Live Stoner Chat Harvesting question- Newbie

[BigBuick]

This may sound like a dumb question, and very premature, as I am about a month away from STARTING my first Autoflower grow attempt. I haven't smoked for over 40 years, but as retirement approaches I am very much looking forward to once again enjoying the flower!

One quick question on harvesting. When I last smoked, if you bought an ounce, it consisted of seeds, ground up leaves and if you were very lucky, and couple of actual Buds!

Now it seems everyone only smokes flower (buds). If I am not planning on making butter infusions or some other edible, what do I do with the leaves once they are trimmed off the flower? Surely i don't discard? Would it be stupid to grind it up and smoke it as well?

Thanks

 

[THC Farms]

Nah grind it up and smoke away anything with a tricome on it will smoke just fine or you could bubble hash all your trim and have a little extra goodness to sprinkle on a J or in a bowl of your flower.

 

[St. Tom]

id never smoke sugar leaf but each to there own i would just save it for a rainy day

 

[Little Brother]

My brother and I had a bag of trim that we would smoke when we didn't have any money. Not the best but better than nothing.
Could wash it in some everclear and make some oil maybe.

 

[Olderfart]

This may sound like a dumb question, and very premature, as I am about a month away from STARTING my first Autoflower grow attempt. I haven't smoked for over 40 years, but as retirement approaches I am very much looking forward to once again enjoying the flower!

One quick question on harvesting. When I last smoked, if you bought an ounce, it consisted of seeds, ground up leaves and if you were very lucky, and couple of actual Buds!

Now it seems everyone only smokes flower (buds). If I am not planning on making butter infusions or some other edible, what do I do with the leaves once they are trimmed off the flower? Surely i don't discard? Would it be stupid to grind it up and smoke it as well?

Thanks

Hey, welcome to AFN, and congrats on the impending retirement. There are no dumb questions here, you will find this forum one of if not the most friendly and helpful ones you find anywhere.

Before I comment on your specific question, you might want to consider some additional thoughts from another retiree new to the growing game after decades of not using weed. It sounds to me like you are going to find the new stuff a fair bit stronger than what you used to buy. Current strains are stronger, and regardless of that, buds alone are lots stronger than a mix of leaves and seeds. So as the saying goes, start slow and see how the new stuff works for you.

Also, I suggest paying little attention to THC levels in choosing your strains, all of the strains you are likely to grow will be plenty strong enough compared to what you remember as long as you are not choosing dedicated CBD strains. I suggest just thinking about the effects you prefer, and dig around to see what other growers have to say about different strains. Same strain name from a different breeder doesn't guarantee same results though, so keep that in mind.

As to your question about trim, if you are growing only for yourself and are not a heavy user, even a small grow like the 2x4 one that I started with will give you more really nice bud than you are likely to use in quite a while, at least it will if you dig up and follow the advice available here and elsewhere on how to grow. If your grow goes even moderately well, you will not have to smoke or vape trim. Do yourself a favor and plan on just using the bud after a clean trim and nice cure. I highly recommend getting a decent vape rather than smoking the stuff, it will taste better last longer, and likely treat your lungs better. In fact, the flavour of nicely cured bud from a good convective vape may be a whole new level of enjoyment for you if all you had in the past was schwag smoked in joints.

By all means keep the trim, but you are unlikely to need it, especially if you end up having fun growing - your second grow will start a long time before you run out of nice bud. If you decide later to try some sort of extraction, the stuff keeps reasonably well, especially if you pack it in sealed mason jars and freeze it. However, same as for frozen bud, let the mason jar of goodies completely come to room temperature before opening it - doing otherwise risks the contents getting moist due to condensation. Even if it turns out that you decide not to use the trim yourself, you might know someone who would like to use it for extraction. In any case, you will probably have enough really nice bud to keep you well supplied, and enough to share with interested friends, so plan on trimming well, making the effort to do a good cure, and keep that trim separate.

