BeezLuiz & Liquidintel's Outdoor Grow 2018

[andIhalped]

Your help would have been utilized. With 5 of us we spent about 7 hrs yesterday and another 3 hrs today. I can't imagine you having spent 14 hrs and by yourself!

I did it over the course of 3 days & took plenty of breaks. (The 14 hours does not include the breaks). I take down the plant & trim sequentially, as you did w/ yours.

I'm an ol' long distance hiker. It's never helpful to think about the entire length of journey when setting out. Just take each step, enjoy the process, take frequent breaks, and reach the goal.

50 person hours on trimming that one plant on yr end! Chop wood, carry water.

 

[Liquidintel]

50 person hours on trimming that one plant on yr end! Chop wood, carry water.

It's not always about the end goal, but about the journey and process getting to that goal.

While it may have taken longer than we imagined, we had a ton of laughs, learning, and family bonding. In those moments you cant put a time on it.

I think blackberry fire was the most difficult to trim due to it being extremely bushy. For the remaining plants we might need to change our current game plan. *Hopefully not by much*

We adjusted our drying technique slightly. Fully using our hang drying basket compared to last trim. While hang drying only the larger colas. Hopefully allowing for a much more even dry. *last time we might have left too many popcorn nugs to hang dry with large stems, making them take longer to dry and uneven* hopefully we notice a positive difference.

 

[BeezLuiz]

Here's the drying basket pretty much full.

20180916_105917.jpg

• BeezLuiz
• Sep 17, 2018

BlackBerry Fire drying basket.

The humidity here is fine during the day 45 - 55%, but at night it goes up to the 70 - 75% range. The previous harvest had a small amount of bud rot. Even though that may have been started before harvest, we don't want a repeat so we're trying a different approach with this round.

Here in this part of Calif, "de-humidifiers" are very difficult to find in stores so I had to order one online. Still waiting for it to arrive. That should help considerably for the evenings when the fog rolls in.

 

[andIhalped]

Here's the drying basket pretty much full.

20180916_105917.jpg

• BeezLuiz
• Sep 17, 2018

BlackBerry Fire drying basket.

The humidity here is fine during the day 45 - 55%, but at night it goes up to the 70 - 75% range. The previous harvest had a small amount of bud rot. Even though that may have been started before harvest, we don't want a repeat so we're trying a different approach with this round.

Here in this part of Calif, "de-humidifiers" are very difficult to find in stores so I had to order one online. Still waiting for it to arrive. That should help considerably for the evenings when the fog rolls in.

That basket's pretty slick. Hadn't seen before.
I'm gonna look into one...still got some drying in front of me.

 

[BeezLuiz]

Got it online for $19.95. Worked really well during our previous harvest.
Herb Drying Rack Net 4 Layer Herb Dryer Black Mesh Hanging Dryer Rack with Zipper (31.5"x24")
by RIOGOO

 

[BeezLuiz]

We're now down to three ladies:

20180920_083459.jpg

• BeezLuiz
• Sep 20, 2018

... and then there were three.

It looks like Dream Queen is next -- actually it may be pretty close to being ready. I was looking at it with my 50x mag lens and trichomes are looking good. I'll try to take some close up pics a bit later.

 

[BeezLuiz]

Dream Queen has recovered nicely from her droopy yellowing leaves (nute deficiency) from last month.

20180920_084515.jpg

• BeezLuiz
• Sep 20, 2018
• dream queen

Dream Queen getting close.

 

[Pennywise]

She recovered well indeed!

 

[andIhalped]

Dream Queen has recovered nicely from her droopy yellowing leaves (nute deficiency) from last month.

20180920_084515.jpg

• BeezLuiz
• Sep 20, 2018
• dream queen

Dream Queen getting close.

Heck ya! Dr. Pennywise's Rx worked quite nicely.

Better get a big trimming crew for that sour D! Sensational work!

Grow on!

 

[Pennywise]

Gonna be a beast to trim for sure!

 

[BeezLuiz]

You guys were a life-saver, and DQ is in your debt

I'm trying to time my harvests for the weekends as that's when most of my trimmer helpers are available. So far all the plants have been cooperating by ripening in a staggered fashion. I think DQ will be next weekend, and then it's a toss-up which will be next between the tree (Sour D) and the bush (Cookies) -- hopefully not both at the same time.

 

[Pennywise]

The cookie could wait I'd think.

 

[andIhalped]

You guys were a life-saver, and DQ is in your debt

I'm trying to time my harvests for the weekends as that's when most of my trimmer helpers are available. So far all the plants have been cooperating by ripening in a staggered fashion. I think DQ will be next weekend, and then it's a toss-up which will be next between the tree (Sour D) and the bush (Cookies) -- hopefully not both at the same time.

