Cart Before The Horse: My First Outdoor Grow

[Jaygull]

BL5 is 7 weeks old today. Not nearly as big as her big sister was at this age but she had an abusive start in life (too much water). Some buds going on and she'll give some small results at least.

I'm wondering how soon I should harvest BL4. Several lower leaves are turning yellow. I stopped nutes a little over a week ago. I have a magnifying glass but it doesn't zoom in enough to see the trichomes good so I'm thinking just focusing on the pistils will be my best way to judge. I'm thinking about 1 more week depending on how the pistils do.
Here's some close up shots. What do you think, could she be ready in about 1 week?

 

[l3g3ndaryfart]

Yeah trying to use a magnifying glass is hard the pistol method may be your best choice for about 15 dollars you could get a hand held microscope also you could clip one that looks ripe do a speedy dry and see how she treats you just multiply the high it gives you considering the speed dry

 

[Jaygull]

I'm digging into the pistil method for determining when to harvest. It seems I need to wait until the majority of pistils have gone orange. I'm thinking like 70-90% of them? Does that sound right?
I don't want a full couch-lock effect and don't want completely heady effect either... something in the middle would be good.

 

[Jaygull]

BL4 is 9 weeks old today. My little girl is all grown up. The pistils have really been turning orange lately. Some of the upper buds have mostly all orange pistils. My plan is to harvest her this weekend and start drying.

MYS4 is getting big. Its just over 4 weeks old now. I tried FIMMing it but it didn't seem to work right. I don't think I cut enough so the leaves just grew out like usual. I may just stick to topping in the future.
This one seems to be regular photo period strain. I'm growing outdoors and in my area there would still be 12 hours of sunlight into late September. That's three more months of vegging! Part of me wants to put her in the ground but she would just get too big for my backyard so I'm probably going to chop her next weekend. She was only sprouted as practice so I could get better at the seedling stage. It really did teach me just how little water these things need compared to what I was giving.

 

[Jaygull]

BL4 got chopped this weekend. She's was 22 inches tall and the buds are now hanging to dry. They're hanging in a bathroom with three closed doors and a jar of ona gel separating them from the rest of the house but I can still smell them. I think there must be something in the ventilation that's leaking the smell. They've already been drying for 48 hours so I figure maybe two or three more days till they go into jars.
Then it will go on to decarboxylate, then butter and then brownies

 

[Jaygull]

BL5 has been harvested. Very little buds on her but the +100 degree heat for the past several days really took a toll. She was already so small so I didn't really expect much from her.
BL4 buds seem to be about dry so they went into jars this morning.
Next up I'll decarb and cook into some butter. I've seen quite a few articles online to do this. Anyone have any pointers form personal experience they can give?

 

[RedHector]

Don't make my mistake of using salted butter. Also keep the greens, as they will give you a great stone... if you can get them down.

 

[Jaygull]

Don't make my mistake of using salted butter. Also keep the greens, as they will give you a great stone... if you can get them down.

Yep, I kept the fan leaves and trimmings. I'll add that in when I make the butter. Thanks for the tip about salted butter. What happens when you do that?

 

[Old TimingMan]

Good job Jay

You had a good harvest and have a great journal to look back on for reference for the next in line, can't help you much on extractions as that was unheard of back in my glory days!

I am betting the yields are going to get bigger and better now that you have your feet wet and a better understanding on what your plants are telling you.

Let us know how butter making goes, I really want to make some goodies!

 

[RedHector]

Yep, I kept the fan leaves and trimmings. I'll add that in when I make the butter. Thanks for the tip about salted butter. What happens when you do that?

It may have been the butter I used, but I found the salt to be amplified in the flavor. Also the greens were almost inedible, they were so salty.
By the way, don't expect to be able to function the next day if you eat all the greens late night. Lol.
I thought that most/ all the thc had been extracted from the fan leaves I processed. This was just from thinning and lollipopping at the switch to 12/12. I was up late cooking the butter and I ended the night by forcing the super salty greens down. Waste not want not.
Anyway I went to bed and had to go to work in the morning.
I was barely able to talk, let alone function. Hehe, funny now...
RedHector

 

[Jaygull]

After drying I got 1.5 ounces from BL4 and only 5 grams from BL5.

 

[Jaygull]

My wife and I tried our brownies for the first time last night. Keep in mind this is also the first time either of us have ever tried marijuana before. After this whole grow experience, decarb, making the butter and then cooking the brownies, I had so much doubt that there would be much effect. I figured I must have messed something up along the way. Boy was I wrong.
When making the butter I cooked half ounce of a mix of trim and buds into half a pound (2 sticks) of unsalted butter. My wife cooked teh brownies and we ate them in the early afternoon.
We each had 1.5 brownies. My wife's kicked in after about 45 minutes. Hers seemed to hit really hard all at once. Mine took about 2 hours to take effect and ramped up slowly until it took full effect. We were both out of it, lying on the sofa for about 6 hours before going to bed. Definitely way too much for our fist time.
As far as effect goes, it seemed to be both overly cerebral and relaxing (couch lock) at the same time. My mind was swimming from topic to topic and couldn't really stay focused on any one thing, but everything I was thinking was very intriguing. I was also pinned to the couch with no desire to move.
Comparing this to alcohol, if I'd been drinking too much I would have been puking last night and feel terrible this morning. No symptoms like that this morning. So as far as over consuming goes, I definitely like marijuana better.
I'm interested to see how the effects are with a much smaller dose.

Thank you to everyone who posted and helped me through this.

 

[MerryAnna]

Tell the fam its the new age tomato plant lol I've even seen where people clip fake flowers to the branches and for those who don't know any better or from a distance you'd never pay it any mind but kinda off the subject and talking bout tomato plants have you ever seen the ones they advertised a while back the tomato plants you could hang and grow upside down I wonder if you could grow weed like that and if it would be any benefits to it or would it just make a curve and just grow up towards the sun maybe that would be good lst training lol just a bowl induced thought lmao

Hi, guys. Nice thread going on here!
Sorry to jump in, i have an obseasion with upside down growing (ever since the upside down tomato fad of a bit back). I'm just trying to sort out logistics on it - any of you have any input?

 

[Amadeus Forzin]

Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

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