BELLE GLADE, Fla. — After days spent harvesting beans, bagging sugar and driving tractors in the blistering heat, the farmworkers return to decaying homes.

The residents of the Okeechobee Center in Belle Glade have mold creeping up their walls and ceilings riddled with holes. One mother reported roaches crawling over her infant’s face. Sewage was found leaking onto the ground outside the squat concrete buildings.

These broken-down homes were built with money from U.S. taxpayers. The Okeechobee Center is part of the country’s biggest federal housing complex for farmworkers, and is supported by federal subsidies that help cover some poor families’ rent. Though the property is privately owned, it is supposed to be closely overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which requires that the homes be “decent, safe and sanitary.”

But federal safeguards failed to prevent the property from descending into disrepair, NBC News found in a three-month investigation. And now, as low-income housing like the Okeechobee Center is falling apart, the Trump administration wants to eliminate federal funding that could help fix it.

Romeo Smith, 55, a tractor driver, points to the crumbling back wall of his home, where the metal rebar is exposed. He covered it with a piece of plywood, hoping to keep out the rain. A few doors down, paint is peeling from every corner of Gertha Saint Juste’s home, and roaches and mold have run rampant. She cleans constantly, worrying about her 6-year-old son’s asthma, but that only does so much. “You can’t clean to fix the hole in the wall,” said Saint Juste, 45, who washes and cuts produce at a nearby farm.

The Okeechobee Center is part of a little-known government initiative that houses more than 400,000 low-income families in about 13,000 privately owned properties across rural America, from Appalachia and the Mississippi Delta to California’s Central Valley. Built with federal loans, the properties are intended to address a shortage of quality, affordable housing in rural areas, with some specifically dedicated to agricultural workers.

Unlike public housing complexes in metropolitan areas, which are supervised by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the rural properties are overseen by the USDA — an agency best known for supporting food and farms, not affordable housing.

Amid staffing cuts and with limited resources to fix aging buildings, the USDA has pared back its housing inspection protocol, provides little public information about properties’ physical conditions and can be slow to take enforcement action when housing fails to meet federal standards, NBC News found in an investigation based on USDA documents, including inspection records and emails; government watchdog reports; and interviews with tenants, local officials and a dozen current and former housing officials.

“These are wildly underfunded programs with inconsistent, episodic attention by a challenged agency,” says David Lipsetz, a former USDA housing official and CEO of the Housing Assistance Council, a group that aids rural nonprofits.

Over the past decade, the number of staff members in the USDA division overseeing the rural housing program has plunged by 26 percent, according to federal data. At the same time, repair and maintenance needs have swelled: About 15 percent of properties built through the USDA’s two main rental housing programs are in poor or below average condition, according to a 2016 analysis commissioned by the agency. The report estimated it would cost $5.6 billion over 20 years to make all the capital repairs the properties need.

Most owners do a “stunningly good job” keeping their properties in decent shape on a shoestring budget, Lipsetz said, and most housing advocates consider the initiative to be a success. But some owners have not kept up with basic maintenance and repairs, leaving their tenants with deteriorating roofs, faulty septic systems and other costly problems. Tenants in an upstate New York town complained about rampant mold and leaky roofs in 2014; in Walhalla, South Carolina, residents told a local paper about leaks and shoddy repairs in 2016. One farmworkers complex in central Florida had such severe mold, water and termite damage that it was shut down in 2006 after the owner received approval to do so from the USDA, displacing all the tenants.

At the Okeechobee Center, home to more than 370 low-income families, the USDA spent years standing by while living conditions deteriorated, and the owner only made limited fixes, NBC News found.

The USDA says the conditions in Belle Glade are an outlier, blaming bad management by the property’s independent owner, the Belle Glade Housing Authority. The USDA will “overcome this mismanagement and restore Okeechobee Center into the safe and healthy homes that American farm workers have earned,” Phil Leary, state director of the USDA’s rural development office in Florida, said in a statement. The housing authority, in turn, has blamed tenants for not maintaining their homes and told NBC News it has done everything the USDA asked.

