Unsure how to maximise my harvest

[BlueBucket]

Hi all

 

After goggling and reading countless articles and viewing many youtube vids, I'm still unsure that I'll be getting the most from my crop.  Although cannabis doesn't alleviate all symptoms of my illness, it 100% works for my chronic severe nausea and inability to sleep due to pain .. nothing, not even the wafers given to chemo patients eased my nausea in the past.  I get a few bad headaches and have balance probs due to inflammation in ears .. so am wary of using anything 'too green' like juicing the leaves (as I've read it can cause headaches).  That and I've always needed to eat food I really really like as I never have an appetite and forcing down something I don't like the taste of usually comes back up.  Most times just forcing down stuff I like is difficult enough.  

 

This is my second hydro grow, I didn't get much out of the first using only the buds (not that I had many!).  I used the Rick Simpson method to make a thick grease like substance (washing with nearly pure alcohol) which worked brilliantly, but I absolutely don't like the taste .. was real messy and caused a bit of waste trying to put a bit in capsules in a bid to not taste it, so I got some syringes and squirted a bit on half a jelly baby and swallowed it whole without tasting it .. but sometimes I'd get the tiniest bit on a finger which would end up on my teeth or tongue .. back up again.  As such, was wondering if making cannabutter would work just the same and whether I'd get as much out of it <- meaning volume.

 

The ability to eat and sleep better really improved everything and made life liveable, so I dread running out of it again and need to maximise my crop.  Also, I'm fine while taking cannabis everyday, but when I stop I get bad anxiety for a few days which can also be very unpleasant.  Another reason not to run out.

 

So am I wasteful just using the buds?  Does anyone know if I would get the same volume of cannabis if making butter (cooktop method .. stewing the buds in butter and water) as I did the Rick Simpson method?  Reckon I'd have less trouble eating a bit of cookie dough!  ..  I also saw a video of this excitable chap using the cold press method to juice leaves, oranges and whole coconut saying it was a brilliant long-lasting high .. I imagine that the anti-nausea and whatever it is that lets me sleep would still be there with the THC in this case too.  Apparently, the citric acid combined with oil from coconut undergoes some chemical process that 'cooks' it.  I've not heard of anyone else making this claim, so it could be b/s.

 

Sorry for the big story, but any advice from medical users or others with experience would be greatly appreciated. 

 

(I'm growing medical hybrid strains 'Nightingale', 'Hiydrow', 'CBD Supreme' .. and 'Blueberry' which I grew from seed sourced from 'Seedsman' in the UK .. sent stealth)

 

 

[jbgz]

Hey BlueBucket,

The problem with hydro is that there are many variables, from your medium, to your nutes, to your feeding regime. For example my nute manufacturer's recommendations are simply way too strong for my setup. They recommend around 1600ppm and if I run at that level I have a marked decline in plant health and the same with pH. They recommend higher but again my setup means lower is better for me. My feeding regime is also different, it's all automatic on a timer and I run for 15min/hr every hour.

I top up with straight water every day and to keep my salts at a manageable level, flush my setup every 2 weeks. My plant tells me when it's not happy, ie droopy leaves, change in colour.

So to be sitting here and saying "you need to be doing X" is impossible IMO. You need to be taking lots of things into consideration. For example your airconditioner, depending on it type (Evap or refriged?)will alter your air quality remarkably. Evap will heighten humidity where refrigerated has the opposite effect. Some refrig a/c systems only recycle the air within that specific area, so air exchange is minimal, where evap is bringing in fresh air, but adding humidity in the process.

 

Measuring the pH of your run off is not going to give you any great indication. I test my levels in the morning, but my levels in the afternoon after running thru my setup are all altered as my plant has absorbed what it needs and excreted what it doesn't into that run off, and that's going to alter the pH anyway. Every morning when I test my ec and pH I have to alter both back to 'normal' anyway.

 

Merl1n

God hust this comment scares the hell out of me. The outdoors okay but the indoor is incredibly terrifying to start. I feel like I've got a few thouand piece jigsaw puzzle and I know it's not as hard as I'm making it haha, thanks for sharing ur knowledge dude <3

 

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[merl1n]

Hey jbgz,

Nahh, don't let it be scaring the crap outta ya, it's all a learning. Nobody starts this game having ALL of the info and you have a huge resource of info here to draw on. Other members here will be more than willing to share their knowledge and help ya out. Once you get things sorted and your processes refined you'll be fine. That "...few thouand piece jigsaw puzzle..." all fits together somehow. The best advice, if you've got questions, you ask. I don't have all of the answers but someone here would have come up against exactly the same problems at some point, so ya ask. No question is silly if you don't know the answer and if it is a silly question I'm sure someone will tell you that too

 

Merl1n

[BlueBucket]

God hust this comment scares the hell out of me. The outdoors okay but the indoor is incredibly terrifying to start. I feel like I've got a few thouand piece jigsaw puzzle and I know it's not as hard as I'm making it haha, thanks for sharing ur knowledge dude <3

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

 

yeah .. it's real scary at first due to set-up cost, I've had a few 'OMG that's a grand down the drain!!' freak out moments .. but it gets better with time and practice.  After trawling the web for info, I found the most helpful advice right here.  Check out Merl1n's diagrams and advice given to me in this post .. invaluable.  I'm doing my second hydro grow and although I'll be getting more out of this one, I have no doubt my third grow will be much less stressful and better.  If I can do it with my pussywillow feable body on my own, anyone can <- I won't say it wasn't hard .. but totally worth it.  

