The Musings of Serapis

[TaoWolf]

I'm looking for simplicity and turn over. I'd like to have plants going into my flower tent every 3-4 weeks.

A 3-gallon bucket plus a Leak-Tite lid at HD/Lowes is under $10, won't leak at all, and you can do 20+ sites easy.

 

[Serapis]

I have some exciting news. Today I processed the remainder of my last harvest. It was finally nice and crispy. I'm making a cold extraction tincture AND pressed hash. I also have a new toy to share with you. If you are not subscribed to the thread with email turned on, you are missing out.

Pics and stories coming soon!!

 

[TaoWolf]

Yeah you could cut out a single larger hole for a net cup and do DWC in a little 3-gallon. But a 5-gallon bucket and a net pot bucket lid can be had for about the same price and doesn't require any work to modify for lazy people like myself. lol

Just throwing out the idea of using those Leak-Tite brand bucket lids for small DIY daisy-cloners because they are universally fitting, inexpensive, readily available, and don't leak around the edges even if sprayers are constantly throwing a lot of water up at them. Ran into the same problem you did trying to use RubberMaid containers - but in addition to being leaky around the edges of the lids, the containers themselves warped over time from the weight of the water and made the leaking worse.

 

[Serapis]

I finally found it!!!

My ideal kief screen. I located it on eBay and couldn't believe my eyes. It is an aluminum frame that's nicely welded together and it has a stretched 125 mesh installed on it, pre-stretched. I paid just under $30 and that included shipping!..

125 size mesh is perfect for screening for resin. You want to grind up the pop corn buds and left over leaf and trim from your harvest and recover the kief. Then the leaf material is going into a tincture and the resin is going into the hash.

Shortly, I'll be showing how I made the cold extraction tinctures and pressed hash. I need a nap from all of today's excitement.

Oh, my Attitude order arrived today, missing two tee-shirts, but all the seeds were there....
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[Serapis]

I already have... I'm fixing to taste some pressed hash right now.... It came out looking like chocolate. I had to heat and press like 4 times.

I now have 24 grams of hash.

View attachment 1512216

nice find. i thought about going that route but decided to built a tumbler. i cant wait to test it so when you trying out your new screen?

 

[Serapis]

I had 4 paper grocery bags full of leaf trim, pop corn buds and some undeveloped stems that I should have let finish budding after harvest. It was close to two pounds of shit I hand crushed, then ran through an herb grinder. The kief was a little more green than I wanted, but it is mostly golden looking. It was, now it is a dark choco color, but I'm pissed. I didn't get clean separation from the cello and that cello bag bottom was pleated, which I did not know... I lost about 1g to shit sticking on wrapper. Also did not get great bond. Corners did well, center came out crumbly, but it smokes well... stays lit by itself and tastes like hash. Not as good as the blonde hash I had in highschool though...

how much of what did you start with? cant tell from the pic, is the hash gold or greenish?

 

[Serapis]

This is the method I used, but I had a lot more than he did. I maybe tried to do too large of a batch at once...

[video=youtube;Yzagfg1v0rE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzagfg1v0rE&feature=player_embedded&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fullmeltbubble.com%2Fforum%2 Fshowthread.php%3Ft%3D3245&has_verified=1[/video]

 

[redrum83420]

I had 4 paper grocery bags full of leaf trim, pop corn buds and some undeveloped stems that I should have let finish budding after harvest. It was close to two pounds of shit I hand crushed, then ran through an herb grinder. The kief was a little more green than I wanted, but it is mostly golden looking. It was, now it is a dark choco color, but I'm pissed. I didn't get clean separation from the cello and that cello bag bottom was pleated, which I did not know... I lost about 1g to shit sticking on wrapper. Also did not get great bond. Corners did well, center came out crumbly, but it smokes well... stays lit by itself and tastes like hash. Not as good as the blonde hash I had in highschool though...

i got sick of the cig pack cello hash and bought a hand press with handles. only problem is i keep smoking the kief from my grinder, before i can save enough kief lol

 

[Serapis]

My hand press is in the oven right now at 250 degrees.... I'll let ya know...

UPDATE: Just removed with pot holders and went to twist ends, thinking they'd still be tight... I was able to make about 3 full turns on both sides, quite easily.... I was very surprised it gave so easy... Now it is in the fridge, I dare not toss in freezer until it cools a few minutes... the metal should contract and press the piss out of the hash. I'll back off turns a half twist before freezer, just to make sure I can get them loose after lol...

