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- #2,181
Glad to hear that because the stuff I smoked that was soaked for five minutes was pretty smooth and got me just as high as regular bud.
Homer's Legal 4-Plant Max Perpetual Minimalist Garden In Ontario
- Thread starter Homer Simpson
- Start date
Ok, I know hitting extract that still has alcohol in it painful. I know from first hand experience. Lol
This was the pic you posted at 5:30am
and this is the pic you just posted
Two different plants. Where did the bad one go? When did you take the first pic? Was it just before lights off?
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- #2,185
Yes, I can see it being painful because it would be kind of like sucking on a flame-thrower, lol.
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- #2,186
Sometimes I am not sure if you are joking but no that is the same plant. To avoid expensive daytime electricity as much as I can my dark period starts at 7 AM and goes to 1 PM. That first pic with the droopy leaves was taken at 4:10 AM so about three hours before lights out. I had increased my wattage on my MegaLight a few day before from 180 W to 250 W so at that point the plant was getting a lot of extra light. I was really worried the plant would die at this point because despite being so droopy the topsoil was quite wet despite watering 2 days ago so it seemed like it had stopped taking up water. When I had a CBD plant suddenly die during flower it stopped taking up water so when this one did I thought it was a goner.This was the pic you posted at 5:30am
and this is the pic you just posted
Two different plants. Where did the bad one go? When did you take the first pic? Was it just before lights off?
But it is still a lot less than the maximum NextLight recommends for the MegaLight. They say you can go 650 W within 12 inches of your plants and I was going 250 watts 24 inches away.
The second photo was taken at 7:30 PM so the lights had been on about 6 1/2 hours but I had turned the light intensity down to where it was before at 180 W. So I really think my biggest problem was this plant just does not like intense LED light. But I also think adding calmag like Penny and Old Salt suggested help also.
This morning she is looking pretty healthy still. It has a lot of leaf damage but it doesn't seem to be getting any worse and it's not droopy and seems to be growing again so I guess I'm back on track with a lot of help.
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- #2,187
Hey Mr. Magoo. Nice to have you drop by. I do like saying Mr. Magoo!!
The Celt
Well-Known Member
Morning Homer, seen the discussion about making oils/tinctures and thought I might weigh in and maybe be of some help.
I don’t make tinctures, I make oil for smoking and edibles though. As such, and because it’s cheap and easily procured here, I use Isopropyl alcohol and by this method.
I keep my iso in the freezer all the time so it is always cold. I most often used cured bud which I bust up and put in the freezer, in the gallon jar I use for the wash, and leave it 24hrs.
After 24hrs, I pour in enough iso to cover the bud, and then shake hell outta the jar for 1 to 2 mins and then strain into a second jar, filtered through a 25 micron screen. I also have a 3rd jar on hand. When the wash coming through the filter starts to show a green tint (rather than the colour of gasoline) I let the remainder drain into the 3rd jar.
The 2 jars of wash get capped and stored in the freezer until I need them for a couple reasons.
First, if I intend to smoke the oil, it gets made from the first jar of wash and freezing it for a few days before cooking it, causes the plant waxes to settle to the bottom. By siphoning the wash and leaving the waxes behind, the oil comes out deep red or deep amber and when held to the light is like looking through a gem, clear and no cloudiness. The consistency can be anywhere from thick goo to and like shatter depending on how long I cook it. The longer it is cooked, the less terpenes remain and the harder it becomes.
If I am going to use oil for edibles, I don’t worry about the plant waxes and will use the greener wash as I am not concerned with a bit of chlorophyll in my edibles. We eat waxes and chlorophyll al, the time but I don’t want to smoke it.
Not sure why you weren’t getting much yield from your process, I generally get about 10%w/w of high grade oil by this method.
I don’t make tinctures, I make oil for smoking and edibles though. As such, and because it’s cheap and easily procured here, I use Isopropyl alcohol and by this method.
I keep my iso in the freezer all the time so it is always cold. I most often used cured bud which I bust up and put in the freezer, in the gallon jar I use for the wash, and leave it 24hrs.
After 24hrs, I pour in enough iso to cover the bud, and then shake hell outta the jar for 1 to 2 mins and then strain into a second jar, filtered through a 25 micron screen. I also have a 3rd jar on hand. When the wash coming through the filter starts to show a green tint (rather than the colour of gasoline) I let the remainder drain into the 3rd jar.
The 2 jars of wash get capped and stored in the freezer until I need them for a couple reasons.
First, if I intend to smoke the oil, it gets made from the first jar of wash and freezing it for a few days before cooking it, causes the plant waxes to settle to the bottom. By siphoning the wash and leaving the waxes behind, the oil comes out deep red or deep amber and when held to the light is like looking through a gem, clear and no cloudiness. The consistency can be anywhere from thick goo to and like shatter depending on how long I cook it. The longer it is cooked, the less terpenes remain and the harder it becomes.
If I am going to use oil for edibles, I don’t worry about the plant waxes and will use the greener wash as I am not concerned with a bit of chlorophyll in my edibles. We eat waxes and chlorophyll al, the time but I don’t want to smoke it.
Not sure why you weren’t getting much yield from your process, I generally get about 10%w/w of high grade oil by this method.
