New Grower CFs First Grow 6 NL X BB, 1 Lemon Skunk and 1 Jack Herer Photo with T5s

[Chester]

I used to feel bad when I cut them down ... now I'm just relieved that I got that far w/ my grow and anxious to get to the drying stage ... can't smoke 'em til you harvest them ... congrats on getting this far w/ your grow ...

 

[CanuckFrog]

Well #3 will be getting the cut tomorrow for sure.....not much fan left.

I will update the rest at the same time as its harvest pics. Too lazy tonight....

 

[Fuggzy]

Haha so I don't feel bad so to say, but I do thank the plant for the resources it will provide me. Kinda like the bond between the hunter, and the hunted. I also make sure that none on it goes to waste. I try to show them love during life, and respect during death. It's silly but its how I roll, or chop for that matter. Take care bud. :smoking:

 

[Fuggzy]

OH YEAH! I'm excited for those pics man. You sir are going to have some hellacious hand cramps by the end of that day.

 

[CanuckFrog]

Well ive been having a really bad time this past week and almost just gave up on everything but im pulling threw.
#1, 2 and 3 are all chopped and drying and i never even thought about taking any pictures which i am now regretting but with have some Post-Dry pictures of each plants bud this weekend. Dont even want to open up the boxes for at least 3-4 days.

I had to figure out some DIY cardboard box with a passive in at the bottom and a pc fan pulling from the top with a chimney looking light tunnel to keep things as dark as possible to dry it in Monday. The boxes are 20"x20"x26" with string zigzagged 2" from the top. At first i thought 1 would be enough for at least 2 plants. I was very wrong.....i ended up making a new box before harvesting each plant and need to buy and make more before i can harvest more...

I managed to harvest #3 Monday night to Tuesday morning. A good section of the main cola had some interior mold most likely caused by the higher temps and cooked leaves. I just threw out the entire chunk instead of taking the chance of infecting the rest in dry and cure and i didnt even have any more room in the box for it anyways.

#2 Was harvested Tuesday night with absolutely no issues and took up an entire box aswell

#1 was harvested Wednesday morning after #2 and was pretty much the same story as #3 with main cola mold and not having room for it anyways so a chunk was tossed without remorse. It did smell quite different than the other 2 in a bad way while trimming and im hoping the smell goes away during dry and cure. It smelled fine before so i should be ok......

Next time i grow these i should have a much better setup to keep things optimal in regards to temps with a sealed area and proper ventilation alont with at least a FIM/Top to get rid of the giant main cola since i dont like the idea of the problems it has/could cause but im not exactly sad with my results either. #6 and Lemon will be next in a couple days followed by 4 and 5.

 

[Chester]

I like to dry 'fast' for about the first 36-48 hrs and then once the dampness dissipates I slow the dry down to where the bud dries evenly all the way thru ... I take 5-7 days minimum to get the entire bud down to mid 60's rh ... drying is as important and can be 'trickier' than growing the weed initially ... my goal is zero to minimal moving air but NOT STAGNANT ... helps to know the accurate rh of the space your boxes are in as well ... due to the very low rh in my space brought on by furnace use I had to adjust my technique this last grow and incorporate brown grocery bags into the dry sequence ... they helped slow down the dry enough to allow an even reduction in rh throughout the entire bud .... grass smell comes in when the outside of the bud is allowed to get very dry while the center of the bud is still moist and fresh ... although weed that dries too fast and unevenly tastes bad it's better than losing too much to mold ... try to keep your buds from touching inside the boxes as much as possible ... I've used a wardrobe box to hang the plant whole in (after removing the majority of fan leaves) ... keeping it 'closed' up until the plant had dried for about a week .... closed up does not mean sealed up .... it means that airflow is restricted but possible ... hope you have at least 2 quality trustworthy hygrometers that fit into jars ... you can cure w/o but I wouldn't want to try .... Once I hang my weed in boxes I open them every couple hours to fan the buds for 30 sec. to refresh the air in the box .... Good luck w/ your dry and cure ... congrats on the harvest ...

 

[fustipisti]

Bummer man on the mold, that really sucks. I can feel the pain of throwing away any part of your hard work

Why do you say you almost gave up on everything? Sounds like you had an overall successful harvest.I'm sure it was disappointing to see the mold, but sounds like she still gave you plenty of medication Will be interesting to see your dry / curing pictures!

