Woodsman, 5 plants is alright for harvest but it would be better if they were bigger. I guess I am just saddened by this grow in general. All the issues I have had left me with far less in the flower size than I had hoped/expected especially considering the Wonderberry grow. Oh well enough feeling sorry for myself.
I am absolutely enthused about the move, it cannot come quick enough. One major bonus is that the previous owners had a major setup going on. I am going to be using their veg room for my flower room about 6' by 7'. It looks like they were using the entire garage for a flower room. The best part is that the electrical has already been split and the grow will be on its own breaker box so I will not have to worry about blowing breakers or splitting the electrical myself.
On to your real question though: Water curing is used to remove unused nutrients from your plants when something bad happens and you are not able to flush the plants before harvest. Most of us have come across some buds through our smoking lives that pops and flickers when smoked. That pop and flickering is the unused fertilizer salts in the plant matter and trichomes. Smell is usually wiped out by the water curing except while smoking and in my opinion about half of the taste (others will disagree I am sure).
The way water curing works is through osmosis. You have to use RO or distilled water as they do not have the salts, metals and other impurities in them and that is the key. To perform the task you must take your plants and put them in a container large enough to completely submerge all the plant matter. Next you have to come up with a way to hold that plant matter down in the water (screen with something to hold it down as the plants will try to float). Next you completely cover the plant matter with your RO or distilled water and set it somewhere where it will not evaporate away (you can use a container with a lid too). Through osmosis the salts will migrate from the area of high concentration to the area of low or no concentration (see the reason for truly clean water?) when the concentration of salts in the water is equal to what is in the plants osmosis will stop as there is a natural balance. This is why I change the water each day when water curing, no balance is achieved and osmosis continues. I have found that after 5-7 days of water changes the majority of the salts are removed from the plants and the smoke is acceptable in that it doesn't sparkle and pop when smoked. Some processes happen during this time that keep the plants from molding and they dry very rapidly when removed from the water and are hung or laid out to dry normally. Last time I did it the flowers were dry enough to smoke within a day of removing them from the water.
I hope that was a clear enough explanation. If it doesn't make sense let me know and I will try to make it more clear. I have heard I am hard to understand lately.
