LOL. thanks for coming in here and saving us from all the BS advice. we were lost until you decided to share your brilliant point of view.
So you're telling me that getting rainwater inside my dense buds doesn't raise the risk factors for botrytis and other flavors of fungal funk? what a jackass all of us norcal growers must feel like now that you've set us straight.
Can you teach me everything you know about growing? First, i have to go outside and take down all those tents so that my plants can get rained on.
Bud rot is not the only reason we keep the rain off our plants. There is this stuff called wind, its been around for a while- at least since the 70's. When your plants are weighed down with rainwater, they tend to snap when that wind stuff comes along in 40mph gusts.
But please, NOBODY FOLLOW THE BS ADVICE ON ICMAG. you're just wasting your time.
Oh how I just love people who think they are the smartest **** in the room...
good luck with 40mph gusts and those pop tents.
add to that high winds- you think those cheap vendor tents do anything? if you remove them, they'll probably have the same amount of rot, or a very marginal reduction in mold development. not worth other, negative possible factors. wind? well, if wind is coming from greater than 45 degrees altitude, then sure, it'll save some wind damage- IF you can ensure the pot tent doesn't get ripped from its base. but most wind blows relatively horizontal/parallel to the surface. so fuck that. sounds like a shit show of problems. might as well build aerodynamic pvc poltunnels for less than $300 you're spending...
just to clarify the obvious (to some), 100% humidity air blowing at, say, 20mph is still 100% humidity air blowing on your plants. mold will develop shortly, and invariably,in such a situation.
LOL. bested 12 hours of on and off 50 mph gusts with those cheap tents. at times theythey lifted 3 feet off the ground but they never failed. tied em down with additional cables anchored on the stumps of harvested plants. worst thing that happened was on one tent, one of the canopy arches popped out on both sides and water started to collect where the canopy was not taught, mushed down the top of a Bubba Kush, but its seems to have caused no real damage. All my tops remained bone dry.
These are even cheaper than "cheap vendor tents" of the ez-up variety. It did require 3 people to efficiently put these up, so I would consider a bunch of those ez-ups for next year since they can be handled by one person in a pinch. it'd be pretty sick to make some with 6 mil greenhouse film for the canopy.