Bud Washing

Triwest said:
How many times can I do this before draining the buckets and redoing them I have large outdoor grow should I do new buckets for each plant
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It really depends. @InTheShed runs outdoor. He might be able advise.
 
Triwest said:
How many times can I do this before draining the buckets and redoing them I have large outdoor grow should I do new buckets for each plant
Click to expand...
If your first bucket looks like this after one plant, I'd mix up a new bucket!
20190914_125910 AK.jpg

20190914_125910 AK.jpg

AK-47 1.1.1.1.1.1.1 harvest

If you can see the bottom of the bucket you should be okay to keep going.
 
Hiker said:
First off, I did not come up with the idea of washing buds as part of harvest. I'm not sure where the idea originated, but I learned of it via Curso and DocBud. :Namaste:

I've read with interest as several members have tried this technique. The idea already appealed to me on a logical level, but it was the endorsements of other members that really sold me. Granted, my sample size is only ~6 growers, but the responses I've read have been pretty unanimous. Every comment I've read has been something along the lines of, 'now I'm spoiled and don't want to smoke unwashed buds anymore'. That kind of rhetoric caught my attention! :yikes:

I can't yet say if I will have that same reaction, as my first attempt is still hanging to dry. I'm creating this thread as a place to discuss the techniques and/or principles involved with this practice. The what, why, and how if you will.

First, What are we talking about?

It's pretty simple. We're washing the plant during the harvest and curing phase. I honestly can't think of anything else to say about 'The What' without getting into the why and how, so let's get to it.

Why wash your buds?

Just like you wash your vegetables before eating them, it's probably a good idea to wash Cannabis before consuming it as well. How big an impact it makes will depend on the environment the buds were grown in. Was it outdoors or indoors? Was the indoor garden sealed or ventilated? Was any sprayed on the plant, ie food or pest control?

My flowering room is sealed, and I don't spray anything my plants. I certainly understand why it's important to some of the growers here that spray their plants weekly. My wash water actually didn't get too dirty. Yes, it certainly appeared to have cleaned something off. Even in my sealed room there will be dust and dirt on the plants.

How do you do it?

My technique was based off instructions from Curso.

I use 3 5g buckets. The first bucket has room temp, ie not cold, water with the lemon juice and baking soda. The second bucket has the hottest water I can get from the faucet. The last bucket is the coldest water I can get.

I do a pre-trim on each branch to remove any leaves without crystals. Then I dunk each branch several times and swirl them around a bit. When I dunked the branches, I did it fast enough to get the water sloshing around real good. I imagined I'm trying to get the water to get into all the nooks and crannies with some force to help clean out the dirt. I do each bucket for 10-30 seconds including a few second to let them water drain off before moving them to the next bucket.

After the last rinse, I hang them on a string above the bucket so it can drip back into the bucket. As I wash more buds, I slide the others to the side to make room so the freshest is always dripping over the bucket.

I let them dry about 24 hours before trimming. If I tried to manicure sooner than that, they felt too wet.

***********************************************************************************

So that's all I have to get things rolling. I really hope others will join in the discussion and share their experiences.

I have a question for anyone that knows. What is the reasoning behind the lemon juice and baking soda?
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Rinsing with cold water I can see and do. But absolutely no hot water. I like my trichomes witch hot water can wash away. Remember THC is an oil trapped inside trichomes. Hot water can damage trichomes and THC is washed away. Just saying.
 
I usually mix up in 20 gallon, plastic totes, then we skim the debri, that floats, on top of the water with a stainleess strainer
I use a flat screen, such as one, used to lay over a skillet, to prevent grease splashes.
 
Spectre said:
Rinsing with cold water I can see and do. But absolutely no hot water. I like my trichomes witch hot water can wash away. Remember THC is an oil trapped inside trichomes. Hot water can damage trichomes and THC is washed away. Just saying.
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Hot water that is cool enough to stick your hands into is not hot enough to liquefy trichomes.
 
I use and have always used room temp water across the board. Cold is out......luke warm is perfect.
 
Doc Bud said:
I use and have always used room temp water across the board. Cold is out......luke warm is perfect.
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Until recently, I've been using the hottest tap and the coldest tap water since this thread started and never had any problems aside from the mental discomforts associated with knowing what's in tap water that I've essentially been depositing onto my buds for years, lol. I now use RO which is all room temp, but if I had my cake and could eat it too, I'd have hot RO to use.
 
Another trim and wash done :green_heart:
20190926_224039.jpg
20190926_225036.jpg
20190926_224549.jpg

20190926_224536.jpg

Mmmm, nom, nom, nom. :yummy:
 
Was on the news last Friday, showed the ropes to a new grower what a time to be Al be when they're doing how tos on the 6o clock news.

I've been bud washing for at least 4 outdoor seasons and haven't gone back. Funny the amount of hate it gets. Claims that it will make the bud go moldy, or that you're washing Away trichs. I'm getting so much hate mail, it's almost amusing.
 
Doc Bud said:
I'm glad to see people are adopting my bud washing technique!

