TheNarrator Learns to Grow - Multi-Strain - LED

[TheNarrator]

I'm sure they'll perk right back up. Did you notice the perfume after you fed them?

They did, didn't take long at all. Just gave myself a shock seeing them like that
2 Fast 2 Vast did start stinking a bit more afterwards but it still doesn't have a super strong scent from a distance, I might even be able to dry it outside of the tent if it stays like this. Now and then I've been starting to get a whiff from the Pineapple Chunks and it smells so delicious!

I have faith in your girls, they'll be fine.

Thanks arteekay, its comforting to the girls knowing you've got their back


Sample is taking a while longer to dry out then I thought so will give 2 Fast 2 Vast at least another day or two to hopefully fatten up more. The popcorn buds are fairly wispy but the colas are starting to have a nice density to them.

 

[Faic]

Lol man, samples are smoked like in 30minutes of picking them. There's no point to taking any time to dry them even remotely properly

I have a box of 9 clones and a mother in veg, when I watered them yesterday, 15 minutes later the room smelled so bad lol.

Also, keep in mind, your weed won't smell as potent as you thought your bagweed did. First you should dry/cure out that hay smell, second, since you're smelling it every day, you just stop smelling it. That's my fear lol. I have to have non smoking friends come over time to time and wait to see if I see them sniff, then get 'that' look or not. So far, Not.

 

[TheNarrator]

Lol man, samples are smoked like in 30minutes of picking them. There's no point to taking any time to dry them even remotely properly

I have a box of 9 clones and a mother in veg, when I watered them yesterday, 15 minutes later the room smelled so bad lol.

Also, keep in mind, your weed won't smell as potent as you thought your bagweed did. First you should dry/cure out that hay smell, second, since you're smelling it every day, you just stop smelling it. That's my fear lol. I have to have non smoking friends come over time to time and wait to see if I see them sniff, then get 'that' look or not. So far, Not.

good point about the samples, my oven causes my stovetop to heat up to a low temperature when it is on so will sit them on top of there for 30 so I can roll it up soon

nice! how long have you had your mother for?

Yeah thats something I have to keep reminding myself of. 2 fast 2 vast definitely has some nice lemony characteristics to it already though.
I had been worrying a little about that too as I sleep in the room, like you I bring friends through to see if they pick up on anything and no one has noticed yet.

 

[Faic]

Heh, she's actually 'the little trainwreck that could'. She's from my first batch of seeds I sprouted, she seems to be doing fine after six months or so. Her clone I flowered in a cup is doing very well too, consideing I've knocked it over three times. Actually, I have three mothers (two clones that will become), and a bunch of babies running around. I'm in the middle of renovations.

 

[TheNarrator]

Heh, she's actually 'the little trainwreck that could'. She's from my first batch of seeds I sprouted, she seems to be doing fine after six months or so. Her clone I flowered in a cup is doing very well too, consideing I've knocked it over three times. Actually, I have three mothers (two clones that will become), and a bunch of babies running around. I'm in the middle of renovations.

haha, "I think I can-nabis, I think I can-nabis", sounds like a nice little family you've got going on.

Just smoked my little sample nug (I couldn't bare to pick anything too nice looking to be a sample so picked a wispy as popcorn bud) and am pretty impressed ! much nicer stone than the bag weed I had been smoking off a much smaller amount! Nice mellow body high to start and then a decent head high crept in. And its creeping further.

The end is near 2F2V!

I cannot describe how happy I am to be high off of plants I have grown myself! Assuming that the proper product will be vastly superior to the sample, I am going to be one happy boy

 

[Faic]

Hold on to your hat, you can loose it all in the dry/cure.... :X My first plant is a great smoke but was dried incorrectly (too fast) and it smells like hay.

Lets see some trich pics~

 

[TheNarrator]

Hold on to your hat, you can loose it all in the dry/cure.... :X My first plant is a great smoke but was dried incorrectly (too fast) and it smells like hay.

Lets see some trich pics~

Lets hope not!

What method did you use? I will most likely have to dry mine inside the tent somehow if it starts to stink up. Was thinking a cardboard box over the inlet with the bud hanging inside it and holes on all sides except the top? I only have a fairly weak inline fan (96cfm off the top of my head) but would that still be too much airflow and dry them too fast?

Would love to take some but I can't get stupid 'Magic Focus' on my G3 to take anything close to a macro picture. Still working on getting my hands on a digital camera of some sort.

 

[TheNarrator]

Everyone droop free! The Pineapple Chunks are now at day 36 flower, 2 Fast 2 Vast is losing a few fan leaves to a nutrient issue it has had since its rough childhood but the buds aren't showing any damage.