You're welcome, but I don't deserve any credit. Only thing I did was put out a call to leaf/nutrition wizard par excellence, Pennywise.

Frankly, while it look like an N deficiency to me too, I was completely thrown by it happening so far into flower.

But got rectified, which is the biggie.

And ALL HAIL STAGGERED HARVEST! I love it when that happens & so far, it's happening with my grow, too, which pleases me to no end & actually, know end, too.

Did you plan for staggered harvest, or was just a happy accident?

 

[BeezLuiz]

I'd like to say we planned it, but not really. We did start Cookies and Dream Queen 4 weeks after the other three, but it still looks like DQ will beat out Sour Diesel.

 

[BeezLuiz]

Well we had a little hick-up yesterday. Blackberry Fire got harvested last weekend on Sat & Sun, and set up to dry in the shed. Mon-Wed everything was looking good with temps in the 70's and humidity in the 40's during the day and 70's during the nights. Then everything changed yesterday. When I checked yesterday late afternoon, temp was 91F and humidity was 15% -- yikes!
All of the flower was bone dry (even the ones that were only 4 days into the dry), so we threw everything into cure jars last night. I'm hoping the Boveda packets help re-hydrate the buds. Humidity in the jars this morning is at 53%. I may need to add an extra Boveda packet to each jar.

 

[Pennywise]

It may be harsh but should be ok.

 

[Pepperzinha]

Well we had a little hick-up yesterday. Blackberry Fire got harvested last weekend on Sat & Sun, and set up to dry in the shed. Mon-Wed everything was looking good with temps in the 70's and humidity in the 40's during the day and 70's during the nights. Then everything changed yesterday. When I checked yesterday late afternoon, temp was 91F and humidity was 15% -- yikes!
All of the flower was bone dry (even the ones that were only 4 days into the dry), so we threw everything into cure jars last night. I'm hoping the Boveda packets help re-hydrate the buds. Humidity in the jars this morning is at 53%. I may need to add an extra Boveda packet to each jar.[/QUOTE

I am no expert, I grew for the first time and just harvested too, but on my humble opinion may I suggest you try putting one jar or half of a jar opened on a closed dark, room temp place with a glass of water near for maybe a day or night maybe more as you check it, usually works for me when i have big quantities and dont it to dry, I have also put it on the refrigerator on the bottom drawer closed vents, with a humid paper towel over it, on a sealed container most of the time brings it back quite good, in my country weed is illegal very dry and we get it in big qty in blocks, our hack there is putting it on the fridge wrapped on aluminum foil on a ziplock bag with carrots in it, believe it or not, it works, I use it for over 25yrs, although is not the case for you here, but maybe after, if is too dry...it does not hurt trying experimenting with some of the “dried” parts and see what happens, for me I experiment and try using simple conventional ways but again its personal use so, but I do know, that after harvesting my plant for the first time, all my hacks worked, my plant is 100% organic and I am experimenting different ways of curing it as we speak. Good luck

 

[BeezLuiz]

Ironically, I was concerned about high humidity last weekend so I ordered a dehumidifier. It arrived this morning

 

[BeezLuiz]

I am no expert, I grew for the first time and just harvested too, but on my humble opinion may I suggest you try putting one jar or half of a jar opened on a closed dark, room temp place with a glass of water near for maybe a day or night maybe more as you check it, usually works for me when i have big quantities and dont it to dry, I have also put it on the refrigerator on the bottom drawer closed vents, with a humid paper towel over it, on a sealed container most of the time brings it back quite good, in my country weed is illegal very dry and we get it in big qty in blocks, our hack there is putting it on the fridge wrapped on aluminum foil on a ziplock bag with carrots in it, believe it or not, it works, I use it for over 25yrs, although is not the case for you here, but maybe after, if is too dry...it does not hurt trying experimenting with some of the “dried” parts and see what happens, for me I experiment and try using simple conventional ways but again its personal use so, but I do know, that after harvesting my plant for the first time, all my hacks worked, my plant is 100% organic and I am experimenting different ways of curing it as we speak. Good luck

Thank you so much for the advice! I'm gonna give the Boveda packs a couple days to do their work, then I may try your suggestions

 

[andIhalped]

It may be harsh but should be ok.

agreed.

If desired, one could also put a wad of very slightly damp newspaper in with the cure.

Personally, I don't mind somewhat dry bud. I don't check RH in my jars, but my guess is that I keep them at about 20-30% RH. I know folks like 62% RH, but for me that's too close to the higher RH at which molds prosper.

But my RH pref. might be from growing up in the desert...