Housing advocates say the years of problems at the Okeechobee Center — which drew public attention after tenant complaints reached local officials this summer — show both the importance of the USDA’s role in protecting residents and the ways in which the agency is falling short. The rural housing initiatives are “orphan programs” that are critically necessary, but not a priority for the USDA because they are significantly smaller than the agency’s other programs, said Diane Yentel, president of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, an advocacy group.

The USDA insists it takes prompt action when it uncovers problems.

“Any deficiencies are noted and must be corrected as quickly as possible,” the agency said in a statement. “An owner who fails to properly maintain or manage a property will be subject to progressive enforcement actions by USDA until the property meets the requirements of the loan agreement.”

But tenant advocates fear that years of underinvestment and neglect could leave aging properties in such poor shape that they ultimately become uninhabitable, accelerating the affordable housing crisis in rural America and putting its most vulnerable residents at risk.

Residents at the Okeechobee Center — where rent is less than $450 a month for a three-bedroom home — say they would have few alternatives if they had to move. “I don’t know where I’d go,” said Mary Cortes, 80, a retired farmworker who uses a wheelchair.

‘They don’t deserve to live like this’

An hour outside Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump’s members-only club, the green fields stretch for miles. Sugarcane, tomatoes, lettuce and beans all flourish in the rich, dark soil. Much of the farm labor is done by black and Latino workers — many of them immigrants — who harvest produce for low wages under the blistering Florida sun.

The Okeechobee Center began as a 1930s migrant labor camp, created under a New Deal program for Depression-stricken families. Propped up on wooden platforms, the homes were an upgrade over the squalid sheds where farmworkers slept. But living conditions were still rudimentary decades later. Edward R. Murrow’s 1960 documentary, “Harvest of Shame,” shows young children at the complex sitting on beds crammed together, with sheets chewed apart by rats; one boy had a nail stuck in his bare foot.

Later that decade, the federal government scaled up rural housing developments across the country as part of the War on Poverty. It gave out low-interest loans to build rental homes in rural areas, providing tenant subsidies and federal oversight for the length of the loan. In some areas, these were the only affordable rentals with electricity and indoor plumbing.

At the Okeechobee Center, which was then a segregated complex for black farmworkers, the federal government replaced the Depression-era apartments with individual, concrete-walled homes. “You couldn’t ask for better,” said Henry Lockett, 80, a Belle Glade resident who grew up across the street.

But over the decades, as the federal government shifted its attention to developing urban and suburban housing, and rural areas shrank, investment in rural housing dried up. The original agency that made the loans, the Farmers Home Administration, was folded into the USDA, which was authorized to create a rural housing division in 1994.

“You have responsibility for tenants,” said Larry Anderson, a former USDA official who helped create the agency’s housing inspection system in the mid-1990s. “It’s not the objective of the program to have them living in squalor.”

The agency’s inspection system, though, is less rigorous and transparent than the one that HUD uses to evaluate public housing in suburbs and cities. The USDA’s inspection report does not tally the total number of violations at a property or provide numerical scores, and no information about inspection results is readily available to the public. (The agency said it was prohibited from releasing more detailed data without a Freedom of Information Act request. NBC News filed FOIA requests months ago, but the USDA has yet to release any documents in response.)

The USDA intentionally designed the system to be less codified than HUD’s to empower its field staff and encourage a “hands-on” approach to supervising its loans, said Anderson, who currently works as a housing consultant for rural property owners.

But years of staff cutbacks — which accelerated under the Obama administration — have undermined the system, leaving the USDA without enough experienced field staff members, according to some housing advocates and former officials like Anderson.

The USDA also stopped using worksheets that indicated the frequency and severity of violations as part of a transition to a digital inspection system that was completed in 2015, according to documents and background information provided by the agency — a change that makes the system “less thorough and more subjective,” Anderson said. (The USDA says its inspection standards and protocol have not changed.)