One final suggestion before stopping my blather. I strongly recommend that you try to keep your first grow simple. All you need for nutrients is few of the Megacrop products. Don't spend a pile of money on other stuff that claims to be fancier or more effective - Megacrop works extremely well, is easy to use, and it's cheap, especially if you get in on the sample offer that has been available recently. The sample will do your entire first grow easily unless you start bigger than a 2x4. Just order the basic nute mix, some Cal Mag, and if you are inclined, some Sweet Candy and Bud Explosion, although I suggest that for a first grow the last two are optional.

Good luck on your new retirement adventure. Take my retired word for it, growing weed can be a lot of fun quite aside from how much bud you generate. And learning new stuff is good for us old buggers.

 

[Smoking Frog]

Welcome @BigBuick
Tell us more about your grow set up,medium and what strains you will be growing.Coming back to cannabis after 40 years,you may find the 2020 stuff a bit stronger!

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

@BigBuick Welcome to AFN . I am also retired and did not consume any drugs for over 25 years as my career choices took presidents. Then with a deteriorating disc in my back I was taking so many Nsaids I was beginning to have troubles with my liver and kidneys. My doctor decided I should try cannabis for my pain control and it has truly been a blessing. I started using just for pain control but I really like the buzz and now I like to get high and watch cartoons . I started growing my own indoors a little over 6 years ago and here in California I can grow 6 plants legally. It is way more than I can use. I now make all kinds of products, rosin is number one. I make it into chocolate bars for meds and I dab it to get super high. I do not do combustion. I make salves for all my arthritic friends and my wife's tired feet. I make butters and oils for my chef friends. The list goes on............. I use the entire plant. The big sun leaves and stems go into salves, the sugar leaf trim is made into dry ice hash and the bud is mostly pressed into rosin. I have made vape oil but since the big vitamin E problem I switched to dabs and there is no reason to go back to vaping.

The potency of the hybrid strains is so much stronger than what we had back in the 60s, the worst of today is better than Acapulco Gold's best back then. Start slow your tolerance will be up in a few months.

Have fun and give a shout out by putting the at-mark @ in front of an AFN name to get someones attention.

 

[BigBuick]

Hey, welcome to AFN, and congrats on the impending retirement. There are no dumb questions here, you will find this forum one of if not the most friendly and helpful ones you find anywhere.

Before I comment on your specific question, you might want to consider some additional thoughts from another retiree new to the growing game after decades of not using weed. It sounds to me like you are going to find the new stuff a fair bit stronger than what you used to buy. Current strains are stronger, and regardless of that, buds alone are lots stronger than a mix of leaves and seeds. So as the saying goes, start slow and see how the new stuff works for you.

Also, I suggest paying little attention to THC levels in choosing your strains, all of the strains you are likely to grow will be plenty strong enough compared to what you remember as long as you are not choosing dedicated CBD strains. I suggest just thinking about the effects you prefer, and dig around to see what other growers have to say about different strains. Same strain name from a different breeder doesn't guarantee same results though, so keep that in mind.

As to your question about trim, if you are growing only for yourself and are not a heavy user, even a small grow like the 2x4 one that I started with will give you more really nice bud than you are likely to use in quite a while, at least it will if you dig up and follow the advice available here and elsewhere on how to grow. If your grow goes even moderately well, you will not have to smoke or vape trim. Do yourself a favor and plan on just using the bud after a clean trim and nice cure. I highly recommend getting a decent vape rather than smoking the stuff, it will taste better last longer, and likely treat your lungs better. In fact, the flavour of nicely cured bud from a good convective vape may be a whole new level of enjoyment for you if all you had in the past was schwag smoked in joints.