 

[Faic]

I ended up really unprepaired and had to set up a rack in my grow room. What I did was cut the fan leaves and trim the sugar tips, then hanged them. My problem was I had air moving directly over them and in a couple days they got too dry. The subsiquent plants were dried the same way,but I'd moved the rack to the other side of the box so it wasn't being hit by direct airflow. My first harvest I 'ruined' by letting it get too dry and I stopped any more curing. The smoke is great, the taste is meh :/

Just off the top of my head, I'll find the paper I have later when the lights are on, but
75% is too wet - hang it longer
65-75 ok in a jar with daily burping
60-65 cure zone
55-60 cure+storage

Your idea of a box would work, you just have to make sure the box is big enough. There's also no reason you can't dry it in your tent. Yes light will degrade thc but that's getting into anal retention territory when you're talking about where you can dry your stinky buds. And yeah they're going to smell 10x more than what you can smell them as.

My biggest thing from my first dries I'd say is, first, you want to leave enough stem with the buds so they'll take 4-5days to dry enough to jar them. Here is better to over estimate the amount of stem to leave with the buds.

Second, any direct air on the buds is bad, because it leads to over drying. So your 'weak' inline fan is much better than anything stronger. You just want enough air movement to avoid stagnant pockets and mold.

Third, be as patient as you possibly can. Yeah take your stash to smoke, but only the minimum you need per day for the next few weeks. My next two harvests were done right and it makes a huge humongously supersized difference in the quality of the smoke.

I had a couple 1gallon wire lock jars that I used for burping that worked out really well.

You really want to jar your buds with a hydrometer to monitor the RH in the jar. A bigger jar means you can losely lay your buds in it, vs packing them all in a smaller jar. And the air exchange is better (could be better or worse depending on the timing, right) when you burp the jar (since there's more dry air to suck up the dampness from the buds), and I think is less of a chance of mold, but that's probably just newbie pseudo science. But for the first week or two you'll be checking and rotating the buds gently so it's fairly easy to monitor as long as you have your meter in there.

 

[nuggs78]

Looking good

 

[TheNarrator]

I ended up really unprepaired and had to set up a rack in my grow room. What I did was cut the fan leaves and trim the sugar tips, then hanged them. My problem was I had air moving directly over them and in a couple days they got too dry. The subsiquent plants were dried the same way,but I'd moved the rack to the other side of the box so it wasn't being hit by direct airflow. My first harvest I 'ruined' by letting it get too dry and I stopped any more curing. The smoke is great, the taste is meh :/

Just off the top of my head, I'll find the paper I have later when the lights are on, but
75% is too wet - hang it longer
65-75 ok in a jar with daily burping
60-65 cure zone
55-60 cure+storage

Your idea of a box would work, you just have to make sure the box is big enough. There's also no reason you can't dry it in your tent. Yes light will degrade thc but that's getting into anal retention territory when you're talking about where you can dry your stinky buds. And yeah they're going to smell 10x more than what you can smell them as.

My biggest thing from my first dries I'd say is, first, you want to leave enough stem with the buds so they'll take 4-5days to dry enough to jar them. Here is better to over estimate the amount of stem to leave with the buds.

Second, any direct air on the buds is bad, because it leads to over drying. So your 'weak' inline fan is much better than anything stronger. You just want enough air movement to avoid stagnant pockets and mold.

Third, be as patient as you possibly can. Yeah take your stash to smoke, but only the minimum you need per day for the next few weeks. My next two harvests were done right and it makes a huge humongously supersized difference in the quality of the smoke.

I had a couple 1gallon wire lock jars that I used for burping that worked out really well.

You really want to jar your buds with a hydrometer to monitor the RH in the jar. A bigger jar means you can losely lay your buds in it, vs packing them all in a smaller jar. And the air exchange is better (could be better or worse depending on the timing, right) when you burp the jar (since there's more dry air to suck up the dampness from the buds), and I think is less of a chance of mold, but that's probably just newbie pseudo science. But for the first week or two you'll be checking and rotating the buds gently so it's fairly easy to monitor as long as you have your meter in there.

Thanks so much! Will be using this as my little drying guide for sure, had a busy couple of days but going to go get some fiscars tomorrow in preparation for harvesting 2 fast 2 vast. Thats good to know about the light, will just do that if the box doesn't come through.

If I do go with the box do you think it would get enough air flow just being in the tent with holes poked in it, or better to just have the box directly over the passive intake?

I've got a little bit left to smoke from my stash already so will only take really small samples to begin with.

Will try get a hydrometer or I had also been considering Boveda packs, have you tried those?

 

[Faic]

I dried the trim in a box in the room with holes poked in it, so I suppose it'd be fine. You just want to really be watchful for mold. I'd personally cut really big holes in the box if you were going to have it sitting in the tent. Like, 2 inch wide, top to bottom holes every 4 inches sorta big.

