the only time it ever happened.

DO NOT seal buds that are too moist in mason jars, they will mold. It takes less then a day for mold to develop and grow.

toss everything, and be sure to get a new lid for the jar, and clean the jar with alcohol, or pour boiling water in it, or use bleach, something to kill mold if you want to use that jar again.

BE sure that the jars you are using are COMPLETELY clean and dry before you seal your herb up in them.
Let the herb sit out for a couple of days or so next time before sealing it up, and then open one or twice each day.

gb902 · Jul 5, 2011

Thanks for the advice, finally I know what to do.
However I am VERY frustrated, because finding an excellent bud like that is almost impossible for me, plus the money wasted.

P.S.
I noticed that the mold has not covered compeltely all the buds, it would be possible to remove the infected parts, then put in alcohol 100% to make a tincture? I don't know, but alcohol should kill everything, right?

Nycdeisel · Jul 5, 2011

Not for sure, some molds will survive in alcohol bath.

Toss it to be safe, I know the pain of getting rid of it. but the risk of contamination is too great.

For the future: Always store herb in a cool, dry, and dark place.

gb902 · Jul 5, 2011

well, I must accept that... I hope to never see it again in the future.
Thank you for your fast help and suggestion, you probably have saved my health by something annoying...(health worth more than 50)

WatTyler · Jul 5, 2011

pah, eat it. Strained canna butter and into cookies or something. It's getting cooked. As long as it's not a toxic mould, which it's probably not, it'll be fine. In the small chance it was a toxic mould, then sure, there's a small risk it could slightly upset your stomach, but really not much and that's about the worst you could reasonably expect to happen.

A lot of the issues with mould are psychological and precautionary IMO. We're generally fine with mould when we expect it (cheese, salami etc)

I wouldn't chuck it unless it was really badly mouldy. Sounds like you got to it pretty early.

Best not to do anything involving inhaling though as the danger is that the spores can settle in you're airways somewhere, so unless you fancy chancing mouldy lungs.....

I definitely cook something up with it. (edit: or grain alcohol tincture for consumption should be ok)

So how many of you wouldn't eat at my house? :brow:

VWFringe · Jul 5, 2011

i may be crazy, but i'd probably water cure it

i had significant bud rot and powdery mildew on my last crop, and I knew water curing might not get everything, but no way was i gonna toss it if i could scrub it, so i washed the fresh buds in water and dish detergent (dawn) - just like i'd wash my broccoli, then did a five-day water cure

the bud had less flavor but no difference in potency (texture sucked too)

djonkoman · Jul 5, 2011

a while ago I read an article about mold on buds
there's one species of mold that's quite common on molded buds that is toxic, and the problem is this toxicity s due to toxins it releases into the bud
so only killing the mold won't help, you also have to get the toxin out

maybe watercuring and then butter would be enough

you can check for those toxins tough, that article mentioned you could see it with a blacklight

Lily · Jul 5, 2011

How do you tell the difference between molded bud or just bud with a lot of the good stuff on it, if both are white and fuzzy looking?

VWFringe · Jul 5, 2011

good to know some molds create toxins

reminds me of an episode of Chowder where he's fooled by mold into thinking it's a flavor enhancer

Nycdeisel · Jul 5, 2011

haha I saw that one^

:lol:

vapirtoo · Jul 5, 2011

Hey folks,
Lily asked a great question
How can you tell mold from great trichomes?

Sour Deez · Jul 5, 2011

lepstadder · Jul 5, 2011

if the stems dont snap it should not be put in a sealed jar

shame on that person for selling wet weed

1ml of water weighs 1 gram

Smokey · Jul 6, 2011

I read somewhere that white mold is usually not so harmful, the darker/black ones though, should be avoided as hell. Last year I had some crops whitemolded because of october rain (>.<) Discarded the worst parts and went along with the rest, not much of a problem to me.

WatTyler · Jul 6, 2011

^ I read somewhere that the red and orange moulds are also best avoided as some of those ones can more likely be toxic. But i've never seen them on buds.

Water curing first before buttering sounds a great idea that I will be using in future with any moderately mouldy bud I get in future.

Lily, Vapirtoo; I'd go by the look- trichomes have that tee/golf ball structure, whilst mould is often wispy or fluffy, and generally in clumps on the bud rather than all over. Also texture- mould is softer and often disintegrates easily to the touch. IME.

pakalolo · Jul 6, 2011

Back in the 70s there was a popular myth that black mould (black merta) increased potency by a huge amount. A lot of people deliberately made their weed mouldy and discovered that a) it didn't work, b) it tasted awful, and c) it was otherwise harmless. Nobody ever died or even got sick from it as far as I ever could discover. I'm not saying white or any other colour is harmless, and maybe we all just got lucky. I disavow myself of any consequences should anyone use mouldy weed--but I have, and 40 years later I'm still here.

djonkoman · Jul 6, 2011

not always harmless, in that article where I was talking about earlier there was also an account of someone who wanted to make his weed more potent by fermenting it and burried it, he got a toxic mold on it and died from smoking it

to me the difference between trichomes and mold is pretty clear, I can't really explain it but you'll easily see the difference

vapirtoo · Jul 6, 2011

Thanks WatTyler
Good description. I guess mold would be patchy and very wispy.
My best weed in the way past- 1976ish- was some moldy alcpulco gold,
great taste and awesome effect! Just saying... :2c:

pakalolo · Jul 6, 2011

djonkoman said:
not always harmless, in that article where I was talking about earlier there was also an account of someone who wanted to make his weed more potent by fermenting it and burried it, he got a toxic mold on it and died from smoking it

to me the difference between trichomes and mold is pretty clear, I can't really explain it but you'll easily see the difference

Well in my day we never fermented it, we just buried damp weed and waited.

