Sierra Cowboy 5 Variety Outdoor Soil 2019

[Sierra Cowboy]

I am having a difficult time with the cure, the dehydrator is very difficult to monitor and the mini fridge is running way to cold. On the up side, I have been monitoring the Rh and temps. and our outside environment is spot on about 16 hours a day.
I have been turning the fridge off and opening the door in the evening and closing it in the mornings adding more and more water bottles in an effort to fine tune the fridge during the day,( once adding a tray of dehydrated rice to bring down the RH in the fridge.) We are fine tuning with a single plant up to this point however we start harvesting the remaining five plants this morning.
We have decided to alter the drying process to take advantage of the environment by hanging the trimmed buds with stems under the same structures that we used to support them during their growth. The plan is to wash and hang them for a day or two while running them through the dehydrator and bagging them for the fridge.
I thought this process was pretty cut and dry, "all the information is there, just do it like this" that is true to a point. My experience is one hurdle after another mostly getting to know my own equipment and harvest. My research has provided the knowledge to overcome these obstacles, thank goodness I had that information. Adding rice when needed, adding stems when needed, knowing the correct ranges for RH and temp's during the process all came in to play at different points.
All that being said, learning and going forward is what this is all about and it has been a great experience. I have gotten to be a part of a great community here at and will be here for the long haul. We might not come out of this with the prime harvest but it will be good, what we learn here will make the next harvest even better and that is the end goal.
I will try to get some weights and pics this time

 

[Backlipslide]

will try to get some weights and pics this time

That’s what we like to see!

what we learn here will make the next harvest even better

You got that right! You can utilize what you learned on past grows, and utilize the new information you learn in the up coming grows!

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

Where do I start, the past month has been a whirl wind of events including the harvest / curing process of all of our girls. As with all of our first time experiences we had a few hiccups and fell back on my research to overcome. I stated earlier the dehydrator was a bit tricky to get dialed in as was the mini fridge, my research came in big time on those issues. We currently have a mini fridge stuffed to the gills with brown paper bags, we have a pantry with some rather valuable" Herbs", we have bags of leaves in the freezer until my son decides what to do with them.

There is so much to cover and I don't want to write a novel so I will try to do a "Reader's Digest condensed" version, let's start with the harvest. We had approached the growing and trimming in two opposite directions, I choose to only remove leaves when they turned completely yellow or were blocking the sun to a bud. On the opposite end of the spectrum my son removed all growth with the slightest yellowing, all but the major branches, removing all the smaller buds under the top canopy and a ton of the leaves as well. I would say he kicked my ass when it came to harvest, he had his 2 girls in the mini fridge in under 4 days, I took almost two weeks for 4 plants. The amount of trimming that I had to do was ridiculous, I feel the amount of small buds on my plants took away from the development of the larger ones . There were a few factors that affected the outcome, the biggest factor was the late start, we did not get our (one week old) plants until the first part of summer. The next grow will start in the early part of the year with seeds, an indoor incubation period followed by transplanting into larger homes outside as soon as weather permits. Other factors were not as big but did contribute too, improper watering and nutrient application not to be out done by incorrect trimming during growthl. All that said we had a good harvest, I think my son came out with around 8-10 oz's and I would guess somewhere in the 15 - 20 oz's for me. His buds were larger and more dense but I had more per plant. The best comparison I can think would be the Blue Dream and the Purple Punch as far as same types, any way my method produced more buds for sure, the Blue dream was my biggest harvest with close to 5 1/2 oz's.

The drying/cure has been interesting to say the least, it seems for me the most challenging. Time and patients are two things I often find myself short of and are critical for this stage. I have all the toys and instructions / information I need it is just pulling it off that is hard. Try rotating 30 + bags all put in at different times, remember to burp the jars and check on the ones in the dehydrator for the correct Rh. all the while "medicated" not an easy task, I should have made a chart. Getting the RH. right on these little buggers is tricky, if you go too far down you kill the cure, if you don't get it down fast enough you could get mold so it's a tight rope act. I work short weeks but long hours so fitting that into my schedule was . I feel like this section is turning into a rant so I will just say If you do all the things right you will have some amazing smoke, so they say, mine is still curing.

Now for the good part, my smoke although not fully cured (the flavors are not there yet) is very effective in my treatment. The amount of little crystals are the likes I had only seen once in the past; it was morning, high in the mountains above Bozeman Montana after it had dropped 7 foot of snow the previous night..... do you buy that? Either way they have more little sparkles than any Dispensary product I have ever purchased, just say'in. Are you ready for some eye candy

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

Mirage

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

Mirage

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

Mirage

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

Mirage

These next shots are of the Pine apple upside down cake and the GG4

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

And these are the Blue Dream she was my biggest girl this year

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

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• Sierra Cowboy
• Oct 24, 2019

So that is the show, my girls will always be my "first" and most tortured hopefully. I will come back to wrap up this journal and put out all my credits and thank yous soon I miss all of you and look forward to spending time

 

[Alafornia]

Great work, SC! Glad you have harvested good medicine!

 

[Backlipslide]

Great work!

 

[andIhalped]

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nice work, SC!

 

[InTheShed]

Beautiful harvest SC!

I like to pull off a lot of lower buds to promote top bud growth, but I try to leave on as many fans as I can. Halfway between you and your son!

