Client has some product with slight amounts of PM he wants ran. Would running through b80 down to a 1micron sintered disk be sufficient? It seems I don’t have to worry about mycotoxins, but should I be worried about the product smelling/tasting like mildew?
PM spores are 1-3 microns across, so you need to filter below that.
Ideally, do not run this product. I myself could never feel good about running a product with mold, unless it was being cleaned up all the way to distillate and then had sufficient testing.
Running with B80, which has a micron size of 67 microns, with a 1 inch-ish layer, i would guess that you are probably making a matrix that would hold back many smaller micron things, including the PM spores.
Having a .2 micron filter after would probably be best.
But again:
If I consumed an extract that was extracted from moldy bud, and I found out after the fact, if they told me they filtered it through B80, I would still be pissed.
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thanks for the response, but shouldn’t there be a distinction here between PM and mold?
Has it been tested?
the bud? it has not been
Then you don’t know if it is mildew or mold. Without testing, its rolling the dice. I don’t have that much gamble in me at this stage of the game.
fair enough. If he gets it tested, and it comes back as mildew, should i be concerned about mildew smell/taste?
PM is a type of fungus, and molds are fungal as well. You can filter out the mold/pm/spores.
You cannot filter out any mycotoxins that have been produced. Or anything that the mold produces that will dissolve in your solvent you extract with.
Testing will tell you if the product is safe. I really would recommend taking this all the way to distillate, especially if you are worried about smell. (it might)
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I just like to know what we are dealing with and make an educated decision. If the customer wants to pay for a full panel test and, as G_Boe said, take it to distillate if its safe enough to run.
PM is an easy remediation. It also does not create mycotoxins.
You probably aren’t as sensitive to mold mildew and bacteria as you think. You can culture all the common high touch surfaces and get astronomical colony formation numbers and 0 mycotoxins about 90% of the time.
Just sayin.
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1micron sintered and b80 would be sufficient?
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Absolutely. If you are sure you are only dealing with PM. I would still take @G_Boe advice on analytics.
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awesome. you ever smell/taste the mildew through the extract?
Yea. You are probably extracting microbial butthole terps and other metabolites. Sometimes you can run a decent amount of silica and fix it. Sometimes not…
You need to just open your/customers eyes to the fact their not eating a total loss, and provide the best viable product you can.
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I would say if there is any aroma associated with the product it is so riddled with pm / mold that it is not worth processing . If you smell mold / PM on the product I would toss it. There is a big difference between a few spots of pm that were mostly cut off and removed. Compared to a failed grow that did not support/ prune properly and everything it totally covered in PM . I see lots of grows where people do not use enough lattice and all the smalls are laying on top of each other just covered in pm. The real question is why process material with questionable integrity when there seems to be a large surplus everywhere of decent material without this issue
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Yes, and filtering to 0.45 micron removes that taste, but 5um does not (you can taste the spores).
I will also repeat; this is for powdery mildew or botrytis only.
If you’ve got aspergillus you should toss it.
IDing the critter is critical…
@acreativeusername you reckon this is the FIRST time this has been asked?!?
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Fwiw freshly harvested buds with PM benefit greatly from a dip in a hydrogen peroxide solution. Idk about dried, but it might be worth trying for a small test amount.
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i dunno about mycotoxins in smoke? i have heard of people smoking shrooms. wHAT DOES TOBACCO INDUSTRY USE? oops caps. but really, the only reason that cannabis is so regulated is that its claimed as a legal medication. it should be treated the same as food.
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And they told you it worked?
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I dunno it was prolly in a dead lot back when Jerry was alive.
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