By all means keep the trim, but you are unlikely to need it, especially if you end up having fun growing - your second grow will start a long time before you run out of nice bud. If you decide later to try some sort of extraction, the stuff keeps reasonably well, especially if you pack it in sealed mason jars and freeze it. However, same as for frozen bud, let the mason jar of goodies completely come to room temperature before opening it - doing otherwise risks the contents getting moist due to condensation. Even if it turns out that you decide not to use the trim yourself, you might know someone who would like to use it for extraction. In any case, you will probably have enough really nice bud to keep you well supplied, and enough to share with interested friends, so plan on trimming well, making the effort to do a good cure, and keep that trim separate.

One final suggestion before stopping my blather. I strongly recommend that you try to keep your first grow simple. All you need for nutrients is few of the Megacrop products. Don't spend a pile of money on other stuff that claims to be fancier or more effective - Megacrop works extremely well, is easy to use, and it's cheap, especially if you get in on the sample offer that has been available recently. The sample will do your entire first grow easily unless you start bigger than a 2x4. Just order the basic nute mix, some Cal Mag, and if you are inclined, some Sweet Candy and Bud Explosion, although I suggest that for a first grow the last two are optional.

Good luck on your new retirement adventure. Take my retired word for it, growing weed can be a lot of fun quite aside from how much bud you generate. And learning new stuff is good for us old buggers.

Thanks Olderfart! I really appreciate the well thought out summary of vary valuable information. I have heard the new stuff is WAY more potent than anything I've experience 40 years ago! I do plan on starting very slowly. Also appreciate the advice on vapes. My best friend in life is retiring two weeks from now and is on the same nostalgic journey as I, so we are going down this road together. I purchased us each a
MIGHTY by Storz & Bickel as retirement gifts.

My journey will be somewhat bumpy as to strain selection I'm afraid. I am in a non-legal state, so finding good local resources for trying different strains will not be an option. I'm eventually hoping to visit Colorado or some other legal state so I can try several strains to guide me in what I like. I've read the rough differences between Sativa's and Indica's, but the Autoflowers, which I plan to use exclusively for my own grows (at first at least), are hybrids i understand. I'm basically looking for strains that limit anxiety and have an uplifting impact.

Thanks again for your reply.. very helpful advice!!

 

[BigBuick]

Tha

@BigBuick Welcome to AFN . I am also retired and did not consume any drugs for over 25 years as my career choices took presidents. Then with a deteriorating disc in my back I was taking so many Nsaids I was beginning to have troubles with my liver and kidneys. My doctor decided I should try cannabis for my pain control and it has truly been a blessing. I started using just for pain control but I really like the buzz and now I like to get high and watch cartoons . I started growing my own indoors a little over 6 years ago and here in California I can grow 6 plants legally. It is way more than I can use. I now make all kinds of products, rosin is number one. I make it into chocolate bars for meds and I dab it to get super high. I do not do combustion. I make salves for all my arthritic friends and my wife's tired feet. I make butters and oils for my chef friends. The list goes on............. I use the entire plant. The big sun leaves and stems go into salves, the sugar leaf trim is made into dry ice hash and the bud is mostly pressed into rosin. I have made vape oil but since the big vitamin E problem I switched to dabs and there is no reason to go back to vaping.

The potency of the hybrid strains is so much stronger than what we had back in the 60s, the worst of today is better than Acapulco Gold's best back then. Start slow your tolerance will be up in a few months.

Have fun and give a shout out by putting the at-mark @ in front of an AFN name to get someones attention.

Thanks so much for the info!!

 

[BigBuick]

Welcome @BigBuick
Tell us more about your grow set up,medium and what strains you will be growing.Coming back to cannabis after 40 years,you may find the 2020 stuff a bit stronger!

Well, the grow setup is in progress. I have purchased two Cobs (3500s) and plan on going with a basic 2X4 setup. I am thinking about ordering some Coast of Maine organic soil and keep it as simple as possible. As to water, a local river runs across the street and a good friend of mine is on well water. As soon as I pickup a PH pen, I'll know which water source to use. I plan on trying to get two different strains going soon. I'm thinking of White Widow and Purple. Already got those seeds in the fridge awaiting the day!

Thanks