irradiation, cryo pasturization, ozone, CLO2.
Looking for opinions on what you would go with if you had to pick one. degredation and throughput are our main concerns.
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Ozone I’ve had experience with, wouldn’t recommend it.
I’ve heard good things about hydrogen peroxide baths. Physically removes and chemically sterilizes spores. Degrades into water and oxygen. Direct experience with it as a mycologist, but not with cannabis.
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I have used H202 on cannabis before for sure. Not for this purpose but to rinse dirt and dust off of outdoor.
Do the buds just oxidize pretty rapidly with ozone?
Yeah that’s basically the mechanic. A facility I worked at used it and everything that went in came out very dry/crumbly with little odor
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Sterilization for cleaning purposes or so you don’t have seeds?
to reduce yeast and mold to below 10,000 CFU/g i believe.
@BroxTek you still with rad source?
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+1 to radsource(or equivalent). Irradiation is the way. Ozone and uv aren’t safe. They react with terpenes to make unsafe nasties. Think about your team’s well being and health.
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We are also considering this cryo pasturization tech. seems to be decent and the people behind it are operators.VIST
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What are you trying to sterilize? Are you just trying to have a reduction in bioburden? Or do you really need it to be sterile?
What are you trying to have on the other side of your “sterilizing” activity?
That’s what I was wondering… but then the methods listed are not all very good at preventing pollen… you know?
WTF - you’re worried about degradation but not from irradiation? Worker safety but not worried about being around irradiating cabinets all day every day?
UV doesn’t create unsafe nasties - HELLO UV is sunlight, the plant has been exposed to sunlight OR a sunlight substitute its whole life.
Ozone might oxidize things - maybe. But I call bullshit unless you have a peer reviewed study saying that is the case, especially at the incredibly low levels needed for microbial decontamination.
The fuck is the world coming to when people think that sunlight is fucking toxic to your team but radiation is the best there is.
I’m not saying radiation doesn’t work or anything like that. It definitely does - and I’ve used it. And its effective.
But I’ve also see people get impacted by machines that were not maintained correctly. And I’ve also see women have intense impacts that are NOT OKAY for workers to experience. Don’t think radiation is just safe safe - its not. Its like everything else out there, you have to use it right and maintain your machine and train your operators - or people will get harmed. x.X
Most best way to lower microbial load - to start with preventative measures. And stop trying to sell consumers your moldy remediated weed - use that shit for something else.
Of course people do this. And of course there’s an economic reason not to throw things away or put it through extraction or whatever.
But fuck man - people talking about “degraded terpenes” but not at all discussing the very real DEAD BODIES of micro-organisms that are left behind post-decontamination. Those bodies contain endotoxins and pyrogens - those things actually harm people.
So consider NOT decontaminating your weed - and figure something else out.
If you actually care about people and such.
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For what it’s worth, Rad source uses x-rays.
Totally agree on the “maintain your equipment, or it might decide to bite you” and the “you killed it, AND then…?”.
…and pretty much everything else you said too (or have ever put into words around here. Thank you!!)
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It does. And x-rays cause birth defects when received in large numbers. Most people never experience that because people only get them when needed.
But work next to a broken cabinet - and that’s not the same. Or work next to a cabinet where they have intentionally removed safety stuff because “reasons”… reasons I have been told so far, is the cabinet was getting to hot so we removed that panel. And they didn’t realize that the seal around the door was a “necessary” item and so when it broke they continued using the machine.
And of course - x-rays still require irradiation labeling. And they do things like kill insects that might be on your weed. Leaving the dead bodies behind.
Like I get it - people don’t want to throw their weed away. But you don’t get to do this kind of stuff in food or pharma. If your starting material doesn’t meet specifications - it goes in the trash. That’s just how it works.
The trash might be compost or sent somewhere else or whatever.
But its never - lets just wipe this off with X-RAYS and sell it to people like nothing was ever wrong with it.
