- Thread starter
- #361
I love seeing all the interest on this thread. It's great checking in periodically and seeing the new batch of, soon to be, converts coming through. 
There is no "correct" way to do this. There are methods that might work better than others, but measuring the effectiveness of this technique is subjective at best. That being said, here is my process again...
My flowering room is a CGE and I use NO foliar sprays. My plants also did not suffer from any molds or pests. In other words, they start out pretty clean, so I have never tried the H2O2 rinse.
Instead of 5 gallon buckets, I use some kitchen trash cans. They are taller and let me wash longer branches easier.
I have 3 cans. My first bucket is my "hot" bucket with the lemon juice and baking soda. The water ends up being more "warm" than hot by the time I get it into the basement, but I basically fill the can with the hottest water I get from the faucet.
My other 2 cans are both "cold" water. I DO use RO for these 2 buckets, so they aren't as cold as my coldest tap. Since my RO is collected in a 55g barrel, the water is a little warmer. Not quite "room temp", but not the coldest my tap can make.
As to trimming before vs after...
I like to use my trim to make hash, so I prefer my trim to be clean. That means I want to trim AFTER I wash. I came up with a pretty good system that has worked for me the last 2 harvests.
Keep in mind that there already exists a dogma among growers whether to trim before or after drying. In general, I think the indoor guys lean towards trim first, and the outdoor guys trim after. I suspect much of this has to do with logistics.
Just to be honest, I HATE trimming dry plants. Just putting it in caps doesn't convey how much I dislike it. I think it's more difficult and results in a lower quality product. Many of the problems were listed above with trimming after washing.
I suspect we will all agree it's easier to trim a fresh plant who's cells still maintain their turgor pressure, ie they aren't all limp and floppy. The problem we had was the washed plants were too heavy. It made the branches bend and break and just made it a chore to trim.
Here is the trick I discovered...
I wash the branches and hang them on a string over the last 2 rinse buckets. Let them drip dry for at least one hour, but no more than 24 hours. The timing might change depending on your environmental conditions (temp RH etc). Ideally don't wait the full day. I found 4-12 hours is the sweet spot IMHO.
To backup a little and share some more specific detail, when I harvest the plants, I try to cut whole branches. I hang a piece of string over my 3 buckets and hang the branches on that. I slide them all the way to the left to start (my buckets go 1-2-3 left to right). I pull down several at a time and put them through all 3 wash stations. Then they hang over the last bucket while I start the next group. I just slide the washed branches to the right as I work.
I don't know how fast others are able to trim their plants, but with 2-3 people working on mine, each plant takes an hour or so. This means I can wash 2-4 plants and let them drip while we trim the previous batch (that has drip dried for a few hours already). As we're trimming, I will stop before we finish the last plant of the batch, and head back downstairs to bring up more for the trimmers.
Don't get too worried about doing this "right" the first time. If you are too worried, only wash part of the harvest the first time. After the first time washing, you will get a feeling for the process and find the method that works best for YOUR situation. It took me 3 harvests to get a system going that I was satisfied with.
My thoughts also. I have very hard water though, so that also went into my thought process. Having studied chemistry, I remember the whole hypo/hyper tonic solution section. If I want the "stuff" (debris?) to go INTO the water, I think having the purest water to start with can't hurt.
I agree. My last batch of Critical came out super purple, so I made sure my second rinse was a little cooler for that wash and that the warm wash was "fresh", ie warmer. It seemed to work. One plant I didn't change the wash buckets, and it was not as colorful after cure.
does anyone see a difference in fully manicuring before you wash? i apologize if this has been discussed, 23 pages is a lot! i have a harvest coming up within the next week and I want to make sure I have the right products available to properly wash them. I did not use foliar sprays. I do have cat hair on them, thoughI had fungus gnats around but not too bad. Any help is greatly appreciated.
There is no "correct" way to do this. There are methods that might work better than others, but measuring the effectiveness of this technique is subjective at best. That being said, here is my process again...
My flowering room is a CGE and I use NO foliar sprays. My plants also did not suffer from any molds or pests. In other words, they start out pretty clean, so I have never tried the H2O2 rinse.
