The Lady Afghan - End of a CFL grow

Hello everyone :d

I'm new at rollitup but i thought i'd drop you in on my latest CFL grow.

I'm approaching my second harvest as a gardener, and I'm beginning to have a real problem with probably the most important part of growing marijuana, drying it.

My first grow was successful because well, there was something to harvest! I harvested around 10grams of AK47 bud my first grow. Not real good, but normal for a first attempt, you could say. The bud was light and fluffy, didn't have much weight to it. But was pisses me off the most is that the bud had an intense unbelievably fruity smell during the grow and right at harvest, but after weeks of drying and curing it smelled and tasted like hay. Maybe if i'd break apart a bigger nug I could barely smell that fruity goodness on the inside, it wasn't enough to satisfy me. I knew the problem was drying... or at least I thought I did. It could have also been that I didn't flush well enough, any thoughts?

And now i'm onto my second grow, here she is an afghan:



The specs of the grow were :

Soil Medium: Fox Farms Ocean Forest
Nutrients: Schultz All Purpose 10-15-10, Fox Farms Tiger Bloom 2-6-4
Feeding Schedule: Schultz - Week 2-4 Once a week Fox Farms Tiger Bloom - Weeks 5-9 once a week, flush only water last 2 weeks.
Cabinet Dimensions: 34"h x 18"w x 15l" =1.875 Square Feet
Lighting Setup:
Vegging: x4 27w Daylight CFL (5500k) blue spectrum = 108w of daylight 10-14 days.
Flowering: x4 42w Soft White CFL (2300k) red spectrum = 168w of soft white for 60-65 days.
Lumens Per Square Foot: 5546.66 Lumens Per Square foot

2600 lumens x 4 = 10,400 lumens / 1.875 sq. feet = 5546.66 Lumens Per Square foot

I'm approaching my second harvest right now, on a little bigger plant than my first grow, and I pulled off a nugget to try and dry and taste in hopefully 4-5 days.



The whole plant itself has about 10 days left til I plan to harvest, she has been flowering for 50 days now. Well I pulled it off last night, and hung it upside down next to the growspace but not in any light. The temp was 75 and humidity was like 37% and i tried to have a humidifier in there. After about 24 hours, the hay smell is definitely apparent, smells identical to last grow. I realize that hay smell initially can be normal, as the clorophyll is exiting the plant. However, i'm afraid that this trend will keep up. I just got finished doing a good flush, in hopes to wash out most of the chemicals and salts that result in bad taste. I hope the flush will help.

My question is, are there any tips or methods you can suggest when harvesting only 1 plant with a relatively dry environment to begin with. I think my problem is that they are drying too fast?







Tell me your ways to dry and cure that have left you absent of this hay smell!!! She smells so beautiful right now and I want to taste that when I smoke her!!!!

:O

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Any help, tips, comments are appreciated

how tall is it man? and what ya grow it in

Contributed by glass joe:

Commercial growers take the colas from the plant and manicure them before drying. They usually dry them on a line, upside-down, which is fine.

However, usually airflow is forced, and temps too high, humidity too low. As soon as the buds are considered dry (usually a few days), it is sold. The reason for this behavior is the fact they are, as I said, commercial growers and in a constant hurry to exchange their buds for cash. Every minute counts and they don't want to 'waste' the space or the time needed for drying and curing. This results in harsh, grassy tasting weed that lacks the full-bodied flavor and smooth stone of properly dried and cured bud. To do it right:

At harvest-time all you have to do is cut the plant as low as possible and hang the whole thing upside down to dry on a line. The room you use to dry should be the about the same size you grew in (if not the same room). The humidity should remain a constant 50-60%. Too high and buds will mold, too low and they dry too fast and taste bad. Temperature should be around 65-68 degrees, wherever possible. Make sure the room is dark, as light degrades THC.

All kinds of processes, like the transport of sugars inside the plant still take place, even when you cut it down. These processes will slowly come to an end while the drying progresses, but are the main factor for the end-taste of your smoke. That is the first reason why you don't want to quick-dry your weed. The second reason is the way that a plant dries. Plants are made up of cells and, as we all know, cells contain mainly water. Exposed to air, the (dying) plant's outer cells will dry out first but the above-mentioned processes will still transfer water from the inner cells to the dryer outer cells, thus causing the plant to dry equally all over. By removing the stalk and cutting off the individual colas, you prevent this natural process by taking away the extra moisture that would be drawn from the stem to the leaves and bud. Got it? Good! Moving on...

Make sure you hang the plants so that they do not touch each other (invites mold). With constant temp and humidity, the plants should be ready for manicuring in 3-4 weeks. At this time trim colas from the main stalk, and trim large and medium fan leaves (save them for making hash), leaving most of the smaller leaves sticking out of the bud in tact. Hang them up again and for a day or two, until 'popcorn' dry. The stems should snap when you bend them, and the bud should be dry, but not brittle. Now for the curing...

Trim all remaining leaf (save for hashmaking) tight to the buds, and trim smaller buds from larger stems. Store them airtight; air at this point degrades THC. Note- ziplock bags are not airtight! You could use buckets with an airtight lid like used for food and sauces and such, but the best containers are those glass jars with the rubber seal and latch. Just put as much bud in it as possible using light pressure. The point is to fill it as much as possible, so not too much air remains in the container. The less air, the better. To be safe, check them the next day to make sure it's still dry (did not 'sweat'). Any excess moisture at this point will invite mold. If it did sweat and is moist (soft) again, lay the bud out on something other than newspaper and put in a dry place to get the last water out.

Repack and place the container in a cool, dark place, like a refrigerator. Note- fridges have high humidity so they must be absolutely airtight.
The longer it sits (up to around a month, maybe longer in the fridge) the better it gets, both in taste and potency. At around the month mark, you can move it to the freezer to almost stop the aging and curing process. Once you've got some buds stored in the freezer, you have a private stash that will last a long time. If you've got the patience to wait, the smoke will be sweet and smooth. The high will be mellow, and longer lasting. If you grew enough to last you a while, then after a few harvests you will be able to have properly cured buds at your disposal, with no downtime waiting for the next batch to cure!

If you're not in a hurry to sell your crop you owe it to your head to wait the extra time and have great tasting, very potent bud! Curing is the only way to make harvested bud more potent, so try it, you won't be disappointed!

GROWFAQ

MonkeeMan said:

how tall is it man? and what ya grow it in

Click to expand...

She is 20" tall with a 5" cola. I grew her in Fox Farms Ocean Forest.

Tweeds - Thanks for the reference page, it was a good read and helped me set up my closet for a good drying area.

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Well, the trichs were getting a lot more amber, so I gave her the chop !! The afghan strain from nirvana's breeder says 45-55 days she has been flowering for 53 days.

I was able to set up a humidifier inside my closet to establish a constant 42% humidity with 70 F temps. I can already notice a difference from my first grow, the buds still smell extremely fruity and good! They are drying very slow which is good.

I plan to dry her out for at least a week and then cure for 3-4 weeks before I can smoke it. Hopefully a small nug will be ready for 420 :O

I hope the smoke is schaaweeet!!

Here are some pictures:

Trichs: I took many samples from the leaves and checked trichs until I could consistently see around 50% amber.





Here she is before I gave her the chop:



And her she is hanging up to dry: (I can't tell you how lovely she still smells)

atleast it looks good... sucks it smells like hay.. the fuck...