HigherDrifter's Water Cure

HD, I am so inspired I am 85% in.. I am about 3-5 days my entire room will be done. so prehaps you can post some more pictures soon of the dried bud shots. I really wanna see color.

Might yank another clump of test buds tomorrow after the drain/during the refill.

If things go okay Thursday evening I'll be hangin the buds up in my My Drying Room. Should be dried and ready to smoke sometime over the weekend, late Saturday, early Sunday. Stuff really dries fast after a water cure (was amazed how fast yesterday's test buds dried). I probably won't even need to use a fan in there.
 
Problems.

Discovered some of the buds at the bottom of the pile were disintegrating.

Alarm went off and I started hanging the buds up in the drying room.

Didn't know what else to do.

The buds at the top of the pile are fine and appear to be holding it together.

Closer I got to the bottom of the pile more the buds were disintegrating.

Might take some pics in the morning of what's going on - too fucking tired and depressed right now. Gonna smoke some and then lay my head down for the night.
 
Okay.

Questions.

What would cause the buds to disintegrate?

1. Temperature?

Cure water hovered in the mid 60's (°F) during the warmest parts of the day and low 50's-upper 40's (°F) during the night/early mornings when the outside air was colder. Food will spoil at 60°F so it's possible much of the green, "unresinous" leaf matter got spoiled; maybe that did something to the surrounding water and spoiled the buds as well? Maybe made some "pockets" of acidic water that was strong enough to dissolve the buds?

Another factor, but I doubt was a major contribution: with water above 34°C warm water expands and rises whereas cooler water contracts and settles. With water at or below 34°C the water begins to expand as it reaches the freezing point.

2. Pre-existing mold or fungus on the buds before the water cure?

Definite possibility.

3. Worm damage?

VERY probable if not a definite "YES".

4. Water ph?

Sure. Water comin outta the tap is akaline. Runnin it through the filter wouldn't change that.

Maybe as the water soluable compounds dispersed into the water ...maybe it went acidic (from all the green leaf matter that spoiled?)?

Maybe it started going rancid?


****

I dunno.

More question than answers...

Still haven't taken any pics of the aftermath of this epic failure of a water cure.

Not as bad as it may seem. Most of the clumps, colas, whatever...of buds were intact and looked good.

Gonna let them slow dry in the drying room.

I'll take some pics later...maybe.

Still feelin kinda bummed out with this whole thing...thinkin about future grows and harvests.
 
dang, sorry to hear about the disintegrating. I hope it's not nearly as bad as it sounds.

Most of the disintegration occured at the lower layers.
 
Presently, I'm thinking that there was too much green leaf matter, and that spoiled and contaminated the water, and, presently, appearing more and more as the culprit. It's the only thing that makes any sense right now.

I am smelling a "rotted plant" type of smell in the dry room.

Next time I do a water cure I'll have to do a better job of trimming of the leaves. Probably need to to a full trim and manicure (wet) before sticking them in the water.

Reckon it wouldn't hurt to keep the water somewhat colder - to slow down the "spoil" rate.

I dunno....


More to come...
 
Maybe too much bud in such a small place?

Maybe should think about water curing with less bud material in more containers? In other words, don't put all my eggs in one basket. Hmmm....:hmmmm: Gives me some good ideas.
 
Drifter...holyshit....there is nothing about this whole cure that was a failure....you wouldn't have know to get more tubs with less plant matter in each....know we all know thanx to you my man....I can't wait to see the other top buds still....keep your chin up buddy...I wish I could swing by and smoke you out....
 
shit hd. i am sorry. hoping and praying that this will turn around. I am only going to offer posotive vibes. I can't tell you what kind of balls it takes to do this for us here. I hope all is well.

Appreciate the sentiment.

:thanks:

I'm not, in any way, turned off with doing another water cure. This was my first gig with a water cure. I was bound to run into unexpected problems. The whole idea of the water cure was rather sudden. I didn't have a lot of material resources available and didn't really have much time to think about and refine the methods and materials that I did use in this particular scenario. Just threw some ideas and stuff together the best that I could.

I'm rather disappointed and still depressed about what's happened, but all is not lost. Most of the buds are fine. Gonna take me some time to sort it all out once it's dried. I think I'll get enough decent bud out of all of this.

Although the water cure itself is pretty much over, I'll keep updating this thread till I've gotten the final results of the dry.
 
Here go:

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InTheDryRoom_3.jpg


InTheDryRoom_8.jpg
InTheDryRoom_9.jpg
InTheDryRoom_7.jpg
InTheDryRoom_10.jpg
InTheDryRoom_2.jpg
InTheDryRoom_1.jpg
 
Could you show us what the disintegrated bud looks like? You might still be able to hash it out perhaps?

