Help_Needed's first grow - second attempt

I think I harvested my last too early. It was a nice high, but I knew full well that it wasn't as strong as it should be. Experimenting as you say you will above is the best thing to do I think.

[Mr.GoodStuff]

The domes will reflect any type of overhead light, you should really try to see it with the 60x. Cut a leaf off and look at it on a table, let us know if it's still the same. The picture you showed of the bud just looks very early, if you have buds with lots more red hairs those would be the ones to take first for sure. But seriously try to get a look with that scope bro!

[Help_Needed]

Ok. I followed your advice. Cut a small leaf from the plant in back, the one I think is most ready, and looked at it under 60x. It was a bit of a pain since the leaf kept sticking to the scope lol. Trichs are about 15% clear, 80% cloudy, and about 5% of them are amber.

I'll look at the other plants before I cut them, but I think that, considering how badly this plant is doing it may be this one's time. I'll probably let the other ones go a bit longer for comparison. That way I'll know what's best with this strain next time around.

[Mr.GoodStuff]

Damn, amber on that one with all the white hairs? Or is there a bud you haven't shown you are talking about?

If it's done it's done though, the trich's are the final say. The hairs aren't as good to judge by- if it's mostly yellow hairs yet still fully mature it would be some really cool looking bud!

[Help_Needed]

Originally Posted by Mr.GoodStuff

Damn, amber on that one with all the white hairs? Or is there a bud you haven't shown you are talking about?

This is from the plant in the very back, and if I remember right, none of the pics I posted are of that plant. It was too far back to be able to get in with the camera to get a good shot, and since the camera is rather expensive (I'm a pro photographer on the side), I decided I'd rather NOT get MJ resin all over it .

If it's done it's done though, the trich's are the final say. The hairs aren't as good to judge by- if it's mostly yellow hairs yet still fully mature it would be some really cool looking bud!

Not sure if the colors on the pictures are quite accurate, now that you mention it. I tried to white balance using the back of a business card as a reference, but it's possible that the computer over did it. There are a lot more orange hairs on the buds than show in the pictures.

Again, though, the back plant is by far the most mature. I'm definitely going to let the front two go a bit longer. Might take the second plant some time next week, and let the third plant go another 5-7 days after that, just for comparison.

[Mr.GoodStuff]

70-77 days of 12/12 will be the max they should need. So another week max, no biggie! You'll be in orbit in no time now!

[Help_Needed]

Thanks to everyone for all the excellent advice yesterday. It's always appreciated. One of the things I really tried to keep in mind as the conversations were taking place is that I'm a little impatient to get this grow harvested. It's been soooo long - well not really, but sure seems that way lol. So I tried to remind myself that my impatience would tend to skew my perceptions in favor of an early harvest. So when the lights came back on yesterday, I took two more leaf samples off of the back plant and looked at them. They're definitely at least 80% cloudy with a scattering of amber trichs.

So I hemmed, and I hawed and then, at 9pm I cut the plant down. Just the back plant, mind you. The other topped plant will be left until at least early next week. And the third plant - which still isn't producing well - will be left longer. I'm thinking that with the third plant I'll wait until most of the trichs are amber, just to see what that's like. Maybe another two weeks or so.

I meant to take some harvest pics, but it was getting late and I was tired. I have no idea how much there is, weight wise, but I've got three good stems full of decent sized buds, a double handful of popcorn sized buds, and a plastic grocery bag full of shake. The second plant looks like it will produce a bit more than that. The third plant...well lets just say that I really hope the extra two weeks will do it some good lol. Eventually, when the other plants are harvested, I'll take all the shake and play around with making some hash.

And now that it's all trimmed I have one more question for the experienced growers out there......How the hell do you get all of the resin off your scissors after you're done??? rofl.

[Mr.GoodStuff]

A straight razor blade. Have fun, that stuff is strong!

[Help_Needed]

Hermies

Well, one anyway. I was checking the plants out this morning and found a single, lime-green banana sticking out of one the buds. Of course - Murphy's Law strikes again - it was on the second topped plant too. So I looked at all of the buds more carefully. Fortunately it was the only male flower I could find. Hopefully if I keep a close eye on things I can prevent pollination for the next few days until I'm ready to harvest the rest. But this means my 10 minute checks are going to turn into 30 minute inspections twice a day.

I checked the trichs on the affected plant - 100% cloudy with about 15% amber now. They're turning fast. So even if the hermie problem forces me to harvest the rest earlier than I wanted, they should still be good.

With 15% amber you could get away with harvesting that one to get it out altogether, but it IS a bit early for that.