Instead of 5 gallon buckets, I use some kitchen trash cans. They are taller and let me wash longer branches easier.
I have 3 cans. My first bucket is my "hot" bucket with the lemon juice and baking soda. The water ends up being more "warm" than hot by the time I get it into the basement, but I basically fill the can with the hottest water I get from the faucet.
My other 2 cans are both "cold" water. I DO use RO for these 2 buckets, so they aren't as cold as my coldest tap. Since my RO is collected in a 55g barrel, the water is a little warmer. Not quite "room temp", but not the coldest my tap can make.
As to trimming before vs after...
I like to use my trim to make hash, so I prefer my trim to be clean. That means I want to trim AFTER I wash. I came up with a pretty good system that has worked for me the last 2 harvests.
Keep in mind that there already exists a dogma among growers whether to trim before or after drying. In general, I think the indoor guys lean towards trim first, and the outdoor guys trim after. I suspect much of this has to do with logistics.
Just to be honest, I HATE trimming dry plants. Just putting it in caps doesn't convey how much I dislike it. I think it's more difficult and results in a lower quality product. Many of the problems were listed above with trimming after washing.
I suspect we will all agree it's easier to trim a fresh plant who's cells still maintain their turgor pressure, ie they aren't all limp and floppy. The problem we had was the washed plants were too heavy. It made the branches bend and break and just made it a chore to trim.
Here is the trick I discovered...
I wash the branches and hang them on a string over the last 2 rinse buckets. Let them drip dry for at least one hour, but no more than 24 hours. The timing might change depending on your environmental conditions (temp RH etc). Ideally don't wait the full day. I found 4-12 hours is the sweet spot IMHO.
To backup a little and share some more specific detail, when I harvest the plants, I try to cut whole branches. I hang a piece of string over my 3 buckets and hang the branches on that. I slide them all the way to the left to start (my buckets go 1-2-3 left to right). I pull down several at a time and put them through all 3 wash stations. Then they hang over the last bucket while I start the next group. I just slide the washed branches to the right as I work.
I don't know how fast others are able to trim their plants, but with 2-3 people working on mine, each plant takes an hour or so. This means I can wash 2-4 plants and let them drip while we trim the previous batch (that has drip dried for a few hours already). As we're trimming, I will stop before we finish the last plant of the batch, and head back downstairs to bring up more for the trimmers.
Don't get too worried about doing this "right" the first time. If you are too worried, only wash part of the harvest the first time. After the first time washing, you will get a feeling for the process and find the method that works best for YOUR situation. It took me 3 harvests to get a system going that I was satisfied with.
My thoughts also. I have very hard water though, so that also went into my thought process. Having studied chemistry, I remember the whole hypo/hyper tonic solution section. If I want the "stuff" (debris?) to go INTO the water, I think having the purest water to start with can't hurt.
I only use hot/cold if I have great color, otherwise its just room temp
I agree. My last batch of Critical came out super purple, so I made sure my second rinse was a little cooler for that wash and that the warm wash was "fresh", ie warmer. It seemed to work. One plant I didn't change the wash buckets, and it was not as colorful after cure.
grow journal growers.
I did a little pinching and super-cropping and some back-building, I tried a little of just about every trick I heard of so far, I know I didn't stress it out , cause I didn't over do it, I'm just testing,lol, any hoot, it's coming along just fine, it should be done between sept 15-20th. now, the other one is a ''swiss-cheese'' /fem'd seed I got from a buddy and it is doing very well also. it will be done somewhere at the end of the month I think...
I also did the same to this one...ya know, i abused it...lmao and it likes it
it is about 6.5' tall and approx. 4'wide with couple doz. tops or so.(and growing) anyway, I'm really interested in trying this ''washing'' trick. I need to explain something, this is my 2nd grow, in 2013 I had one plant and it was 3' tall, was not too bad, considering I have tried this many times with ''NO''/''ZERO'' luck , I always seem to find away to kill them...lol or some critter eats the SOB .... lol..WTF 
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