First Timer - Soil - 600W LED - White Widow & Candy Cane Autos - 2x4x7 Tent

Last couple days:


Day 91 - Temps 68-77f RH 34-47% - looks worse then before watering
Day 92 - Temps 68-75f RH 32-46% - eek on the look... cleaned up deadfall and snipped burned\browned edges all over the place.

Day 93 - tri-check
Temps 68-77f RH 32-45% - Went to try and flush\water but was still 15lbs....wtf this thing is taking more time to drink a gallon than it did a month ago. Noted that a cola or two does look to my eyes marginally fatter\denser than a couple days ago. I looked at the trichomes today for an hour, I'll be damned if I could get good shots, you'd think I'd be getting better at the using the usb scope by now but I'm not - lol.

Anyway 90 attempted pics and about 10 semi usable, that said I could mostly see what I needed without taking 'pics' per say, she still does not look ready to me. I'd have to say 50-80% cloudy with some amber here and there, but really most the amber is on specific leaves\spots, and barely showing up at all in others, and 'down low' looks more ready than up above (go figure). Confusing. That said this bitch has already gone about 10 days longer than originally planned. I will give her till this weekend, but she's coming down in the next 6-7 days ready or not. Tri-pics follow in day 94 update.

Top Shots:




Day 94 (today) - Flush Day

Overview - Temps and RH have been stable in the 68-77f range for last 24hr, in fact I've been backing off the AC 'dry' function a few hours a day when I'm in the room and lights are on, I partially get the feeling WW doesn't enjoy the dry air the same way Candy did, and I think it's part of why her leaves are the way they are, though it's a minor factor in the world of all her problems.

Anyway this morning she was about 12.xlbs so she got water, what will probably be her final watering, so I flushed 10 gallons of evaporated tap water through her, the first 5 had some low dose FF - Sledgehammer flush agent added.

Short version of water report:
In: 10 gallons of evap-tap water (cause I needed to use it up); two sets of 5gallons, first set had 8ml of "sledgehammer" added.
In-PH: 6.9 (gal 1-5); 6.9x-7.0 (gal 6-10). In ppm-45 w\o; sledge 50 ppm w\sledge.
out samples:
gal 2: ppm: ~250-425 ; ph 6.6-6.8
gal 5: ppm: ~175-400 ; ph 6.6-6.8
gal 6: ppm: ~175-375 ; ph 6.5-6.9
gal 8: ppm: ~150-250 ; ph 6.6-6.9
gal 9: ppm: ~150-200 ; ph 6.8-6.9
gal 10: ppm: ~125-185 ; ph 6.8-6.9

note: I did add more top-coating of dolomite lime, about 1/2 a tbsp, after gallons 1-5 were flushed through.
I thought about throwing another 5 gallons through her, but since I may...may... water her one more time (maybe Friday night) before chop on saturday or sunday I figured I could wait.
---

Pics from today's bath (sorry no overview in tent shot):





Trichome pics from yesterday (day 93):


On the tri's, I'd say there has been some progress, but I was hoping for far more progress.

As for chop timing, playing it by ear, the trichomes for Mrs. Widow are not where I really want them, I'd like 20% amber or more, not sure if I'm going to get there by this weekend though, guessing not. Also since I don't have CC to worry about now I can give her 24 or more hours of darkness before the chop.

I'd let her go into October more, but for two things... one this whole project was supposed to be wrapped by oct 1st'ish, and second and more importantly - I don't think Mrs. Widow is really going to make it much longer at the rate she is consuming herself, at some point soon she's gonna start eating her frosted leaves and sure and hell don't want that. So in my view it's kind of 5-7 days more or bust.

It's so weird that a couple of the small bottom shoots look much more finished than than all the more main higher tops, I'm considering tomorrow dropping the main light another inch just for the fuck of it for the last 4-5 days, though I don't know if that's the exact opposite of what I should be doing to try to get her to finish up. It's funny though with all the deadfall and all the snipping off of the crusted edges and leaves there is significant penetration vs say 10 days ago, in fact I see quite a bit of light making to the soil.

:Namaste:
 
Day 95 and Day 96 - Twiddling thumbs is easier while medicated



Overview: Temps and RH good, in ranges 68-75f, 32-46%. Nothing noticeable regarding progress, gave the girl a 180d turn this morning as I do every day or so, the 'thinnest sides' on the plant get rotated 180 every so often cause the spot near the zipper gets less light down low (the back has that extra 32w lamp). I could add another lamp but... it's already overkill as it is I think.