 

[Serapis]

HAhahah... lol That, or I could get on here and ramble on about tomato gardening...

I suspect a long time between posts... every time I make fresh hash I don't do shit that day....

I was soooooo medicated last night ;p

I literally had to go to bed and lie down because my head was spinning, lol. I haven't had to do that since highschool...

Pressing the resin a second time, this time in a hand press by Sharpstone, I was able to produce hash discs. After cooling from the oven, I had the damnest time getting hash to move. Mental note to self, next time, go easy on extra turns coming out of oven. Maybe just one turn. The hash was so hard, I needed a razor blade to scrape off hits. The taste is pleasant and smooth, with a slight, sweet aftertaste, like it's prior host. The high is phenomenal. This is by far my favorite after harvest processing product. Making canna brownie bites comes second.

I'm going to have about a qt of tincture ready by the time I take my Spring finals. Good timing....

 

[Serapis]

I was told my cloner would be delivered today, yet as of yesterday afternoon, she couldn't provide me with a tracking number... Checking my email, I see that she did NOT follow through and provide me with one. If the EZ Cloner isn't delivered today, that will be two strikes on a brand new vendor of mine that just happens to ship same day and is in the same state. I hate starting off a business relationship by the guy on the bottom... I didn't even get a kiss.....

 

[Serapis]

Mailman came and gone.... No EZ Cloner.... I broke down the ebb & flow and totally cleaned her up, reassembled, and she is waiting for some Double Dankee and Mango seedlings... This time I'm using Sure To Grow starter cubes. The seedling mat is set for 76 degrees F, and the domed tray is in the dark. Today is day 5, so something should be happening soon.

 

[NorthernLights#5]

what the eff were did you find sure to grow. I want that so bad but no local place has it. and i joined you today in the wait for the ez cloner.

 

[TheLastWood]

Iv e been wondering about that stg stuff. I wanna try the stg loose medium, I'm usin coco but indoors it can be a mess. Don't get me wrong I loooooove coco but if I could get the same results(doubtful) with less mess I would. What is sure to grow made of? It looks like cotton foam or something.

 

[Serapis]

what the eff were did you find sure to grow. I want that so bad but no local place has it. and i joined you today in the wait for the ez cloner.

Congrats on the EZ Cloner. Ur gonna love it. The Sure Ta Grow starter cubes were bought on eBay. Less than $20 total and I got 2 96 count slabs of starter cubes. I cannot endorse them yet, as I'm currently awaiting my first STG sprouts. My mat Temp is 77 degrees now, and I mist the tops every day, at least twice, and I'm avoiding standing water.

Iv e been wondering about that stg stuff. I wanna try the stg loose medium, I'm usin coco but indoors it can be a mess. Don't get me wrong I loooooove coco but if I could get the same results(doubtful) with less mess I would. What is sure to grow made of? It looks like cotton foam or something.

STG Hail works good, but anyone doing any reverse feedings, such as a ebb & Flow flood system, have to add something to the medium to help it wick water up. It works fine for drip or top feeding, but not bottom feeding. If you started it on drip, you could probably reverse feed after roots hit bottom of the pot. I'm not sure of the ingredient. Currently, the loose fill medium is on a trial sale for first time customers, half off up to 2 bags I believe.

 

[Serapis]

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I did an extraction a few days ago that I wanted to share here. I see questions about it all the time. This is a great method of creating a different product out of your harvest, especially leaf and trim waste. I spread the leaf, trim and pop corn bud out on newspaper to dry. I let it dry for at least 7 days, turning piles over once per day. When I'm ready to process the material, I do it over a sifting screen to catch material and resin glands and separate them.

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I use a brand new Mr Coffee bean grinder to grind my material up. After I have ground up everything, I place it in the oven at 250 degrees for 20 minutes. This process activates THCA and converts it to the THC that we know and love. You can skip this step if doing the Green Dragon, as the heating process will replace the oven used in this extraction. Here is the pile of processed plant material, ready for the oven.

