Tri_Cho_Me's First Grow & Grow Diary

[Tri_Cho_Me]

Good morning Tri_Cho_Me.
Those girls are looking great. Whatever you are doing your plants are loving you. Looks like your finding a good feeding schedule. I flipped to 12/12 about a week ago so I'm a couple weeks behind and looking forward to seeing the buds form and stack. Exciting times for sure.

I've been reading about VPD a bit the last few weeks and asking opinions as well. I've kind of come to the conclusion that unless you live in a perfect climate or have a sealed grow room it's not going to be easy to keep VPD optimal at all times. I've spoken with successful growers that grow in much lower humidity than optimal as far as the VPD charts show. I try to keep my humidity as close as possible but will always be on the dry side. I would have to basically keep my whole house at the humidity I want in my tents. I've also seen many recommend lower than optimal VPD during late flower. I got a little bud rot keeping humidity in the 50's% on my first grow and am going to get it a little lower on this next cycle. Not sure if this helps but I've decided to use VPD as a rough guide and take it into consideration but not to get too worried about it if I'm a little dry. I've seen great looking frosty buds that grew in dry climate and seemed to do just fine.

I would agree, hard to control and the plants seem to be doing fine regardless.

Interesting to hear about your bud rot at 50%. Will have to keep that in mind as things progress.

Thanks for dropping by!
Tri_Cho_Me

 

[Fiddynut]

I would agree, hard to control and the plants seem to be doing fine regardless.

Interesting to hear about your bud rot at 50%. Will have to keep that in mind as things progress.

Thanks for dropping by!
Tri_Cho_Me

Yep I was surprised about the bud rot too. I had topped that cola in flower and it was like two coming together in a v shape. It was almost as big as a softball and I didn't have a lot of air circulation up at that level. I think those factors combined to make it happen. I also flowered for a long time because my soil was out of steam at the end. Live and learn once again.

 

[Space Hobby]

Yep I was surprised about the bud rot too. I had topped that cola in flower and it was like two coming together in a v shape. It was almost as big as a softball and I didn't have a lot of air circulation up at that level. I think those factors combined to make it happen. I also flowered for a long time because my soil was out of steam at the end. Live and learn once again.

I was reading about topping the flower part but never dared to do it. You think doing it in week 3 is to late considering the plant need 8-9 weeks?

My humidity luckily stays pretty much bellow 50% at all times except the first day after watering it goes a little above...

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

I was reading about topping the flower part but never dared to do it. You think doing it in week 3 is to late considering the plant need 8-9 weeks?

My humidity luckily stays pretty much bellow 50% at all times except the first day after watering it goes a little above...

Space Hobby, is this your first grow? You could always trying topping the flower next time. Try experimenting after you've had success!

Tri_Cho_Me

 

[tleaf jr.]

Topping in flower will result in two small buds in a v shape as stated above...

 

[Fiddynut]

I was reading about topping the flower part but never dared to do it. You think doing it in week 3 is to late considering the plant need 8-9 weeks?

My humidity luckily stays pretty much bellow 50% at all times except the first day after watering it goes a little above...

Good morning Space Hobby.

I'm no expert but my experience was, like tleaf said a V shaped cola that ended up softball sized. It was the only place I had mold and a little bud rot. I would only top if you are pretty sure you are going to run out of headroom. I did mine about 2 weeks or so in because it was outgrowing my space. I think it was better to top than to end up too close to the light and burn it.

Kind of a heart shaped bunny ear cola.

 

[chronosync]

I did that also, just before buds were going to form and ^^^ exact result

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

Some Pics

Some Pics

Week 5 of flower - Last pic on the right is the big guy on the back right which is one of the bag seeds. Just growing tall and frosty.

 

[Fiddynut]

Week 5 of flower - Last pic on the right is the big guy on the back right which is one of the bag seeds. Just growing tall and frosty.

Good afternoon Tri_Cho_Me.
Your lady's are looking really nice. The sugar on that last shot is really incredible for a plant only on week 5. Whatever you are doing your plants are loving it. Those colas are stacking up nicely. Everything looks great. Your going to have some nice grass come harvest. Need any help trimming? Haha I wish. It's always nice to see your updates and pics. Keep it up!

