Cleaning tent after pollen

[UrbanHillbilly]

OK, I'm about to start my second grow ever. First grow, well, lets just say I was a little bone-headed and wound up with a mature male I didn't notice until way too late. We did get a little nice bud regardless, but now I need to ensure I've got the tents ready for some new girls. It's been several months. I have done a basic cleaning and sprayed the inside of the tents thoroughly with plain water to make any residual pollen inert. Do I need to worry about the ductwork from the fans as well? And if so, how can I clean that, or anything else I'm not thinking of here?

 

[JollyPete]

It all depends on just how much pollen we're talking here.

Clouds of it, covering the whole surface area of the tent in a green film is gonna be a much bigger problem for a lot longer than not enough to even fully pollinate one female..

Time alone should be on your side at this point, especially including time for new plants, by the time any remaining pollen is exposed to oxygen and light long enough for you to veg out and start to flower new plants- I think you'll be fine, washing it down with water a few times likely knocked 90% of it down. Isopropyl everything if you wanna be sure, spraying a mist through the ductwork, misting fan blades, etc but if it wasn't much, I wouldn't bother going quite that far.

 

[Smoke_A_Lot]

Between each grow I like to spray my tents down with a bleach/water solution in a sprayer with a fine mist and leave it to air dry.
I don't see why it wouldn't work for stray pollen too.

 

[Cradle of Mirth]

If you're duct fans can handle a little moisture, I just do a couple misting sprays (10% bleach water) into the ductwork and let it blow through then quickly turn off the duct fans for a little bit so it doesn't dry too fast.

 

[Chunky Stool]

I run ozone a couple of times between each indoor crop.

 

[Cradle of Mirth]

I run ozone a couple of times between each indoor crop.

Do you run it in the open room or strictly through the ducts / with a lungbox?

I had this one before moving and lost it somehow/got stolen, never considered it for pollen control - damn that's convenient

 

[Chunky Stool]

Do you run it in the open room or strictly through the ducts / with a lungbox?

I had this one before moving and lost it somehow/got stolen, never considered it for pollen control - damn that's convenient
View attachment 188607

I've got a generator with a timer.
Similar to this one...
Amazon product

 

[JL2G]

I also do the spray everything in the tent down method. Just plain water though as bleach f's with me.
For all non sprayable items I damp wipe them with a shop rag. Has worked so far so good for me with plain water.
All my duct work and fans have filters before them so i havent had that issue to clean the ducts or fans. I do spray and clean the filters though after each boy run. Spraying them with the hand sprayer just so they don't drop dust as I remove them. Then once wetted removing them for a hand wash in the sink.
The filters I have for the tent are washable carbon filters made for allergens.
I'd recommend cleaning yours up and then doing the same with a filter setup to catch any pollen pre ducting/fan for any future chucking. If it's through a carbon filter before the fan it should be fine imho.
Sidenote
I do the spraying everything down method outside the tent and anywhere near where the door is even when messing with them while alive. Keeps stray pollen from going astray. Lol

 

[UrbanHillbilly]

Do you run it in the open room or strictly through the ducts / with a lungbox?

I had this one before moving and lost it somehow/got stolen, never considered it for pollen control - damn that's convenient
View attachment 188607

It's a closed tent, but it draws in room air and out through the carbon filter.

 

[Cradle of Mirth]

It's a closed tent, but it draws in room air and out through the carbon filter.

My bad 🙃 that was directed at @Chunky Stool for ozone. Lung boxes give the ozone a chance to mix with the air before safely exhausting outside so you don't breathe it - only ever considered it for neutralizing smell and air particles. Sure be handy for lingering pollen the weeks i work with it now, I assume you don't want to run it in an open room/tent during the 3 days after pollinating? perhaps after harvesting pollen but not when applying it? i'm sure the carbon filter gets a lot though

 

[Chunky Stool]

My bad 🙃 that was directed at @Chunky Stool for ozone. Lung boxes give the ozone a chance to mix with the air before safely exhausting outside so you don't breathe it - only ever considered it for neutralizing smell and air particles. Sure be handy for lingering pollen the weeks i work with it now, I assume you don't want to run it in an open room/tent during the 3 days after pollinating? perhaps after harvesting pollen but not when applying it? i'm sure the carbon filter gets a lot though

My grow area is the rear half of a double-deep stall in the garage.
It's separated by shelves and blackout curtains but isn't sealed.
I only run the ozone generator after a grow is finished and nothing is growing. (Ozone harms plants -- and mammals, like us.)

When I run it at night, the next day our garage smells like it's been bleached.

 

[Rozgreenburn]

I mist the tent with Windex or water with 1/2 cup bleach per gallon of water. Don't wipe it down, just let it air dry. I then do it again and wipe down all surfaces. Lastly, I'll take my1 gallon shop vac and suck around all the support pipe and all the openings. One more misting and I'm good to go. Never have had an issue so far .

Edit; If there are other plants flowering in the area, it's important to slightly mist the outer sleeve of the shop vac filter. This will stop the danger of blow by.