At the Okeechobee Center, USDA records obtained by NBC News suggest a casual approach to inspection. Covered in mold and peeling paint, one home was in such poor shape that the USDA said in a July 2015 letter to the complex’s owner that the tenant “need[ed] to be moved to a different unit immediately.” But on the inspection report that year given to the housing authority, the USDA did not mark any official violations. Instead, the agency simply provided the owner with a bullet-pointed list of findings, which the USDA later acknowledged weren’t addressed in a 2019 letter to the housing authority.

The following year, living conditions appeared to be deteriorating, according to agency documents. “In general the units are in extremely poor condition and in need of substantial rehabilitation,” the USDA said in August 2016. The USDA can take forceful action in response to violations, including foreclosing on the property or issuing fines. To avoid such measures — which could displace tenants — the USDA recommends asking owners to create a formal «workout plan» for correcting serious problems

But such a plan never came together in Belle Glade, according to agency records and interviews with staff and former officials. In 2017 and 2018, USDA staff visited three times but only spoke in general terms about aging buildings and minor upkeep, such as cleaning up stray beer cans, said Alan Sullivan, executive director of the Belle Glade Housing Authority. No one demanded a comprehensive plan to fix the longstanding problems, he said. (The USDA held the meetings “to discuss concerns with the unacceptable level of deferred maintenance of the property,” the agency wrote in its 2019 letter to the housing authority, but says the owner had not taken the proper steps to submit an assessment of the property’s repair needs. Sullivan contests this, providing NBC News with his correspondence with the agency.)

The current problems caught the attention of local authorities and media this summer after Families First of Palm Beach County, a social service agency, heard about one family’s predicament: Rats were biting their children’s feet, roaches skittered everywhere and mold covered the walls. The report reached local officials and prompted an immediate response from Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., as well as the USDA, which demanded a repair plan from the housing authority in July.

“These are some of the poorest families in my community, who are doing some of the hardest work,” said Melissa McKinlay, a Palm Beach County commissioner. “They don’t deserve to live like this.”

The conditions were so grim that McKinlay enlisted the county health department to assess the properties in August. The county’s inspection reports describe damaged walls, widespread mold, rodent droppings, roaches, exposed wires, missing smoke detectors and a “sewer line discharging sewage onto the ground,” among other serious violations.

The USDA says that it followed all standard policies and procedures in Belle Glade, noting that the government had poured millions into the complex over the years to expand and rehabilitate the buildings. The property’s owner has $3 million in reserves that it should have spent on repairs long ago, the USDA said, faulting the housing authority for failing to fix the problems promptly.

The Belle Glade Housing Authority submitted a written plan to the USDA in mid-August explaining how it was “stepping up on our care of the property,” and is now waiting for a response. But the management also blames some of the most egregious health and safety violations on tenants themselves. “If they don’t take care of it, if they leave their food sitting out, they’re unfortunately going to have problems, whether it be roaches or rats,” Sullivan said. He added that cultural differences have exacerbated the chronic mold and mildew. “We have a big problem with the people that are from Haiti — they don’t want to run the air conditioning.”

The struggle to fix the Okeechobee Center echoes shortcomings that government watchdogs have flagged as well. In a 2011 report, the Government Accountability Office found that 50 percent of all USDA properties dedicated to agricultural workers had violations related to their physical condition, finances, or management without a formal workout plan in place to address them, or were in default, which meant the owner was at risk of losing them.

While only a handful of those properties were in “high levels of disrepair,” the USDA routinely let problems languish and was unable to identify or track the most severe problems, compel owners to make fixes or direct funds toward high-need properties, the watchdog’s report said.

‘Now we have to pay the price?’

Under the Trump administration, threats to the USDA’s rural housing programs have been mounting. Despite growing concerns that limited staff and resources have undermined the USDA’s work, the White House has proposed slashing funds for rural rental housing for 2019 and 2020, eliminating direct loans and grants for fixing existing properties or building new ones. Shortly after taking office, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue eliminated rural development’s top leadership post, replacing it with a lower-level position, prompting Congress to reinstate the job in December. The White House has yet to nominate anyone for the position.