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

Good afternoon Tri_Cho_Me.
Your lady's are looking really nice. The sugar on that last shot is really incredible for a plant only on week 5. Whatever you are doing your plants are loving it. Those colas are stacking up nicely. Everything looks great. Your going to have some nice grass come harvest. Need any help trimming? Haha I wish. It's always nice to see your updates and pics. Keep it up!

I haven't ever trimmed, so I am looking forward to my first go at it!

Yeah, that big bag seed girl is the first one I noticed frost on. Now everything does. Just within the last couple days I noticed my first hints of fruit on the Strawberry Kush. Almost Fruity Pebble-ish.

I still just see a bunch of pistils everywhere. I don't see any actual "meat" yet. I don't think so anyway. Makes me nervous they're not getting something I should be providing. But, like everything else with this hobby, patience is a virtue.

I appreciate the kind words and it's good to know someone is out there watching

Tri_Cho_Me

 

[Fiddynut]

I haven't ever trimmed, so I am looking forward to my first go at it!

Yeah, that big bag seed girl is the first one I noticed frost on. Now everything does. Just within the last couple days I noticed my first hints of fruit on the Strawberry Kush. Almost Fruity Pebble-ish.

I still just see a bunch of pistils everywhere. I don't see any actual "meat" yet. I don't think so anyway. Makes me nervous they're not getting something I should be providing. But, like everything else with this hobby, patience is a virtue.

I appreciate the kind words and it's good to know someone is out there watching

Tri_Cho_Me

Good evening Tri_Cho_Me.
Trimming was the easiest part of the whole process for me to learn. Get some micro trimmers and just get the leafy material off. It will likely come natural to you. Lots of different philosophies out there about what makes a good trim. I liked to do a nice trim on harvest and then a little touch up after drying. As the buds dry they shrink a bit and it makes it easer to get the little leaves and such. Save the frosty leaves for making wax, oil ,butter whatever you like.

You got a winner in the bagseed it looks like. Are you getting any skunk or any other flavors or just fruity? I didn't get any fruity pheno's last time and I want to grow some soon.

I think it's normal to just see a bunch of pistils and leaves for the first few weeks. The last couple weeks is when the calyx swell and the buds fatten up a lot. I suspect that you will be seeing them keep stacking up and getting bigger then an explosion of fattening in a couple weeks. Like you said patience is a great virtue for a grower. You are getting closer now and you will be rewarded for for letting them do there thing.
Great job bud. Soon you will be puffing that nice fruity weed.

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

Good evening Tri_Cho_Me.
Trimming was the easiest part of the whole process for me to learn. Get some micro trimmers and just get the leafy material off. It will likely come natural to you. Lots of different philosophies out there about what makes a good trim. I liked to do a nice trim on harvest and then a little touch up after drying. As the buds dry they shrink a bit and it makes it easer to get the little leaves and such. Save the frosty leaves for making wax, oil ,butter whatever you like.

You got a winner in the bagseed it looks like. Are you getting any skunk or any other flavors or just fruity? I didn't get any fruity pheno's last time and I want to grow some soon.

I think it's normal to just see a bunch of pistils and leaves for the first few weeks. The last couple weeks is when the calyx swell and the buds fatten up a lot. I suspect that you will be seeing them keep stacking up and getting bigger then an explosion of fattening in a couple weeks. Like you said patience is a great virtue for a grower. You are getting closer now and you will be rewarded for for letting them do there thing.
Great job bud. Soon you will be puffing that nice fruity weed.

How do I collect those frosty leaves and how can I store them? I've never made anything from leaves before. Any recommendations? Recipes?

Appreciate you're help!
Tri_Cho_Me

 

[Fiddynut]

How do I collect those frosty leaves and how can I store them? I've never made anything from leaves before. Any recommendations? Recipes?

Appreciate you're help!
Tri_Cho_Me

Good morning Tri_Cho_Me.
Lots of options for collection of sugar leaves but what I did was take all the junk leaves off and trim into a bucket then trim the frosty stuff over a dinner plate to catch the leaves. You could use a cookie sheet or something like that as well. Now that you have the sugar leaves you can do several things.

