Usul's #3: Quest for the Ultimate Closet Grow

[Stealthy1]

Horse I think your from my wifes school of thought lol. she went through about three quarters of the last stuff before it was fully cured lol... well I helped lol but she was the pusher!

Man next time its going out of sight lol. maybe itll be easier to Just Say No then....

 

[HorseBadoritz]

Thanks Horse - that's all the encouragement I needed. Just snipped a few of the popcorn buds and they're drying right now. I will sleep well tonight

 

[Reefa Cheefa]

Thanks Horse - that's all the encouragement I needed. Just snipped a few of the popcorn buds and they're drying right now. I will sleep well tonight

Bad Usul They will be so much better if you wait! I have to say I have thrown some nugs in the oven before. How do you quick dry them?

 

[ultrasonic]

A brief side note: I may have stumbled across a simple way to control fungus gnats. Fungus gnats are the size of fruit flies and are built like a mosquito. The adult flies are harmless but the larva hatch in the soil and can eat roots. I had them in my last grow - not very many, I only saw one or two a day, but they were always around. They reappeared on this grow, hung around for a week or two then completely disappeared - haven't seen a single one in weeks. The new thing in this grow are the T5HO side lights. Just took a close look at them and there are an amazing number of dead gnats stuck between the back of the bulbs and the relfector.

I'm using 24" Sunblaster fixtures - 24 watts and about $30 a piece. If you've got fungus gnats give 'em a try. The plants certainly won't mind the extra light

I believe what you're experiencing is an insect attraction to UV light: an inexpensive and efficient form of controlling their population.

I've seen people rig up a uv light with sticky-pads around them: however someone mentioned they preferred to have the light outside their grow room: which prevented the gnats from being attracted to the plants.

really impressed with your grow this round usul: sorry i'm not around much, and won't be until fall.

Getting all set up with some new seeds: White Widow, White Rhino, Church, AMS, Train Wreck, Blue Cheese, Motivation, Cole Train.

You definitely have it under control.... and omfg 2 months without bud

As usual: Can't wait till it's all over

 

[usul]

Bad Usul They will be so much better if you wait! I have to say I have thrown some nugs in the oven before. How do you quick dry them?

I know, I know... my bad... but it was worth it. I had one little bud to smoke before I started painting yesterday and made a nice breakthrough with my work. Medical benefits aside, cannabis provides great benefit to both the quality and qualtity of my work. I guess you could say I'm both a medical and professional user

For drying I heat the oven to 135F, turn it off and put the cuttings in there. Let the oven cool off - an hour or so - remove whatever has dried then repeat for the rest. This only works for very small pieces of trim - not for larger buds.

Anyway, problem solved - my daughter is a hot shot bartender in the big city and she came over for father's day with a quarter oz of some nice bud. Good girl. So, the popcorn buds are safe for a while.

I believe what you're experiencing is an insect attraction to UV light: an inexpensive and efficient form of controlling their population.

I've seen people rig up a uv light with sticky-pads around them: however someone mentioned they preferred to have the light outside their grow room: which prevented the gnats from being attracted to the plants.

really impressed with your grow this round usul: sorry i'm not around much, and won't be until fall.

Getting all set up with some new seeds: White Widow, White Rhino, Church, AMS, Train Wreck, Blue Cheese, Motivation, Cole Train.

You definitely have it under control.... and omfg 2 months without bud

As usual: Can't wait till it's all over

Thanks Ultra - using T5s for bug zappers is a happy accident. Thanks for checking in, I know you must be busy moving and all. I'm holding off posting new pics until the 5 week flowering milestone on Tuesday. The buds are really starting to take off and by Tuesday the change from last week should be dramatic. If it is I'll post side-by side pics.

 

[Reefa Cheefa]

Anyway, problem solved - my daughter is a hot shot bartender in the big city and she came over for father's day with a quarter oz of some nice bud. Good girl. So, the popcorn buds are safe for a while.

Haha very nice that is my kind of daughter

 

[Stealthy1]

Usul I here yah with the creativity... Some stuff really helps the flow of my brain.
Normally it goes so fast its 12 steps ahead of me and its hard to stay on task so it helps balance me and I find mundane task enjoyable and interesting ones fascinating. it also helps me take pride in my work I build stuff all the time so I dont get very impressed by my work and it doesnt matter if others like it but I really see the beauty in my work when I smoke sometimes.

What a nice kid....

 

[usul]

Hi folks - I took some pictures yesterday but haven't had a chance to post a reply until now. Everything is looking good! Here's a shot of the canopy at day 35 flower:

So, we're half way through flowering - 5 weeks to go. The buds are looking great and although they're not growing at a dramatic rate they are continuing to swell. With five weeks to go there's plenty of opportunity to pack on a nice yield.

The plants are looking great, the environment is very stable and this whole grow is pretty much on auto-pilot. Uma and Beatrix are on different watering schedules now - they're drying at different rates. Uma just got flushed - Beatrix will get her flush in a couple days. I'll add the FF Cha Ching suppliment to all feedings from now until the final pre-harvest flush.

Here's a parting shot of Beatrix top bud...

 

[Reefa Cheefa]

B-e-a-utiful

 

[usul]

Hey there to the two or three folks that might actually be reading this journal - just wanted to check in an let ya know I'm still here. Work has been crazy-busy lately and I haven't had time for photography and journaling. But aside from that, everything is going great! The plants are eight weeks into flowering and the buds are plumping up nicely. Beatrix looks like she'll finish first - all the pistils are drying up and I'm starting to see a few amber trichs. Uma is still going strong with lots of new pistil growth. Funny thing is that Uma's fan leaves are turning yellow at a remarkable rate. Nothing to worry about really - I could harvest any time now with great results - her buds are looking great so we'll just keep going until they ripen.

