I am excited to have my first crop. I suspect these ladies are close to harvest. The pistils are beginning to brown but the trichomes are all still white. None of them are turning amber yet. I was told that one plant had bud rot (the second photo) and I cut off that cola and separated her from the others. I don't know what I am going to do with it yet. I am growing outdoors in pots. We are expecting rain this weekend and I may harvest before then.
My First Crop!
- Thread starter aeode
- Start date
garybo
Well-Known Member
@aeode , from what I see your doing a great job. What concerns me is the mold issue, but what you did may and should correct the issue. If the plants are wet from rain and don't dry by nightfall, the night time humidity will promote mold growth. Be sure to give it and the other ladies as well, a bud wash after cutting them down.
Good luck.
Good luck.
First, Welcome to the forum! Your plants look very good! Nice job, excellent, particularly for a first try, kudos! The buds still have a fair amount of white pistils, you want them all brown/red and crinkled and then the buds will swell, once the trichomes turn cloudy, then amber becomes a personal choice, more amber=more "couch lock", less amber a more energetic buzz. However, if the mold gets to be an issue and starts spreading, then by all means give em the habeus yankus!
- Thread starter
- #4
I am keeping that plant separate from the others. I have to research bud rot more. I still don't know what to look for other than the obvious band in the above photo. Since that plant is so dark, it is difficult (for me) to see.
Everyone told me that growing would be difficult and to expect failure but maybe because these seeds came from some online seed bank they have a better chance?
- Thread starter
- #5
Thanks. I plan on making butter with all of these. If there is mold, will the drying, baking, boiling and baking again in the final product kill it? For sure, either way I will keep the buds from the one plant separate from the others if I don't toss it.
garybo
Well-Known Member
Stay safe and healthy, toss the mold.
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
hey @aeode , and welcome to the forum!
I deal with a lot of bud rot here in Hawaii, so I sometimes harvest early to avoid a complete loss. Keep in mind that bud rot can sneak up and render most of your buds unusable – what you see on a bud as dead material (brown), or a grey/white fuzzy area, is the advanced form of bud rot. If this is happening, there could also be fungus growing deep inside the buds.
If you've got all white trichomes, and are worried about more bud rot, you could harvest early. You can also use hydrogen peroxide solution to help control it. I use 6 fl oz (12 tbsp) 3% drugstore peroxide in 1/2 gal pure water, in the pump sprayer. Spray the whole plant, buds and all. You can do this daily if needed, or every other day, etc.
@SmokingWings has a recipe for a citric acid spray for bud rot, here.
happy growing!
I deal with a lot of bud rot here in Hawaii, so I sometimes harvest early to avoid a complete loss. Keep in mind that bud rot can sneak up and render most of your buds unusable – what you see on a bud as dead material (brown), or a grey/white fuzzy area, is the advanced form of bud rot. If this is happening, there could also be fungus growing deep inside the buds.
If you've got all white trichomes, and are worried about more bud rot, you could harvest early. You can also use hydrogen peroxide solution to help control it. I use 6 fl oz (12 tbsp) 3% drugstore peroxide in 1/2 gal pure water, in the pump sprayer. Spray the whole plant, buds and all. You can do this daily if needed, or every other day, etc.
@SmokingWings has a recipe for a citric acid spray for bud rot, here.
happy growing!
It is @InTheShed's recipe for helping get rid of mildews and not molds. Since I started using a Citric Acid spray I have not had any signs of Bud Rot which might be just a co-incidence or maybe the stuff does work for bud rot molds in addition to the mildew.
Several web sites do mention using an acid & water mix during household cleaning chores to prevent molds or using the same sorts of mixes to reduce or eliminate molds on plants. The cost of a small container of Citric Acid is minimal so I figure why not use it if it does seem to help reduce or eliminate the problems.
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
I wonder if ascorbic acid (Vit. C) would also work. I think they are both around pH 2 in solution.
- Thread starter
- #11
cbdhemp808
Well-Known Member
I always trim buds when they're green. If you suspect bud rot, you can carefully inspect while trimming. I wear a headlamp and high-magnification reading glasses when I trim.
Buds don't turn brown when they are drying or fully dried.
If there is a problem you should be able to notice areas of rot starting to show up in the stack of buds while the plant is still green. Often these areas are an inch or a couple of inches down but can sometimes show up near the tip. These areas should be very noticeable. Sometimes they can be the size of a US dime and up to a quarter in size. If they are not removed the brown rot will spread until the entire stack of buds has turned. On occasion there is a smell to the bud rot areas.
In the photos you included the brown spot in the 2nd photo is the only suspicious area that I noticed.
This should not be confused with the browns and yellows that show up on some sugar leaves on the buds. Any of my plants that had turned purple during the flowering stage will look a darker brown, almost black, as the buds dry and later during the curing. Another thing I have noticed that will turn the harvested buds a dark brown or almost black is the temperature of the water if a bud wash is done before the drying stage starts. The hotter the water the darker the shades of brown.
At harvest time if the buds are a healthy looking green like you have in the photos then you should be OK. Just check during the drying and give the smell test. Once dry and if also curing just keep checking when opening the jars as part of the 'burping'.
I see a lot of photos on this site of age cured weed buds that do turn shades of brown or brownish green, sometimes starting within a week or so. Or, sometimes the brown starts showing up a few months and occasionally a year later as the chlorophyll leaves the plant material and the green disappears.
My photos below are of a small jar of Blue Dream that has gone through the grinder after being cured. The other photo is of the rest of the harvest from the same plant still in its quart and pint jars. And, the link directs us to a thread from someone who recently finished his first harvest and drying.
https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/heres-what-i-got-first-time-hobbyist.523963/
- Thread starter
- #14
My pistils are mostly dried and my trichomes are clouding up nicely but none are beginning the amber phase. I'll probably harvest soon. We are expecting rain tomorrow evening so maybe before then. I don't want to risk any more bud rot. I am going to opt for the lemon juice/baking soda wash option. I'll then hang them in a spare bedroom with a dehumidifier and fan. The last photo is a branch I test hung in my garage. My car smells like pot now. I didn't trim it first but I think I will invest the time trimming before I hang this time. Since I am going to be making butter, it probably won't matter as much. Does anyone have suggestions for how to measure out the approptiate amount for a pound of butter? I am thinking a mason jar is roughly two ounces? I don't have a scale - yet.
That is understandable. Keep in mind that the rain will not cause the mold that creates the bud rot. The mold is already there and growing. Any rain will create a moist environment on the leaf and bud surfaces which allows any patches of bud rot to get larger quickly.
I use a rinse of Hydrogen Peroxide as the first step before doing the Baking Soda and Lemon Juice wash. My reasoning is that the peroxide should kill off most, or maybe all, of the spores. This will reduce the possibility of a mold or rot issue starting up weeks or months later while the harvest is in the jars.
- Thread starter
- #16
There is so much to learn. It makes me wonder how many growers actually put in the effort to cultivate a quality product or do they sell whatever they have with not much of a regard for caliber. I have only made butter but have noticed potency discrepancies. I now know it is because of the harvest window. I have also noticed my friends who smoke, sometimes have coughing fits and at other times, it goes in smoothly.