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After coming out of the oven, I place the material into mason jars. As you can see in my pictures, I have quite a bit of material here and it took two mason jars and nearly an entire half gallon of grain alcohol. I'll shake up the jars every couple of days and let them sit in a dark closet for about 30 days. At the end of 30 days, I'll strain the mash and recover my tincture. Depending on strength at that time, I may evaporate some alcohol to make the tincture more potent. I can't imagine a half gallon of tincture being potent like I would like.

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[Serapis]

It's finally here!

My EZ Clone arrived yesterday, packed in a discrete, plain brown box, even though I checked a box that it will not be used for illegal cultivation. That phrase still rings alarms in my head; "illegal cultivation". It is amazing to think that we have allowed our government to outlaw the growing of a plant that is here naturally. In Genesis, God said that he gave all seeded herbs to man and animal as a gift of food. I consider cannabis a flowering herb, not a weed. Illegal cultivation my ass....

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I was happy to notice when I was pulling out the EZ Clone box from it's discrete box, that a bright lime green sticker called out to me and advised for a limited time, it came with 1 oz of clone gel and 4 oz of Clear Rez, a new product from EZ Cloner that will allow you to go 30 days or more without changing the water. It is however recommended that you clean and sterilize the unit between cloning cycles.

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Upon opening the box, I was greeted by a heavy duty looking reservoir...

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This unit came with a 750 gph pump. The pump looks heavy duty and has a grounded 3 prong electrical cord. The air pump was a 500. Just under the two electrical components was the cloner top, inserts, the manifold, misters, airlines and elbows.

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The first thing I did was verify all parts were there, then I assembled the manifold and misters and installed the pump....

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The next step is to install the airline. Let me take a moment here to raise a concern with mangled airline. I know that simply coiling it up won't hold it together for shipping, but how about a rubber band or something? Tying an airline into an overhand knot and then expecting it to lay down in the REZ is a joke. This was the most frustrating part of the assembly, trying to get the airline to stay at the bottom.

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I am VERY thankful they thought to use elbow barbs with the airline. Without those, it would have been a pain in the ass and then some. The instructions say to attach the suction cups to the airline and place on bottom of rez.... well, my cloner had no suction cups, except what came with the pump. Here is the unit fully assembled.

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The instructions claim that no dome is needed. The owner goes on to say that it takes him an hour to take cuttings and fill a 120 unit, and in that time, his cuttings do not wilt.... LOL.. I'm not sure what he is cloning, but my cuts wilted within 5 minutes. Today, they look much better, after I misted several times overnight to revive. Next time, I will use anti-wilt.

I'll update you guys and gals on the progress of these 15 clones. Today, they are all standing upright and looking very good. My initial PH was set at 5.2, because I expect it to raise a bit, as the Cloner instructions hinted it might in first 24-48 hours.

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[TheLastWood]

Yeah everytime I ask about a dome for my cloner at my hydro shop "you don't need one" uh I think I know better than you what's going on with my clones. One time I asked and the guy said " you don't need one just filter there light, and raise up the humidity" DUUUUH THAT'S WHAT THE DOME IS FOR. O so I should raise my whole rooms humidity for a 1'x1' area of clones.

 

[plantvision]

I feel kinda dumb asking this question, but on your extraction when you say leaf material, are you talking all leaf material or just bud leaf. And can you explain the tcha for me. Thanks for your time.

 

[Serapis]

Yeah everytime I ask about a dome for my cloner at my hydro shop "you don't need one" uh I think I know better than you what's going on with my clones. One time I asked and the guy said " you don't need one just filter there light, and raise up the humidity" DUUUUH THAT'S WHAT THE DOME IS FOR. O so I should raise my whole rooms humidity for a 1'x1' area of clones.

I sure needed one last night for an hour or two to revive the cuttings. As you saw from the pic, they looked pathetic and my humidity last night was in 50's. I'll post updates later, but they look fine now, with no dome. It's just the initial first hour or two after taking the cutting that they need care. KLN additive may speed up the process. there is also a silica additive, Pro-Tekt by Dyna'Grow i think, that strengthens cell walls.

I feel kinda dumb asking this question, but on your extraction when you say leaf material, are you talking all leaf material or just bud leaf. And can you explain the tcha for me. Thanks for your time.

If you will simply google "convert THCA to THC", you'll find all the scientific explanations you seek. All I need to know is that THCA is converted to psychoactive THC, which is what gets us high. I don't know the scientific explanation behind it.