SOIL Update (1st grow): Do I water? Feed? Wait longer?

[realhuuuman420]

Oh, tell me about it. I've learned so many lessons that the next plant will be..well, incomparable to this one. And yet, I love this one.

I'm naming it Speedy "Rocky" Gonzales. Despite everything, it looks like it's still gonna be ready for harvest before week 8... incredible. Just like the seed seller said. Or maybe it's because of the trauma and it just wants to die already )

 

[Bluey]

You're doing well. Give it a few more days minimum. Personally I'd wait until all turn cloudy, and then either harvest if in a hurry or wait a bit longer.

Soapy water doesn't exactly kill the insects. What it does is it dissolves their outer shell then they die and the dissolve bit takes some time...it won't hurt your plants all that much and they should recover in a day or two ready for another spray if they aren't all dead.

Some plants don't smell much at all and some come on strong only a few days prior to harvest, some for many weeks prior. I think it depends more so on genetics than environment.

 

[realhuuuman420]

I almost didn't believe I'll get to this part! Any secret tips or tricks for harvest and drying?

This one has been smelling for a few weeks, but only in the past two or three days the scent has completely filled the room up. Yummy! I think if it wasn't 1/15th of normal size, it would've been filling the room up weeks ago, and now it would be unbearable.

 

[Bluey]

Drying curing will depend on your environment as to how to go about it.

I use 60/60 to start with and go from there. I wet trim for that and 7 to 10 days typically does it.

 

[realhuuuman420]

Thanks for the advice, Bluey, everyone. Here's another question: the lowest leaves (the ones I've been panicking about losing color) are clawing up like insane. Like really curling up, and they look like they will die completely soon.

Should I remove these leaves? They are not really doing anything for the plant anymore, right? And are possibly just in the way?

I think drying for this one will be done within 3-5 days, given how tiny it is. Another question is, after the initial drying is complete, can I smoke a small sample before curing?

Also, how to tell that it's dry? Is the method of snapping some stems okay? As in, try to bend it and if it snaps, it's done/dried?

I've also installed a stronger exhaust fan today and a custom carbon filter. The smell is completely gone. Magic!

 

[Bluey]

3 to 5 days is a bit fast on the dry. Aim for double that.

How you dry depends entirely on your drying environment.

If it's hot and dry you will need to hang the entire plant intact upside down, roots and all, then dry trim.
If it's cold and humid you may need to separate the buds from the plant, wet trim, and dry them on a rack..

In my view once small branches snap the buds are marginally over dried. I try and jar them when the small branches start to snap on the lower part of the plant but are still bendy on top/stringy snap on bottom. That will pretty much put you at 62/63% in the jars. You do not want higher than that. Lower than 58% in the jars I find is too dry.

Don't blow a fan on your drying plants.

I'd remove your dead leaves.

 

[realhuuuman420]

Thanks! Well I'm not aiming for anything, I will do what you recommend me to do and see how fast it dries. I'm just saying that with a plant of this size, I imagine it will be a whole lot faster than with actual full sized plants.

It is kind of hot and dry, so I will hang it upside down. How do I take it out of the soil? Just pull it out carefully?

Also, what do I do with all the trimmed stuff, leaves, etc.? Do leaves contain no thc at all? Should I save them up for rainy days, or to make oil/edibles with them?

Btw temps are quite high and I don't know how low can I keep them. Considering the light will be off, I am assuming I'll be able to keep temps down to 26C. But humidity is kind of an issue.

What are the worst outcomes from having humidity too low? I am worried I will not be able to check on it frequently enough, and might have periods of humidity being below 40%.

In other words, what should I absolutely do/avoid doing to not fuck it up in these last moments?

And finally, I noticed that a few of the trichomes (like 1 in 100) are turning brown, but the bud on the taller end of the plant still has more than 50% clear trichs. I'm waiting until more trichomes turn cloudy, and this seems to be coinciding with pistols curling and turning brown. Just saying - let me know if you see anything wrong with this approach.

The bottom buds are much less developed than the top ones - they started growing later as well and are very tiny. Should I worry about this? Should I wait until these are developed? I think that by that time, the main ones will start to degenerate and lose potency.

And, importantly, I have no way of checking humidity in a jar. My hygrometer is too big (duh). So I'll be just burping them twice a day and maybe try to squeeze a lil bit to see if it feels wet.
EDIT: Just to be clear, I know answers to most of what I'm asking, as I've spent months researching this beforehand. But, I also thought that I know how to water, and now the plant is stunted AF from overwatering. So I'm staying on the safe side and just assume I know nothing at all

 

[Rootsruler]

Yes to what Bluey said....

 

[Bluey]

The last two weeks of the grow 30% RH is fine. 40% is great at this stage.

Your harvest strategy is fine. I do that sometimes. Best you call when to harvest. Your top buds will be the most potent and largest so I'd harvest when they are where you want them. If you stagger the harvest you will run into a too fast dry situation which is the worst outcome in my mind so it's a compromise how you approach that.