[jbgz]

Haha thanks guys, only 1 way to find out and that's get her going!

 

Posted from the OZ Stoners mobile app

[merl1n]

Hey Bluebucket,

Just reading back thru our posts here and you say "... tomorrow I'll be crawling around my tent playing twister with my plants! ha .. I'll be pushing my buds to the light .. thanks for your tip" and that's a very good idea. Do it.

BUT:

HINT: A big problem with SCROG is airflow. The density of the undergrowth can get so dense no air can flow thru. The buds under the canopy get SFA light and in all honestly are a waste of the plants energy. I want/need all that goodness going to the crowns, not the shit underneath. So I strip mine out under the netting, like this:

https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/topic/12055-all-join-in-just-a-pic-dump/page-337?do=findComment&comment=399843

This gives better airflow, less bug habitat and helps the buds swell too

Some people like to keep all the smaller undergrowth going to have a '2nd harvest'

But the 2nd is never as good as the first and you may get some buds, but you'd be better off sending it all to your crowns IMO

 

Hope it helps

Merl1n

[BlueBucket]

Hey Bluebucket,

Just reading back thru our posts here and you say "... tomorrow I'll be crawling around my tent playing twister with my plants! ha .. I'll be pushing my buds to the light .. thanks for your tip" and that's a very good idea. Do it.

BUT:

HINT: A big problem with SCROG is airflow. The density of the undergrowth can get so dense no air can flow thru. The buds under the canopy get SFA light and in all honestly are a waste of the plants energy. I want/need all that goodness going to the crowns, not the shit underneath. So I strip mine out under the netting, like this:

https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/topic/12055-all-join-in-just-a-pic-dump/page-337?do=findComment&comment=399843

This gives better airflow, less bug habitat and helps the buds swell too

Some people like to keep all the smaller undergrowth going to have a '2nd harvest'

But the 2nd is never as good as the first and you may get some buds, but you'd be better off sending it all to your crowns IMO

 

Hope it helps

Merl1n

 

I just logged in to print out some of the info you've given me Merl1n .. your advice has been invaluable and will save me stress, time and effort with my next grow (currently germinating seeds).  Thanks again for taking the time to help me .. I'm sure others will also read and benefit.  So refreshing to hear from such kind and knowledgeable people on this forum.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

[merl1n]

I just logged in to print out some of the info you've given me Merl1n .. your advice has been invaluable and will save me stress, time and effort with my next grow (currently germinating seeds).  Thanks again for taking the time to help me .. I'm sure others will also read and benefit.  So refreshing to hear from such kind and knowledgeable people on this forum.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

And that's what we are here for. The interwebby thingy was in it's infancy when I started this journey, so when I started it was a case of error on top of error on top of erro....... but I learnt. If you can learn from my errors before you make the same mistakes then they haven't been a wasted experience. It gives some value to my cockups . Just remember everybody's setups are different, don't be using anybody's advice (mine included) as a bible. My advice works for me and my setup, you'll need to make tweaks to refine processes for your own setup. This is why I often say "....some people will tell you they know it all. BULLSHIT. They may know what works best for them and their setup, but to say they know it all is crap..." I grow SCROG in a recirc system in perlite. I freely admit I know SFA when it comes to coco, I know SFA when it comes to DWC (Deep Water Culture) but others here do. Often it's a case of taking bits and pieces of other people's info and marrying them together for your own needs/setup AND environment. ie growing in Tassie vs growing in QLD. Environmental factors also play a big part.

One of the better things about the internet is that if someone comes up with a 'dickhead' idea others will come out and say "Nahh, that won't work.." Many moons ago someone came out with a suggestion of using individual torch bulbs/batteries at the end of each crown so that each crown had it's own light source, and for newbies it could sound plausible. But the majority of 'established' growers poo pooed the whole idea as a waste of time. Wrong sort of light, wrong wavelength of light and the intensity of a torch light is useless. On consensus of people in the know (other members) the idea was shown to be crap. It was only that the majority of the membership said "Nahh, that won't work.." that others didn't follow the wrong advice.

 

So as I stated before "...The best advice, if you've got questions, you ask. I don't have all of the answers but someone here would have come up against exactly the same problems at some point, so ya ask. No question is silly if you don't know the answer and if it is a silly question I'm sure someone will tell you that too..."

 

Merl1n

[BlueBucket]

Cheers Merl1n .. as always, sounds like good advice to me ..