Hope someone can help me out

@Jimj here’s a thread you can post all questions to until you can start your own
Welcome to the forum

This is the first time Jimj has posted — let’s welcome them to our community!

Jimj

16h

Not sure where to go on the forum to ask questions. I picked your name from a dart throw. I do hope you can help an old guy (69) out. I’m a beginner, sure you can tell.

  1. what is the difference from a reg seed, a feminized seed, auto flowering seed, etc etc.
  2. which seed will give me seeds back for next year, cause my wife and I live on 3K/mo.
  3. I use medical cannabis but the price is killing me. Like to grow enough to make tinctures with grain alcohol. My planting zone is NE Vermont USA, going to grow in 7 gal bag pots, outside.

Any input would be great. I have read allot in the last few days on this site, to no avail.

Thanks for listening.

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@Myfriendis410
@jimj Out door you would want feminized photos you’ll yield much more with the longer veg time

Feminized seeds will be female
Regular seeds can be male or female and you’ll need to sex the plant to remove males if you don’t want them
Autos don’t rely on light change to start flowering and most will start to flower 6-8 weeks from germination they don’t get as big as photo seeds which rely on shorter daylight hours to trigger flowering

Here’s a guide that might help you decide what to grow

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Welcome @Jimj

I guess you can start by sharing what your current weather is and where you are in terms of climate etc

That way you’ll get more people like @Countryboyjvd1971 with the experience that can guide you.

Here is another members journal who is just beginning his new grow

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Welcome @Jimj! I see you’ve met @Countryboyjvd1971. @MattyBear and @dbrn32 are two other gatekeepers who know how to grow weed. If you want to tag someone, use the @ sign in front of their names.

@Willd, @Screwauger here’s a new grower from your neck of the woods haha. Any advice for a first timer in the Northeast?

The guys that grow outside normally start their plants a month or so ahead of planting outside: the larger they are before putting out the larger they will be when they finish. Photoperiod feminized seeds are generally what are used although autos can be grown fine outside too. You just don’t get trees out of them.

As for seeds; there are so many decent seeds available for a reasonable amount that it’s your smallest investment. Your best savings would be creating your own soil to plant in but I strongly advise you to read up on it before you do. Personally I think you will have enough challenges ahead of you that you should just get a grow behind you to see what issues you have and what growing cannabis is really all about. Outdoors is tough with pests, insects, bud rot, wild weather, thieves etc.

Here’s a current journal from a very experienced grower. This guy gets it done. (Hi Will!)

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I’m in Vt.
The easiest to grow would be autos. They’ll finish up long before fall kicks in.
Since Vt weather can get nasty in sept/oct there’s always a risk of developing bud rot or temps dropping too soon before photo plants are done. Pay attention to flowering times. Straight sativas are less prone to bud rot, but have a much longer flowering time. So I’d look for a hybrid.

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:see_no_evil::sweat_smile: I really gotta stop trying to be of assistance when I’m baked

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Yo Jim.

I’m in Maine and I have grown both auto’s and feminized photo’s outside for the past few seasons. Caution with auto’s and time them to be in flower at similar times to photo’s. Last year, I had three auto’s I placed outside in early june, I had started them a month earlier indoors. They flowered great with huge colas and dank smells. Then the humisity of mid summer rotted every, darn. bud. Total loss. I learned a hard leasson, sense buds in july and august, rot.

Otherwise, I had a pineapple haze outside last year, 17+ ounces of dried nugz.

Welcome and lots of help here.

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Welcome @Jimj
Looks like point 1 has been covered
In response to point 2
Unless you are an avid horticulturalist and plan on becoming a breeder you’ll only want female plants… feminized photo or the auto-flower types
Cannabis is not like garlic or dry beans where the “fruit” is actually more seeds.
You can even accidentally stress a female plant to become hermaphrodite to the point of producing seeds if you’re not careful. Outdoor grows also run the risk of pollination by any male plant within a mile or 2.
I was spending 3k/year on weed before I started growing. I’ve spent 25-33% of that total growing my own since 2015.

I don’t have a response for point 3 but am curious how you ended up at alcohol tincture when there are so many other easier less costly and safer choices.
Check out this thread for alternatives.

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2- if you are looking to propagate your own at no budget, cloning is a good way. You can overwinter a clone to plant in the spring with no more invstment than 30 dollar light fixture. So one plant could go on forever in theory anyways. Can be done in unheated room or basement, they go semi dormnt from the cold.

@willd I found this site that shows how to make tinctures using Grain alcohol called Clear 151 proof from the liquor store. Grind up the buds. add alcohol shake every day, for a few weeks, or bring it to a 170deg for 20-30 min. The latter was a poor results. here is the link.

https://www.leafly.com/news/cannabis-101/cannabis-tinctures-101-what-are-they-how-to-make-them-and-how-to

I click on the site you posted on Recipes but it seems like a chat room. For the record, I do very little with PC’s, not very savvy on getting around the web. I’m more hands on, I see it done, I learn. I am dyslexic, reading takes two or three times to read to absorb. Would love a method to make my own tinctures as to that what my medical care giver suggested. Not a fan of smoke intake. I am on ER Morphine Sulfate, 100 mg/day. I am trying to get off this opioid. Sorry to be hopelessly lost here. I am 69, disable and retired with a small income. I’ll finish reading on the Grow Bible today. Not sure if you know, but I’ll be planting in NE Vermont this summer.

Take care.

Jim

PS, how can I change my big blue J for my account to a photo. I tried, was not able, possibly I’ll have to reduce the size of my jpeg.

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One of my friends is a retired University professor of food science who is now working for a medical cannabis company. All they do is live resin extractions. I asked him how best to do a tincture:

High proof grain alcohol. 150 proof or higher. Use 1 oz of spirits per gram of flower. Measure out and place decarboxylated** flower (broken up but NOT ground!) and alcohol separately in the freezer until thoroughly chilled: overnight is good. Then, in a sealed container, mix the alcohol and flower together and shake vigorously for 1 minute. Place BACK in the freezer and leave for 45 minutes to 1 hour MAX. Remove, strain and evaporate to the level you want or use as is. You can increase or decrease the potency of the tincture by either adding water, alcohol, or strengthen by evaporating.

45 minutes is plenty to extract all of the goodness from the vegetable material without extracting all of the chlorophyll which is bitter tasting. If you want the green color to disappear, put it in the sun for one hour or so which will attack any chlorophyll present and turn it straw colored.

**a good method for this is to place the flower in a mason jar and put in boiling water for a couple of hours after it’s broken up. You don’t want to disturb the vegetable material more than you have to which avoids extracting more chlorophyll.

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@willd, I now see the recipes. Maybe I was too tired when I first went in. I never knew one can make vape oil and insert it in the container. I’ve never vaped. Can you suggest places to get a vape pen at reasonable cost I guess. I see the farm to vape site. Since I detest smoking can you offer instructions as to using, purchasing and making my own vape or it it all right there and I need to read, and read. You must think I’m a putz and I guess I am. I’m a country boy at heart. Love the outdoors, NOT the tech world. I know it’s allot to ask but if I could make tinctures, edibles, vape… I’d be a happy camper.

Hope your day is going great and hope I did not interrupt it.

All I can say is thank you for your time.

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FYI: @Willd went on walkabout yesterday. He’s not here any more.

Question, what do you mean “he’s not here anymore?