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[MEGA]Community Growing advice, tips, tricks, & experiences Part 4

They have been drying for about 3 whole days now... They smell like hay. I FUCKING HATE THE SMELL OF HAY :(
 
My girls have been hang drying for 4 days now. I keep "snap testing" to see if they are ready for jars but I'm not quite sure... The buds are crispy and the leaves surrounding them have curled up. The stems, however, are not completely brittle. I slightly bend them and they feel stiff and snap a bit but inevitably bend. Do the stems need to snap as if they are dry twigs or am I just being a meticulous asshole?

Also - We are considering growing White Widow next. We hear this had a higher yield and is very sought after... is this a difficult strain to cultivate? Or is it at resilient as Bubba Kush?
 
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They've only been drying for 4 days, so they are almost certainly not ready yet, unless your relative humidity is extremely low. Within reason, the longer they take to dry the more smooth and the less harsh the bud will be, so don't rush it. Usually it take 10-14 days ideally. What is the relative humidity?

As for White Widow, well it depends on which breeder it's from. Some White Widow strains are just hacks, so it pays to get the right one. I would actually recommend you get Mr Nice Shit while you still can. For a strain the costs relatively little you get many seeds and the genetics is the original Skunk #1 from way back in the day. It's also very forgiving for a beginner and I think it would yield higher than many other strains for you personally. If you want something a bit special why not get some Jack Herer?

Anything from breeders like Sensi seeds, Mr Nice etc. will be good. Just stay away from Greenhouse seeds and you're more likely to be successful. I would also avoid feminized seeds. You can sex them using the Genefinder method and pull out the males quite early on easily so it shouldn't be that hard to do but it will also reward you since you're more likely to find amazing phenotypes. When you do find such a keeper, try and keep a clone to make into a mum strain so you never have to buy that strain again. It's what most good growers do.
 
So I just harvested 2 out of my 3 plants yesterday, and I have them hanging to dry in my closet with a fan going in the room. Is this an acceptable way to dry them or should I change something up? And would removing them from the main stem speed up the drying time or is this not advised?

And my Lemon Og Kush smells like Sour strawberry candy. Its delicious.
 
By the way, psychicbubble, if you want the real White Widow, buy 'Black Widow' from Mr Nice Seeds. The only reason it's called 'Black' Widow is for copyright reasons. It is in fact the real deal, unlike those strains sold be certain breeders that are just hacks or knockoffs.
 
After more extensive research we felt it was time to put them in jars. They had been hanging for a week and were already too dry. The stems were snapping and the buds were crisp. It took us about 10 hours to trim everything and holy shit are we exhausted. I uploaded a pic of what we have now but we still have 1 more plant to trim (the supercropped one with super large buds!). We are hoping for at least a pound so wish us luck!

*Still can't find the NSFW tags*

http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc441/lotusbloom000/DSCF2133.jpg
 
Not that it's necessary, but I just thought I'd say that AE is right on the money as usual, that is exactly how you want to cure your weed.

PB, there's still some post-upgrade glitches and therefore no NSFW button right now, but the inline tags still work (Type [NSFW] and [/NSFW] around the stuff you want to hide).
 
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Hey PB congrats on the harvest, they look like they'll smoke up nicely for you :D

I also wanna mention AE's contribution to this thread has been amazing. Great job matey, i'll start to pick up my posting pace as the season gets closer over here and I start gettin my hands dirty %)
 
Thanks wise/vadar, that's kind of you to say:)

PB, after your PM I would have let them dry more personally. This is one of those things that you get unsure about on your first grow but after that you just 'know' when they're ready to cure based on experience. The snap should be felt as a physical feeling like when you bend a lignified (woody) stems. I can't really think how I can explain it better without showing you in person what I mean. However at that RH (45% ) I would have hung them up for longer than that. You just can't rush these things, especially after all the effort and time it took! It's really not worth it, so I would put them in paper bags now for a few days instead, since you can't hang them up anymore now. If all the stems truly 'snap' then yes they are ready to cure, but otherwise putting them in jars prematurely is a bad ideal.
 
Sometimes I hang my plants in the room with the AC on since the AC doesnt just cool the air but also de-humidifies the air. It can dry stuff out pretty quick with out causing damage. Just gotta keep an eye on the plants as you dont want them too dry.
 
They snapped AE. We think they may be TOO dry. We are going to check them later today and air them out. If they remain too dry we may put a most qtip in each to help redistribute moisture.

We can't tell you enough how thankful we are for your help.
 
You're welcome ;)

I would use a leaf instead (doesn't have to be a canna leaf) since it will dry out slower than a q-tip I would have thought. As long as it doesn't turn into dust when you put pressure on it, this step isn't necessary and might even be counter productive. If fact I doubt very much that they are too dry, even if they appear to be to someone not used to the whole drying/curing process.

edit: so what was your yield in the end then?
 
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We haven't completely finished. We have 1 more plant (the super cropped one) still hang drying. We have to trim her up and put it into jars before we have everything. We also don't have a scale :( I posted a picture of what we have so far but can't tell if it's a pound or not :/

Know where we can buy a cheap digital gram scale?
 
I wouldn't know about the scales but a certain auction website would be the place to look, or that website named after a certain rainforest (i.e. the xxxxxxx rainforest).

edit: yeah, actually just do a Google search under the 'shopping' tab.
 
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Ok got an update for you.

We just burped them for the first time - Took them out and layed them on the table. We broke one apart and it was moist inside but still very dry on the outside. The wife smoked one and said it tasted like shit lol. I also weighed them for you, the dry weight is just over 300 grams (with one plant still on the way). 3 questions:

1) How long before they taste decent? We can't wait too long - Finances are shitty at the moment.
2) How long until they acquire their proper weight? I'm assuming they will get heavier as they redistribute moister. Do you think we will reach a pound?
3) The bud dryness is concerning the wife... will they eventually get better or should we take other measures to help them along the process?

Added some pics for you as well - Don't laugh at our trimming skills. It's our first time :( Don't be afraid to tell me they look like shit though.

*NSFW*
http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc441/lotusbloom000/DSCF2136.jpg
http://i1212.photobucket.com/albums/cc441/lotusbloom000/DSCF2137.jpg
 
So lets say it's about 300g. I think that's within the range I predicted, I can't remember. Since I don't know how much the other plant weighs I wouldn't like to gues the final weight though. However it shouldn't be too far under a pound (it will be under I think).

It will take at least a month before they start to taste better. I don't think you used organic nutrients though so I'm not surprised they taste a bit funny. Unfortunately you can't rush the process. Don't get caught because of the smell! I would put them in the tent with the carbon filter if need be. Non-smokers that haven't been inside your place won't have been desensitized to the smell and will notice it a mile off!
 
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Hey your buds look really cool and tasty (even if they might not be, lol). Good job indeed!
 
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