You need to dry in a dark room out of any breeze. Just pull the plant out of the soil, remove the dirt, give the roots a rinse in a bucket of water and let roots drip dry and hang the whole thing upside down. Make sure buds are not touching anything including each other. Letting buds sit on a concrete floor is a big no no.

Hang some wet towels in the dry room or use a humidifier to raise humidity. Aim for 60% under normal circumstances but since you have such high temps you can go a little higher, just not too much otherwise bud rot becomes an issue. This will slow the dry down. Do you have a wine fridge? If so hang it in that at 16⁰C & 60% RH. You want minimal air movement, almost none You may want a sealed cupboard and stick a hygrometer in there and see what the plant can bring the humidity up to. I wouldn't go over 65% but I have dried in much higher humidity and not got bud rot but the dry took many weeks.

If your plant is looking healthy don't be in a rush to harvest.

 

[realhuuuman420]

Hello! How are we looking?

Approx. 10-15% of trichomes seem to be turning amber.
I think 50% or more are cloudy on the shorter cola, but most seem to be still clear on the taller cola? But maybe I don't know how cloudy trichomes look like...

Most of the hairs are now curled and I think more than 70% percent are brown.

Harvest tomorrow? Wait longer? Take it out ASAP?

Water? Last watering was 4 days ago, 750ml of pure water, nothing else, no nutes. Shall I give it one more watering?
rH now jumped up to almost 50% without a humidifier, interesting. Usually it stays hovering at 35% without a humidifier but now it went up by itself. So it's sweating, huh...

Attaching also a horrible pic of what my microscope sees.

 

[Bluey]

It's up to you. Your in the harvest window but in the early stages of it.

I'd wait but depends what you are looking for here effects wise.

 

[realhuuuman420]

Thanks, Bluey . Something in the middle I'd say? More sedation is not an issue, and neither is couch-lock. But I don't wanna go all the way there. As middle-of-the-road as possible.

What about the water though? No water anymore until harvest?

And, yeah, I'm planning on harvesting in 48-72 hours, the sooner the better, but at the same time, I'm not in a hurry.

 

[Rootsruler]

I say harvest now. If you're in the window and you have some trichs ambering then now would be good. Mostly so you can try it out but also so you can use everything you learned on this grow and improve your next one. Growing it longer isn't really going to change what you already have now.

Cut her down and learn to dry and cure with this plant while you setup(correctly) your next grow.

 

[realhuuuman420]

Thank you, Rootsruler ! I will harvest tomorrow, since I gave it a lil bit of final water yesterday.

Can't wait! Looks like I'm getting a few good buds out of it after all.

I am not cutting anything yet, as Bluey suggested to yank her out with roots and everything and dry her that way, considering it is quite hot where I am currently.

 

[realhuuuman420]

HARVEST !
​

Ladies and gentlemen, despite all the brutal violence I have done on this plant, thanks to all of your help, here we are!

The root system was surprisingly extensive and healthy. No root rot! I did not expect this. I expected a little root ball and that's it. Instead, I got a network that spans the entirety of the pot.

It was impossible to take out all of the roots. I just pulled it out, what you see on the pics is only the roots that remained intact.

And yeah, the plant had zero issues getting through the jiffy peat, which was one of my concerns in the beginning.

Let me know if you see anything wrong with the drying setup.. I mean, I just took out the pot and the light and hanged it there.
I have the small fan on lowest setting, pointed up, away from the plant. I read that a little airflow is good, so the air is not stale.

Exhaust fan is turned off and all the openings are closed.

I closed it and started the humidifier because I expected very little humidity. In 20 minutes, it shot up to 81% omg... I turned the humidifier down. It should gradually decrease, hopefully, and then I'll try to keep it at around 60%.

So exciting. It's tiny, but whatever the dry weight will be, it will give me a hell of a high hahah. Size matters, but it's not everything!

 

[Rootsruler]

Turn on your exhaust fan. It'll help remove whatever moisture that the plant gives off in the dry sequence.

 

[Bluey]

Might pay to turn off your fan and turn on your exhaust. You want the minimum (least) airflow in your circumstances.

Even in my setup at 16⁰C & 60%RH the tiniest movement of the hanging buds is more than enough air movement. Any more than that and mine dry too fast.

 

[realhuuuman420]

I did turn off the fan, as it was bringing rH down too quickly. Now I have a humidifier on a low setting, and it is barely keeping it up at 62%, so turning on the exhaust fan would likely bring down the humidity too much. I'm opening it fairly often to check the humidity, so there is some air flowing in and out, it's not always stale.

Remind me again, Bluey, how do I know when it's good to cut, trim, and put into a jar?

I almost said jars, plural, lol. I don't think I'll need multiple for this )

 

[Bluey]

What temps and RH do you have and is it moving up and down much?

When the lower branches snap but are still a fraction stringy is my signal to jar but I also put hygrometers in the jars and if it goes above 63% I burp more to dry a bit more.

If the buds are wet with resin I dry just a fraction more and aim for 58 to 60 just to be safer with mold.

 

[Rootsruler]

Just read your post. I agree with Bluey. Turn off the internal fan and turn your exhaust fan to a med low or low setting depending on where the RH lands.