Legislators from both parties have rebuffed the administration’s defunding requests, defending USDA housing as a vital resource for rural America. Since 2016, Congress has increased funding for the agency’s two main rental housing programs by about $18 million, and for a preservation and rehabilitation fund by $2.5 million. But funding remains low compared to previous decades and has not kept up with the needs of the programs’ aging homes, former agency officials and housing advocates say. (The administration said the president’s budget has prioritized rural housing by fully funding rental assistance for tenants. Perdue is “highly invested” in the division, working to fill hundreds of vacant positions, according to the USDA.)

To help close the gap, the House recently passed a bipartisan, $1 billion bill to expand rehabilitation funds and help tenants stay in their homes after owners pay off their USDA loans. USDA staff also needs to be willing to “pound the table” when owners fail to act, Anderson said; advocates want the agency to have stronger enforcement tools, and have suggested bringing in third-party inspectors to assess the properties instead of agency staff.

Making long-term fixes can be costly, however, and USDA is under no obligation to pay or secure financing. Owners have limited options, as low rents often restrict the amount of funding they hold in reserve: They can try to use tax credits for redevelopment, seek investors or sell the property, often to nonprofit developers who aim to salvage them as affordable housing. States including Oregon and Minnesota have taken steps to make it easier for such financing deals to come together.

But other rural projects have struggled to find a lifeline. In Belle Glade, the housing authority has “developed a list of needs” for long-term repairs — estimated to cost more than $17 million — but doesn’t know yet how it will pay for all of them, Sullivan told the USDA in August.

But finding new investors or buyers for the Okeechobee Center will be an especially tough sell, given the property’s poor condition and site design problems, said Steven Kirk, president of Rural Neighborhoods, a nonprofit community development group in Florida. “My view was, ‘Tear it down, don’t fix it,’” said Kirk, who thinks the property should be replaced with new housing. “We’d like to be there, but even as a charitable group, we can’t.”

In the meantime, tenants will help foot the bill. With the USDA’s encouragement, the housing authority has asked the agency to approve a 10 percent rent increase to help raise more funds for repairs, rankling some tenants who say they’re still waiting for basic fixes.

“Everything isn’t done correctly,” Monique Mottley, a resident, said, “and now we have to pay the price for it?”

source https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/rats-roaches-mold-under-usda-s-watch-some-rural-public-n1057016?cid=public-rss_20190927

Health officials have abruptly halted all elective surgeries at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center after the discovery of mold contamination in a room used to sterilize surgical equipment.

The Boyle Heights hospital, which is part of the L.A. County Department of Health Services system that serves as the safety net for millions of the county’s poorest and most vulnerable residents, will be unable to perform surgery and many other medical procedures for an estimated two weeks, according to an internal hospital email obtained by The Times.

“The Central Sterile processing room, which disinfects all [operating room] and procedural supplies for clinical areas, is suffering from severe water damage and mold contamination and must be closed immediately,” Chief Medical Officer Brad Spellberg wrote to the hospital’s attending physicians and residents on Wednesday. Elective surgeries were canceled the same day.

The 600-bed facility, one of the largest public hospitals in the country, can still disinfect a small amount of surgical equipment, Spellberg wrote, and that will be used for trauma cases. All other procedures, except dentistry, which sterilizes its equipment at an alternative location, would be canceled.

Spellberg declined to comment in an email to The Times on Thursday afternoon. Hal Yee, the chief medical officer for the county, also did not comment.

“LAC+USC has discovered low levels of mold in the air, and mold in the ceiling, in a processing area of the hospital, caused by a water leak,” said an unsigned statement sent to The Times on Thursday afternoon from the Department of Health Services’ Office of Communications. “We have no evidence that mold has affected any surgical instruments…. No patients have been infected or harmed.”

The statement said the mold was discovered only in the last day or two. It did not offer any details on how many patients’ surgeries will be postponed or canceled.

It’s not clear what type of mold was found at the hospital or who discovered it.

Aspergillus mold spores, a very common form of the fungus, were discovered in the air filtration system of Seattle Children’s Hospital earlier this year. That led to confirmed infections in six patients, one of whom died. Hospital administrators sent notifications to 3,000 patients warning them to be vigilant for signs of possible infection.

Seattle Children’s operating rooms were closed from May to July, forcing hundreds of patients to delay surgery or get treatment elsewhere.

Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center is a relatively new facility, which makes the mold contamination more surprising. In 2008, the hospital moved from a cavernous Depression-era building into a new $1.02-billion facility.

source https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-26/county-usc-hospital-surgeries-mold

Local resident, Mike Tschida, was an insurance adjuster for ten years, but one experience made him feel like starting his own restoration company is what he was meant to do. That experience was his personal brush with Hurricane Irma. The Category 3 storm that slammed into Marco Island and Naples produced a surge which storm flooded his home. “We had to remove all the saturated drywall throughout the entire main level of our home. That is when I knew we could fulfill a need right here in Collier County, offering the services of a solid reputable restoration company in SWFL.” So, on January 16, 2018, Paradise Coast Restoration opened its doors.

Mike takes his commitment to the community seriously. It is his driving force. He is a licensed mold assessor and also a licensed mold remediator. He is Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC) certified, meaning special knowledge of applied microbial remediation, applied structural drying, fire and smoke restoration, water damage restoration, odor control and trauma and crime scene cleaning.

“We wanted to change the way the mitigation and restoration industry operates by setting higher ethical standards, as well as improving the quality of services people were receiving.” Topped with 24-7-365 day per year service to our clients, time can be of the essence.

Emergency Water Extraction and Damage Mitigation

Water damage requires immediate response to limit the potential damage. In order to lessen the exposure to further damage, Paradise Coast will immediately begin the drying process.

Mold Inspection and Mold Remediation

Once we’ve completed our inspection and found the source of the problem, the next step is remediation. Removed! There is a very specific process used to clean the area and remove the mold. We take all necessary steps to keep our staff and homeowners protected. We remove all existing mold, replace/repair that which was affected, and make sure the source of moisture is no longer an issue.

Fire Clean Up

If a fire breaks out, whether in a residential or commercial space, it may have adverse consequences on the property as well as the occupants. Fire not only damages the furniture and décor, but it wreaks havoc on the structure. With our advanced equipment and cleaning techniques we will return cleanliness back to your property. Whether major damage or minor damage, call for a free inspection.

Odor Control

We not only restore the property, but we can save you time and money as well. We also offer residential and commercial Cleaning Services.

At Paradise Coast Restoration there are three principles that guide the company. First is integrity as it is of the utmost importance in both our personal and professional lives. We do not recommend services or repairs that you don’t need! Second is the safety of our family and our employees as well. Finally, customer satisfaction is our primary objective! We take every step to go above and beyond throughout the entire process. We truly want your COMPLETE SATISFACTION. To that end, we have developed “Best Practices” standards that important to our work ethic and your peace of mind as client.

There is a reason Paradise Coast Restoration is the #1 SWFL Property Damage Restoration Company. Mike says, “Our word is as good as gold! We follow through with our commitments to our clients that our work is completed to the best practices standards of the industry and we are certified by the IICRC and NORMI. No one wants to call a restoration company, but if you do, let us make the experience as easy as possible. Call me personally at 239-394-0018, I will be happy to help you.”

Whether the damage is major or minor, call us in for a free inspection. Our professionals will thoroughly scrutinize the damage and prepare a customized restoration strategy for you.

source https://www.coastalbreezenews.com/articles/best-practices-standard-for-paradise-coast-restoration-inc/

Residents of a Coney Island public housing complex say that they contracted respiratory illnesses and possibly cancerous bacteria due to rampant mold plaguing their dilapidated abodes.

“The mold just keeps coming,” said Tracie Baker, 44, who lives in Coney Island Houses with two of her children. “It’s in the bathroom, it’s in the ceiling, it’s everywhere.”

Baker moved into the complex on Surf Avenue between W. 30th and W. 31st streets in 1999, and said that persistent mold in her apartment’s bathroom and bedrooms most likely caused her sons’ asthma, which developed in their infancy. Three years ago, Baker contracted bronchitis, which she attributes both to mold and dust kicked up by nearby construction work.

“I can’t explain how much damage we’ve already been through since being here,” Baker said.

