My first CFL grow.. is it ready to harvest?

T@ll T33 said:

naww i still see alot of clody but that strain, if i was you i would clone because that shit is EXOTIC!!!!!

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Man I WISH.. I tried but failed because I used the same miracle gro moisture control soil and no rooting hormone. IIRC, it's impossible to clone a flowering plant unless you re-veg. If anyone knows that to be wrong, lemme know cause I'm DYING to clone this bad, uh, girl

I have since clipped a top branch which is drying upside down in a cool dry place. I accidentely ripped off a tiny bud while removing a fan leaf and let it dry for the past 24 hours. It is now in my bowl, ready for testing...



Hmm.. *2 minutes go by*. Well, I'm definitely high, and surprisingly so for just .2g of bud taken in little hits. Usually a .2 of bangin shit will get me real high, but only if I take it as one giant hit. I still think I have a high tolerance, even though .2g is a speck to most true pot heads.

It's definitely a cerebral buzz more than it is a body stone, and it's one of those creeping highs that take a while to settle in. My back hurts from too much computer work, and that kills these kinds of highs for me. Come on trichs, turn fuckin amber already!!!!

i say take 90% of the plant and revege it.......there is someone doin this right now

T@ll T33 said:

i say take 90% of the plant and revege it.......there is someone doin this right now

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Damn I never knew that was possible. Most of the 'underbrush' is still green little to no buds, so I guess it won't hurt to re-veg that shit, clone it, then flower it again and get even more buds.

Here's the plant as of early this morning:



It's still hard to tell if the trichs are amber enough, but it definitely getting there.

So I finally decided to harvest the very top cola buds. I just clipped the main stem right under the top buds, trimmed, and dropped the bud in a glass of distilled water to cure it.



The shot glass is in there to keep the bud from floating.

that's a very nice looking plant and what a simple grow!

What strain is it? I was thinking maybe you didn't get a good high because of the genetics. You can have a great looking resinous plant and not a good high, or vice-versa.

why are you curing in water? do you need to do that before you dry and put in a jar for 2 1/2 weeks?

marcnh said:

that's a very nice looking plant and what a simple grow!

What strain is it? I was thinking maybe you didn't get a good high because of the genetics. You can have a great looking resinous plant and not a good high, or vice-versa.

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This was grown from bagseed, so I have no clue what strain it is. My guess is it's some sort of haze/skunk cross, although another user said it might be "chrons chronic". I tried to google that strain with no luck. I'm pretty sure I wasn't getting high because 99% of the buds I smoked so far were quick dried popcorn buds that probably weren't as developed as the cola. I took off a top branch the other day and let it dry for 3 days, then smoked the topmost bud and got blazed as hell. Hell, it could be anything. Maybe I was in a better mood and was expecting a good high...

youngrich420 said:

why are you curing in water? do you need to do that before you dry and put in a jar for 2 1/2 weeks?

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Nope. You just soak in distilled water for 7 days, changing the water every 24 hours, then dry. You lose most of the flavor and taste, but you end up with buds that are 1/3 the weight they would be if prepared normally yet just as potent. It's great for personal use buds if you don't care about taste (I don't with this strain) and want to smoke in public. Water cured buds supposedly don't smell like weed when you smoke, especially if you mix tobacco with them! Check out this thread for more info.

The main cola buds have now been water curing for two days. Next Thursday, they will be ready for the final dry! In the meantime, I harvested a few more top branches that seemed done:



Those branches are now hanging upside down to dry, and will be jar cured for as long as I can wait. As I have already harvested like 40% of the plant through "here and there" pickings, trying to figure out the total wet weight of all harvested buds would be meaningless. Instead, I will list the dry weight of all the buds I harvest and let cure officially, just so everyone can get a rough idea as to the potential of whatever strain this was.

I took the time to read up on taking macro pics with ordinary digital cameras, and came up with these pics after playing with the settings, lighting, etc:





Judging by the amount of *apparently* amber trichs, most of those buds were ready to go. For some reason or another, those big, golden looking calyxes on the bottom of the buds (even the green bud in the 7th pic above) looked the most "done" of all. At this rate, the rest of the mid-cola buds and top branches should be done tonight or tomorrow!!!

Here are those smaller buds quick dried using the microwave steam-dry method:




Looks like most of the trichs are intact, so the drying method cannot be all that bad. Half of that taken as a nice bong rip had me blazed practically all night, and the high was that hard hitting, heart pounding sedating shit I love. It wasn't as strong as the $50/1.8g Sour Diesel I'm used to, but it is frighteningly close. I can only imagine how potent the colas will be once dried and cured properly