HIDDEN DANGER: There are many things that can harm your outdoor plant that can ultimately harm you and make you ill. I'd like to focus on one danger because it affects many outdoor growers, and there are signs to look for that some of you may not be aware of.

We all know that Mother Nature dictates when our outdoor harvest happens by changing the weather in October that brings on Botrytis (gray mold). At the first signs of a little mold, we need to decide how soon we need to harvest. This is just how it is when growing outdoors.

If you beat Mother Nature and harvest before you get any visible mold, there may be hidden mold inside your buds that had nothing to do with the weather or Mother Nature.

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Here's how it happens, and what to start looking for. Later this month and all through spring, summer and fall, you will periodically see a white butterfly fluttering around your outdoor plants. This is the Cabbage White Butterfly that loves cannabis. (other butterflies, will visit but the White Cabbage Butterfly is the worst).

Starting in June and July the butterfly will lay eggs on the underside of the cannabis leaf and in 4 to 8 days a little green caterpillar worm appears. Since there's no flowers yet, it's not a big deal, they'll chew up a few leaves here and there but that's about it.

Here's when the danger starts and what to look for.

When the flowers start producing white hairs in mid-August and at the start of September the little green caterpillar worms will start eating the white hairs because they are tender and easier to eat than the big tough leaves. After they eat the white hairs, they are on top of your flower and they will burrow inside the flower where you can no longer seed them.

Now you can't see them, but there's an easy way to know there inside the flower.

When inspecting your flowers in the 1st or 2nd week of September look at the white hairs on your plant. They will be healthy bright white beautiful long hairs. If you happen to notice a flower that has short white hairs that are just stubs, like someone gave that flower a crew cut, you can be sure there is a little green worm inside your flower.

That worm will eat and leave behind fras inside your flower. Fras is poop.

The fras will initiate mold to start inside the bud even though it's only mid-September which is way before mold usually arrives.

As the worm grows into an adult, it can turn itself into the color of the flower so it's harder to see. (see picture).

Here's the dangerous part. If the caterpillars arrive late, and you harvest with no visible mold, the caterpillar will exit the bud while the plant is upside down drying and leave behind the poop and mold inside your buds. These buds will look great after they have been dried, cured and trimmed.

Smoking a bud that has this mold inside of it can make you very ill.

Just be on the lookout for little white butterflies fluttering around your plant this outdoor season, and also look for chewed off white hairs in September and October.

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As for the pictures: The strain is Sirius Black and the last picture is the Cabbage White Butterfly.

Can Your Beautiful Outdoor Plant Make You Ill?