 

[CanuckFrog]

I like to dry 'fast' for about the first 36-48 hrs and then once the dampness dissipates I slow the dry down to where the bud dries evenly all the way thru ... I take 5-7 days minimum to get the entire bud down to mid 60's rh ... drying is as important and can be 'trickier' than growing the weed initially ... my goal is zero to minimal moving air but NOT STAGNANT ... helps to know the accurate rh of the space your boxes are in as well ... due to the very low rh in my space brought on by furnace use I had to adjust my technique this last grow and incorporate brown grocery bags into the dry sequence ... they helped slow down the dry enough to allow an even reduction in rh throughout the entire bud .... grass smell comes in when the outside of the bud is allowed to get very dry while the center of the bud is still moist and fresh ... although weed that dries too fast and unevenly tastes bad it's better than losing too much to mold ... try to keep your buds from touching inside the boxes as much as possible ... I've used a wardrobe box to hang the plant whole in (after removing the majority of fan leaves) ... keeping it 'closed' up until the plant had dried for about a week .... closed up does not mean sealed up .... it means that airflow is restricted but possible ... hope you have at least 2 quality trustworthy hygrometers that fit into jars ... you can cure w/o but I wouldn't want to try .... Once I hang my weed in boxes I open them every couple hours to fan the buds for 30 sec. to refresh the air in the box .... Good luck w/ your dry and cure ... congrats on the harvest ...

Wow thanks alot for the impromptu advice Chester!

I remember asking for some opinions a few time during this journal and never really got actually answers and this time i did not even ask any questions haha.

Since all of my pc fans are 2-3 speed i put the first one to its lowest now that it has been there for almost 3 days. Going to open it up tonight to at least jar the smaller ones that should be dry enough.

I dont have any hydrometers for my 2L mason jars but i got a box of 12 62% 67g Boveda paks for 45$ that i will put 1-2 in per jar depending on if its packed with small buds or just a few big ones. Once i checked amazons price i figure i got them for cheap and can always buy another box or two if they get used up quickly. These are even actually factory sealed individually so i know they are good.

Il take some quick pics of a box since im in the middle of harvesting Lemon Skunk to show you what i got in the post after my responses.

 

[CanuckFrog]

Bummer man on the mold, that really sucks. I can feel the pain of throwing away any part of your hard work

Why do you say you almost gave up on everything? Sounds like you had an overall successful harvest.I'm sure it was disappointing to see the mold, but sounds like she still gave you plenty of medication Will be interesting to see your dry / curing pictures!

Yea the mold in the mains were a bummer at first but since i did them last and figured i had no room left to dry them in the same box, i tossed it without remorse to save myself later headaches.
I could have done some surgical work and saved at least an oz or two of bud but didnt even want to go threw the trouble of doing it and finding out what to do with it....that and the risk of it infecting the rest in the box didnt seem worth it.
I already have beyond what i ever thought i would get which is where the heat problems around the top mains caused the slight mold inside so i saw it coming either way.
I had to try an expand my floor space for everything and even left the Photo Jackie out of any direct light.
By adding more light along with earlier expectations of getting less. Since i skipped out on any exterior venting my top canopy heat quickly rose to 95F+ quite a few time in the end with all the deviations from my original "Perfect" plan something had to happen.

Actually if you look back a month or two i suspected some gnats larva or insects were in my pots and just yesterday i had a confirmation that i was right! I saw my first two adults yesterday and took care of them but there is not much they can really do at this point anyways.

Looks like my little experiment to delay them as much as possible was successful in the end. All i did was left the pots dry out almost completely between feeds where it was as light as a feather but just before stressing the plant where the leaves get all droopy like. This worked great while they had no saucers and where midair under the blocks but as soon as i added some saucers last month it gave the larva a chance to survive in the tiniest pools of water left behind at the bottom and within a few weeks of following the same plan a few managed to survive to adulthood.

I guess thats quite a bit of an answer for the first two sentences of your comment that were not even a question but i figured i should share the results from the experiments in the hopes that it will help someone one day.

I will answer your actually question in another post....i am sure i wont be accused of just trying to accumulate posts on my counter for these haha.

 

[CanuckFrog]

Now about "giving up on everything"....

Since my last real picture update i have been having some financial and personal problems that just put me in the gutter for awhile and i still havent pulled myself completely out of it yet but things are going a bit better and should be resolved in another week or two now that i have a plan in place.

I never had the intention of giving up on my ladys but i did neglect them quite a bit since so they have suffered in the process. Even Jackie went all leaf down a couple times but thankfully i dont have to worry about her much in veg and bounced back in a few hours after a day or two like that.

Im pretty sure if i had not been able to wait longer to be able to afford or even make the effort to plan and make my drying boxes i would have had alot more loss than a couple main cola sections in the end.

So in the end i am dealing with all the good and the bad to try and pull through. Id elaborate more but this surely is not the place to do so and i am new here without many friends yet (here).

Now on to the actual boxes ive been speaking of....