You can freeze them and make butter or bubble bag hash later. If you like edibles it's easy to make butter for brownies, cookies, cornbread or whatever else you can bake that uses butter as an ingredient. For bubble hash you need the bags that fit into a 5 gal bucket. Lots of good YouTube vids on bubble hash that you can check out if interisted. You can even yes the bags and some dry ice to get dry Keif.

Or you can dry the trim and and make any of the above or BHO, QWISO, or other extracts. For BHO you need a tube to blast through, some clean butane, and some Pyrex dishes. QWISO is easy to make and uses easy to find alcohol as a solvent. Lots of threads here on icmag and plenty of YouTube vids on BHO QWISO and other extractions. Do be carful of you use butane and do it outside where the vapors can disperse. I like BHO the best as far as flavor of any extracts that I've tried. It tastes like weed but without the burning leaf part, very clean and very powerful meds. You may need a vac pump and chamber to fully purge. QWISO always has a little of the alcohol taste to me even when purged and not as much of the flower taste comes through but it is easy to make. Bubble hash just uses ice and water to freeze and break the trichomes off and filter them out. Then you dry it and you have crumbly keif that can be pressed into hash. Bubble hash dosent have a lot of flavor I think the ice water washes a lot of terps away or something. For butter I've only used flower in the past and I like strong butter. I use 1/2 oz per stick of butter of flower and one stick is a like 4 doses. You can put some water in a pan and put your trim in and simmer it with the butter for a hour or two. Then strain through cheesecloth and put water/butter in a bowl in fridge. When cold the butter will form a disc on top you can toss water. You can also use double boiler or crock pot and just butter and trim cook a few hours and strain out. Lots of ways to do it so find what works well for you.

 

[DRM Ranch]

When I make butter I use 1oz of good quality frosted trim to 1lb of the highest fat content butter I can find.

I use the crock pot method.

From there I make cookies that I'll eat an hour prior to going to bed. Best sleep ever...

How much you use in terms of trim or lower popcorn bud is really based on how potent your initial product is.

I've had cookies that were way more potent than I had expected and just ate half or a quarter of each to do the trick.

Keep in mind edibles take a while to kick in, and the effects last longer.

After reading through your whole thread I have a few comments to add for future reference or hind sight if you will.

On molasses: I predilute mine to make it easier to work with and measure accurately. I dilute 3/4 tbsp into 1 at of RO water, and from that I use 1 tsp/gal. That isn't a critique of your rate of use just an observation.

On transplanting: I wait till roots are clearly visible at the lowest drain holes of the container, this tends to result in very well formed root structure and the substrate is bound tightly to the roots. I don't add a layer of river rock to cups or pots; on the cups I just have 8 1/8" holes so soil doesn't just fall or pour out even when watered. On #1 nursery pots and above I cut a small section of fiberglass window screen to keep the finer portions of soil in the container.

On the lights: I use T-5HO so I can't speak with much authority on distance from the plants with your LED light, however I would at the very least try and start a clone or two at some point and test the limits of how close you can go.

On topping, you can remove the third pair of branches leaving just the first two pairs to grow. The earlier you top the longer these branches have to develop and harden up which will support more weight later on.

DRM Ranch

 

[liftedinny]

Coconut oil if my favorite thing to make with trim ....I even use my rosin chips with coconut oil and turn that in to loiton my old lady puts on her hands tons of videos on youtube

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

On topping, you can remove the third pair of branches leaving just the first two pairs to grow. The earlier you top the longer these branches have to develop and harden up which will support more weight later on.

DRM Ranch

I'm not following this. Remove the third pair of branches?

Sorry...newb

Tri_Cho_Me

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

Good morning Tri_Cho_Me.
Lots of options for collection of sugar leaves but what I did was take all the junk leaves off and trim into a bucket then trim the frosty stuff over a dinner plate to catch the leaves. You could use a cookie sheet or something like that as well. Now that you have the sugar leaves you can do several things.

