This mofo is getting the chop on Saturday... starting a 2-day flush tomorrow. Buds are really nice and firm so hopefully they won't shrink too much when they dry. The smell has been saturating my basement for a good 2 weeks now. I need to set up somewhere to dry!
Are you sure your girl is ready? Got some amber trichs? In general, you will loose 75-80% of chop weight. If I have 4 lb.of fresh bud, it will end up being about a pound. I wanna smell your plant Haa! I use a closet with a small fan in it and try to maintain 60-65%rh for the dry. No problem in the summer, but in the winter I put in a small humidifier or hang a wet towel. Basically making it a good cigar humidor. Maybe you have a space like that for drying?
I'm at about 90% cloudy now. I usually wait for somewhere between that and seeing a few ambers. This one is def ready - the other one needs a few more weeks.
Oh yeah and on drying... Since I upgraded the seedling tent, I'm gonna set up the old 3ft tent and throw some hangers on one of the cross-beams. If I set it up in the basement the dry should be nice & slow. I might do it upstairs, though, in which case I'll bust out a humidifier for sure.
Harvested the finished Orange Diesel today. Just an absolute shitload of buds on that one plant, most of them VERY dense. Don't have pics of it hanging yet since it was dark when I was done trimming, but got a couple from having the finished plant taken out and getting the one that needs more time centered and back on nutes! Dry Tent (set up this morning) - got the branches trimmed up and on hangers across the top center bar. Finished plant taken out to an isolated bucket for harvesting. Slow plant centered, side lights installed for finishing. I have 6 well-packed hangers in the tent now. Humidifier is going strong in that room (same room as the clones are in), so hopefully they'll dry nice and slow. Edit - got a shot this morning: View attachment 2482873
Drying off to a good start. Tent is holding in the 60-70% RH range even with the humidifier off. Buds still feel sticky. Definitely gonna be at least a few days before it all goes in the vaults!
Nice! 10+ days to slowly dry seems to bring out the best smell and taste for me bro. Sometimes I leave them in the drying closet for 3-4 weeks if the rh stays around 65%. I usually jar them at about 60%.
Pretty! I bought 1 of those carbon filters when I first started but all it did was put a big load on the exhaust fan. I've never had a run that was overly stinky growing. It gets really stinky when drying.
So long as you get a filter that has a higher cfm rating than the fan it's usually fine. I think the dry filter is 140cfm and the fan is 47 so hopefully not prematurely burning it out. I will say the drying smell is actually manageable. The friggin 2 in the cab REEKED! Even with just the one my basement still smells like mad. Once they were both flowering I started adding sweet raw to my soup - the stink started then and hasn't stopped! I think the air filters in my cab might be due for replacement...
Its an auto so it might be a little quicker. I'm thinking 10-20 days. Sweet is a product botanicare makes that is supposed to boost terpene production. More flavor & smell! They make berry/citrus/other versions for strains that have those flavors - "raw" is kinda all purpose. I had a sample around so decided to add it - seems to work, I think
Ahh! An auto. You're prolly right about 10-20 days. I have some of the GH equivalent to the sweet stuff, grape and pineapple, but molasses has worked the best for me, at a fraction of the price, for making the trichs load up and bring on the frost.
I've heard nothing but good things on molasses, but I worry about how it would play in DWC / recirc hydro. I do like less expense though! Have you done it or seen it done in hydro?
I haven't used it in a dwc type setup, but I don't think it will clog anything because the amount used is so small and already liquid. I use about 1-2ml per gal.
The first Orange Diesel has been put in the CVaults to cure. Wound up being 168g / 6oz - holy shit! I was not expecting that - I was thinking maybe 2-3 zips. An auto that was looking like it may not do anything at one point turned out to be my highest single plant yield yet! Disregard that 53% RH number - literally just added the hygrometer. Had to split the harvest to 2 vaults to let it breathe!