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Early Harvest Bud Usage

Danimal Cracker

New member
I am forced to harvest early. About 3 weeks early. I'm probably not going to enjoy smoking it, so I'd rather profit and buy my own. What are my options as far as getting the most strength out of my product? Will it be potent enough to make strong edibles? I kept the trim and plan on using all buds as well. BHO is not an option. Please and thank you.
-DANNY
 

aridbud

automeister
ICMag Donor
Veteran
It happens sometimes....having to chop or cut early due to varied circumstances. I've certainly had to do that a time or two in 40+ years of growing. Better to be SAFE....than sorry.

You can make tinctures with alcohol (brandy being distilled differently, MMJ Dr. suggested) or vodka, tequila to make wicked margaritas or vegetable glycerin....all good options for tinctures.

Or there's a great sub section on cooking and delectable edibles.

Try some and see! Good luck!

https://www.icmag.com/ic/forumdisplay.php?f=44
 

Big M

Member
Tinctures and edibles are great, easy ways to use it. You might be surprised by some of the more developed buds if you give the nicest ones a chance at curing for smoke. I don't mind burning some mids mid day, as long as it's still tasty.

Another option would be an ethanol extraction done as cold as possible. I've made shatter many times with a quick soak of three minutes or so in Everclear, as cold as my freezer can go. The trick is to evaporate your alcohol slowly, with as little heat as possible.

Tincture can be made with oils too. I like liquid coconut oil for tinctures. Mixing with oil should help absorption. I've read that MCT oil is the best for fastest absorption, but also that it can cause some digestive upset, so I've never played around with that.

Try adding some lecithin to your edibles or oil based tinctures to speed up and increase absorption. I like to use liquid sunflower lecithin. Alcohol and glycerin tinctures are a great starting point for gummies.

My last idea is to handle your plants with great care to avoid damaging trichomes at all times during the harvest and processing. You want to save all the goodies you can cutting so early. Above all, have fun while doing it!
 

Danimal Cracker

New member
Tinctures and edibles are great, easy ways to use it. You might be surprised by some of the more developed buds if you give the nicest ones a chance at curing for smoke. I don't mind burning some mids mid day, as long as it's still tasty.

Another option would be an ethanol extraction done as cold as possible. I've made shatter many times with a quick soak of three minutes or so in Everclear, as cold as my freezer can go. The trick is to evaporate your alcohol slowly, with as little heat as possible.

Tincture can be made with oils too. I like liquid coconut oil for tinctures. Mixing with oil should help absorption. I've read that MCT oil is the best for fastest absorption, but also that it can cause some digestive upset, so I've never played around with that.

Try adding some lecithin to your edibles or oil based tinctures to speed up and increase absorption. I like to use liquid sunflower lecithin. Alcohol and glycerin tinctures are a great starting point for gummies.

My last idea is to handle your plants with great care to avoid damaging trichomes at all times during the harvest and processing. You want to save all the goodies you can cutting so early. Above all, have fun while doing it!
Thank you for the response. I'll give you a little background. This is some outdoor in Costa Rica, so climate is not my friend this time of year. I just pulled 2 out of 3 plants, trimmed dried and now curing. Curing the trim as well. I want to get the best flavors for anything that I may do. Im glad I left one plant growing because it avoided problems, and I also got lucky with a diff pheno. The buds are turning purple in its last ditch, so I'll let her go for a bit longer. On this one I planned to hang the whole plant instead of snipping the branches. I also plan to keep the leaves on during druing. Trying to preserve those trichomes.
 

Danimal Cracker

New member
It happens sometimes....having to chop or cut early due to varied circumstances. I've certainly had to do that a time or two in 40+ years of growing. Better to be SAFE....than sorry.

You can make tinctures with alcohol (brandy being distilled differently, MMJ Dr. suggested) or vodka, tequila to make wicked margaritas or vegetable glycerin....all good options for tinctures.

Or there's a great sub section on cooking and delectable edibles.

Try some and see! Good luck!

https://www.icmag.com/ic/forumdisplay.php?f=44
Thank you as well! I appreciate the feedback. I feel like I'm going to be making cannabutter when everything is finished curing. Do you uave any personal advice and tips on how to use lecithin? I just want to be able to use it properly.
 

Danimal Cracker

New member
You don't ever use lecithin? I understand why its a very bad idea to use it while making butter. But I definitely want to make a better cookie or brownie. I have noticed in the past that my weed cookies had a tendency to crumble or break up. I was wondering if this is because it needs an emulsifier? And if so, would it work if I used a recipe that includes corn starch? Just a thought.
 

Big M

Member
I've played around with liquid sunflower lecithin. I can't say for certain if it really made a difference in onset, intensity, or duration of effects. One batch of cookies seemed to kick in faster, but that very well could have been placebo effect.

I do like to use liquid sunflower lecithin when making chocolates. I decarb my concentrate in a small amount of lecithin in a small double boiler before adding it to my melted chocolate. There's already some lecithin in most chocolate, and too much of it will make soft chocolate that won't harden. I'm using it as a carrier for my concentrate as well as an emulsifier to get a more homogeneous mixture.

I used to make a lot of cookies with butter, until I tried coconut oil. I like the flavor and texture better with coconut oil, at least in the snickerdoodles we usually make. It's a cleaner oil to work with vs butter too. It doesn't separate like butter when heated, and it's harder to burn your oil. That being said, I still make and use butter too.

I don't know how some people are adding lecithin in the pot with their herb, oil, and water without getting a nasty emulsification. I tried that and wound up with way less butter than I put in, and close to the same amount of a nasty looking mousse like foamy cream type substance. The butter still worked. Never tried the mousse. Now if I add lecithin, I only add it to the finished butter or oil.
 

Big M

Member
I forgot to mention how much lecithin I use in the last post. When using it with butter I use one tablespoon per stick, after removing one tablespoon of butter, so my "stick" of butter is still eight tablespoons.

If using coconut oil instead of butter, a half cup of oil replaces one stick of butter. So then I would use seven tablespoons (3.5 oz) of oil to one tablespoon (.5 oz) of lecithin.

I have no experience using powdered lecithin or soy lecithin. Sunflower lecithin avoids any soy allergy issues that could possibly arise when sharing with friends. I pretty much only use it to make chocolates nowadays, because it really doesn't seem to make a difference in baked goods.

The last point I can think of about lecithin would be to pre-warm your bottle of liquid lecithin to make it thinner and easier to work with.
 
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