[quote name='"farm Boy"']OK, 76, So are you saying not to start the flush until the trich are at the desired doneness (for example 70 cloudy)? But if you flush for 4 or 7 days, won't the buds be over done by harvest?[/quote] Correct, the do the final flush when your ready to pull and not before. If you're looking for 70% amber. Flush at 50 and keep checking her everyday. If there is a problem you can still be satisfied with the 50%. If she gets over done to your desired ripeness, try your flush a couple of days earlier the next time.
Hey fb, nice work! You're on the home stretch... Can you taste the smoke yet? Do you think temps are getting a little high lately? It looks like you got your res in check. Your humidity is low right now, so to fight your PM, just keep a mist of water on them, or even add a little baking soda to it. You'll probably have to give them a bath at harvest, but it should still be some pretty nice stuff.
Thanks Widow, But I'm pretty bummed right now. For the last couple of days, I was thinking that the lack of nutrients was stressing the plants and causing them to wither. But last night I noticed that the White Russian is really drying out and looking terrible. This led me to change my diagnosis of the problem. Now I think the powdery mildew is sucking the life (and moisture) out of my plants, especially the White Russian. So drastic action is needed. I'm chopping the TR tonight. It's probably a couple of days early, but I don't want to let the powdery mildew to do any more damage. I also plan to cut back all but the main colas on the WR. Then I’ll add some more nutrients and see if I can save anything. Regarding the high temps and low RH… I should have noted that about a week ago I moved a couple of lights so that they are straddling the temp/RH sending unit. So I think it's reading hot and dry. Regarding the baking soda… I definitely am no longer a fan of the Serenade. That shit didn’t do shit. So I will try a baking soda spray tonight. And will be doing the H2O2 Bath as well. I’m already planning the next grow. Ordered some feminized Nirvana Northern Light, and am designing a DWC system that makes use of a 10 gallon reservoir and two 3.75 gallon root chambers.
Don't get discouraged. I think for your first grow, you're a total rock star man! I'd love to be able to create a setup like yours. I agree that unless you go SoG of all the same strain at the same times, having a unique res or at least unique res per strain is critical. Otherwise you end up like this, where one is ready and the other isn't. Do you have pics of the PM and overall plants? You *should* be able to just spray with bs/water and then wipe and then repeat. Just keep spraying them lightly with water and that should keep the PM at bay. If you can nurse these back to health I think that's best. Just be patient and it will pay off. What is your PPM/PH? I've noticed that sometimes things look bad, but hardly have I seen plants that can't be revived. The benefits the plant provides to many also extend to itself. It can survive almost anything...
You may also want to consider drying the harvested bud more rapidly than normal. This will help prevent bud rot. I dry mine in four days by hanging them in the grow space with the lights in 12/12. If I had any mold or mildew I would keep the lights on 20/4 and completely dry them in 3 days. Just a thought.
D91/B59: 1-24-12 @ 8:00 PM-Midnight HARVEST!!! Cut down the Train Wreck. Roughly trimmed the buds. Yielded more that I was expecting (as of late, anyway). The Powdery Mildew was everywhere. An inspection of the trichomes showed that many were turning cloudy and a few were amber. Harvest was probably 2-4 days early, but we'll have a better idea after curing. To get rid of the PM, I made two Hydrogen Peroxide baths. The first bath was in a 10 gallon tote and included 12 oz of 3% H2O2 and 4.2 gallons of water. The second bath was in a 5 gallon bucket and included 8 oz H2O2 and 2.2 gallons of water. I submerged all the buds at one time in the first bath for 6 minutes. To keep the buds submerged, I set a cookie cooling rack over them and weighted it down with a can of soup. This worked great. Before removing the buds I tried to skim the PM off the solution's surface with a dish rag. Not sure if this worked. From the first bath the buds were moved to the bucket bath, where they were only submerged for a few seconds. Next, I gently, but thoroughly, sprayed each bud with a nozzle attached to the garden hose, then shook off the water. Finally I hung the buds on a converted laundry basket, turned on a fan, and turned off the garage light. Don't see any PM on the buds!!! I did not harvest the White Russian. It's been devastated by the powdery mildew, but a few buds will be usable. ran outta time. Will have to deal with those tomorrow. D92/B60: 1-25-12 @ 6:00 AM Garage Temp: 63.5 Grow Chamber Temp: 70 Grow Chamber RH: 45% Reservoir Temp: Reservoir pH: 6.4 Reservoir ppm: 450 Reservoir volume: The temp and humidity are different because the cabinet door was left slightly ajar so I could power the drying fan, and the main light fixture was not turned on. Wanted to spray the plant with baking soda or H2O2, but ran out of time. Will be harvesting them in the next couple of days. Put the Train Wreck buds in my double-walled cardboard box drying chamber this morning. The drying chamber is a medium sized box with string runing back and forth across the top. Three 2.5 inch holes are drilled on either end of the box. A fan is inside, facing one set of the holes. This box sits inside a second, larger box that also has three holes on two opposing sides. The big box and little box are aligned so that the holes do not match up. They are 90 degrees off. Have ton of photos to post, but the site is still screwed up from the upgrade.
