Hawk's Outdoor Granddaddy Purple & THC Bomb Grow Journal - 2023

[Melville Hobbes]

Thanks again! How many times a day do you burp the jars during the first couple weeks? Again, I've seen descriptions all over the place...

I go with twice a day to start, monitoring the smell when I open them.
I usually do that for about a week. When the "damp" smell gets less intense, and the buds stick together a bit less when I shake the jar, I go to once a day. Again, for about a week, sometimes two if it still seems a bit too damp.
Any trace of ammonia, or a mildew scent I dump out the jar and check for mould or fungus, let the buds air out for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, then put them back in.
When they seem ready I go to every other day, then once a week.
When they smell ready I put in a 55% humidity pack (if I have any) and leave them be, taking a look every once in a while to check for mould, or excessive humidity.
That's how I do it, but a lot of people use those cheap mini hygrometers. As long as you check how far off they are when you start, they can be more accurate than judging by smell.
I think @InTheShed has a method to check how far off they are using salt.

 

[InTheShed]

I think @InTheShed has a method to check how far off they are using salt.

Thanks for the tag Mel, I do:

If you have a tupperware or ziploc bag and distilled water, you can do the salt test to see if they're accurate.

You take a bottle cap from something like a jam jar, fill it to just below the rim with salt, then put in enough distilled water to turn it to slush without it spilling. That and the meter(s) go in a ziploc or tupperware sealed on the kitchen counter out of the sun. Leave it there overnight (I don't like to rush these things), and in the morning it should read 75% RH.

Calibrating Your Hygrometer - Cigars International - Cigar 101

Shop premium cigars, humidors, samplers, pipes, pipe tobacco, and accessories at Cigars International. Huge cigar selection at great prices everyday.

www.cigarsinternational.com

Like this:

 

[Hawk518]

Thanks @Melville Hobbes !
Thanks @InTheShed !

Had no idea that this was even a possibility. Will calibrate these soon!

 

[Hawk518]

11/14/23 - Burped the mason jars. Still a stench to them. So, put all the buds in paper shopping bags, folded the bags up and put them in a dark, cool cupboard. Will check again tomorrow morning and hopefully put them back in the mason jars.

 

[Regrowth]

If rh is already in the fifties u should skip burping for a while until the rh (hopefully) climbs back into the sixties.
Bovedas are normally not added until a few weeks into the cure process, once the rh has stabilized.
They might readd moisture but in my experience that can take like 2 weeks and by then you'll have missed out on your cure. Get the rh up somehow if you can. Not saying this is the issue but I've bought jars that had a strong chemical smell in them... need to be washed prior to use.

 

[Hawk518]

11/14/23 - The more I read, the more I think I know why my buds smell bad. I dried them within acceptable Temps and Humidity. I had fans blowing to circulate the air, but the tent wasn’t open enough to allow much fresh air in. Also, a few of the branches were touching each other. I’m guessing that the lack of fresh air resulted in the lovely stench I have now? Is there any way to save this harvest? I’ve taken them out of the mason jars and placed them in paper bags in hopes that this might help “fix” them. I’m in no rush to smoke these, so, if it takes a while to get them in good shape, I’m ok with that. I should probably try a small bud just to see…

As always, any advice / suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

 

[Melville Hobbes]

Smells can change a lot during the cure. I had some Bruce Banner that went into the jars smelling like strawberries, diesel, and a little bit of pepper, and now it smells like bittersweet chocolate and orange peel.
So long as it's not overly dry going into the jars you should notice the smell changing over time.

 

[InTheShed]

11/14/23 - The more I read, the more I think I know why my buds smell bad. I dried them within acceptable Temps and Humidity. I had fans blowing to circulate the air, but the tent wasn’t open enough to allow much fresh air in. Also, a few of the branches were touching each other. I’m guessing that the lack of fresh air resulted in the lovely stench I have now? Is there any way to save this harvest? I’ve taken them out of the mason jars and placed them in paper bags in hopes that this might help “fix” them. I’m in no rush to smoke these, so, if it takes a while to get them in good shape, I’m ok with that. I should probably try a small bud just to see…

As always, any advice / suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

What was the RH in the jars when they were sealed and what's the RH in the room the bags are in? If the room RH is in the high 50s/low 60s I would dump the buds on some newspaper on a table, close the blinds, turn off the lights, and leave them for the day.

 

[Hawk518]

11/15/23 - The buds smell much better today after time in the paper bags. I’ll put them back in the jars soon – probably tomorrow morning.