And boveda packs are for maintaining RH. Your weed will be higher than 70% probably when you jar it, the packs won't absorb any more moisture, so they'll just be mold ammo till your buds drop to 61% RH. I suppose they might be convenient for some for storage, but I see them as a fad expense.

The biggest thing I'm glad about is the big jars I had. I trim the ends of the sugar leaves, but I don't manicure my buds. I want all the goodness on them, so that means no packing them into little jars even remotely tightly. So lots of little jars and some big jars for curing works for me.

 

[TheNarrator]

Cool, gonna grab a box from work and lattice it. The oscillating fan I have in the tent creates a fair bit of airflow even on the lowest setting, do you think I need to have this off or make an attempt to shield the drying buds from its airflow?

Ah no worries, had been a little confused about what exactly the Boveda's were good for, in terms of hygrometers, have you ever used the bottom of the line analog ones? Just wondering if they are ok in terms of accuracy.

Definitely going to invest in some big jars, I have some bail lid ones but only 500ml-1L so was thinking I would try and get some 5L or so ones and give the buds plenty of room? And are you saying you like to cure in big jars and then store in lots of little ones, or just that either could be used?

Would you remove the bud from the stems before jarring (after the initial 4-5 days of drying) or leave some/all of them?

Sorry to ask so many questions , trying to get my head around it properly before I chop so I don't screw it up at this vital stage!

 

[Faic]

Dude ask as many questions as you have regarding dry/curing

I'd shield the buds from the fan, but if there's not another plant growing, the exhaust fan should create enough air movement. Think of air movement for drying buds like a creek that moves just enough to not develop eddies of scum. The buds will be very damp and super prone to molding, you just want the moisture laden air to move away from the buds constantly.

I've not messed with analog hydrogemeters, I've just used the cheapie 9$ temp/RH things off amazn. You can get 20$ digital ones for cigars, but you're paying 10$ for a slim form factor to fit in a small jar or humidor.

I'm headed down and I'll double check the sizes, but I have two 1 gallon or so jars, these are wire lock, a 6 or 8oz one, and over a dozen 1oz mason jars. I found curing in the big jars worked like a charm. I could fit the buds in easily, about 1/3 of the jar filled, then lay the meter in and close it up. I'd rotate them slowly to tumble the buds gently, and when the RH hit 70, I'd open the jar. I've seen pics of bunches of mason jars with buds packed in with a slim meter. I can't do that with my buds or everything would end up trich covered lol.

You'll read lots of opinions on that too I'm sure if you do a search lol.

When I cure, the buds come off the stems. I found this works well and is fairly neat. Harvest a branch at a time (obviously this is a personal grow), cut fans over trash, cut tips of sugar leaves over box, snip stems and buds to 6-10inches or so, hang like laundry. After 3-5 days when the stems are stiff and bend sharply but not snap, is when I remove the buds and begin the jar curing. I don't wait for the stems to snap, since that ruined my first harvest since my RH is so low, so here the take away is, monitor your stem strength, and jar wetter than dryer.

All the things about dry/cure depend on your local conditions regarding how you're going to get a smooth 3-5+ day initial dry. All else being subjective, 3-5days for an initial dry is like the minium you'd want I'd say. But for the next month, you don't ever want to let your buds hit sub 55% RH. I'd still happily smoke it any day over bought weed, but it's such a dissapointment ya know? ;3

edit: you calibrate a meter in a jar with a tsp of salt~ Then use a sharpie if it's off. And the little 10$ ones, I'm guessing anything digital, register changes in seconds, an analog would take longer.

 

[stevebass]

I dried the trim in a box in the room with holes poked in it, so I suppose it'd be fine. You just want to really be watchful for mold. I'd personally cut really big holes in the box if you were going to have it sitting in the tent. Like, 2 inch wide, top to bottom holes every 4 inches sorta big.

And boveda packs are for maintaining RH. Your weed will be higher than 70% probably when you jar it, the packs won't absorb any more moisture, so they'll just be mold ammo till your buds drop to 61% RH. I suppose they might be convenient for some for storage, but I see them as a fad expense.

The biggest thing I'm glad about is the big jars I had. I trim the ends of the sugar leaves, but I don't manicure my buds. I want all the goodness on them, so that means no packing them into little jars even remotely tightly. So lots of little jars and some big jars for curing works for me.

Yeah I tried Boveda packs when my last harvest was still damp and it certainly doesn't allow proper drying for curing. There might be a good window of time to use them, but my stash doesn't survive that long.

 

[arteekay]

And that is exactly why I follow other people's grow journals, I always learn something...

 

[TheNarrator]

Dude ask as many questions as you have regarding dry/curing

I'd shield the buds from the fan, but if there's not another plant growing, the exhaust fan should create enough air movement. Think of air movement for drying buds like a creek that moves just enough to not develop eddies of scum. The buds will be very damp and super prone to molding, you just want the moisture laden air to move away from the buds constantly.

