re: QT's Second Grow - 1st Journal
Hey Queenie, I haven't stopped by much because I thought you couldn't post.
Thanks guys for the input. I know they're not ready now. Tomorrow is the beginning of week 7 for them. I was thinking of harvesting at week 10, but wanted to make sure that I wouldn't lose thc if I kept them in flower that long.
The only way THC degrades is when it starts oxidizing into CBD, CBN, etc. If the trichomes aren't turning amber, the THC isn't degrading. It's as simple as that. Look at this
G13 Haze Trichomes (week 15 of flowering)
You read that right! My crop is in its 16th week of flowering and the trichomes still haven't turned amber. This is a Sativa strain, so it's not as surprising as it may seem. I've sampled some of the 15th week flowers and they are almost pure THC! A very nice high. (I'm aiming for 17 weeks of flowering total.)
May last crop was all Indica and I flowered them for 12 weeks. That was probably a bit long.
If you're worried that the THC will degrade and disappear somehow, it ain't gonna happen. The only way it can degrade is to turn into one of the other cannabanoids. When they happens the trichomes will .....
Guess what? Turn amber! No amber, no THC degradation. Period!
Xlr8 or whoever said "don't harvest too soon" is right. These plants pack on a lot of weight the last two weeks.
After you do the final flush, continue using
Blackstrap Molasses. A lot of growers insist on nothing but water. The reason you don't use nutrients the last week or two is because you do not want to add any nitrogen to the soil. Nitrogen makes the smoke harsh, so you don't want to add any more to the soil. As the plants have no sources of nitrogen, they will start consuming the fan leaves, which is why they turn brown and fall off after you flush. (Also because the plant is ending its flowering cycle.)
However, they still need energy for THC production and what they hope is seed production. Adding
Blackstrap Molasses will provide the plant with some essential sugars to give it the energy it needs for this final push. Some companies sell a "Carbo load" supplement to use for flowering. Guess what it is?
Blackstrap Molasses or some other form of sugar.
I know money is tight now, but when things improve (and they will!), you might want to plan to get either
Canna's PK13/14 or
Advanced Nutrients Overdrive. Both of these are geared towards potassium and phosphorus with virtually no nitrogen. MJ uses lots of potassium and phosphorus for flowering and these supplements help provide it. It's not necessary, but it might pack a little weight on your next grow.
What you can do on the cheap is make ...
Take a couple ounces of sugar and dissolve it it very warm water, then add some
Bakers Yeast, the same kind you use for making bread. Don't use the
Quick Rise or
Pizza Dough types. The traditional works best.
After the yeast becomes active, put it in a glass bottle (I use empty mineral water bottles) and put aluminum foil over the top. Punch a couple of holes in the foil with a needle. The top serves too purposes:
1) It will force the CO2 out through the holes dispersing it around your plants;
2) It will keep the yeast solution from evaporating, which would lower its temperature and retard the fermentation.
I use five of these bubblers: 4 in my flower room and one in my veg room. Using a bubbler for vegetation is probably overkill, but for flowering it can make a big difference. Plants use CO2 in photosynthesis to make simple sugars. These sugars are then converted into amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. The plant uses these proteins to make cellulose, the stucture of stems and leaves, chlorophyll, etc. and, of course,
THC.
If your flower space is fairly contained, you can
double the amount of CO2 concentration in the room using these bubblers.
More CO2 ====> More THC
.