Really sorry to hear about this, but you are that close to harvest you should hopefully get away with it. So....what do you think caused it? I go to a LOT of trouble to light seal my cupboard....did you light seal the area well?

[Help_Needed]

I should have looked at some pictures on the net before I panicked lol. What I found on the plant looked NOTHING like any of the pictures, not to mention that everything I read says a male flower should be cream or yellow colored, and this was lime green.

I'm guessing I just murdered a brand new, immature female flower lol.

[Mr.GoodStuff]

Glad it was just a false alarm. Can't wait to hear how smoking it goes!

[Help_Needed]

Oh yeah, in all the excitement I forgot to mention that one of the four clones has rooted (the other 3 are showing signs of it as well, but the roots aren't showing through the rapid rooter yet). It's going into a pot with some soil. I'll bonsai it and use it for a mother plant if I decided to try another grow with this strain in the future.

[straitoutocmptn]

dont worry about indica/sativa right now. its not gonna make much of a difference to you(as far as the high goes, for growing reasons it may matter to you). a VERY experienced smoker, upon sampling hundreds of different types of weed, will begin to notice the unique highs produced by different indica/sativa mixes. it is sad that you are so worried about your ideal high. you will learn to enjoy every state of mind that marijuana provides.

[Help_Needed]

This is actually a couple of days late since the "trip" actually happened Friday afternoon, but I've been busy.

So, Friday rolled around. I was home by myself. I had nowhere to go and a lot of time to get there. Thanks to the desert air where I live the weed was mostly dry. And I was really in the mood to get fucked up - not just pleasantly high like the two samples I took - but out of my mind. So I broke out my pipe, selected five or six of the small popcorn buds, and went to town.

The buds were still a little too sticky to break up by hand, so I took some other smokers' advice and chopped them up with a pair of scissors. I also found a nice tutorial on how to smoke weed (amazing what you can find online, isn't it? lol). So my technique was a lot better than the first two tries - much less wasted smoke. Based on my first two samples, I was guessing I'd need at least 3 bowls to get where I wanted to be. I was guessing wrong .

Still sitting in front of the computer, I started off with small soft hits, so I could get used to the smoke. I started to feel it after the third hit. By the time I finished the bowl off I was higher than I was during either of my samples. And then I set the pipe down and really took flight. It was the coolest feeling. I could literally feel myself get higher and higher by the second. After a couple of minutes I remembered I was still looking at the monitor. It looked like I had some interesting email and stuff, but reading took just way too much effort. Things get a bit hazy after that

I spent about an hour and a half laying on my bed, contemplating the patterns in the textured ceiling. At some point I got up to take a piss. As I wandered out of the bedroom I heard someone singing softly - like a radio that was left on in another room. So I went out to the living room to check if the TV was on. Nope. I checked both of the bedrooms. Nope. I even went outside to see if maybe it was coming from somewhere else. Nope. Finally I found the source of the singing - the toilet was still running .

After that I decided I was bored, but still too high to really do anything. I remembered reading somewhere that sugar would bring you down a bit, so I had an icecream sandwich and a bottle of Gatorade. Looking back I can't imagine what a terrible combination that must have been, but it tasted good at the time. It also did the trick. It brought me down enough that I could log on to the computer and play Warcraft, which is how I spent the rest of the night. I think. And I never did get around to smoking that second bowl...or the third

And yes, I liked it. Not to fond of the smoke itself, but that may change once the buds have a chance to cure a bit. But it's definitely a lot easier to get down than say a shot of cheap whiskey. I also learned the hard way that having a screen in my pipe is an absolute necessity. I know some smokers say they don't use them, but for me, I got to. As I said, I started out with small soft hits, but the higher I got the deeper and harder I was hitting the pipe. At one point I actually inhaled a bit of burning ash lol.

In other news...As I mentioned, the buds from the first harvest are dry and in a jar to cure. I am a little disappointed in the yield from this first plant - I got a mere 3/8 oz. Granted, for a newb smoker like myself, that's still a LOT of bud, but it would have been nice to at least have hit the 1/2 oz. mark. Then again, this is my first grow, and I added the extra challenge of trying to do it hydro, and had a lot of problems as a result. I know there are a lot of growers out there who don't even manage to get their first crop all the way to harvest. So I guess I should be proud of what I accomplished. And there are still two more plants to go.....

The other two plants are still doing well, more or less. I'm at the beginning of the "official" breeder recommended harvest window (week 7). They're both continuing to self-cannibalize - about half the leaves are showing signs of serious nute deficiencies. I'm not sure the third plant will make it to next week at the rate their going. I checked the trichs on the second plant. Depending on where I took the sample from, they're running anywhere from 25% to 75% amber, say 50% on average. I'll probably harvest it this evening.