I lowered the light about an inch this morning. So it's about 22-23" off the higher tops, figure since I've been keeping it a little cooler anyway maybe try to give max light in remaining days, that said could maybe backfire on me.

Down below I give a sort of smoke report on 'jar #2', incidentally it was the jar I miscounted originally that ended up being chosen as first to smoke from. Growing sure is less stressful when you
a) have a supply already to smoke from while watching, waiting
b) are days from what seems likely to be at least a decent harvest


Top Shots:


It may not look like it, but most of these colas are way thinner than CC's, though there are far more of them.
Two of them I would say are 'fat' or at least as 'fat' as the fat mains on CC were, the rest or thinner, though 2-3 the thinner onces are the ones I've noted in last 5 days have added a little more weight so hopefully that continues in their final couple days.

Adventures with Jar #2


Pics of Jar #2 (originally containing 14grams ~18-19 days ago) and the final nug that I'm working on smoking yesterday and today and tomorrow.

Poor guy used to have so many friends in there.


with flash - like I mentioned I left a fair amount of leaf on...cause this is all for the face and doesn't need to look pretty.


without flash- That first pic, I actually grabbed a couple of those lower frosted leaves with tweezers and did it a hit of just 3-4 leaves like that, had me good to go for better part of an hour. I've killed about 1/2 of it by this morning, will probably kill the rest by tomorrow morning, then it's time for 2-3 day break. I'm weird like that, every 2-3 weeks I test myself, if I can't 'not smoke' for 48hr I know it's time to actually stop for a longer period.


I destroyed that 1/2 oz quicker than I thought I would, but then again captain tolerance has come into play smoking a decent amount (for me) per day since about the 10th.


As for a smoke report for CC I don't know what one usually includes or says really but here are some thoughts.

My general process is I transfer a nug or large pinch sized nug to a shotglass with rubber edged top thingy for 'next 24hr-48 or so of smoke', as to avoid opening the jar more than every other day. Even in the jar I was working off of though, there is definite difference between how it smelled and tasted the first couple days, and say this last week, so maybe I didn't entirely kill the cure process. I wouldn't say it was wildly different, but it's been noticeable. That said outside the first couple days when my tolerance was low I'd say this Candy Cane is great, it gets the job done and doesn't knock me on my ass, well it does but only -if smoke like a whole gram in a couple hours, which I can do but generally don't do often. It's definitely more a head high then body, though it did work to mute some serious back pain I get usually once a week or so for usually a 24hr-36hr period. Didn't make me not feel it but between the advil that usually just mutes it ...just enough to sleep (if I'm lucky), and the Candy Cane it let me function a bit more and sleep better. Also even when 'baked' (to the extent I even get baked) I've still been able to get tasks done, a little slower here and there as my mind wonders more but that comes with the territory.

As for tastebuds etc, it's not really my thing to delve too deep into that, it smells like good weed, and sort of has a pungent spearmint'ish smell, it tastes like good weed, it's smokes like good weed ...now, the very early popcorn stuff did not - nor did I expect it too. It's not the tastiest or most potent shit I've ever had though - nor was it supposed to be.

So mission accomplished on the "usefulness" and mostly desired outcome from the product\strain that I was hoping for with CKS's Candy Cane, overall I have to say it's delivered as advertised - for me anyway. I can't wait to try one of the jars that's been sitting for 3 weeks in the jars untouched (well I did pop them all once for minute or so each for the fuck of it after 1 week - read a little fresh air is a good thing after first week in jars - even with bovedas). Hopefully the WW will work out as a more 'on my ass' type, lights out sleepy time sort of product, it's why I'm trying to let as much amber show up before the chop. Very much looking to be able to alternate strains every couple days, in the past it's helped keep my tolerance from getting to high too fast.

Other\Random - Really would suck if my fridge's ice crusher stopped working, just a random thought, as that first week or so I absolutely had to have ice in the bong either to help smooth\cool the I guess harsher smoke, where as now I can do rips without the ice, even though I still prefer to have ice in there -that or my lungs just got used to it lol. Guess I should get some shots of that glassware that finally arrived from China.... yeah I think I forgot to mention that, the shipment finally got here last week, and surprise surprise was actually undamaged!

:Namaste::bong:
 
I can't wait to try one of the jars that's been sitting for 3 weeks in the jars untouched (well I did pop them all once for minute or so each for the fuck of it after 1 week - read a little fresh air is a good thing after first week in jars - even with bovedas).

I'm always very wary of mold, so I tend to open my jars briefly every day for the first two weeks.
 
I'm always very wary of mold, so I tend to open my jars briefly every day for the first two weeks.

