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Please supervise my harvest

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
Spaventa,

Yeah thats true I have read that before as to the quoted finishing times based on when pistils first appear. I belong to the school of thought, that it should all be based on light switch, thats something we can all accurately measure and share.

So when you say it could have gone a week longer, what does that mean as far as what it lacked at 10 Weeks of 12/12, versus 11 Weeks. What would have improved in that week? what was not there at 10 weeks? Less potency? yield, resin, flavour, smoke quality? Especially how would you know if you hadn't grown it to 11 weeks previsouly and not actually now what this strain specifically had potential of with an extra week. Sorry if I'm going to deep here!

P.S. I have a corner in the room that I can keep 4 plants for an extra week if need be so Il take my 4 best that I want to keep going to week 10 if there not all cloudy yet.
 
S

sourpuss

Paulie wall im glad u have an open mind. I use maxibloom and floralicious when i have a say. Maxibloom only at the last 2 weeks. Try my way on 1 plant. U might not believe till its cured properly but u can thank me later.. best product flushed with tap ive seen was 1 week flush max. Without any of that 3 times the volume stuff everyone reads and reguritates... basically the plant slowly ate what was left from reg flower feeding in the final week of pure water... no real flush leads to the kind of shit we all love to smoke. Go figure...
 

Spaventa

...
Veteran
Spaventa,

Yeah thats true I have read that before as to the quoted finishing times based on when pistils first appear. I belong to the school of thought, that it should all be based on light switch, thats something we can all accurately measure and share.

So when you say it could have gone a week longer, what does that mean as far as what it lacked at 10 Weeks of 12/12, versus 11 Weeks. What would have improved in that week? what was not there at 10 weeks? Less potency? yield, resin, flavour, smoke quality? Especially how would you know if you hadn't grown it to 11 weeks previsouly and not actually now what this strain specifically had potential of with an extra week. Sorry if I'm going to deep here!

P.S. I have a corner in the room that I can keep 4 plants for an extra week if need be so Il take my 4 best that I want to keep going to week 10 if there not all cloudy yet.

Theres no one day thats correct to harvest. Its window. The start is when the trichomes are at least full and THC ratio to secondary cannabinoids is high. You get a more cerebral, up high. Later you leave it more THC degrades/coverts to secondary cannabinoids and you get a more balanced high and body stone. You leave it till more than 40% of your trichomes are amber, you get more medicinal, sedative effects.

Mines ok but I could have left it few more days and slept more recently :)
 
S

sourpuss

Mostly cloudy is when i harvest. There is a difference between cloudy and opaque. Imo opaque is too far and cloudy is balanced and strongest. Cloudy is a very tough thing to see.
Looks almost clear.... Also trichs will continue to amber and/or golden up with cure... im sure you will find what you like over time...
 

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
Yeah I just want to make sure that Im not loosing out on potency due to harvesting too early, which end of the spectrum of the high it falls in is secondary to that. It seems that all cloudy/milky is that bottom line.

Thanks Spav, Puss
 

IgmarBudman

New member
Paulie - Regarding looking at trichomes, I use a microphone stand with a boom (as I'm a keyboard player) and just put the microscope in the microphone holder and tape the cable on the boom to hold it tight. Then I just leave the microscope on the boom and rotate the pot to get great close ups of any bud I want. You can always just lay a broom across a chair and tape the microscope to the broom.
 

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
Igmar,

Yeah I just did some more research on microscopes and loupes for trichome checking and found some good threads. Just glad I'm not the only one that was having a hard time with this. Good tip on broom! It all depends on the microscope and loupe so I ordered 3 more, besides the 2 I got (the pen was garbage, couldn't see anything at all, and the loupe although good did not seem like 30X. Il keep the best one and return the other 5!

Heres a link to a good thread on microscopes for anyone interested

https://www.*********.com/community/threads/found-the-best-microscope.41677/
 

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
Chopped them down sunday evening with 16-20 hours of darkness. Cut in complete darkness, removed most leaves that had an exposed stem that I could remove the leaf from. Will leave all actually cutting and trimming of small leaves for the dry trim. Left all the buds that were dense and nice on the entire plant branch. The drying is being done in a storage room in the laundry/furnace room in the basement. Temp is nice and low at 15-17C, humidity is in the range of 65-70 RH. Have a 4" fan exhausting air out of the room through the door that is ajar 1 a foot. Just to have some airflow, no direct air on the buds though, just enough to move the air out of the room. Completely dark.
Checking twice a day to make sure there is no mold because I know this is on the far end of cold temps and humidity range where mold can be a danger, but I want them to dry as slow as possible. Can already feel a little bit of crisp on the buds, just the outside though, and on some its just the leaves.

No strong hay smell so far yet...
 

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Spaventa

...
Veteran
Temp is nice and low at 15-17C, humidity is in the range of 65-70 RH.

personally, Id never run that high humidity in my drying area. I get that its cool and you want to dry slow but things go mouldy in the fridge so they will have no trouble at 17, given a vector.

I don't go over 50% but thats just me. Regardless, congrats :tiphat:
 

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
alright. update.