If you want to get rid of the chlorophyll, put the jar in the sun, or under a grow light for 15 min to 1/2 an hour. You'll see it lose that green tinge.
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- #2,190
Other than using isopropyl alcohol instead of ethyl alcohol and not decarbing your bud before washing your method is very similar to my first experiment try but the method I used was the one SweetSue outlined so I have no idea why I'm not getting any yield.
It's really becoming comical because everything I tried lately online is a failure where everyone else has positive results; I had terrible results from Katsu's P-98's and no one else does and I can't seem to dial in MegaCrop like everyone else and now I can't seem to do a successful wash. My username is becoming tragically prophetic, LOL. I am a Homer.
I am going to evaporate the alcohol to see how much my test samples give. Thanks a lot though Celt for your generous input.
The Celt
Well-Known Member
Don’t give up hope on the Mega Crop, as someone mentioned, with more like intensity, she will likely take a few days to adjust and her feeding could be “off”, much like hardening them off for growing outdoors.
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- #2,192
Yes, I am going to stick with the MegaCrop despite my earlier meltdown, lol. She does seem to be stabilizing. Thanks, Celt.
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- #2,193
Since I soaked my test samples so long in ethyl alcohol I assume I had a fair bit of chlorophyll so I laid my jars out in the sun for a couple hours. They went from a slightly cloudy Amber to a deep brownish-red. Not sure if that's good or not.
I didn't have any really good perfectly flat bottom containers so I am evaporating my samples on some aluminum foil and I figure once the alcohol has evaporated I can flatten the foil and scrape off any oil that might remain.
This is the dried bud that was soaked for one hour and it has just as many trichomes as the one that was soaked for five minutes and also looks like the one that was soaked for 17 hours so I have no idea how resin can be removed when the trike homes remain intact? I'm very curious if any oil was extracted but my guess would be almost none by the look of the trichomes and how potent the bud was that I smoked that was soaked for five minutes.
They say you learn more from your failures than your successes so I'm proud to say I have been really learning a lot lately.
I didn't have any really good perfectly flat bottom containers so I am evaporating my samples on some aluminum foil and I figure once the alcohol has evaporated I can flatten the foil and scrape off any oil that might remain.
This is the dried bud that was soaked for one hour and it has just as many trichomes as the one that was soaked for five minutes and also looks like the one that was soaked for 17 hours so I have no idea how resin can be removed when the trike homes remain intact? I'm very curious if any oil was extracted but my guess would be almost none by the look of the trichomes and how potent the bud was that I smoked that was soaked for five minutes.
They say you learn more from your failures than your successes so I'm proud to say I have been really learning a lot lately.
The Celt
Well-Known Member
Curious mate, are you still seeing ball-on-stalk after washing?
The Celt
Well-Known Member
I think I may know what is happening, but not your why your yield is low.
The trichome head is a wax cuticle that is also dissolved by the alcohol and releases the Cannabinoids and terpenes being dissolved.
Looking at your before and after decarb pics, your after looks like what I would expect after an alcohol wash. Wondering if your decarb process is melting that wax and allowing the good stuff to absorb into the plant matter. This would explain why you get just as high smoking post wash bud, just don’t understand why it’s not being drawn into solution by the alcohol.
Next time you make some, try freezing it but not decarbing it before the wash and see if your yield goes up. If it does, you can always decarb afterwards and then redissolve in alcohol to make tincture.
Just spit balling but might be worth considering.
The trichome head is a wax cuticle that is also dissolved by the alcohol and releases the Cannabinoids and terpenes being dissolved.
Looking at your before and after decarb pics, your after looks like what I would expect after an alcohol wash. Wondering if your decarb process is melting that wax and allowing the good stuff to absorb into the plant matter. This would explain why you get just as high smoking post wash bud, just don’t understand why it’s not being drawn into solution by the alcohol.
Next time you make some, try freezing it but not decarbing it before the wash and see if your yield goes up. If it does, you can always decarb afterwards and then redissolve in alcohol to make tincture.
Just spit balling but might be worth considering.
I’m seeing trichome stalks but no heads on them.
The Celt
Well-Known Member
That’s what I thought as well Penny 
I have a funny way about being funny
So yes I was joking as I did know that was the same plant. Anyhow it looks like things are good and like you said, back on track. Let the fun begin.
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- #2,199
I did stop dry decarbing my bud when I make infused oil because so much vapor comes off the bud doing it dry I figured I was losing some good stuff in the process and I do see fewer heads in the pic after decarbing but when I smoked the bud after decarbing and washing it I still got very high so that makes me think most of the resin was still in the bud after decarbing.
Also dry decarbing before washing is how SweetSue does it in her instructional thread and she seems to research stuff pretty thoroughly. I am not saying you are wrong but for those reasons I don’t know if I can agree with that theory but you may be right.
I don’t know if I will be doing more washes because besides it not working it uses so much alcohol. To wash that ¾ of an ounce I used 12 ounces of 95% alcohol which is 28.5 ounces of 40% alcohol which because we are taxed so much in Canada would cost about $30. Also, I did the decarb before washing because I didn’t want to get into the hazard of heating high potency alcohol.
I appreciate the help but I think this may be a dead-end street with it not working and taking so much good drinking alcohol.
Use isopropyl alcohol instead