Supposedly with the packs I don't have to worry about that (so long as you don't put them in too wet), and considering I put them in too dry already (or damn near on the edge of it) I've not been worried. I did check on them this week and I moved the hydrometer sticks around about 10 days ago just to sanity check that things were as they should be (having one per container gets expensive so I float 4 of them around) all read between 61 and 62%, and the '61' I think may be the gauge since I didn't calibrate either prior to use (well not properly anyway, I stuck them in a room and they read with-in 2% of my other meters after 15minutes - good enough). Fingers crossed.
 
Day 97 and Day 98 - Final drink and Tri check.


Overview:
Temps were 68-77f and 70-79f, RH was 32-46, and 32-50; Not sure exactly what happened in last 24 that had RH bump up to 50% during lights out, I think maybe since it was pretty cool yesterday afternoon maybe my ac didn't kick on as much during lights out which would mean higher RH.

So I watered Mrs. Widow this morning, she was bone dry. I'm going to give her tonight and tomorrow, but after tomorrow that is all for her.... I will leave the lights out after Tuesday's afternoon lights out and then open up the tent and do the chop the following afternoon. I wish I could leave her for a couple more days beyond that but her sugar leaves are starting to die now in addition to most tiny fan leaves being dead, or close.

I spot checked a few choice colas today, there area few more ambers vs. 3-4 days ago but not much, I'd say it's at 15% *max, at least some of the higher colas though are showing a least a few, and cloudy would describe everywhere I checked. Disappointed about that, but a couple dead leaves I trimmed had trichomes on them so time is up in my opinion regardless of if I want to wait. I suppose in theory I could just feed her nutes and then wait a week, and forget about a nice long clean flushing out of nutes.... but fuck that. She will get her last light on the morning of day 100... and even that I think is pushing it.


Top Shots:




Mrs. Widow (getting her bath):



Anyone think I'm crazy and should maybe wait longer, that she's not as 'dying' as I think?
I really wonder why she's taking so god damn long to amber up, ticks me off that I'm throwing a dead leaves into the garbage (maybe I shouldn't) that would otherwise go into the trim\hash making stash.


Anyway that's my update for today. :Namaste:

P.S. - I'm not going to stop the journal right after the chop, I probably take a few days off and then do a couple postmortem posts, about the harvest (probably be jaring at that point), and of course my overall experience(probably multipart), lessons learned, and most of all thank you's to so many people that helped out. Then probably a week or so later I'll do a post about the 'unwashed vs washed' cola's experiment, I'll have to compare on each - I think I already know how that's going to go, but gotta test to actually find out.
 
If the sugar leaves are starting to yellow, I'd chop her down too.

Yeah man cut dat gyal down!

Thanks.
Yeah, I decided to turned her lights yesterday afternoon for good, will do actual chopping tonight.


Day 99 - Lights Out!

Overview:
For her final 24hr Mrs. Widow was in the 68-77f 32-46%RH range.
So I gave her a little over 24hr to soak up a little of that fresh water. Yesterday (day99) her lights went off around 2pm and they've been off since. (well actually the sides lights came on for a few minutes by mistake around 8pm ...but whatever) Humidity is staying around low 40's with the lights out thus far during this ~30-36hr dark period.


Tonight I shall perform the chop and wash and report in tomorrow.
 
Day 100 - (Evening) Mrs.Widow Harvested.

Chop completed, girl had about 30 hours of darkness preceding it. Man did that process take much longer with Mrs. Widow than it did Candy... even with leaving more on each stalk, so many dead leaves to remove j.h.c., and so much more tiny leaves to semi trim.
They're all still drip drying atm, in about hour or two I'll 'wet weight' it all and move my hangers into my tent, who I've think I got dialed into about 45-55% RH. Good news though - I didn't fucking cut myself this time, lmao.

I used the camera again so I'll do up a full report tomorrow along with the wet total.

Lots more popcorn on widow than candy, like candy I left one arm\main branch not-washed to compare.
Sounds strange for such a larger plant but I'll be surprised if I get as much off Mrs. Widow as I did Miss Cane, her higher tops are for the most part thinner - though they are dense at the top 6", but below that not so much and below 12"...basically glorified popcorn on most shafts. Eh we'll see by end of the week though, Candy was dense as fuck just about everywhere - by comparison anyway.


Mrs. Widow as I grabbed her from the dark tent:



A little preview of what's headed for the microwave tonight (popcorn and some stuff that fell off while working):
 
Congrats mate! She was a stunner before the chop. Lovely Autumnal colours. Very apt.