I've not messed with analog hydrogemeters, I've just used the cheapie 9$ temp/RH things off amazn. You can get 20$ digital ones for cigars, but you're paying 10$ for a slim form factor to fit in a small jar or humidor.

I'm headed down and I'll double check the sizes, but I have two 1 gallon or so jars, these are wire lock, a 6 or 8oz one, and over a dozen 1oz mason jars. I found curing in the big jars worked like a charm. I could fit the buds in easily, about 1/3 of the jar filled, then lay the meter in and close it up. I'd rotate them slowly to tumble the buds gently, and when the RH hit 70, I'd open the jar. I've seen pics of bunches of mason jars with buds packed in with a slim meter. I can't do that with my buds or everything would end up trich covered lol.

You'll read lots of opinions on that too I'm sure if you do a search lol.

When I cure, the buds come off the stems. I found this works well and is fairly neat. Harvest a branch at a time (obviously this is a personal grow), cut fans over trash, cut tips of sugar leaves over box, snip stems and buds to 6-10inches or so, hang like laundry. After 3-5 days when the stems are stiff and bend sharply but not snap, is when I remove the buds and begin the jar curing. I don't wait for the stems to snap, since that ruined my first harvest since my RH is so low, so here the take away is, monitor your stem strength, and jar wetter than dryer.

All the things about dry/cure depend on your local conditions regarding how you're going to get a smooth 3-5+ day initial dry. All else being subjective, 3-5days for an initial dry is like the minium you'd want I'd say. But for the next month, you don't ever want to let your buds hit sub 55% RH. I'd still happily smoke it any day over bought weed, but it's such a dissapointment ya know? ;3

edit: you calibrate a meter in a jar with a tsp of salt~ Then use a sharpie if it's off. And the little 10$ ones, I'm guessing anything digital, register changes in seconds, an analog would take longer.

I'm sure I will be taking you up on this, have learnt heaps from your posts so far, really appreciate it.

I've made a structure to dry in, will post some photos after this. The Pineapple Chunks will still be going as usual but there have been periods of time where the oscillating fan has been off and haven't had issues with mould as long as the exhaust fan was on so will just run the oscillating 12/12 or something while the buds dry. But hopefully what I've made will shield it anyway.

Thanks for the info on the jars, I'll track some down over the weekend. Once you've hit a stage of curing you are happy with do you then move the buds to smaller jars for storage or just keep them in the one they were cured in? Sounds good to me, couldn't bear the sight of too many trichomes coming off.

Awesome, starting to feel a little more knowledgable about curing. Agree on the stems, I've read thats more of a sign that they should have gone into jars a little while beforehand.

In terms of local conditions, the RH for the coming week ranges from 50-70% so that should prove quite helpful right? Quite glad I get to harvest 2 Fast 2 Vast first as a test run of sorts before the PCs. So pretty much once you go below 55% the cure stops even if you rehydrate it?

Will just order a couple of the $10 digital hygrometers, similar in price to the analog one I saw anyway.

 

[TheNarrator]

So this is what I will dry my first buds in at this point. (almost got the hang of getting my photos to rotate... 2/3 ain't bad )

Its just two milk crates with the empty sides aligned zip tied together with a cannibalised ikea 'pop out crate' zip tied to the milk crate so it can fold down to protect one side from the oscillating fan. Strung some wire across the top to hang from. Figured the holes in the milk crate so provide more than enough air turnover.

The material of the flap is some crappy synthetic fibre with cardboard inserts.

My main concern is if there's any risk putting these materials in the tent but as none of them are organic I couldn't see why.


And ordered a couple of the reallyyyyyyy cheap hygrometers similar to the one recommended here (Best Hygrometer value for drying), the slightly fancier ones are still %5 inaccurate anyway so hopefully these do the trick

 

[Faic]

Ok quick post since I'm trying to get things finished this year.... but. I would get a 10$ accurite from the local shop or amzn before I try and save 5$ on a meter that is +/-5% accurate? No you can't restart curing once it's gone below 55% RH. It's worth 10$, argubly much more. perfect rack!

 

[TheNarrator]

Sorry to make multiple posts but I have just been informed I am in somewhat of a dilemma. I have just found out that I will HAVE to be away for a week 13-21st which leaves me a in a bit of a quandry over whether to harvest 2 fast 2 vast or not. The Pineapple chunks will be okay I'm sure but if I chop 2 Fast 2 Vast today it would still be well into the curing process by the time I go away. Is the risk of coming back to mouldy buds (assuming I can't have someone burping the jars regularly) so much of a risk that it would be better to let 2F2V go another 20 days?

Not at all happy with the situation but life calls... What would you guys do?