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

Hey Gang! I survived ! I could tell you all about it but that it not what this is about, it's about our bountiful harvest and the thanks that we have in our hearts. As it stands we are about a month and a half into the Slow-n-Low curing process and we are proceeding along at a snails pace. Our buds are beautiful and lush also very moist and spongy , the smell is just starting to mature on some of it others still smell like hay. The high is ok nothing over the top but nice, the smooth quality that everyone touted with this method is at the forefront. I do have some concern about a strange after hit experience that I am not familiar with, with some of the buds (mostly the Blue Dream) I get this filmy sensation in my mouth. Do any of you that partake have any experience with that? I think it may be dissipating as the cure sets but I might be just getting used to it. . I have looked at my crop under my jeweler's glass and I can say I have never bought anything like this from a dispensary, the buds look like little Christmas trees with ice crystals dancing on their branches ( an analogy brought in the spirit of the season). I will admit I have had more than a taste, I can not wait until the Final product is in front of me. Then I will determine whether or not this endeavor has been a complete success or a tremendous learning experience, hopefully both.
However this all turns out I would just like to say a huge THANK YOU to all of you, you are all amazing. The advice and support I have received over this adventure has been the most solid of all my sources of knowledge. I started with what I thought was a pretty stout support team, a collection of local talent , family and an expert in the field. As luck would have it I stopped by here and was convinced that I needed to start a journal, smartest thing I did was follow through. Without this group I would have failed several times over, my other support was iffy on most calls and dead wrong on others but this crew never wavered. I have met some really great people here and plan to spend some more time here once my life slows down. It still spinning pretty fast right now but I had to stop in to say" Hi and Thank You" I hope you are all doing wonderfully and will check back in as soon as possible. Smiles

 

[Backlipslide]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us all!

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

Hey Gang, hope everyone is doing fine and enjoying. I thought I would stop by as my world has slowed to a point where I can take a breath. I am not really sure how to end my journal and would rather "Do it my way " than fit the script so here goes.

The things we did wrong:
We took 1 week old clones and popped them into 50 gallon containers outside
We did not do enough LST in the start.
We didn't water or fertilize the correct way for the first two months.
We used the wrong type of container.
We used the wrong approach to pest control.

The things we did right:
I started a journal with best thing overall.
We used the right root promotion product, our root structure was top to bottom side to side.
We got our stuff together and corrected our watering/ fert. schedule, AKA started looking at the plant and not the label.
We used the right drying / curing technique our smoke is as smooth as any I have ever tried.

If you look at the lists you would think we had an abysmal failure, that's not the case. Because of my diligent research and the generous out pouring of support from the members and friends that I have here we have crossed the finish line with approximately 40 oz. of finished product.

Our next grow will incorporate all the things we have learned and believe me it is considerable and will have a tremendous impact on our yield. The first thing we will start with is seed, it will give us better choice and allow us to start our plants earlier thus more veg time. We will stage our plants up as they grow with increasingly bigger pots to help promote proper root growth and will ultimately end in cloth bags rather than black plastic containers. Our LST will be aggressive and from the start, incorporating quading among other little tricks we have picked up along the way. We have started looking at recipes for organic fertilizers and nutrients because I would rather use gasoline on my plants than support Monsanto.

To end this properly I need to thank all of you, you are the best resource a grower could ask for. Whether you are rooks like my son and I or a seasoned vet I am sure you can't do better than this group for knowledge. Your willingness to share and help in times of crisis was instrumental in our success and we are very grateful for that. I have a saying that I like to impart on others as it becomes appropriate "It is not as important to know the answer as is to know where to find the answer" I live my life by that, I have found my "where to find the answer" right here. I will be around looking in on whats going on and adding my two cents worth in when I can. So that's it, this puts a ribbon around the journal and closes the adventure

As an epilogue we ended with a very nice crop of just over two lb.s from 6 plants. We now have a food dehydrator with expanded capacity, a nice mini fridge, all the potting soil to begin our composting/ revitalizing project, a nice selection of diagnostic tools, hygrometers and the such. The support structure for the plants and all the stakes. Our investment to date Is around $600, considering that our next crop will cost much less because we have most of what we need already. This was a smashing success!

 

[InTheShed]

Excellent SC! Congratulations on the harvest and the knowledge. What a terrific first grow experience!

 

[Alafornia]

Wow, SC! Thanks to Shed's comment I'm finally caught up with you. AMAZING harvest! Great Job!

 

[Van Stank]

Congrats on well put together "lessons learned" list as I like to call it.....both right and wrong. Good info there! Looking forward to seeing what you do next, especially if its organic!

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

So how does this get wrapped up and sent to completed Journals, I don't want to be that guy who didn't do it right

 

[Alafornia]

So how does this get wrapped up and sent to completed Journals, I don't want to be that guy who didn't do it right

Hit the report button at the bottom left of one of your posts and ask the mods to do your bidding.

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

Excellent SC! Congratulations on the harvest and the knowledge. What a terrific first grow experience!

Thanks Shed, I would like to personally thank you for all of your assistance. The time you took with me is valuable, I appreciate that. The knowledge you imparted was priceless, I could not have done it without you

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

Hit the report button at the bottom left of one of your posts and ask the mods to do your bidding.

Thanks Ali and thanks for all the support on my grow, you all are amazing !

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

Congrats on well put together "lessons learned" list as I like to call it.....both right and wrong. Good info there! Looking forward to seeing what you do next, especially if its organic!

Hey Van, Thank you so much for the time and knowledge you shared during my grow, you helped make it happen for us Thanks.

 

[Sierra Cowboy]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us all!

Hey Back, just wanted to personally thank you for your help and advice along the way. You were instrumental in the success of this grow I really appreciate the time you spent with me. You help make 420 what it is, Priceless.

 

[Backlipslide]

Hey Back, just wanted to personally thank you for your help and advice along the way. You were instrumental in the success of this grow I really appreciate the time you spent with me. You help make 420 what it is, Priceless.

Happy to help in any way possible!