Two floors above Baker, two other children suffer from asthma, and their mother says that she ingested a harmful bacteria from her apartment’s tap water.

“For the past three of four years I’ve been having issues with my body,” said Luz Lozada, 42, who alleges that she began experiencing indigestion, bloating, and stomach pain after drinking water from her faucet about three years ago. Gastrointestinal tests detected H. pylori in her system, a potentially cancerous bacteria that eats away stomach lining, and is usually contracted by drinking contaminated water.

“I ended up buying my own jugs of water,” Lozada said, although she saves a three-year-old jug of murky, brown tap water from her kitchen sink, which she waves in front of housing authorities and elected officials to showcase the filth on tap.

Both Lozada and Baker have filed numerous work orders to address the mold in their apartments and a host of other issues — such as a lack of heating, peeling paint, and mice problems — but say that the Housing Authority is usually slow to respond to the complaints, if it responds at all. A recent study revealed that the agency dismissed more than 47-percent of mold-related work orders as “unfounded” between July of 2017 and 2018, often within five minutes of the complaint’s submission, The City reported. And even when workers do show up, their repairs are often temporary fixes rather than permanent solutions, Lozada claimed.

“They come in here and do band-aid jobs,” she said. Last year, repairmen came to scrub the mold from the floors in her apartment, but rather than removing the moldy floor tiles, the workers layered new tiles on top of the old ones, Lozada alleged.

“They were putting tiles on top of tiles,” Lozada said.

Baker and Lozada occasionally withhold their rent when authorities repeatedly dismiss their complaints, and say that housing officials quickly threaten them with eviction notices when the the money doesn’t come in — which deters other residents from protesting the dismal conditions.

“Everyone gets scared of getting evicted,” Lozada said. “They don’t want to speak out.”

And Baker claimed that when she requests to transfer locations, authorities say she needs to front the next month’s rent, which she can’t afford.

“They keep telling me that my rent needs to be at a zero balance. My rent will never be at a zero balance as long as you add the next month’s rent,” she lamented. “So I’m in a Catch-22.”

NYCHA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Posted 12:00 am, September 27, 2019

©2019

Today’s news:

source https://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/42/40/bn-coney-island-nycha-health-problems-2019-10-4-bk.html

source https://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/severe-storms-may-cause-costly-roof-repairs

source http://thefranklinnews.com/humid-summer-ends-with-mold-in-johnson-dietz/13229/

Portland could set a record for September rainfall this month, leaving many of the area’s cannabis cultivators scrambling to save their crops this harvest season.

The city had received 3.12 inches of rain this month as of Sept. 19, according to a Willamette Week report, leaving the area 2.5 inches shy of breaking its September record, which was recorded in 2013.

With more rain in the forecast, what’s an outdoor cannabis grower to do?

Heavy rain can cause physical damage to crops, but the real threat is mold, according to Ryan Douglas, owner of cannabis consulting firm Ryan Douglas Cultivation, LLC. After heavy rainfall, cool night temperatures can create the perfect conditions for spore germination and propagation, he says, and almost nothing can be done to cure an infection once it sets in. Therefore, preventative measures are key.

“Powdery mildew may take advantage of wet conditions to germinate spores, but the real killer is Botrytis cinereal,” Douglas tells Cannabis Business Times. “Also referred to as gray mold, this disease thrives in cool, wet conditions and can completely destroy a mature flowering cannabis crop within one week.”

Jade Stefano, owner of Puffin Farm, an outdoor cannabis cultivation operation in Washington State, echoes these concerns.

“Choosing cultivars that are resistant to Botrytis is the single best way to guard against issues,” she says. “Otherwise, there is not much that can be done, as we cannot change the weather. Covering plants is not usually effective because during heavy rain, the ambient humidity is so high, condensation still gets onto flowers, and covering reduces airflow, which can make problems worse.”

However, selecting genetics for disease-resistance can be tricky, according to David Bonvillain, owner of Elite Botanicals, a CBD-hemp cultivation, extraction/processing and product development business based in Colorado.

