[DutchJohnny]

Great adventure, nice read!

[mitch_connor]

When the first batches of pollinated plants were ready in summer, the were chopped, stripped and introduced to Tim's new creation: The De-seed-a-tron 3000 v2.0

You perhaps wouldn't imagine it at first, but de-seeding in mass, has actually been a big and tricky process to figure out.
In winter we spent 12 hour days sat at our dining table for what felt like an eternity de-seeding several tents worth of buds, needless to say, it was a very labourious and monotonous process, we didn't want to repeat anytime soon!. When it came to summer time and tents were replaced with greenhouses' worth of buds to de-seed we were really scratching our heads about what to do.

We tried to think how on earth the big companies do it, it either had to be whole groups of people employed doing it by hand the same way as us.., or it was a mechanised process.
neither of those were really a viable option as expense and security is always a concern.

We had done all this processing shortly before Spannabis, so at Spannabis in Barcelona, we tentatively asked some questions to seed companies who had stands. (Not knowing if it was a trade secret people would keep close to their chests or not) Two people that we discussed the process with were Scott from Rare Dankness who we met at a friends house briefly, and Eric from Humbolt Seeds. (both good guys!)
We borrowed some ideas from each of them and settled on a method of our own to use when the next seed harvest was due.

There is a lot of work here for two guys, so any methods we can employ to speed up processes and our efficiency are a complete godsend.
So if anyone is interested to see, here's a brief step by step of what we do. I'll try and get my best Blue Peter style of writing on

Step 1) Plants with visibly mature seeds (lower and upper buds are checked) are brought onto the outside table. Here they are stripped of all fan leaves apart from ones with traces of resin on. The buds are then snipped off the plants and go into a work bag, and on to a drying tray shortly after.

For display purposes here they were placed onto a large paella dish! It may not look like much, but here is the seeded wet flowers from around 16 AF females.



Step 2) Dry until buds are dry and crumble very easily. inside and out they must be dry! Over dried in comparison to usual curing and then smoking practices.

They will look like this:


and here is a close up of the buds containing mature seeds:
https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php...tureid=1166466

Step 3 - (sorry no image) The buds are placed into a 110 micron bubble bag, and are crushed by hand so to not damage seeds until we have a fine green powder. this is done over a large glass table so any crystals that make there way through the bag can be scraped with a credit card and saved to be pressed at a later date.

Step 4 - Introduce your crushed product to a de-seed-a-tron! It is wooden framed with aluminium mosquito mesh attached, and angled so the seeds roll down into a collection pot. It has a hinged top panel where the powdered greenery is sprinkled on to, gravity lets the seeds roll down whilst the plant matter sticks to the mesh and is then tipped into a collection tray, a small handful works best otherwise the mesh gets clogged and seeds are trapped.





to be continued...

[Kman1965]

Remarkable! Thats one of the coolest things I have ever read. Thanks for telling your story.

[mitch_connor]

...Continued: The process.

A decent handful of Pre-ground material is slowly sprinkled and released at the top of the screen.


The plant matter(95%) will stick at the top half of the machine, and the seeds roll and bounce under gravity down to the bottom and fall through the slot into the collection pot


The screen is checked for seeds in case any got caught and stayed at the top. When all is clear the top screen is flipped on it's hinges and plant matter falls and can be brushed so it falls into the trim collection tub.


When the batch is processed, the collection pot will look something like this:


Some immature seeds will make it through, and also some seeds will still have their husks attached, however it's perhaps only another hour to remove them and have them completely cleaned.

It has drastically reduced the time taken from 1-2 days to more like 1-2 hours for a batch this size. The process needs some tweaking and ideas are already flowing for version 3.0, but right now we are happy boys!

Hope you enjoyed. Cheers, Mitch and Tim.

[paulo73]

I love the de-seed-a-tron.
Well done Mitch.

[mitch_connor]

Originally Posted by paulo73

I love the de-seed-a-tron.
Well done Mitch.

Thanks my friend, it served us very well this summer. If not for that we would still be de-seeding at christmas

A nice member also sent me a link after viewing this thread to a professional de-seeding machine in action, that I think we can DIY very easily and using parts we already have here to hand.

So keep an eye out for that in future.

Cheers, Mitch

[mitch_connor]

These photos were taken the 3rd week of august:
You may remember on a previous page I showed a lower plot that we cleared.
We had some spare reject photoperiod plants that we threw outside and they ended up on this plot.
They were really given no special attention, and were moved down there already a week or so in to flower. So anything they produced was purely a bonus.





The ground was just too tough and too large to work by hand, there is a thin layer of natural mulch, but below that is pretty much pure clay.
Next spring we will get a roto-tiller and go over the plot several times to see if we can get plants properly into the ground. I think a large raised bed is the way to go Or alternatively have less plants and have a crack at diying some large smart pots.

At the same time, here were some AF plants in the greenhouse with seeds ready about 10 days from these pictures:




Catching up to present slowly
Cheers, Mitch

[paulo73]

Can i ask you what kind of feeding&adds did you guys used?
I like the idea of the roto-tiller, maybe you can do it during the winter and incorporate all the available weeds as green mulch and maybe even add some kind of manure.
Next year you´d just need to use the roto-tiller again before bringing on the girls.
I got a similar plan for my own gg plants so i´ll keep my eyes peeled to learn a few tricks with you guys.

[mitch_connor]

Paulo, the base this year was once used biobizz lightmix, as we were using it for the indoor grows throughout the year,
We broke it down, and removed roots from the previous plants, We amended the soil with worm castings, bat guano, perlite, dolomite lime, and to fill it out some more, we bought some mantillo, and recebo.. cheap composts from the DIY store.
Next year we have enough soil to negate the store bought soil, and will just be able to mix and leave.
If we can afford to get a roto tiller, then as you say, going over it several times at different intervals would allow the roots to penetrate. However we would need a pretty beefy one.
I can see us doing the raised beds, I think if the clay is turned over and then covered it should keep the moisture in nicely.
I think the key will also be having suitable strains, despite it being spain, That area is at a valley floor and it gets very humid down there, so mould is a concern.
I don't know if it's the norm but this year we had a very stormy few weeks in September, If it's possible I would want all plants harvested before that time to avoid problems.

Cheers, Mitch

[paulo73]

You´re a man with a plan, i like that!
Have a peak in here
https://www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/