Starting my second battle soon. Questions + tips? advice?

[Rootsruler]

Keep in mind that Trichomes are made with sheets of water and are VOC's. The most delicate of the VOC's begins to evaporate at around 70°.

[realhuuuman420]

SHOWTIME!

So excited! I really want to thank everybody here, this forum and everyone on it has helped me more than any book or reddit post could ever have. This was my second grow, first successful one, and all thanks to you guys. Your patience with me and my million little questions has been extraordinary. I really appreciate it.

So, I present to you the harvest. I think I could've left it for another week, but unfortunately, time does not allow and I wanted to have enough time for proper drying as well.

Total weight now came out to around 100 grams, I assume once it's properly dried it will drop to something like 30?

I trimmed the main cola-bud (on the pic, that thing is massive!), but it took way too long, so I just superficially trimmed the rest, and will do the final trimming before putting it to jars.

It looks amazing, a beautiful purple shade, sticky as hell. And from the inside, it's actually very bright pink-red. I accidentally snapped off a bud or two and it looked like it's bleeding

It smells amazing as well, not your usual weed smell, it literally smells like cotton candy.

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So here it is, Afghan Purple Kush Autoflower, 12 weeks and 2 days from seed to harvest, went through some stress due to nutrient deficiency at around week 4-5. The buds, if developed, are super tightly packed and have a magical smell and color.

I have taken two or three small samples in the past week, and I can tell you, it hits like a very pleasant and gentle truck. And that's without any proper drying or curing.

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BTW, I have found an absolute king of quick-drying methods, obviously not recommended, but for those times when you really need to take a bit from your live plant and smoke it ASAP, this works a million times better than microwave, oven, or anything else.

Air fryer. Put the bud(s) in something so that they don't jump around - I used a little metal tea infuser. Put it on ~50-60 degrees Celsius, between 6 to 12 minutes in total. Open every 2 minutes, let it cool down a bit. If it's small enough, 6 min should be enough, but you just check it every 2 min and see for yourself if it's ready for grinding. Of course taste and smell are not great, but vastly improved from other methods. Trichomes do not explode or die. Can't speak for potency, because I have not tried the final dried and cured product, but like I said, hits like a truck.

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Obviously still accepting any tips or advice you have for me for drying and curing. Right now the plant is sitting in the grow tent at 60% RH and 21C, exhaust fan is on, it moves the top buds around a little bit, but I don't think that's a problem, it's a really light breeze, almost unnoticeable.

Oh yea and... don't ask me why I hung it the way I did.

[realhuuuman420]

Bluey I ended up doing the microwave one, all the other methods seemed equally insane, but with higher potential to completely ruin it, or would take multiple days. I put it in a plastic tupperware container with a kitchen towel on the bottom, took a lil popcorn bud and cut it in smaller pieces, taking out all the green stuff, i.e. stem and some green leaves. On top, I put a damp paper towel and closed it, leaving one corner open for the steam to escape.

I did 30 second bursts at ~40% power (300w), taking it out and cooling after each. Four seemed to be enough, making the bud smokable and grindable, although it was still obviously wet.

Under the microscope, I noticed that most trichomes were intact, with some being shriveled and others just damaged from the cutting/manipulating. The entire popcorn bud shrank a lot during the process, I mean like 80% of the size was apparently just moisture and air.

It was... well, I put tobacco, like 50//50, so it was smokable. But it just refused to really burn, I had to keep re-lighting it, and it was difficult to inhale.

There was absolutely no smell or scent, all masked by the tobacco. It was really harsh to smoke, too.

It got me decently high. Estimating it was like 0.2grams and it did the job, well, could've been worse.

I have to admit, it was not worth it. I'm glad I did it, it's been a while, but at the same time, really not worth all the effort, time, difficulties rolling it up and smoking, etc.

[Bluey]

Microwaved bud. I wouldn't.

You could try a water cure and dry. It will dry faster and more evenly once removed from the water but I haven't tried it myself. I don't know of any way to fast dry buds and end up with a half decent result. Maybe freeze drying if you can. I'd try vaping it, it may be a bit less harsh but I'm only guessing here.

[realhuuuman420]

Bluey ah damn, hopefully there's enough time then.

I think the bud growth did stop completely a few days ago, now the only changes I see are the pistils and, well, trichomes, but it's hard to tell with a microscope, I see maybe 1% of all of them, and never the same ones.

RH is tricky, I have all the fans on maximum, I'm cleaning/wiping there daily to take out any excess water or humidity, but it stubbornly holds at 60%. I mean, don't get me wrong, at least drying won't be such a headache, but right now I'm missing a dehumidifier.

Temps are staying at 22C though, without any intervention on my side. Maybe 23 with the lights on. I did pull up the light as far as possible a week ago, too (it's not too big of a difference anyway).

Thank you so much for all the help, Bluey, Roots, and everyone else. Learned so much on this one. Also, although I lost a lot of time, it was a great decision to see the first one through, because now I've seen both extremes, and that helps a ton understanding all the whys and hows.

Now, I'm off to blast some popcorn nug in the microwave and see what happens.