I dunno. Not really much I could do with pics.

I have completely drained/dumped and rinsed the cure box.

Had bits and pieces of bud parts just floatin around in the water and they're out in the mud with all the water now.

Here's what happened:

I was just looking down in the water, near the bottom. I noticed a clump of buds that looked kinda funny, even funky. It had a mushy-like appearance to it. So I gave the bud a little shake and that's when it started to just fall apart. Many of the pistils, the ovaries, the wombs, or whatever they call where the seed develops, just dropping off all over the place and drifting away. The water even clouded up with some kinda off-white looking shit.
 
Mold damage if you had it before the cure. Mold dissolves in the water.

Coulda been mold. Although I saw no signs of mold before they went into the water - that was one of the first things I considered. Then again, I wasn't specifically looking for mold so I could have easily missed it in the real early stages of development.


Could the weight of the plants crushed the bottom buds especially at water changes.

Thought of that too. Definite possibility.


Actually thinking about engineering some type of "separate layered screen shelf cage" or something - to separate the layers of buds so they don't crush each other above and below...ya know?

Next time you may need smaller less packed containers.

Yeeah. I was thinkin just that. Maybe something shallow for just for a couple layers of buds and enought water to raise them off the bottom

***

Got a lot of different ideas goin on inside my head right now....:loopy:
 
some googling of the method brought me here. At least once before viewing this i read that if the buds are exposed to air it is like "a molds fantasy breeding ground" or something along those lines. although if you put the exposed buds on top, the bottom layer would have been the good(?) stuff.

side thought: maybe you shouldnt have shook the buds to make em fall apart. maybe they did that because they were over cured. if they were over cured, maybe you could have handled them more carefully and the end product would just be more crushable.

side thought: if the bud was good on your test runs maybe it was ready.

another side thought: maybe if a lil mold gets on there itll intesify the high.
 
I read that if the buds are exposed to air it is like "a molds fantasy breeding ground" or something along those lines.

Uh...already aware of this. Really don't need the lecture...


You're exaggerating this mold situation - like if the buds were exposed to the air for anytime at all they'd get moldy. If that's the case, why even take them out of the water (to dry) at all if they'll get moldy as soon as you take them out of the water. No...if there was any mold it would have been on the buds before I stuck them under the water. And, for the short times the buds were exposed during drains and refills (and the slow leaks that occurred) - not long enough for mold concerns. During the refills exposure was less than 30 minutes. Most of the exposure (with the slow leaks) was late-night, real early morning temps in the mid 40's - no way mold coulda got a foothold in those short of times and being that cold.

side thought: maybe you shouldnt have shook the buds to make em fall apart.

Uh...

More lecture...

Another exaggeration.

Geeze.

I barely even moved the damn thing.

Not like I shook the life out of it.

I just very gently shook it.

maybe they did that because they were over cured.

Uh...

if they were over cured, maybe you could have handled them more carefully and the end product would just be more crushable.

Well, no they weren't over-cured, I....

side thought: if the bud was good on your test runs maybe it was ready.

Uh....no, I...

another side thought: maybe if a lil mold gets on there itll intesify the high.

Uh...

Heh

:cough:

Good Bye.

Thanks for the wonderful acumen. I appreciate the nausea.

Geeze.
 
Hasn't even been 24 hours since I hung everything out to dry.

It was very dry and warm today, with a high of 98°F.

Currently it's 96°F with RH at 6% (wow - very dry).

Buds are barely damp and there's a little bit of crackle in the leaves.

Need to start with the final trim and manicure soon.

I know they say it takes 2~3 days for water cured bud to dry. I would like for them not to dry so fast since they didn't go a full week of water cure...?

I dunno....

I'll have to wait and see what will happen...

More to come...
 
^ that was a funny read! Great journal HD! Kinda feel like I know ya now.

Anyways, I think you're on track with your thoughts on trimming the leaves and putting the buds in smaller containers next time. I read a journal awhile back that suggested using large mason jars. Fill full of water and seal it up. Put in a dark place and change the water once or twice a day. Works well, and keeps things super easy.

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Looks like you have plenty of good smoke out of this harvest! :thumb:
 
I read a journal awhile back that suggested using large mason jars. Fill full of water and seal it up. Put in a dark place and change the water once or twice a day. Works well, and keeps things super easy.

You sure about the "seal up" part?

I've read about people punching holes in the lid to allow escaping gases and to allow for easy drainage. I'll make my own lid. I don't particularly care for ruining a good mason jar lid that way.
 
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