Looking forward to seeing her nugs after a wash and trim. Im definitely goiing to wash my buds from my current grow. Can't believe I never have before. It seems such an obvious process!

My last widow wasnt as dense as i thought she would be so it is interesting you should say that. Maybe that is just a trait of the strain?

Well done on your successful first grow and here's to many more ✌️..
 
Thanks Muzzybuds! Though we're not done quite yet. :)

Could be a trait, I've seen some other widow grows recently, while they looked 'better' than mine over all (healthier), that didn't seem more dense so you might be right about that to a degree. Also I think mine got into the mindset of focusing on growing all around (ie below the usual canopy) and down low instead of just focusing all at top, probably due to my side lighting.. maybe it ended up hurting with widow more than helping. Candy had the same lighting, but being so small (13"), it may not have mattered.
 

Day 101 - Mrs.Widow Post Chop Report



Overview:

So as already stated the chop went ok, thought it would take less time than Candy but it didn't. Anyway since the last little update I wet-weighed after a couple hours of drip-drying after the wash and then moved them in to the tent. Basically I take a alum cooking tray thingy throw 5 pipe cleaner things and one of the exact same hangers I'm using and zero out the scale (80g overhead). Then I remove that stuff and throw a plant loaded hanger in\ontop...shift it around a little (hanger and all) and record weight (if shifting causes a few gram difference I take lower value). I did the same with CC a couple hours after her wash for her 'wet weight'..idk if it's right or wrong but seems wrong to weight them when dripping wet and I think 3-4 hours is plenty to get'em dry from the wash.

Oh I didn't get pictures of it but the "drip" pans were a nasty shade of yellow\orange, but then again so were CC's though I didn't pay any attention to it at the time but know from dried residue it was similar.

...now on to the important shit!

If I cut WW the same as CC I probably would have needed 8 or 10 hangers, but for WW I left the plant more intact, ie not separating stuff into nice little smaller sections, though I had to do it sometimes in order to properly be able to get the damn thing into the wash and rinse without hitting sides etc.... but overall they are more intact. I did this to help SLOW the drying process since last time seemed to go like 2 days too quick. I got the sense though not separating things results in a bit less thorough a wash - can't swish them as easy etc. Anyway I ended up only having to use the same 5 hangers, though shits bunched up\kind of touching more.

---
Wet Weight:
Hanger #1: ~160g
Hanger #2: ~185g
Hanger #3: ~335g [it is indeed the heaviest by feel]
Hanger #4: ~200g
Hanger #5 (includes 1 'non-washed' branch): ~255g

Total: ~1135 grams wet

Discarded leaves (blue pale): ..unknown.
Kept leaves\trim(alum): ..unknown atm... I'll weigh that after they dry and after I add to it with some more trimming.
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I'm a little surprised it's so high, but I think more of this weight on Mrs.Widow is stem though vs. Miss Cane, where as Cane pushed over 17% of wet (with stem) when dry, I'm think WW may trend more toward 10% - at least that's where I've put my expectations after I chop\trim'em up more, be great if they are exceeded.

As for trimming I pulled a lot off, way more than I did with Candy (at least in number) I think at this stage, and there is more to come, though like CC I have no desire or need to make them pretty (close shave), if it's got frost on it and isn't particularly big, it stays on. That said when chopping I think threw out some leaves near the top that I could have saved, and I think got some in the 'save' pile that probably shouldn't be saved. There is some dead\semi dead ones I chose to keep cause I could see prior frost, felt retarded keeping basically dead leaves but that's what I did - figure maybe it's still got tri's stuck to it. Things were just not as clear cut as they were with Candy who outside a few leaves looked far far far more 'green', especially up top.

Also I did not get pics or even look at the roots yet, I'll do that tonight and get some photos (it's sitting in the dark garage).
IDK if waiting a day ruins that investigation or comparison to CC roots or not - is what is at this point. I am curious as hell to see if she had any clear problem though.


Chop Porn! (pics)

Before:



Blue tub has the lime juice and baking soda and 5gal of distilled. The two white pales have just 4.5g distilled water, closer to the bed is the final bucket. All just room temp.


During:




I love that pic (4th from bottom) that shows off the topping point... I'd say topping Mrs.Widow definitely was the right choice for more yield. Lots of weak sauce in the lower 12"... though here and there it wasn't all popcorn there were a few spots that had a little meat, not dense like up top but jar worthy. In some of cases (not all) I just ripped the very lower popcorn shit off and put it aside, mainly so I could shorten\cut the stem more or otherwise better handle the thing. Though looking at it... some of that stuff had decent frost on it - go figure!