[Bluey]

There's no way to speed up trichome development at this stage that I am aware of. You can probably bring it on earlier by stressing the plant but it seems to slow or stop bud development which is a trade off or compromise a lot of us don't want.

Watch your top bud closely. Take photos daily and compare. You might find the bud growth has slowed right down or even completely stopped. This is normal. If stressed it can stop growing prior to fully developing which seems to be the norm. Trichomes will continue to mature though. You should be feeding less and a little less light. Give it the lowest humidity you can now. Under 40, 30% if you can but keep it cool in there. 22⁰C air temps seem to be the go.

Patience is a virtue my friend and is well rewarded. Watch the trichomes on the flowers the closest, not the sugars.

And most important, great job. Those buds and that plant really looks great!

[realhuuuman420]

Hello there! It's been painfully slow. I'm not sure why, but I expected the final weeks to be much faster.

I am unfortunately running out of time. I was really, really hoping to be able to harvest this weekend, but it seems like it's not there just yet. I see a lot of milky trichomes, but also plenty of transparent ones still.

This is the first day of week 11 since sprout. Judging from my previous stunted auto, I was hoping for another 8 week seed to harvest one. Maybe it's taking longer because of the stress from the nute defficiency in around week 4-5?

Unfortunately, next weekend is the absolute latest I need to harvest. I will then have one week for drying, after which I need to jar it up for curing/storage and pack up the tent, with next grow not happening until February.

Is there anything I can do? Speed up the process? What if I actually would harvest this weekend, would the trichomes keep on developing while drying? How much potency would be lost in an early harvest?

I've stopped feeding since six days ago, giving it only water in preparation of the harvest - which I really thought would be this weekend

I saw like one or two amber trichomes, but that's really nothing. I also see a lot of purple ones - which is unfortunate because I cannot judge their development, but at least it's pretty.

Conversely, why the hell are the pistils on the top main cola taking so damn long? Every single other bud seems to be like 70% done, most pistils curled in and brown. But those on the main guy are all so white and erect... shouldn't it be the other way around? I thought the top one, closest to light, should be done the fastest? But it seems that the ones in the middle are developing the fastest...


Also, I know I'm gonna go to green jail for this, but I've been absolutely dying to take a sample popcorn bud and try it. And look, I know how terrible that sounds, but I've got nothing else, one way or another I'm taking a sample today. What would be the best way of quick-drying it? Preferably one that would take less than 3 hours - but I'm open to suggestions even if it's one that will take a day or two. I read about the steam microwave method, which is supposedly the least evil and damaging one. Thoughts?

[Gingerbeard]

If you do an advanced search and put a member's name in the 'Member' section, you can see all of someone's posts.

[Gingerbeard]

Don't quite remember what became of that one. I'm sure it was successful because I have had only a small number of failures. It probably became another thread.

[realhuuuman420]

Mysterious, Ginger! How did it end up going? The thread kind of ends, with you barely even starting the grow.

Bluey that's so old school and raw. You weren't one to fool around much eh?

[Bluey]

My first grow was indoors in an unventilated cupboard with a metal halide bulb hanging from the cord about 18" above the soil.

The seed germinated wonderfully and grew to 2" tall and as it's first or second true set of leaves started to show it turned purple and fell over.

Yield & quality were off the scale!

[Gingerbeard]

https://forum.growweedeasy.com/forum/growing-community/276755-containers-indica-sativa-supercropping

[realhuuuman420]

Well, I'm giving it 10 more days until harvest. If the pistols don't go brown curly till then, I will do brown curly in my pants >
Honestly, there was a voice in my head telling me to snip off a tiny popcorn nug from the bottom and pop it in the oven. What's the worst that can happen? I can't be the only one having my dark passenger whispering unholy things like this...

Ugh fiiine, I'll wait.

But yeah, I know, I know. And this is supposed to be 70-30 sativa-indica. I will just go with the middle path, wait till most of em are milky and a couple start going amber. My handy little toy microscope will tell me when that time comes.

This is honestly the hardest part of the grow. I cannot imagine doing a photo and having to wait at least another month until harvest. You guys got some serious patience. And... lots of stored weed I guess.

Just out of curiosity, do you remember your very first grow? What was it like?

[Gingerbeard]

Yes. Fatality rates among indoor growers is 4.3 times the national average during drying and curing, but significantly lower during flowering.
A secret is that whole curing nonsense may make for better weed, but the weed is smokable when:
1. It does not gunk up the grinder.
2. It stays lit in the bowl.
You got weeks before harvest. Tack on another week for drying. Sorry to pffff in your pants.
In all seriousness, that link has morphed since I've been looking at it. For those of us who started growing in this forum and through GWE, that link on flowering is golden. From the first harvest, it gets to be experience and personal choice.
Still being serious, consider if you are growing Indica or Sativa. Indica is the mellow, Sativa is the uplifting. Do you want a lot of clear and milky trichomes on an Indica? Same-same do you want ginger trichomes on Sativa?

[realhuuuman420]

Pfffff.. if the wait for harvest won't kill me, the wait for drying & curing surely will.

Have you ever sampled your plants 2 weeks before harvest? Asking for a friend.