 

[Hawk518]

11/16/23 - The GDP paper bag didn’t have a stench anymore, so filled up the 3.5 mason jars again. Placed a Boveda 62% pack in. The THC Bomb paper bag still had a bit of a smell, so decided to just wait til tomorrow to jar them.

 

[Hawk518]

11/17/23 - The THC Bomb buds didn’t smell horrible anymore, so put them into three 32 oz mason jars. Added a Boveda 62% pack since they seemed a bit dry.

A few hours later, I took them outside and burped all the jars in the hopes that the humidity would be higher outside than inside. The humidity rose to 50% (+/- 2%).

At this point, just hoping that I have SOMETHING that is smokeable...

 

[InTheShed]

Personally I would take the Bovedas out and seal up the jars overnight with the hygros to see where they settle.

 

[Hawk518]

1/6/24 - My GDP has been curing since 11/11/23. Decided it was time to finally try it. Used the new pipe and it just didn’t hit very hard. Knew I’d smoked, but it seemed pretty mild. A bit disappointed that after all my effort since April, it just wasn’t that great a result.

 

[Hawk518]

1/12/24 - Decided to try my GDP grow with a bong instead of the pipe. Finished off a bowl and it hit HARD. Don’t remember the last time I was this high. No idea why it would be such a huge difference between the pipe and the bong. The amount smoked was roughly the same, but the difference in my high was insane. Night and Day. After this, I’m quite happy with the weed I grew!!

 

[Hawk518]

1/15/24 - Started off with the pipe to see if I’d get a high like w. the bong. Once again, it hit, but not very hard. A couple hours later, I tried some more, but this time w. the bong. And once again, it hit me like a train. Wow. I guess the plants I grew were not a failure at all. Makes me really look forward to next season’s outside grow!

 

[InTheShed]

1/15/24 - Started off with the pipe to see if I’d get a high like w. the bong. Once again, it hit, but not very hard. A couple hours later, I tried some more, but this time w. the bong. And once again, it hit me like a train. Wow. I guess the plants I grew were not a failure at all. Makes me really look forward to next season’s outside grow!

Nice bit of research there Hawk, and the lesson is to keep that bong handy!

on getting all the way through the successful grow and cure.

 

[Regrowth]

Probably has to do with how deep you inhale when you're smoking a bong. I've found if i take a toke then follow up by inhaling some additional air to draw it deeper into my lungs then I get a lot higher. I also like to switch the delivery method up now and then since I feel like I get some kind of tolerance going if I don't.

 

[Hawk518]

2/3/24

Final thoughts on my first grow.

Started out as a total newbie. I’d never gardened, let alone tried to grow weed. I probably made every mistake one could make – wrong grow lights, wrong containers, wrong soil, under watering, thrips, bud rot, spider mites and a late harvest! On and On and On. So many mistakes, but it didn’t really matter to me since I was having so much fun doing it. Shocking to me, I became totally obsessed with growing these plants. Loved all the advice from so many members of this forum. But no matter what I did wrong, the plants still looked good. Not as big as they could be, but still fine. That is until the spider mites hit at the very end. They basically wiped out about half of what I had. After harvest and trimming, I ended up with 5 oz from the two plants. Very happy with this amount for a first attempt. After curing for a couple months, I finally tried the Granddaddy Purple. It hit hard. Really hard.

Now, I can’t wait for the next grow season to begin. Once again, will grow outside. Thinking of trying two autos and two photos for my four plants. Then hopefully, can harvest the autos and grow two more during the season. Three will be in fabric grow pots and I’ll plant one in the ground to see how big it can get. Now it’s just a matter of picking out which seeds to try out.

Once again, thank you to all who took the time to reply to my posts and give advice.
Appreciated more than I can say!

Thank You!

 

[InTheShed]

Love that feeling of accomplishment you get after getting out some cured buds out after a long grow! If you start a new journal for your next one, drop a link here so we can follow along.

 

[Hawk518]

If you start a new journal for your next one, drop a link here so we can follow along.

Just started up for the 2024 outdoor season.
Please follow along - any / all advice is greatly appreciated!!

Flying High w. Hawk - 4Kingdoms, Short Nepali, Blueberry Glue, CBD Critical Mass

Monday, 3/16/24 And so it begins… Season 2 of Hawk’s Outdoor Adventures. Please follow along. Any / all help is greatly appreciated! I’m a newbie living in N. VA. This year I’m going to grow 4 plants. Two Photo Fems and two Auto Fems. One photo will be planted into the ground. The other 3...

www.420magazine.com