Noob's First Grow: Indoor, Coco, 4 Plants

[The Bard]

Great harvest! congratulations! Great looking colas pre cutting! Now an even better looking bud! Nice trim job!!

Thanks Slider! Just came from your journal a minute ago. Have a great evening.

 

[InTheShed]

Terrific harvest Bard! That's a great trim job considering the foxtails.

Going to use the "low and slow" drying technique for 5-7 days.

Low and slow is traditionally a 2 to 3 week process to retain the terpenes. Is there a reason to try to stop it after 5-7 days?

If you saw my poor pathetic DDA in hempy, you would demote me back to noob real quick. It is not doing well.

I've seen very experienced growers grow dumpy DDA's, so stop holding fast to the noob label! That's the thing about autos...they're gonna do whatever they want, whether it's your 1st plant or 50th .

 

[The Bard]

Terrific harvest Bard! That's a great trim job considering the foxtails.

Low and slow is traditionally a 2 to 3 week process to retain the terpenes. Is there a reason to try to stop it after 5-7 days?

I've seen very experienced growers grow dumpy DDA's, so stop holding fast to the noob label! That's the thing about autos...they're gonna do whatever they want, whether it's your 1st plant or 50th .

Hey Shed! Lots of great comments. On the low and slow, I wrote my comments poorly. What I meant was that I needed to keep rearranging the buds several times a day for 5-7 days, to get the drying process going. But I completely agree, to get them down to 62-ish, will take quite a bit longer - thank you for flagging that. I should have written it better.

The DDA is a "freak" - that was @beez0404's assessment. I was going to try to reverse her by applying STS at around Day 20 or 25. Then she threw pistils on Day 18 - really early and she was tiny. Dumpy and frumpy is right for her - grumpy as a result for me. Ha!

Ok... I'll try to let go of noob label. Really appreciate your stopping by.

 

[Mr. Magoo]

Excellent harvest Bard! Congratulations brother. The trimming only gets worse! Lol. The first time I was just happy to be trimming a plant I grew. Now I’m like.....damn!

 

[The Bard]

Afternoon, everyone,

Another beautiful day here, and so back on the patio continuing the harvest of my three photoperiod girls. Yesterday was the Trainwreck - the biggest plant. Today was the Green Crack. I could tell just by the size that the yield wasn't going to be as large, but I was a bit surprised by how different the quality was. Here are some photos and commentary (today is DAY 147 since germination, and DAY 68 from pistils)...

Here she is, basking in the sun for a few minutes before the axe came out. This is the plant that went a little crazy with foxtails a couple of weeks ago. Still not sure if it was environment or genetics that caused them.

I did a final trich check under the microscope. With the foxtails it was a bit tricky determining if she was truly ready or not, as the "ripeness" was quite varied. But I felt like things were looking mostly cloudy, with a touch of amber, so I made the call to harvest. I wanted to make sure that these buds were a bit more "up" - happy, energetic - and not at all sleepy.

What I learned from this harvest is that I didn't open the canopy up enough in late veg and early flowering. That, and/or I didn't defol enough at Day 21 in flower. The tops of each cola were really nice and firm, filled in, sticky, and colourful.

However, further down the stem, the buds were really loose, floppy, and washed out in colour. Either a really light green, or almost a pale cream colour. Not enough light getting in there.

Here's the harvest... the good stuff is on the left, the loose "cabbage leaf" stuff is on the right. The mediocre stuff I am going to use for edibles, and so I left the sugar leaves that had good trich coverage (I was also feeling lazy).

Still got several really nice "tops" that look beautiful. The colour really became visible just in the past few days.

The weighing-in ceremony (continued in next post):

 

[The Bard]

Continued...

The "good stuff" - 322 grams:

The fluff - 163 grams

Technically, 485 grams total, wet weight. But I think if I had trimmed the loose stuff better, and culled some of the less desirable pieces, I'd be at more like 375-400 grams (13-14 oz). I guess that will be about 3-4 oz when dried.

So lesson learned on opening up the canopy more.

On the other hand, she smells awesome!! Lemon candy with a bit of chemical/gasoline? Very appetizing. And sticky!!

She's off to join her bigger sister in the fridge for "low and slow" drying.

Tomorrow is the wrap up, when GSC meets her demise.

Have a great day, everyone!

 

[InTheShed]

Beautiful and frosty buds Bard, and scrape the hash off your fingers and save it! Another notch in your belt .

And before you relegate all the lower buds to edibles, cure and smoke a few. They might surprise you!

 

[The Bard]

Beautiful and frosty buds Bard, and scrape the hash off your fingers and save it! Another notch in your belt .

And before you relegate all the lower buds to edibles, cure and smoke a few. They might surprise you!

Thanks Shed! I hope that update didn't come off like complaining... I am really happy with yesterday's harvest and today's. Was just really interested in how different the process went. And of course learning along the way.