I can believe that you can somehow wind up with toxic mould, bit I don't think that's common. Here's an interesting thread on the subject:

Marijuana and Mold

I'd be interested in a link to the article you mention should one exist.

djonkoman · Jul 6, 2011

I searched a bit on another forum where I know I posted the link once, and found it again:
http://www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Plants/Cannabis/preserve.html
not actual dead I read know, just close to it

Chusid et al. blame A. fumigatus for causing near-fatal pneumonitis in a 17-year-old. They note the patient buried his marijuana underground for "aging." No doubt the patient was looking for Margolis & Clorfene's fungus, but A. fumigatus found him instead. A. flavus, on the other hand, kills slowly. It oozes carcinogenic metabolites called aflatoxins. Llewellyn & O'Rear found aflatoxins contaminating Virginian marijuana.

lepstadder · Jul 6, 2011

someone who wanted to make his weed more potent by fermenting it and burried it, he got a toxic mold on it and died from smoking it

Well in my day we never fermented it, we just buried damp weed and waited.

This information was in a book i found called "Gourmet Guide to Grass"

i always thought it sounded ridiculous

Abysmal Vapor · Jul 6, 2011

i've vaporizer so much molded weed .... No lung issues... But a friend once suffer'd from smoking some bud with blue mold with yellow spots on it... Looked more like fungus though

/... Crazy mofo...
Check for little black stones .. You might have encounter fungus gnats .... Not dangerous..

gb902 · Jul 7, 2011

Thanks guys for suggestions, many people said I should toss it all.
But in the end I couldn't accept it, so I searched for every possible way to save at least a small quantity of that bud. So I have read many posts also in other sites, then checked the buds. They had a few spots of white mold, easily visible (like a spider web but very concentrate in few millimeters), like the classic mold you can see on fruits and some foods.
I have read that many common molds on fruits can be removed without any health risks after eating the remains, and the dark ones must be avoided.
So I decided to manicure the buds, removing all the visible infected parts and soak them in water for a watercure, then I will decide what to do with that stuff.
This interesting article says that for a recent study, "Fungi were identified in 13 of 14 MJ samples", so I think that every real toker has smoked/vaped/inhaled/eaten thousands of spores, plus we inhale hundreds of spores, bacteria, viruses and nasty chemicals everyday so I wouldn't be very worried about that. :2c:

Everything about mold and MJ:
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Alt/alt.gathering.rainbow/2009-10/msg01118.html

This is just my point of view, I am not saying that smoking infected weed is healty, expecially if you have asthma or your immune system is too weak so I suggest to pay attention and evaluate every single case.

Rico420 · Jul 8, 2011

gb902 said:
Thanks guys for suggestions, many people said I should toss it all.
But in the end I couldn't accept it, so I searched for every possible way to save at least a small quantity of that bud. So I have read many posts also in other sites, then checked the buds. They had a few spots of white mold, easily visible (like a spider web but very concentrate in few millimeters), like the classic mold you can see on fruits and some foods.
I have read that many common molds on fruits can be removed without any health risks after eating the remains, and the dark ones must be avoided.
So I decided to manicure the buds, removing all the visible infected parts and soak them in water for a watercure, then I will decide what to do with that stuff.
This interesting article says that for a recent study, "Fungi were identified in 13 of 14 MJ samples", so I think that every real toker has smoked/vaped/inhaled/eaten thousands of spores, plus we inhale hundreds of spores, bacteria, viruses and nasty chemicals everyday so I wouldn't be very worried about that.

Everything about mold and MJ:
http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/Archive/Alt/alt.gathering.rainbow/2009-10/msg01118.html

This is just my point of view, I am not saying that smoking infected weed is healty, expecially if you have asthma or your immune system is too weak so I suggest to pay attention and evaluate every single case.

Be careful, sometimes the spores themselves are not poisonous or toxic. Its the by-products they secrete by reproducing. So theoretically if you could somehow separate the actives from the mold/plant material, you have NO way to know if the nasties produced by the mold are soluble in whatever you use to extract you goodies. I only say this because i have been made very sick from a botanical tincture that molded. I thought that if i boiled it then dried it out it would kill the spores and not let them reproduce due to less/no water. Boy was i wrong, the mold must have secreted something into the water that heat/removal of water could not remove or kill. i had very nasty flu like symptoms that lasted for a few days.

You're right about breathing in spores, but they are only a few that are usually taken care of by your body before they can propagate and secrete toxins. Its definately not the same as consuming something that has had active, visible, growing mold on it.

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