Decided to close this thread properly.
(Also includes ramblings of an ol’ fart, feel free to disregard, or even better, feel free to add your thoughts.)
A big THANK YOU to all who encouraged, and/or lurked!
It has now been 165 days since I popped my first seeds in 40 years.
I am getting ready to smoke the last bowl of this harvest! What a wonderful journey its been!
It was so rewarding to grow my own again, and I so enjoy figuring out the cause/effect relationships.
I grew it in DWC hydro because that’s what I know best. This single zKittlez Auto was subjected to “some” LST. It yielded 3.25 oz of cured smoke. The cure was in Grove Bags and they worked well. I ran out of store bought weed about 3 weeks into the cure so I had to start dipping into it. The 3 week old cure was a tick harsh, but not bad. I pulled about ¼ every week out of the Grove Bag for headstash. The flavor improved each week. After about 2 months all traces of the harshness was gone and the smoke was smooth and tasty. In fact, I could swear the high got better as time went along as well.
In the meantime I grew 4 more plants (legal limit) in 3gal fabric pots inside the tent. Same strain, NO LST. The yield from all 4 plants was 4.25ozs. Soil in 3 gal pots, and no LST, was disappointing. Good smoke but tiny plants.
I now have another 4 Double Grape Autos at about 2 weeks old in 5g fabric pots outside. We will see how they do.
I see myself definitely going back to hydro. Some aspects of soil are easier, and outdoors is killer if you have good weather. My coastal weather is far from optimal. Often torrential rain, brutal winds , rH ranging from 35-90 throughout the day, bugs and microbes, deer, and even thieves are all present out there.
My motivators are that I have little to no control over nature. Where hydro in a tent I can control, if I screw it up it is almost assuredly my own fault. It takes a tremendous amount of “chance” out of the equation that mother nature introduces. It really is not that hard to keep a hydro grow in the sweet spot. And, for me, most of the objective when growing is simply to “keep it in the sweet spot” (where nature is a wildcard). I feel I have far less hazards in the tent.
The 4 DGAs growing right now will probably be the last outdoors for a while. My plans for next year are to only grow between September and April every year (& in the tent), and take the summer off. I don’t have AC in the garage so tent growing during the summer is not practical (temps exceeding 90f and cant get the humidity high enough to satisfy VPD at that temp). I figure if I can grow 3 indoor harvests of 2 plants each, I should have enough to keep my headstash perpetually stocked.
Now on to other ramblings.
Along the way I started playing with things over the last 165 days here are some observations:
Grove Bags: They work! But they are not miracle bags. What I found is that if I place flower that is between 60-66% rH in a Grove Bags it will maintain the humidity in the sweet spot and cure well without burping. I took readings on 6 different cure with a high accuracy wifi monitor and the bags held beautifully. I have personally been trimming and jarring my bud at about 67-68%. I then burp it for a day or two until I get to the 60-65% range and transfer to the bags and forget them.
Using a Wood Moisture meter was suggested by Grove to pull the plants at 11% moisture. I was not successful getting a good reading off the meter, the readings were all over the place. So I started just picking a big bud, put in a small jar with a hygrometer, wait an hour to stabilize. If the rH settles in the 60s% range then I pull and trim the plant, and bag it.
Extractions:
Kief: Acquired a rotary drum to dry sift kief. My first attempt was a disaster. Tried dry ice in with it. Used too much or something and everything got frozen to the sides of the drum and then went soggy. Got some kief after messing with it but it was very heavily contaminated with plant matter. Been reading up on it, and will try again soon.
HASH: Use the dry sift kief to make hash. Made a couple grams. Tried different techniques, all were great smoke. In fact this is probably my favorite extract to date. Its simple, kinda old school, tastes great, works well in the head, and yields are reasonable. In fact, I predict that I will probably play with the extract methods below for a while, but I suspect I will return to hash.
ISO and Ethanol: Acquired 99.8% ISO and 200 proof Ethanol. Also a Buchner Filter. Been playing with both on doing extractions. Preferring ISO quick washes so far. Ethanol if it will be edible. Trying to figure out how to extract all the goody in my squish chips, I know there is a bunch still in them as my yield is piss poor when squishing. I have a pseudo Lab Freezer that gets to -10f and tried to do a winterization and totally failed. I have a lot to learn in this realm.
I have chosen not to use any other solvents, or any processes that involve heat above 100f or above atmospheric pressure, for safety reasons. It just isn’t worth introducing the inherent risk to me, I can get plenty high without pushing the envelope or buying a bunch of PPE.
Rosin: Acquired a 2 ton manual press. Been playing with different methods trying to get a good squish. Currently pre-pressing 2g of flower in a round pollen press to form a puck, then slowly applying pressure over a minute, then kicking it up to 2 tons, at 210f for 2-3 minutes. Have tried other methods including BottleTek, but it seems I lose a lot of rosin in the weave of those mesh bags. Anyway, I have not given up yet. Currently I am getting a 5-10% yield at best, it seems like a waste unless you have an overabundance of weed.
DABing: With all of the above toys to play with, I finally tried a DAB. Interesting indeed. A major US Ecig company is branching out to the canna scene and has sent me an electronic DAB device to test. I fell in love with the whole concept (don’t care for nails or those honey bowls, too much hassle with high heat while I am stoned, I know me, clumsy). I just need an abundance of weed as that is the price of admission when you don’t squish worth a damn.
Green Goddess: With having oils and extracts available I tried some green goddess. @GrouchyOldMan gave me some great instructions. Very easy to make. I just am not an edibles type guy. It is not a predictable experience for me. The same amount of the same bottle of tincture can barely affect me one day, and yet blitz me stupid the next. So I really didn’t embrace the stuff. I have a bottle that I keep for when I overdo the yard-work and wake up sore as hell, don’t use it much beyond that.
Edibles: See above, ingestion just isn’t my thing. Tried some gummies and whatnot. Prefer to smoke my drugs, it is more predictable to me.
Water Curing: My latest experiment is water curing flower. I put 8g of flower in a jar, covered with dist water, change water every day until clear. My motivation is two fold. Right now I am out of cured weed #1, and I have situations where a stealthy aroma would be beneficial #2. It is my understanding that the water cure will make the smoke very smooth, but also removes the terps and their flavors. The smell is supposed to be dramatically reduced as well. Anyway, I thought it was worth a try. I am on day 2 right now. Flavorless weed is not my preferred smoke, however I need to see which is more desirable, smooth water cure with no flavor or a 2 week dry cure, as I am now out of cured weed.
Future: I really want to experiment with creating a vape cartridge. I vape nicotine and am not personally adverse to VG or PG. I figure I will use kief as the biomass, extract it with ISO, and then figure out how to winterize the lipds out of it.
I want to thank everyone here for BEING HERE! I have been on a lot of forums in my day, and I even admin a few, but the maturity level, focus, comradery, and neighborly spirit of OG has made me feel like I found a home!
This last bowl is hereby dedicated to the entirety of OG!
The Journey continues…………
Double Grape Autos at 10 days from pop, just before being placed outdoors.
Thanks @GCBudz