So it boggles my mind that people think that’s okay with cannabis which is INHALED - unless most food and pharmaceuticals which are not inhaled but are ingested. You know? -gives me the creeps-
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That sounds like grounds for a company ending lawsuit…
Stupidity doesn’t absolve responsibility.
Your excuse is you were clueless?
Then clueless you shall remain…I need all the money you have or will ever make, so you never try buying a clue again.
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So thankful someone touched base on all of the points and possible aspects of that.
If trying to sterilize from spores and or micro biome that’s been pestering you I’ve found lost coast plant therapy to be a suitable spray to mitigate these issues.
If you’re having problems with pests and other issues in the garden that just won’t go away, spray each day for an entire week. With low light only or you’ll burn the plants. It’s a natural solution that includes etoh and and a soy bean oil which won’t affect your growth or terpene profile. Only mitigate the issues that you’re looking at.
If you’re worried about coco being infested even prior to use, boil it. Kills everything and then rinse it and allow it to become dried again before you use it. That way everything that was present is now dead and rinsed out. Do this in a two step sterilization area though. That way you can garuntee your work isn’t compromised.
If you’re worried about pollen fucking your garden. Foliar spray it all every day with low light and a solution of agt and then applicate plant therapy once the agt foliar has dried. The plant therapy will almost act as a screen to cover the plants for atleast a few hours. But pollen has to be wetted with an ph range similar to what you would use when mitigating mold spores and it will become non viable.
If you’re trying to sterilize a room I’ve found the biomist cleaning system useful. Other than that a pressure washer and a shit ton of green cleaner. Then I spray down with plant therapy as well to ensure it’s all sterile.
If you’re trying to sterilize yourself, I can’t help you there.
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MS is implementing 10000 cfu standards for yeast and mold, we process so we receive flower and we have about 10 suppliers looking for a solution, we are trying to be that solution.
@Cassin have you seen the cryo solution?
Hold on, slow down, are you saying that you don’t believe ozone oxidizes things?
It’s literally the mechanical function of it. Rapid oxidation.
Ozone generators used in the industry are not precision machines. Folks aren’t generating a specific dose of Ozone. My experience has been that folks run it on a timer and call it good, with the timer being 10-30 minutes of on-time post-saturation, of a machine that’s generally oversized for its purposes.
I agree with the spirit of what you’re saying, but I just wanted to clarify a bit about Ozone.
Methods of Low-Temperature Sterilization: Ozone | Tuttnauer.
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I had to deal with that in Pennsylvania. What a pain! We tried Ozone, UV, and Irradiation. Ozone + Terpenes is a very dangerous combo(formaldehyde). UV is very labor intensive, not that effective and also bad for you. We ultimately purchased a Rad Source 420 which worked well and kept the bacteria, yeast, and mold CFU well below 10000 limits. I never tried Cryo and am also curious about it.
I’m sure you seen that h2o2 kind of ruins the weed.
There are also non-obvious concerns, such as floor cleaning solutions reacting with ozone gas/UV. This is a very real concern in other industries where bleach or terpenes cleaning solutions are used.
Edit for example:
Ya so i guess its between the cryo-pasturization and the radiation. both quite expensive. I’m leaning towards the cryo tho due to throughput.
obivously the answer is to have a clean grow and be free of this kind of stuff, in dank places like Mississippi its going to be really hard. These are pharmaceutical standards which is great and everything, but they aren’t even giving us a warning it goes into effect july 29th and most will be caught off guard when they start failing. one of the most technologically advanced grows ive been in clean room standards failed 85% of the samples submitted recently. protocols only go as far as the people implementing them, good help is hard to find, most grows aren’t designed to mitigate yeast and mold below 10k cfu. Thats why these things exist. We have a small 60 light grow and have tested 2 samples from the same room, one passed one failed. We have implemented updated protocols now hoping to keep our grow clean through HEPA and CLO2 in the facility, and ozone sterilization of rooms in between runs.