Am I on the right track?

[Kelly_J]

Plants are now 46 days into flowering.

 

What i want to know is, if i am on the right track.

 

From what i read from the time of my last grow, I came up with a method fro harvesting/drying/curing.

 

Wait till 75% of hairs turn amber colour (personal prefference of the smoke this way)

 

Flush for 7-10 days of tap water (ph adjusted ?) with no nutes, too get rid of the chemical taste in the buds.

 

Leave in darkness for 24hrs.

 

Take plants out and trim all fan leaves and neaten up the buds (so to speak) and hang them on a coat-hanger. Make sure buds are not touching eachother. All the smaller buds, put them on a mesh net and place under the hanging buds. Have a blowing fan in the cabinet*, not blowing directly on the buds. Have the exhaust fan extracting the air as well (not sure on the exhaust fan to be used or not?)

 

Allow to dry 5-7days. Try and see if the stem snaps or bend, one way to judge if the buds are dry and of course by pressing the buds lightly.

 

When buds are dry, tidy them up a bit by trimming all excess leaves and stems.

 

Place all buds into a air tight jar (mason). Store in a cool/dark place and open every day for 5-15 mins. Do this for 7 days (?).

 

Then smoke, smoke, smoke til your heart's content :whistling or till you run out

 

Also, how would i increase the yeild, I have just read about Super bud but wanted to hear someone else's view on it. Have i gone too long with just 2 weeks left of flowering or can i still add something?

 

All feedback and advice needed, just want to make sure i am doing everything right and be prepared for when harvest time comes.

 

Thanks,

Kel.

 

*cabinet- same room as they were grown in.

Edited March 5, 2005 by Kelly_J

[jackfrost]

yes flush for 7-10 days WITH PH adjusted water (perfer to use RO water) , changing water everyday - the leaves of the plant should go totally yellow with no green in them whatsoever, this is when you know that the plant is totally flushed.

 

24 hour dark - personally I think this is a myth - forget it

 

As far as fans in your drying room - I personality dont have them - I like to dry very, very slowly in a dark room with maybe a crack in the window open for airflow. - the first dry peroid usually takes me 20-30days - wipe out hole area with anti-fungal wipe.

 

Then after this do your lock-down. - again you want to do your first few lockdowns for as long as you can without getting mould - this time can very greatly depending on how long and how dry the buds were initialy before going into lockdown - you will get more of a feel the peroid yourself looking/smelling buds. - The lockdown is very important part of taste of the final product, as the aerobic bacteria your creating eats all the harshness out of the plant and causes it to burn clean in the bong. - experiment with this in a few different jars to perfect your method. - but be aware that to much bacteria = mould. - usually a lockdown for me lasts 60 days before best results are achieved.

 

Total drying/curing time is usually 80-90 days after harvest, not many people do this - IMHO this is just as important as the actual growing of the buds

 

Jack

Edited March 6, 2005 by jackfrost

[Kelly_J]

Total drying/curing time is usually 80-90 days after harvest, not many people do this - IMHO this is just as important as the actual growing of the buds

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Your right there Jack, not many people do this method who i have come across.

 

Thanks for the input!

[jackfrost]

alot of commerical growers usually dry very quickly. ie. sitting bud on top of shade with light on or in front of a heater - I also understand why they do this - because most people dont know what good bud is ---- most peope think that if you can have two cones and feel fucked that its good bud ----- also alot of buyers want it rightaway and dont want to wait for the cure and would rather pay the grower right away.

 

The only way people are going to get out of this habit is two smoke some really good bud and taste and feel how good it can get.

 

I also recken that people that buy pot in pounds only care about the price -- not the quality and thus commerical growers usually grow plants that yeild more and taste less.

 

I would rather as a stoner smoke some New York City Diesel (90-110 days flore) or Thai Haze and pay double, then smoke Big Bud or Red Haired Skunk (56 days flore) that most commerical op grow these days in Australia.

 

Over the last few years organised crime seem to be suppling most of the bud these days in large quanities - thus you get alot lower pound prices as large buyers and large growers do bussiness. The consequences of this is a lot of good backyard growers are packing up shop stateing the risk is no longer worth the gain.

 

 

I suppose the only alternative is to grow your own stash. ---- but not everyone can do this.

 

Jack