Question about bud washing

[Cornercat]

I just did the bud washing with one of my indoor tents and I'm on the fence about doing it again. Yes it removed a tiny amount of debris, but mostly just pistils and loose sugar leaves. Really, I was expecting to see a lot more hair, cat hair, dirt, etc.

So it got me thinking - If dust and hair are getting stuck to the buds, wouldn't it be assumed that they are stuck to the sticky trichome heads? If the wash doesn't affect the oily trichomes, how effective can it really be at dislodging debris from their sticky surface?

 

[Stunger]

I haven't bud washed before because I favour whole plant drying for which I don't have suitable large containers to use. But there are plenty of posts/threads here on bud washing where folk have posted pics of their 'dirty' wash water that has lemon juice/baking soda in, their post wash water usually tends to look quite dirty after a bud wash, and I presume that the wash solution is supposed to work on the more water soluble dirt and not effect the trichomes if done carefully. Like I said I haven't yet done bud washing but if it was me I'd read some of the experiences posted by people who have and check/compare methods, hopefully you find you have done it right and maybe your buds were just pretty clean anyway. Good luck.

 

[Cornercat]

I'm not sure how you could do it wrong, pretty sure I did it right and it worked. But it's all the people saying "don't worry, the water won't dissolve any trichomes" which got me thinking that it's probably not washing the actual buds as much as the leaves. Just wanted to see if anyone else has thought about that. Doesn't seem possible for both to be true: that the water can pull stuff off the trichomes but doesn't remove the trichomes. I'm guessing there's a lot of dust and hairs still glued to the buds that can't be separated.

 

[nivek]

there are all kinds or reasons to bud wash,, just as there are reasons not to bud wash

why wash something that is not dirty??

but lots of folks spray with this and that and perhaps have pest issues

dusty environments are also possible,

and assuredly other reasons to wash ones buds

some folks even claim it makes the smoke a bit smoother

i wash when i need to, which is usually, and i don't wash when i don't have to, which is more often recently,, yay

cheers

 

[JohnnieJC3]

Believe me... you are washing out debris loose hairs and dirt, I use bug screens on my intake and it still gets in there. I have to open the tent so it is what it is.. You can see in the pictures the dirty wash water, versus the two rinse laundry totes. Washing your buds is absolutely worth doing, way smoother(cleaner) smoke... Dabs.. dry herb Vape Hits everything... there IS a difference. The dirty water pictures are from two indoor plants that were around 6+ ounces each. Filthy Comparatively.

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[bobrown14]

I just bud washed a plant a few days ago. I got a pretty clean room, I clean it regular. Also have MERV-13 air filters in our air handling (gets even covid-19 virus) systems and keep them freshly changed.

Plants get dirty. All 3 of my buckets were pretty nasty after the wash. I was thinking about re-using the water again this weekend but after looking at all the crud. I'm going with a new fresh set of bucket water.

Yeah its nasty, dust is real gets on everything but washes off.

I do think the bud washing affects the flavor in a good way but thats probably seat of pants thinking. I do it so it must be better, right.... maybe. But the dirt is there in the buckets.

IF you really wanna see whats what on your flower, take samples and scope them with a microscope. You should do that anyway but for folks that dont, I recommend it. You will see all sorts of shit if you look.

I washed when I needed to like @nivek does. After moving to our new home I've washed every plant I've grown here. They seem to get dirtier here out in the country than they did in the city which I wood think wood be the opposite.

 

[SmokingWings]

I'm not sure how you could do it wrong, pretty sure I did it right and it worked. But it's all the people saying "don't worry, the water won't dissolve any trichomes" which got me thinking that it's probably not washing the actual buds as much as the leaves. Just wanted to see if anyone else has thought about that. Doesn't seem possible for both to be true: that the water can pull stuff off the trichomes but doesn't remove the trichomes. I'm guessing there's a lot of dust and hairs still glued to the buds that can't be separated.

The water molecules will get between the trichomes and the surface of the small leaves on the buds and loosen the dirt. There is probably a bit of natural agitation caused by mixing the baking soda and lemon juice that also causes dust to separate from the trichomes.

Most of the time the bud washing leaves me with fairly clean water in the first bucket.

 

[Cornercat]

Like magic. yall have an explanation for everything. I guess bud washing really is cleaning your buds 100% then, couldn't possibly be any limitations worth admitting.

 

[bobrown14]

Some bugs wont wash off - tomoto aphids are one. You get them burn the plant.