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Moldy buds?? help please

STaX420

New Member
So, I was curing my buds (first time) and I noticed one jar was moldy (spider silk like, white). I forgot to open it for a while. Yes, I'm dumb. I threw it away.

In the other one there was no visible mold on first sight.

I went though the jar and found maybe 2 buds that were maybe bad (small leaf was whiteish), i threw them away, but maybe I am being too paraoid.

What about the rest? Is it safe to vape it if there was one bad bud and the rest is fine?

But I'm not sure if any other are moldy or not, so here are few pictures, I can take a few more if it isn't distinguishable.

The strain is White Widow.

https://s32.postimg.org/d9kmnfx4l/IMG_20160722_203354433.jpg

https://s31.postimg.org/qiiigq20b/IMG_20160722_203306436.jpg
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STaX420,

Burt

Well-Known Member
Long story short, you shouldn't vape it. Bad things can and do happen when you put mold in your lungs.

You can instead extract active ingredients using e.g. isopropyl alcohol, filter, and use the extract in a variety of fun ways.
 

phattpiggie

Well-Known Member
Accessory Maker
You would be wise to never vape any sort of mold. I smoked some moldy stuff once and got a lung infection. Which didn't affect my lungs but gave me the fattest feet and huge bruises on my shins and I ached all over.
The portly Doc asked 'Can you bend over and touch your toes?' to which I replied 'No can you?'
He didn't look very happy after that.
As @Burt says you could Iso, or butane, it. I've never done this and I'm not sure if the concentrate would be tainted with the mold flavor.
Second picture is definitely mold, hard to tell with the first. Smell is a good indicator.
 
phattpiggie,
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MinnBobber

Well-Known Member
That's a shame/crime to have to kill a crop of White Widow, as it then becomes White Widow Widow :)

IMO, the best way to detect mold is with a black light. You should be able to find a cheapo one.
Any mold turns a kind of fluorescent greenish yellow.
I'd carefully shine each individual bud and throw any that glow.

I would vape any that passed inspection but that's just me----- others might throw the entire crop.

I just found this temp chart for killing mold.
I'd blacklight and throw any buds with visible and then roast at say 200 F for 40 minutes to
kill any micro-sized mold.... way beyond the temp tolerance for mold.
But even then I'd be cautious with it

chart_mold_top.jpg

Species Lethal Temperature Time Duration Reference
Alternaria alternata 63ºC/145ºF 25 minutes Domsch, 1993
Aspergillus fumigatus 65ºC/149ºF 30 minutes Bollen, 1969
Aspergillus niger 63ºC/145ºF 25 minutes Domsch, 1993; Page 102
Chaetomium globosum 57ºC/135ºF 10 minutes Domsch, 1993; Page 119
Cladosporium herbarum 50ºC/122ºF 10 minutes Ridley, G. unpublished data
Stachybotrys chartarum 60ºC/140ºF 30 minutes Domsch, 1993
 
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Mr.Newton

Expert human.
If part of it is moldy then all of it is moldy.Mold spores contaminate all of it.Do not use.Very dangerous and can kill you with a lung infection.Or if not kill you then make you very sick.
I agree with the cooking it.You could also cook it in vegetable oil,strain,and save that oil to cook with.
 

herbivore21

Well-Known Member
If you get mold, you need to establish what kind it is. The most common mold to effect cannabis IME is Botrytis Cinerea. This leads to grey mold/rot on cannabis and can quickly decimate your flowers. If you had this develop on your jarred material, your material was probably not adequately dried after harvest.

As you can see from the above list suggesting temps for cooking out mold, this kind of mold is not included there. I wouldn't use nugs that have been heated to treat mold like this personally for vaping - but they could indeed be cooked with with little-no risk at all (ONLY if the mold you are dealing with is botrytis that is! After all, botrytis is deliberately exposed to some wine grape varieties in dry conditions to cause a condition called 'noble rot' that brings out a sweet flavor sought after in desert wines - if you are dealing with a toxic form of mold; DO NOT TRY TO SALVAGE IT, NOT EVEN THE MATERIAL IT WAS IN CONTACT WITH, GET RID OF ALL OF IT!). In the rare case I have ever found mold (always botrytis), there are a few things you need to do. I typically throw out mold effected flowers though - I don't wanna contaminate my hash equipment with mold spores.

First, all mold effected flowers MUST be separated from the main bulk of the flowers. DO NOT STORE MOLDY BUD WITH GOOD BUD!

Do not use solvents with mold, the mold can be extracted into the resulting product. However, you can use bubble hash tek to get the resin heads out of moldy material, assuming they are unaffected.

If the mold was white and your nugs have not yet become either squishy, grey and sticky and still have resin - use a separate set of bubble bags and separate machine (or manual agitation preferably) to run the nugs. The mold will float on top of water, whilst the resin heads will sink. In this way, you can separate mold from non-rotten material and salvage some of it.

You could also get creative and use water to remove the mold in other ways.

DO NOT HANDLE MOLDY MATERIAL NEAR OTHER MATERIAL, PROCESSING EQUIPMENT OR VAPES/VAPING STUFF! A mold outbreak in your handling/preparation areas will make life difficult! Isolate any moldy material into it's own sealed container kept in a complete other area to where your uneffected flowers/concentrates are. Dispose of any relevant containers unless you can sterilize them with more than just solvents! Do not fuck with mold and it won't fuck with you ;)

I will point out one thing though - botrytis is hardly dangerous to your health. It just ruins buds and resin. It'll quickly destroy the actives you have on your meds.

What is said in the previous post about mold spores getting onto the material is true. It is possible, reasonably likely that the nugs you have leftover will get moldy as they continue sit in a sealed jar with too much moisture.

You need to remove your nugs from the jars in a cool dry room (below 50% RH is preferable). If RH goes over 55%, you have conditions where mold will propagate. Let them dry out completely until the stems snap very easily without any need for twisting it around to get the stem broken. If they don't snap readily, they're not dry and should not be in a sealed container. Remove as much visible stem and leaf from the nugs as possible. leaf is predominately made up of water.

Do not store your unaffected material that has been in the same container as moldy material with boveda packs. This is likely to be trouble.

I hope this helps you guys :)
 

STaX420

New Member
Thanks for your replies.

I obviously won't vape any of the moldy buds. My concern is about the other buds that were in the same jar. (I threw away the other jar as whole that was visibly moldy)

I dried the whole jar and the buds seems fine I guess.

At least it wasn't whole plant, I vaped a few months from it already. I just wanted to re-moisten and then slow dry the rest. I had to learn the hard way tho. The next time I will rather keep the stuff overdried.

And I realized that I had a few grams in separate small jar and that were ok.


I will get the black light on monday and and look at every bud carefully.

I was freaking out yesterday and saw mold everywhere.


About the concentrates - i've read that isopropyl alcohol exctraction. My main concern are aflatoxins. I have access to 0.22 microns filters that could be used with syringe so any bacteria/fungi won't be in it. Any way to ensure there won't be toxins? I guess that I should find out what mold it is and then tell if it is the strain that produces toxins.
 
STaX420,

Burt

Well-Known Member
The part of the mold you can see is the fruiting body (i.e. containing spores). By the time this part appears, the likelihood is that the entire jar of bud will be permeated with the mycelium, which accounts for the major portion of the mold infection.

You really should just turn the lot into concentrates. It's an interesting process however you do it, you can end up with a clean product, and you'll always remember to burp your jars. Plenty more harvests in the future, health willing.
 
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