You can freeze them and make butter or bubble bag hash later. If you like edibles it's easy to make butter for brownies, cookies, cornbread or whatever else you can bake that uses butter as an ingredient. For bubble hash you need the bags that fit into a 5 gal bucket. Lots of good YouTube vids on bubble hash that you can check out if interisted. You can even yes the bags and some dry ice to get dry Keif.

Or you can dry the trim and and make any of the above or BHO, QWISO, or other extracts. For BHO you need a tube to blast through, some clean butane, and some Pyrex dishes. QWISO is easy to make and uses easy to find alcohol as a solvent. Lots of threads here on icmag and plenty of YouTube vids on BHO QWISO and other extractions. Do be carful of you use butane and do it outside where the vapors can disperse. I like BHO the best as far as flavor of any extracts that I've tried. It tastes like weed but without the burning leaf part, very clean and very powerful meds. You may need a vac pump and chamber to fully purge. QWISO always has a little of the alcohol taste to me even when purged and not as much of the flower taste comes through but it is easy to make. Bubble hash just uses ice and water to freeze and break the trichomes off and filter them out. Then you dry it and you have crumbly keif that can be pressed into hash. Bubble hash dosent have a lot of flavor I think the ice water washes a lot of terps away or something. For butter I've only used flower in the past and I like strong butter. I use 1/2 oz per stick of butter of flower and one stick is a like 4 doses. You can put some water in a pan and put your trim in and simmer it with the butter for a hour or two. Then strain through cheesecloth and put water/butter in a bowl in fridge. When cold the butter will form a disc on top you can toss water. You can also use double boiler or crock pot and just butter and trim cook a few hours and strain out. Lots of ways to do it so find what works well for you.

Dude! You wrote a book! Haha!

I appreciate all the info. The crockpot one sounds the easiest. For this method, I want the sugar leaves dry, correct?

Tri_Cho_Me

 

[Fiddynut]

Dude! You wrote a book! Haha!

I appreciate all the info. The crockpot one sounds the easiest. For this method, I want the sugar leaves dry, correct?

Tri_Cho_Me

Good evening Tri_Cho_Me.
I think you could use fresh frozen or dried for butter or like someone mentioned you can use coconut oil. Since thc is fat soluble I think any fatty or oily substance would work. The freezing can be handy since it gives you the flexibility to use it later. You will be busy with your buds between trimming and drying and may not have time to worry about your trim leave as much. To dry you might want a screen to put the trim on so it gets airflow and doesn't get moldy at the bottom. I didn't have many frosty leaves on my first run so I just peaked them into a sandwich zip loc and put them into freezer. I haven't had time to do anything with it yet. In fact I had forgotten about it until I saw this post. I think I'll be making some butter this weekend

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

Good evening Tri_Cho_Me.
I think you could use fresh frozen or dried for butter or like someone mentioned you can use coconut oil. Since thc is fat soluble I think any fatty or oily substance would work. The freezing can be handy since it gives you the flexibility to use it later. You will be busy with your buds between trimming and drying and may not have time to worry about your trim leave as much. To dry you might want a screen to put the trim on so it gets airflow and doesn't get moldy at the bottom. I didn't have many frosty leaves on my first run so I just peaked them into a sandwich zip loc and put them into freezer. I haven't had time to do anything with it yet. In fact I had forgotten about it until I saw this post. I think I'll be making some butter this weekend

I see, I see....maybe I'll just toss everything in a grocery sack and into the freezer for a free weekend like yourself. Thanks for the great info!

Tri_Cho_Me

 

[Tri_Cho_Me]

Starting Week 6

Starting Week 6

Stacking and Frosting!!

Fruity and Diesel...

Pretty much just alternating water & nutes every other time. I have started upping the nutes to normal doses now that we're in the thick of things. I am also still using both MaxiBloom and Tiger Bloom with a touch of molasses.

Vertical growth has pretty much ceased. Just seem to be bulking up at this point. The aroma is intensifying, still fruity. I have also been removing a handful of fan leaves every once in a while to help get light everywhere.

Enjoy some pics!

Tri_Cho_Me