First Grow: Outdoor Autoflower Blueberry & AK-47 In Pots With Dr. Earth Soil

[Archiweedies]

I think my mini dehumidifier is too mini even for a closet, so I'm trying it out in a box! It's obv slower than rice balls but that means I don't have to babysit it so intently!

AK-47 middle and 5 jars of Blue 2:

Hey man, I'm looking at your little box setup and thinking about if I can dry my buds in such a beast. I'm in a situation where smell is a concern. Not opening my tent and watering, but you know buds hanging up to dry and stinking the house up kinda situation.
Was considering like a wardrobe box you get when you move, with a couple pc fans to move some air. You ever try something like that?

 

[InTheShed]

Hey man, I'm looking at your little box setup and thinking about if I can dry my buds in such a beast. I'm in a situation where smell is a concern. Not opening my tent and watering, but you know buds hanging up to dry and stinking the house up kinda situation.
Was considering like a wardrobe box you get when you move, with a couple pc fans to move some air. You ever try something like that?

I dry all my buds in boxes. My boxes are small, like the box a microwave comes in (you can see them earlier in this journal) but I drill holes in the bottom and top and train a fan on the lower holes to keep the air flow high as smell isn't a problem for me. I don't know if this mini-dehumidifier can work fast enough to suck out the moisture from newly cut plants in a closed box as it's slower than rice balls. Might be worth a try as it wasn't expensive.

And I think one fan in a wardrobe box would be fine, The breeze is not supposed to move the stems, just the air. Good luck and post your results. We can all learn new ways of drying from each other's experiments!

 

[Archiweedies]

I dry all my buds in boxes. My boxes are small, like the box a microwave comes in (you can see them earlier in this journal) but I drill holes in the bottom and top and train a fan on the lower holes to keep the air flow high as smell isn't a problem for me. I don't know if this mini-dehumidifier can work fast enough to suck out the moisture from newly cut plants in a closed box as it's slower than rice balls. Might be worth a try as it wasn't expensive.

And I think one fan in a wardrobe box would be fine, The breeze is not supposed to move the stems, just the air. Good luck and post your results. We can all learn new ways of drying from each other's experiments!

Right on man. To be honest I was gonna put the wardrobe box in my tent. That prevents too much air on the buds and light. Like a room in a room. Maybe the negative pressure of my 6" exhaust fan will be enough to keep air flowing through the box. Provided there is some passive venting on the box of course. Maybe just suspend the box and leave the bottom open. Sadly, I got time to think about it before I'm staring at a harvest .

 

[InTheShed]

Right on man. To be honest I was gonna put the wardrobe box in my tent. That prevents too much air on the buds and light. Like a room in a room. Maybe the negative pressure of my 6" exhaust fan will be enough to keep air flowing through the box. Provided there is some passive venting on the box of course. Maybe just suspend the box and leave the bottom open. Sadly, I got time to think about it before I'm staring at a harvest .

I think that a few 1" holes in the lower edge of the box will be enough with a 6" exhaust fan. Suspending the box would be waaaay to much of a pain when a few holes will do!

Keep in mind that the RH in the tent will be the RH in the box, so if you're in flower the RH might be low for drying the buds. Something to ponder while you wait...

 

[KingJoe83]

Hey man, I'm looking at your little box setup and thinking about if I can dry my buds in such a beast. I'm in a situation where smell is a concern. Not opening my tent and watering, but you know buds hanging up to dry and stinking the house up kinda situation.
Was considering like a wardrobe box you get when you move, with a couple pc fans to move some air. You ever try something like that?

No but thanks . ..

 

[InTheShed]

No but thanks . ..

LOL I don't think he was asking you!

 

[KingJoe83]

LOL I don't think he was asking you!

I know but but smart idea he had for drying bud lol

 

[Archiweedies]

Lol I was just wandering around Home Depot by the Rubbermaids and got to brainstorming when I saw the wardrobe boxes. I'm gonna try it my next harvest.

 

[InTheShed]

Lol I was just wandering around Home Depot by the Rubbermaids and got to brainstorming when I saw the wardrobe boxes. I'm gonna try it my next harvest.

I remember finding this on my original research for making a drying box so I went looking for it again for you. Found it!
DIY drying box with odor control

 

[Archiweedies]

I remember finding this on my original research for making a drying box so I went looking for it again for you. Found it!
DIY drying box with odor control

Aww man that's awesome, you've gone above and beyond sir! I been building a support structure for my flood tray and my car took a crap on me. Banner morning lol.
I'll be sure to pay it forward man!

 

[InTheShed]

Just a note to say that the last of the AK-47 is now in jars for the final drying/curing stage. It seemed pretty crunchy when I took it out of the box (I think 114 days was too long!) and had to toss a few more buds in the freezer due to bud-rot, but I now have 12 jars in various stages of cure, and that should last a while!