Yes, I "invented" it. I shared it with you folks here on 420....and nowhere else. I've never met, spoken to, or heard about anyone else doing it before I tried it.....and I enjoy freaking people out by putting fresh buds in a bucket of water....

But as many have said here, the results speak for themselves!

Let me put it to you like this:

Let's say I grew lettuce, cucumbers, tomatos and carrots in my basement. It's dusty down there, I've got fans flowing all around....battled with some PM, had some mites.....every now and then I get some rot or other disease on my plants....bugs flying around, dead skin cells, hair.....and I spray the plants with compost tea, fish fertilizer, kelp meal, etc.

So, you wanna come over for a salad? We'll just pull the veggies out of the ground, plop 'em in a bowl and start eating! No need to wash.....right?

The first time you wash your harvest and see all that brown crap left behind you'll begin to see the light! Then, when you smoke your first washed harvest, you'll understand.

For those who are new to this, here's my method:

4 buckets total. (5 gallon buckets are perfect)

Bucket 1: 3 parts RO water to 1 part 3% H202.
Bucket 2: 5 gallons of RO with 1 cup baking soda, 1 cup Lemon Juice
Buckets 3 and 4: RO only.

Cut down plants, pull off fan leaves by hand, remove any necrotic leaves. Leave sugar leaves and anything with frosting on the plant.

Fully submerge in bucket 1 (H2O2) for 30 seconds. Submerge for a full minute if you had ANY sign of PM or bud rot. Let water drip from buds and then.....

Fully submerge in buckets 2 through 4 for 30 seconds each...lightly agitating the whole time.

Allow produce to drip dry. You can blow a fan on it if you like, just make sure it's blowing clean air.

Hang and dry per usual.

Final manicure of buds is best done after they dry. It goes very fast and you're left with washed, highly resinous trim....makes superb joints. I'm also educating my customers to select untrimmed buds, which are actually better than the manicured ones because they still have sugar leaves attached. The trichomes in the leaves have more THC than those in the buds.....so it's good to get the whole spectrum in there.

I give instructions for this in my journals, as I do it every single week, on every single harvest. Once you try it, you'll never go back.

This works so well for a couple reasons:

1. takes off dirt, foliar sprays, bugs, fiberglass dust, etc.
2. fully hydrates the leaves, allowing photosynthesis to occur for a day or two on cut and trimmed buds. I recommend leaving a light on the buds for the first day or two after washing.

This results in very, dense, clean burning, smooth tasting produce! That's the basic recipe....and I'm tweaking and changing it all the time.

Warning: Do NOT use an "organic produce wash" that is based on oils! They sell these in grocery stores and health food stores, and while they might be good for lettuce and cukes....the oil removes resin from the plants.....don't use it!

Water will not harm resin....oil can and does.

Anyone who wants to know more about my methods is welcome to ask me about them anytime!
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Thanks Doc for this information! I will definitely be using this for my outdoor harvest this year, due to the winds and dust. Makes perfect sense, why smoke dirty bud? Thanks. :)
 
DabGooLay said:
Was on the news last Friday, showed the ropes to a new grower what a time to be Al be when they're doing how tos on the 6o clock news.

I've been bud washing for at least 4 outdoor seasons and haven't gone back. Funny the amount of hate it gets. Claims that it will make the bud go moldy, or that you're washing Away trichs. I'm getting so much hate mail, it's almost amusing.
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Does water wash off your clippers after trimming? No, it takes a solvent to clean them. You would have to wash your cannabis with a solvent to ruin it.
 
Doc Bud said:
Bucket 1: 3 parts RO water to 1 part 3% H202.
Bucket 2: 5 gallons of RO with 1 cup baking soda, 1 cup Lemon Juice
Buckets 3 and 4: RO only.
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Hi guys,

I'm about to cut my first harvest tonight and I'm just getting ready to wash the buds. I have four 5gal buckets ready to go, and was just about to go and buy some Hydrogen Peroxide as I've had a little bit of mold on one of my plants :(

One question - how critical is the RO water? I have tap water that's a little bit hard (~130ppm), or I have some water that came from the dehumidifier that tested at ~80ppm. I can buy four litres (~1gal) of demineralised water for about $4 but with four 5gal buckets with 3-4gal each in them I'm looking at about 15 bucks per bucket o_O

Are all of you guys using RO for washing or is tap water ok? What about a 50/50 mix of RO/tap, which would be roughly 60ppm?

Thanks

EDIT: I just discovered the post on PAGE ONE about RO vs tap, must've scrolled right past it. I'm a dunce :lot-o-toke:
 
Tap water can actually be better for washing. If it has chlorines in it, that will help kill bad stuff, if there is any. And hard water will make no difference.

:thumb:
 
Graytail said:
Tap water can actually be better for washing. If it has chlorines in it, that will help kill bad stuff, if there is any. And hard water will make no difference.

:thumb:
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NICE, that just saved me a good $50-60 ;)

First washing adventure begins in about five hours :D
 

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