Sheepish to admit... I don't smoke much. Mrs. Bard and I actually prefer edibles. So ironically the "good stuff" of the nice tight buds will likely mostly go to friends who love to smoke, once it has dried and cured. My wife and I are really liking the bedtime gummies - helps her a lot with her RA and fibro, and it just makes me really happy and sleepy. I am thinking that the Trainwreck and the Green Crack will be our "goofy gummies" - just happy and spacey and energetic. That is my hope anyhow.

Wish some of you guys were nearby to try my harvest, as I would really love to get some feedback on the taste, smoothness, etc. I did get some really nice feedback from a buddy who smoked the Purple Kush auto that I harvested about six weeks ago. That material is now in our "mellow gummies."

 

[InTheShed]

LOL! Then more lowers equals more for you.

 

[The Bard]

LOL! Then more lowers equals more for you.

Life is good!

 

[Derbybud]

Nice haul again bard. Like Shed said dry and try. Never know what you have.

 

[The Bard]

Nice haul again bard. Like Shed said dry and try. Never know what you have.

Thanks Derbs!

 

[Mr. Magoo]

Awesome job Bard! I’m curious to see if my new light helps any with the lowers. Myself and plenty of others have just harvested the top part of a plant at first and then allowed the lower part to mature a bit more with better light before harvesting the remainder. A partial harvest. If time and space aren’t an issue it’s a good way to improve the quality of the lowers.

 

[The Bard]

Awesome job Bard! I’m curious to see if my new light helps any with the lowers. Myself and plenty of others have just harvested the top part of a plant at first and then allowed the lower part to mature a bit more with better light before harvesting the remainder. A partial harvest. If time and space aren’t an issue it’s a good way to improve the quality of the lowers.

Thanks Magoo! I am pretty happy with the two plants done so far. Third and final one is on the block for tomorrow.

Really good idea on the partial harvest - I was just kind of on auto-pilot trimming away this afternoon, and I never really stopped to think about how I could fix the anemic lower bits. Will definitely keep that in mind for next time!

 

[Mr. Magoo]

Thanks Magoo! I am pretty happy with the two plants done so far. Third and final one is on the block for tomorrow.

Really good idea on the partial harvest - I was just kind of on auto-pilot trimming away this afternoon, and I never really stopped to think about how I could fix the anemic lower bits. Will definitely keep that in mind for next time!

Yeah. If you get to the lower stuff and the trichomes don’t look how you want them, then maybe try it.

 

[Backlipslide]

Wow bard!

Great haul!! I’ll forever refer to you as Mr.Stickyfingers! Lol I’m only kidding.

Looks fantastic!

The foxtail plant was the green Crack? Wow looks so much different from the one I grew! Still fantastic! I wonder how it will smoke, mine was some of the best smoke I’ve ever had lol I need to get me some more of that!

 

[The Bard]

Wow bard!

Great haul!! I’ll forever refer to you as Mr.Stickyfingers! Lol I’m only kidding.

Looks fantastic!

The foxtail plant was the green Crack? Wow looks so much different from the one I grew! Still fantastic! I wonder how it will smoke, mine was some of the best smoke I’ve ever had lol I need to get me some more of that!

Thanks Slide. Yea, I got some foxtailing on the Trainwreck, and even more on the Green Crack. The GSC that I am harvesting today didn't get any tails. More and more I am thinking that it was environment (versus genetics, or maybe both). I probably should have raised the lights a little higher just after the stretch.

Interesting that yours looked different. I will say that the seeds I got for this first grow didn't come from the most reliable source. I didn't know any better when I started thinking about my first grow. So I can't say for sure that any of these plants are really "true" to their name. That being said, all the seeds germinated, and got me a harvest at the end of it all. I feel better about the newer seeds I have tucked away now, as they all came from more reputable breeders/vendors.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[Tomuk17]

Congrats on another harvest mate buds look nice and colourful

 

[The Bard]

Congrats on another harvest mate buds look nice and colourful

Thanks! One more plant to do today, and then done with trimming for a while. Your plants are looking good too, Tomuk - was over at your journal last night.

 

[The Bard]

Hey everyone,

So today was harvest day for my third and final photoperiod gal - the GSC. It was the smallest of the three, but I am really happy with the quality that she produced.

Today was DAY 148 from germination, and DAY 69 from pistils, so almost 10 weeks in flower. Here are some pics of the harvest and comments.

113 grams of fluffy stuff:

Plus 464 grams of the nice better quality stuff...

So a total of 577 grams wet weight. That should come to about 4 oz when dried. You can see I got much less fluffy stuff from this GSC than I did from the Green Crack yesterday.

And some trich shots... lots of cloudy, a few clears, but no amber. In hindsight, I probably could have let her keep going for a few more days.

And so that is a wrap for the "growing" part of my first grow!! The buds for all three of the girls - the Trainwreck, the Green Crack, and the GSC, are all bagged up and drying in the fridge. I'll be turning and rearranging them at least once a day for the next several days, and watch until the humidity is in the 62-65% range. Then they'll be jarred up to cure.

Will post again with final dry weights, probably in a couple of weeks.

Have a great day, everyone!