The girls have been getting feedings of just Hygrozyme and Cha Ching lately. Beatrix will get a clear flush at the next watering in anticipation of harvest in about a week. I'll give Uma at least one more dose of Cha Ching before flushing her.

This has been a good grow and we're coming down to the big finish. I promise to get some photos posted soon - a final shot right before harvest for sure.

Also want to say it was interesting trying the street weed I got for fathers day. As I was finishing the street weed I plucked a popcorn bud off one of my plants, gave it a quick dry then smoked it for comparison. Wow. The stuff I'm growing is way better. And that was a bud from a few weeks ago which wasn't properly dried or cured. I'm looking forward to a very nice finished product from this grow. And, if I had to guess, I should get a final dried weight of more than 4 ounces. I'll post final numbers when they're in.

More, including photos, soon...

 

[Tiger Balm]

Excellent news and previous pix are good looking. i'll just look at them again. ;-)

 

[Reefa Cheefa]

Eight weeks I bet they are looking really nice cant wait

 

[TorturedSoul]

Hey there to the two or three folks that might actually be reading this journal

Probably "a few" more than that.

The plants are eight weeks into flowering and the buds are plumping up nicely.

Still looking like 10 weeks?

 

[usul]

Ha ha! Thanks TS. I think Beatrix is about done - another week should do it for her. She'll get a clear water flush when the lights come on tonight then I'll harvest her in 5 to 7 days. Uma is probably going to get the full 10-week treatment, if she lasts that long.

Ahhh, harvest time... Looking forward to this one. Assuming I get 4 oz or more I'm going to use up to an ounce of bud - along with all the high grade trim - to make a nice batch of cannabutter brownies. Pure bliss

 

[usul]

Hey folks, just had a chance to snap some pics of the grow. I'm going to start harvesting soon so here's a pic of the girls before the snipping begins:

And here's a closer-up pic of some of the buds:

Everything is looking good, and I know it doesn't seem like it from the pics but I'm pretty sure I've got a quarter-pounder going here. Beatrix was flushed two days ago and I'm planning to harvest her this weekend - just a few days short of 9 weeks flowering. Uma will keep going a while longer - probably right up to the 10 week deadline.

 

[Stealthy1]

Wow nice!!! I definitely got the wrong strain lol I should have gotten that one.

 

[ultrasonic]

Thats looking pretty fantastic I must say

I've got some seeds on the way right now for my next grow... and i"m getting anxious!!!!!!!!! What you've got going on makes me really... hot.

Hopefully you can follow along for the ride usul: check it out

 

[usul]

Hey folks, I've been AWOL - busy with work and enjoying the fruits of my harvest, which helps me stay busy at work

All buds are now chopped, trimmed, dried and weighed. The high grade trim and a handful of primo bud were used to make cannabutter last night and I just took a batch of brownies out of the oven.

A couple tricks I learned this time around: for drying, I hung the nugs in the drying cabinet for 3 days then they went in to jars with the lids left open (I left the open jars in the drying cabinet for odor control). After two or three days of sitting in open jars - rearranging the nugs daily - I started closing the jars for 8 to 12 hours at a time, leaving them open for an hour or two in between. This has resulted in a great start to curing! The nugs are now quite dry and burn really well, but they're also soft and gooey like a piece of fresh licorice. It'll be interesting to see how the flavor and effect improve over time,

Tip number 2 is about making cannabutter. Once the cannabis, water and butter are finished simmering it's time to separate the liquid from the plant material. Pouring it through a piece of cheesecloth works great and at the end you're left with a piece of cheesecloth filled with butter-soaked plant mush. How to squeeze the butter out of the mush? Use a Potato Ricer (google it). Just fold up the cheesecloth, put it in the bucket of the ricer and squeeze away. You'll get every last drop of buttery goodness.

Okay, so the final weight was.... only 87 grams. Virtually the same as the last grow. Oh well, I did that with two plants this time instead of three last time, and I learned a lot. Using the heavy-pruning method left me with extra room in the tent so I could have easily grow one or two more plants. Looks like I still have plenty more to learn.

Smoke report - really nice cerebral effect but well balanaced and works well as a sleep aid too. Comes on quickly and lasts 3 - 4 hours. The aroma and taste are heavy on citrus and mint, though that's changing as the cure goes on. I'd say this is a much nicer smoke than the last grow. I'd chalk that up to the FF blooming suppliments and my improved drying/curing technique.

And with that I'll say farewell. My business has me travelling for most of August and September so I've shut down the garden. On one of my trips I'll be looking for a home in another part of the country (a state where it's legal to cultivate for medical purposes). If that doesn't pan out I'll be back in October with another closet grow. On the other hand, if a cross-country move is likely I'll be offline for quite some time. But I'll be moving to a bigger place with a whole room devoted to cannaculture - I'll be able to come out of the closet and set up an operation that'll keep me in meds full time. Looking forward to that.

Thanks everyone who's followed along, posted replies and offered encouragement. I've learned so much here - this is a really wonderful forum. Thanks again.

And a final shot - the nicest bud from this grow:

I'll be back...

 

[ultrasonic]

Beautiful show usul! With a few months away from things it'll give you some perspective on the entire process: you'll be all set for huge colas next time.



That is one juicy beautiful looking nug! congrats!!

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[TorturedSoul]

Hey usul, thanks for sharing your grow with us. It's been fun and I hope you'll join us again when you get settled in a few months. Hope you find a great house in a friendly community.

I'll ask the powers that be to move this to the Completed Journals sub-forum now.

Thanks again!

PS +REPs for a completed journal & smoke report.