11 days since cut. 4 days ago I trimmed them completely and removed all buds from the branches. I did this because they were all crispy dry on the outside. All the buds from each plant went into its own paper baggy, just sitting upright in the container. First day I closed the lid and the moisture the next day was at 70 humidity and moisture went to the outside of the buds and they weren't crunchy anymore. Since then I have left the lid off and its been at 69% RH and they are drying slowly and more evenly. Once a bag of buds is dried enough on the outside again I will move them to a ziplock bag and seal them up. I could close the lid on the whole container but not all buds are drying at the same level and are at different stages and have different needs. So far everything does smell like hay. No dankness. but Im starting to think thats just the normal process of drying., and hoping as it dries completely and cures that will dissapear and there will be some danknesss. Il settle for 1/5th of dankness at this point. Speaking of Dankness Ive ordered Scotts Og from rare dankness and Agent Orange from TGA subcool. So I will be ruling out mediocre genetics out of the equation pretty soon, not saying female seeds are no good, but there not premium either so...
 

Pwyll

Member
15C & 70 RH - I think that might be your problem. I have the opposite problem - too dry and too warm. Normally everyone says a slow dry is best, but 14 days and the bud still at 70 RH might be too slow
 

packerfan79

Active member
Veteran
I like your name , I have a cousin we called Paulie Waulie, unfortunately, we are dealing with his father's death on Friday. Hope you are a happier Paulie Waulie, than mine is at the moment. I will be watching the show. Don't be too hard on yourself.
 

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
Haven't had a chance to smoke too much yet but I am satisfied with the smell look and feel of Sexbud, Blueberry Cheesecake, and Pure AK plant #5 and #7 are good indica phenos compared to the more sativa leaning ones. I guess this harvest can be chalked up as a success! Im not a big smoker so I won't be able to judge the smoke too accurately when the cure is complete, but I will chime in once more anyways when the time comes.

Give you guys some closure ;)



Pakerfan,

Sorry to hear the bad news, hopefully your cousin will be able to move on soon. Yeah If you look at most of my posts on here so far there is a fair amount of struggle. I think anyone else would have given up at this point, but I need to hit some level of success just so I am able to walk away from this hobby. Catch 22 type deal I suppose. I do think I have been mostly growing out a inferior phenotype, that doesn't have much thc, resin, or smell. Thing is you only realize that its not you but the strain and pheno, after a few runs, when you know you were doing everything right.

Pwyll,

I know 70% is high, but it literally is only at that level for the first day or so, then it drops down to the mid 60s. As well it has now warmed up here so the temps were between 15-20C. I have since taken down another run, and it actually dried pretty quick in these conditions at 7 days, I did the final trim and put them in ziplock bags for curing and they are at 65% roughly after being sealed 24 hrs. My buds weren't super huge and dense so thats why they dry quickly. I did not have issues with any mold so will try to slow things down to get closer to 10 days drying in the future.
 

packerfan79

Active member
Veteran
You should have good luck with the Scott's og, tga is kinda spotty on th e potency, but definitely flavorful herbs. Do your self a favor and take clones of the plants from the Scott's and the agent Orange and run the clones. Clones run different than seed plants. Also keep back up clones labeled so you can keep the best of the bunch. Unless you are try g to get monster outdoor plants running from seed every time is a waste of money, and you will always have to deal with different phenos that grow differently and have different nutrient requirements. These are challenges a new grower is better off not dealing with. You will have enough challenges, don't add more.
 

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
Yes thats exactly what Im doing. Gonna be running clones off these seeds for the next year basically. I like doing rows of 4 plants. Up to 12 rows. With identical clones, its easy to experiment and try out different techniques ie. ppm levels, ph levels, additives and nutrients, topping, lollipoping and really dial in the perfect levels. Im all about improving my overall efficiency and like having even rows of identical plants. And can't afford more seeds!

$280 CAD for those seeds. Insane, Versus, buying a clone for $10 of a proven quality pheno of a strain and starting a mom to clone. Not to mention 3 weeks to deliver the seeds. But I don't have access to quality clones here. Definitely want to meet some fellow grower friends on here and start sharing cuttings !
 

PaulieWaulie

Member
Veteran
Hey PaulieWaulie, what was your yield? How was she smoking?

Thanks for the motivation to post some results Spliff !


Here are the numbers

14X= 430G = .43G/Watt

Sexbud - 72
BlueCheese - 47
AK5 - 46
AK6 - 27
AK7 - 31
SK4 - 60
Skunk? - 27
Skunk? - 27
Skunk? - 20
Skunk? - 18
Skunk? - 11
Skunk? - 7
Skunk? - 7
Skunk? - 7

I did overfeed the whole flowering period looking back at my doses and run off. The skunks were on the edge of the light and went from overfeeding to nute lockout, to deficiency so had a real rough time.
They were also over crowded. I had them 4 per row. Versus my better performers were 3 per row and more in the middle of the room and getting some light from 2 different lights.

Since then I have also reduced my feeding rates from 900-1000 down to 600-750 on this current run with better results.

I haven't smoked any of it yet as I prefer it hits 62% RH (fairly dry) before trying it. I dried 2 weeks, and then the cure lingered at 65% for a long time until I let them really dry out and hit 62%. Initially everything did smell like hay, but the blueberry cheese has a bit of a sweet smell, and the AK5/AK7 are nice, as well as the skunk 4 does have a bit of the cat piss smell they described it as. Ive come to accept the hay smell as normal, (at least for these strains, cause I've done quite a few chops this year, and really don't see anything that Im doing wrong). But I do see now that after a good month cure they do have some smell. Because the batch I first grew that I thought was garbage during the trim/dry/cure stage 3-6 months later now, It actually reeks up the room if you have the bags out. ;)

Im on my second run and doing one more there after with clones of all these guys. Maybe Il start a thread on them then.
 
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