After:




^Drip drying^



Lots more hairs fell off with her than Candy, as for the water color, I would say they're about the same, maybe WW slightly dirtier, but then it was in there for 3 extra weeks and nearly double the amount of material.


It's occurred to me that maybe in the final weeks I was under watering her, that I was waiting for 12.xlbs (or less) but that maybe I should have upped that to only waiting for 13 or 14, because her drenched weight had increased from 18-19lbs to like 19-20lbs. IDK... I don't think it was ultimately 'the problem', though it might not have been helping matters. Eh she never really looked wilty or droopy though, but then again she had so few leaves longer than two inches it was kind of hard to tell at the end.


The tent. I don't exactly know why, but the tent is doing what I want and staying in a 40-54% range. All fans are off but one, the large floor one that oscillates, it's there to blow the fresh air from the bottom intake around a little, without it RH seems to stay in the 48-58% range. Which is kind of fucking weird since you would think with an outside room of 30%'ish air why is like 55% in there... and that was before I put the stuff in there, I don't understand that one, where is humidity coming from without plant in there lol?

I have them hanging above where most the air movement is from the fan, but they are getting a decent light breeze as the air moves up to get sucked out the filter, I can see them twitch etc. Anyway I think overall this is good, while there is airflow around them and maybe on the too much side (perhaps like last time too) at least it's ~45-50% air and not 35-40% air like with Mrs.Cane. I can say having it in the tent has removed basically all smell... last time I basically stunk up the joint (even with the filters going in the surrounding room), opening the tent though it smacks you in the face - in a good way lol.


Some pics of the buds as they hang:


I see a human or other hair on two of them...lol even after the wash, then again while less likely they chould have got on there after.



I'm expecting them ready for jarring probably around Sunday, but I'm gonna be paranoid about it starting after tomorrow I'll check them at least twice a day, and when in doubt I'll jar'em up earlier rather than later unlike last time. Not going to wait for pure snap, if they crack and tear they getting jarred with Boveda packs and monitored.


As I mentioned a couple posts back... I'm not done yet. Will be posting about jarring and final weight, post first grow thoughts, thanks, and probably a final post about wash vs unwashed comparison on both. I have to give WW at least a week of post dry cure to be remotely fair, but I can probably do the one on CC in the next week or so.


:Namaste:
 
These look sooo good. You've done well. I tip my hat ...

Job well done! .

Thanks.


As previously mentioned here are some of the pics of the roots.
Also some pics from a little taste I had of some of Mrs.Widow's popcorn today (I actually let her popcorn sit out over an old crt tv I have thats been on for the better part of last 24hr, instead of just microwaving her.).



Nothing struck me as terribly off with the roots. As for tan tint, some of that is the afternoon light, some of it is real.
I would say they were less 'white' than Candy's but probably not by much, and these are 24hr after the chop, not a few hours like CC root pics. So idk whatever. If anyone notices anything strange in the pics let me know. The latter few pics are more toward the top\surface\stem of the plant.




Some of the popcorny stuff that fell or I tore off Mrs. Widow. We'll call it quick dried over 24hr.
The sample was used with my new bubble bongy thingy lol. That's the one of the ones that that
took 2 months to get here, he has a cousin but it's nothing particularly interesting so no point to photograph.
Anyway I don't even use this thing much but I used it a little with candy cane at first so I figured I'd do the same with Mrs. Widow.

I've had 3 bubbly thing mini bowls of Mrs.Widows popcorn. Definite difference from some Candy I had early in afternoon today. So the first bowl (two hits maybe), didn't do to much but let it's presence be known. So probably 1/2hr -45min later around sunset I fired down two more samples. 10min later the effects hit in force, definitely a heavier, and more hazy (mentally) high. Unlike Candy's popcorn though it was not as harsh..though that could simply be my throat\lung being far more adapted to shit today vs. 3 weeks ago. The effects of those 3 though lingered till around 9pm...wwuut.. (sunset was like 7pm). Then I had the bright idea to mix some candy and some widow pop corn... That was like when I started typing this post and well, I'm quite medicated atm, looking to watch a little poker and fall asleep - basically exactly what I wanted from WW, hopefully the rest of her reacts with me similarly.

I return you now to the wait on the drying process... ;)

Oh on that front, I checked them today and tonight, not even really bendy\breaky yet, tent staying in 40-53% range, still bizarre to me why with the outer room in the low 30's why it's naturally so high in the tent with a massive amount of air being exchange per minute.
 
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