Thanks for the encouragement, guys. Photos in next post that show the extent of the PM devistation. Don't have the time to deal with the screwed up website this morning. Regarding drying the bud in the grow chamber. Good idea in general, but... White Russian is still growing and the place is think with Powdery Mildew.
Congrats on the harvest! Make sure you don't let the wet stay on you buds or you'll get bud rot for sure. Also, don't let you fan blow directly on the drying buds. Air circulation is great, but direct blowing air is bad. Im not sure if drying in the dark is such a good idea this time either. Once you see that you have mildew the best thing to do is dry them ASAP. I would forget boxing them up this time and just hang that bitch right over a dry heat source, such as a HID or an electric heater. That box might aid in holding too much moisture in. And, if even a touch of mildew comes back you could ruin your entire crop. Forget worrying about degrading your bud slightly. Worry about bud rot! What ever you do I have my fingers crossed for you.
Thanks 76, I'll be home in a few hours and will assess the progress. Sounds like light isn't all that bad. It sure would make the drying easier, if you can use a bulb or two to burn off some of the moisture.
[quote name='"farm Boy"']Thanks 76, I'll be home in a few hours and will assess the progress. Sounds like light isn't all that bad. It sure would make the drying easier, if you can use a bulb or two to burn off some of the moisture.[/quote] Once you get mildew you need to get that bud dry as quick as possible. I hang mine just ABOVE the light. The warmth speeds it up just enough to get it totally dry in 4-5 days. And, not having it under the light ensures you don't get THC burn off. However with mildew I would trim the nuggets and place those on a pizza plate just under the light. Then rotate the buds every so often (like every couple of hours) until completely dry. Figure two days. But I would go with it for a third day with the light raised up just to make sure there is no moisture anywhere in it at all. Then jar them up. Check the jar the next day. If you feel any moisture has been drawn out chuck them back on the pizza plate under the light for a few hours or so. This is a close to natural as you want to get when dealing with mildew. Just get that shit dry as fast as possible and save your buds. It will still be good when everything is said and done. And, you will have beaten the mildew for sure.
Thanks Stash, Harvested the White Russian this morning. I'd post photos, but the website's too slow. The following are my last few journal entries... D93/B61: 1-26-12 @ 6:00 AM After the buds had been in the box with a fan for a day, the outsides were just starting to get a little crispy, so I turned the fan off. Keeping the lights off in the grow chamber. D93/B61: 1-26-12 @ 6:00 AM Nothing to report. Buds are only slightly dryer than yesterday. Still keeping the lights off in the grow chamber. D94/B62: 1-27-12 @ 5:40 AM Harvested the White Russian. Cut off most of the brown leaves. Buds have lots of red hairs and look OK. Did a double hydrogen peroxide bath (.75 Cup to 2 gallons of water, in each). Skimmed all the PM off the surface before removing the buds. Sprayed them off with the hose. Shook the excess water off, then put them in the cardboard box drying chamber with the fan on. Skipped the open-air-with-fan-drying stage because it was daytime.
Congrats man! You've finally made it to harvest! Have you quick dried and blazed a little of that? Do you like them?
[quote name='"Lovemybudz"']Can we see pics of the buds? I wanna see that cured TW.[/quote] Only pictures I can see are phone pic's.
Pretty much given up on this website. Sorry guys. Buds are curing nicely. The double HP bath completely cleaned them. The TW smells great. Here's my entry from the other day... 1-29-12 @ 7:00 AM After drying in the box for a couple of days, the WR felt very dry with untrimmed leaves, being crumbly. A day or two ago, I put the TW in a paper bag and rolled it up. I put this bag in a plastic grocery bag to slow drying. This morning I put both strains in jars. After a few hours I checked the humidity: WR: 80% TWL: 59% Weights: WR: 21.8 grams TR: 53 grams Total: 74.8 grams Bag appeal: TW- Crystals cover the TW buds and small leaves that haven’t been trimmed (no more trimming will be done). Color is light army green, Very few rusty hairs are evident. Nice odor that is just a little skunky. Buds are definitely fluffy compared with the top shelf product available from the dispensaries. WR- There is very little structure to the buds. There seems to be almost no seed sacks. They are almost entirely made of red hairs and a few protruding leaves which are crispy. Buds are not covered with crystal. The centers of the buds are still moist. Smell is hay-like. Product needs a lot more dry/cure time. Test Data: Took one vaporizer hit of the TW and was pleasantly surprised. Taste was mellow and good (weak adjective, I know). Top shelf head/body high that hit me after a few minutes. Very relaxing, yet a fair amount of mental stimulation: Excellent combination. Wife stated, “The high started in the eyes. It felt like the vitreous humour drained from my globes, spread through my core and finally oozed from my finger tips, bonding me to the couch.” The proportion of the body component was higher than expected since we thought it was picked early. Will try to post photos if they ever fix the site. The White Russian should be ready to try in a couple of days. It was in a jar for a couple of days, but yesterday AM, I paper bagged it to lower the humiditiy. It'll go back in the bag tonight.
What was your final weight? How you liking the smoke? Too blazed to update us? Hope to see you run another grow!