“It makes me think of the genetics quandary with regards to the recommendation for resistance,” he says. “Outside of very few, I would think almost no breeders out there are in the game of disease resistance. … Most are only working on hype, flavor and potency. And [if they are breeding for disease resistance, you have to ask if they] have run extensive test populations outdoors and experienced the specific issues. But that is where it is going in the drug-variety hemp space, and, ultimately, where it will have to go in the THC space too.”

Rain can also cause nutrient deficiencies, root rot, overwatering problems and, depending on the growing medium, fluctuations in soil pH, according to Melissa Beseda, co-owner of Wildwood Flower Farm, an outdoor cultivation operation in Washington State.

“Excessive rain on field grown crops can indeed leach nutrients,” says Dr. Brian Jackson, associate professor and director of the Horticultural Substrates Laboratory at North Carolina State University. “Different soil types can cause nutrient leaching or waterlogged plants, which could cause root rot. It also depends on if plants are on plastic or bare ground as well.” When growing in containers outdoors with soilless growing media, nutrients can be replaced with supplemental fertilizer additions after heavy rains, he adds.

Here are experts’ tips for guarding outdoor cannabis crops against heavy rainfall, from proactively choosing the right cultivars to acting quickly after a weather event to save the plants.

1. Consider preventative fungicides.

Regular applications of preventative fungicides that contain Bacillus subtilis as the active ingredient can help prevent fungal infections that may occur after periods of prolonged heavy rain, Douglas says. The naturally occurring bacterium produces antibiotics that suppress fungi, which can minimize damaging outbreaks of Botrytis and powdery mildew.

“This product is most effective when used preventatively, so begin applying it in the vegetative stage to guarantee that the Bacillus has a chance to colonize the plant prior to periods of frequent rain events,” Douglas says.

Jackson agrees “that it is the period of wetness that promotes fungal growth and not necessarily the ‘heaviness’ of the rain (amount).”

2. Gently shake water off the plants.

While there is little that growers can do during a heavy rainfall to protect their crops, it may be feasible to give plants a gentle shake after a heavy rain event, depending on the size of the operation.

“While this seems like a futile activity, it decreases the amount of water on the plant and the amount of time it will take for that water to evaporate,” Douglas says.

“This reminds me of what the cherry growers in Washington State sometimes do when the fruit are ripening and rainfall comes; they hire helicopters to hover above orchards to dry the trees/fruit before the water soaks in and causes the fruit to split thereby ruining them,” says Jackson.

3. Apply potassium bicarbonate.

An application of potassium bicarbonate following a heavy rainfall can help alter the pH of the water-leaf surface, Douglas says. This can help kill fungal spores or make the plants less susceptible to new infections.

“There are scientific reports on the benefits of foliar/fruit applications of potassium bicarbonate, especially for organic operations,” says Jackson. “The disease I am familiar with it mitigating/lessening is powdery mildew.”

4. Don’t pack wet plants together.

When harvesting a rain-soaked crop, Douglas advises minimizing the amount of time that wet flowers stay packed together between the field and the drying area. Ideally, wait until plants are dry before harvesting if feasible.

“Squishing wet, ripe flowers together for an extended period of time will increase the possibility of mold infection,” he says.

5. Dry rain-soaked plants at higher temperatures.

If harvest has to occur before the plants can naturally dry in the field, it is suggested that once the plants arrive to the drying area, cultivators should remove as much leaf mass as possible, and then dry the flowers at higher-than-ideal temperatures for the first 48 hours. While 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit is a preferred range for slow-drying cannabis over the course of seven to 10 days, cultivators should initially aim for temperatures of 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit if harvesting after a heavy rain. Growers should also add multiple fans to the drying area to ensure plenty of air circulation, he adds.

“This will help remove the majority of moisture on the plants and allow you to safely lower temperatures back into the ideal range after the first few days,” Douglas says.

6. Harvest immediately if there are signs of Botrytis.

Crops should be scouted daily for signs of Botrytis, Stefano says, and if any plants are affected, the entire crop should be harvested immediately. While buds infected with Botrytis must be removed and destroyed, unaffected plants can still be salvaged.