Please contribute any recipes or links to recipes for canna lotion, as I'll be starting that as soon as this weekend!

 

[InTheShed]

I have spent a lot of the day researching cannabis lotions, creams, and oils. There is so much information out there it's overwhelming. I got through about 26 pages of Magnus8's Canna Cream thread before I gave up because of the incredibly slow pace that information was being dribbled out. Just looking for easy-to-follow instructions here! I'm going for a massage oil/lotion, but the lotion instructions included too many ingredients including preservative, which he was insistent on. So I think I'll just go with an infused oil like one would use for cooking, only with an oil that is good for skin transmission.

This is what I have so far:

First thing I have to do is kill the botrytis. This will be accomplished with steam per this page. I'll put the buds in a strainer suspended over a pot of boiling water with the lid holding down the strainer, for as close to 60 minutes as the water will last. There will be some leakage out of the sides where the lid can't meet the pot but it should get steamy enough to kill the mold.

Next thing I need to do is dry and decarboxilate the now-wet bud. Drying will be done on an open cookie sheet at 200° until it feels dry enough to grind. At that point I will let it cool and grind it. Then it goes back on the sheet covered with foil and run at ~240° for 30 minutes.

Then I need to infuse the THC into the oil. I haven't decided on the oil yet, but I have a list of good oils for skin (not ingesting) from the Magnus8 thread above. They include: Grape Seed Oil, Sweet Almond Oil, African Raw - Unrefined Shea Butter, Pumpkin Seed Oil, and then he posts a long list with no explanations but includes this: fractionated coconut oil. That's his favorite.

I found these instructions for infused oil with a crock pot, which I own, or this video:
[video=youtube;YZzyScxEmbg]

[/video]

I may add some beeswax when it's done to stiffen it up a bit so it's not so liquid.

What remains after straining, which will have very little THC left, will get blended together with the leaves, stems, and roots of the plants (I was planning on using the roots separately but I've decided to mix all the non THC parts together) and another oil will be made from that. Maybe with coconut oil to end up with a rub per this video (which is about just using the roots):
Amazing Healing cannabis and coconut oil products! Ask Canna Nanna - YouTube

That is the plan for now. I need to buy the oil as a start, so I can't get this done this weekend as amazon is my source. Maybe one night next week if I can get it all organized.

Stay tuned and add your experiences or comments below!

 

[KingJoe83]

Thanks fir sharing shed give a watch tomorrow bud o always wanted to find s lotion for aches and pains .

 

[InTheShed]

Turns out the oil will be here tomorrow, so I'll try to get moving on that this weekend. The beeswax won't be here until Monday so that will be added to the mixture later.

Here's what I ended up with:

 

[KnottyDread]

I know I'm late and probably missed it.....but how did that low and slo come along

 

[InTheShed]

I know I'm late and probably missed it.....but how did that low and slo come along

I have to say I was not impressed. It's greener in color than the air/jar dried buds from the same harvest, but I don't think it smells as nice and blueberry as the rest of the plant. I haven't opened the jar in a few days since it's been at 62% in there but I will take a sniff tonight and give you an update tomorrow. None of that plant has been smoked yet so can't get a comparison there.

 

[KnottyDread]

I have to say I was not impressed. It's greener in color than the air/jar dried buds from the same harvest, but I don't think it smells as nice and blueberry as the rest of the plant. I haven't opened the jar in a few days since it's been at 62% in there but I will take a sniff tonight and give you an update tomorrow. None of that plant has been smoked yet so can't get a comparison there.

Yeah I wasn't impressed with the smell I will say they looked alot nicer in appearance but my old fashioned ones smell nicer

 

[InTheShed]

Yeah I wasn't impressed with the smell I will say they looked alot nicer in appearance but my old fashioned ones smell nicer

Which is so weird because the whole point of low and slow was to preserve terpenes which are responsible for the smell. Go figure.

 

[InTheShed]

Yeah yeah I know it's after 10pm Saturday night on the west coast so most of y'all are in the land of nod, but I'm here ready with today's update. And I'm going to do this in two posts, one for the Blue 2 update and one for the oil-making process, so if you reply to one you don't need all the pics from the other.

First I want to offer two updates on Blueberry 2. The first is for KnottyDread, and that's that the low and slow smells similar to the standard dry, but a bit greener. Unless it smokes very differently, it is not worth it to me.

Second is the final weight. Here are the pics because pics rock!

Blue 2 in a big bowl:

On the scale at 119 grams (without the low and slow):

Low and slow at 5 grams:

So the final number on Blueberry 2 with the 13 tops LST is 124 grams or 4.37 ounces. Even at $30/eighth that's 33 eighths or nearly $1,000 worth of dope off one small auto. Not too shabby.

For those keeping score at home, Blueberry 1 - with no LST - came in at 49 grams (1.72842 ounces), or one third the weight.

 

[Blazin Waffle]

Nice haul bro!!
I hope I can hit that kinda number!!