“Once it starts, it is unstoppable, and harvest and drying is the only way to save the unaffected plants,” she says. “They may not be great for flower, but early harvested plants are still good for concentrates.”

7. Consider weather events when choosing genetics and scheduling harvests.

The best way for farmers to guard their crops against damage from prolonged and/or heavy periods of rainfall is to start with good genetics, preferably ones that are mold-resistant, according to Beseda. Cultivators should maintain healthy plants with healthy roots grown in well-draining soil, she says, and they should also practice harvest diversification.

In addition to laying a good foundation with strong genetics, Beseda says that growers should always plan around the weather.

“It’s imperative that outdoor farmers know the weather forecast and plan their watering and harvesting schedules accordingly,” she says. “The weather dictates so much of our growing season, so you have to be adaptive. Ensure that the crop is properly trellised and staked so that heavy branches do not break. Be prepared to harvest trouble spots early and get really good at identifying the first signs of problems.”

8. Stay vigilant.

Identifying problems early means knowing what to look for, Beseda adds.

“Know the early signs of bud rot and check larger colas for signs of mold and mildew,” she says. “Be sure to have repair materials on hand to fix any damaged plants/branches.”

After heavy rainfall, cultivators should look for mold in places where it might not typically show up, Beseda adds, and they must act quickly to prevent it from spreading.

“The mold sets in very quickly and impacts colas facing away from the sun more often, and in areas water might stagnate,” she says. “Remove and quarantine any bud rot and monitor other branches from affected plants. When hang drying, consider drying at a lower humidity than normal to prevent spreading.»

source http://www.cannabisbusinesstimes.com/8-tips-for-protecting-outdoor-cannabis-crops-against-heavy-rain-during-harvest-season.aspx

LOCK HAVEN — Realtylease Properties owner Dana Kreger denies claims that one of her leased properties in Woodward Township is unsafe due to mold and other issues.

source http://www.lockhaven.com/news/local-news/2019/09/property-owner-responds-to-mold-claims/

TAMPA, Fla. — When Anita Sasser moved into the Tampa Housing Authority’s Tempo at Encore development earlier this year, she thought it would mean an improvement in the quality of her life after living with her daughter. 

However, after dealing with leaky walls and moldy surfaces in a complex that’s less than a year old, the 63-year-old says she is back where she started.  

«I moved in this apartment complex in May of this year, and in June, I started having issues like—it was a leak in the carpet…then I saw a leak in the ceiling…and one of ‘em had some black stuff,” said Sasser. «The ceiling here is wet again, and it looks like mold coming out of it…So, I believe that this reflects what’s going on in the insides of the walls.”

Sasser says there was also water damage in the bathroom and lots of mold behind the dishwasher. 

«I just don’t need to be in this situation period as far as I’m concerned,” she said. 

Sasser told 10News she started feeling ill, so she got a professional mold test that found hazardous levels of the fungus in her home. 

«I’m tired. I’m tired of going through this. I really am,» she said. 

Sasser says workers have come out to address most of the issues, but she’s frustrated that the same thing keeps happening. 

The Tampa Housing Authority said property managers have a meeting with Sasser on Wednesday, so they couldn’t yet comment on the situation. 

However, problems with this property go back for years. The CEO told us in February the housing authority had to fire one of the contractors for shoddy work.

«Windows not put in properly. It rained, didn’t bother to put anything over the windows and all of that raining inside of the building, leaky walls, you name it. It was a mess,» said Tampa Housing Authority CEO Jerome Ryans in February. 

«I want to cry. I want to hold out. I want to be strong. It’s just so many mixed emotions that’s going on inside me,” said Sasser. 

The Housing Authority says it’s unclear if the contractor issues are related to the issues inside this apartment, but leaders do say they are in a legal battle over the construction problems. 

Sasser, who lives on a fixed income, says the problems have forced her to move in with her daughter and grandchildren in Riverview.

RELATED: Housing authority believes it found nearly 130 coffins from Tampa’s first Black cemetery

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source https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/local/problems-at-new-housing-authority-apartments-frustrate-neighbors/67-74d16d97-2684-4f81-8b0d-a9881a778598