Twelve1’s Journal: Autoflowers in Soil with Grow Dots

I was like @Fiz - didn’t own a single mason jar cuz I lucked into the Grove Bags first.

Then I went down the concentrates rabbit hole and bought 4 32oz jars anyway to make QWET.

So naturally now my freezer is full of decarbed weed in mason jars and ethanol.

Anyway, use the mason jars to make concentrates. It’s pretty easy, and honestly if infusions are the goal, whether tea, tincture, vape, or edibles, then QWET will achieve all of those with easy dosing accuracy.

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So this is a bit embarrassing, but I’m having a hard time reading Marina’s trichomes, and my loupe doesn’t take good pictures (it has a phone attachment.) My other plants gave clear indication of where the trichomes were at; this one, not so much.

Marina’s trichomes are more cloudy than last week, however they are also more amber, much more amber than last week … and overall, most of her trichomes are translucent. Even the cloudy trichomes primarily have cloudy heads, while the body is somewhat translucent … which I believe can be normal for a harvest-ready plant?

This kinda makes me wonder if I waited to long to harvest … then I wonder, if I wait longer then will she get more cloudy … but she actually has few clear (heads) trichomes … but if I wait longer, then I’ll have more amber … this is a Sativa, and NOT intended for nighttime meds.

She’s becoming more aged-looking every day, and she overall looks like an auto needing to be chopped. And some of her sugar leaves are yellowing, which I’m not comfortable with those being so close to the buds. I was going to snip off a tester bud, but by the time that’s dry, then it will be a day or two later… along with more time passed, which might not be a good thing. So, unless I do the microwave quick-dry method … :thinking: … that I’ve never done before and just seems weird to me, but I guess some folks do that.

I think I’ve answered my own question, i.e. that I should turn her light off and start the 24-48 hours of darkness.

Thoughts?

Also, maybe this is a dumb question, but do Sativa and Sativa-dominant plants have different trichome development than Indica plants? @Graysin @The_Cannabowlist @kaptain3d @Newt and anyone else who might know. Thanks!

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The trichome heads are what you should evaluate, never anything else. The rest is kind of irrelevant. Also I’d only be eying the trichomes that are mushroom :mushroom: shaped. Everything else is also largely irrelevant. Reason being the “mushroom cap” of the trichome is where the bulk of the THC is stored. When they’re cloudy, they’re ready.

Do you have an air fryer? Most air fryers have a dehydrate option. That would be my go-to for a quick test smoke.

Trust your gut. If she looks ready and the majority of the trichomes are cloudy or amber, it’s ready.

As far as Sativas, my understanding is that they take longer to develop and mature, but that’s about as much as I know.

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Agree with @Graysin . And if in doubt, take a sample bud quick dry, and smoke it. You’ll know. Just be aware that it will be harsh.

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I looked up using an oven. This is from ILGM’s Grow Guide:

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So, I’ve been planning to do that, but I’ll wait until a storm has passed, which should be within the hour. There was a lightning strike on the street above us about fifteen minutes ago, according to the lightning map, and our ears. :astonished: We’ve lost power several times lately, mostly due to thunderstorms. Three weeks ago, an outage damaged one of our refrigerators, despite having a whole house surge protector. We have a claim in process with the surge protector manufacturer.

Anyway, I’ll report back.

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Can also toss a bud in a paper bag folded up and sealed, just don’t squish it. Should be a lot dryer in the morning.

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Did I think that the plant was ready for harvest?
This morning:

Marina es muy bueno! That quick-dry method sure does make for yucky-smelling weed, although it wasn’t as harsh as I thought it would be. But it worked well enough to do a quick sample on the mid-level bud that I snipped yesterday.

The weed gave me a decent but unexpected, long-lasting, numbing (and welcoming!) body stone, but it didn’t make me sleepy, and I was clear-headed and functional, unlike the other weed that I’ve grown.

The Fast Buds Mexican Airlines strain effects description says that it’s a clear-headed high, but little else in the description of the strain’s effects entirely matches my experience (part of it could be me/how it affects me), which isn’t a bad thing, just different and still quite beneficial/useful. Below, in my screen shot, it says no body stone, so I wasn’t expecting a body high/stone, BUT that could be that I waited longer to harvest. BUT that’s good too, as Marina will be great when I need body chillin’ and yet be functional. Next time, I’ll be able to read her trichomes better and take a test bud earlier on.

I don’t pay much attention to strain description time tables for harvest, but Fast Buds says it’s ready in 9-10 weeks, which seems pretty accurate, for mine, anyway. I just checked their website again - now they say 10 weeks, lol, and that it’s 65% Sativa, when it used to say 75% Sativa, ha! Anyway, Marina sprouted 11 weeks and three days ago. Her trichomes changed a lot over the past few days, which can happen.

Anyway, I’m pleased!

@Se7en , since you like Fast Buds, here is my initial experience of their Mexican Airlines.

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Nice looking harvest! Sound like what you were after (except size, perhaps?).

My mind is just blown that she’s done already - time is ROARING my imo.

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Yes, she is mostly what I was after. I thought it would be more energetic, but I really like this, too. An earlier harvest most likely would have been energetic to some degree, so I’ll try that sometime. But, I also want an excuse to get some Durban Poison auto seeds, so :smiley: :smile:

Her small size is :thinking:, so I have to believe that the next plant will be bigger. It seems from others’ experiences that this plant usually isn’t overly large, though. My husband is interested in trying this and it could be very useful to him, so I may end up wanting a bigger harvest next time.

Yeah, she was fast, and I could have harvested her even a bit earlier. :speedboat:

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Also tends to be sort of paranoia inducing if it is way early…

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Yeah, and a bit hard on the nervous system. :crazy_face:

Alrighty, full disclosure - I just finished the bud wash … yep, AFTER harvesting this morning … :crazy_face: This was my first bud wash, and frankly I had been nervous about doing one. I really have no excuse for not doing it this morning at harvest, other than I had sorta planned on doing a bud wash, then it turned out that she was ready kinda quickly, and the unopened hydrogen peroxide was a few months past expiry date, so I had to get to the store today and get the game plan set up … and the dog ate my homework. :grin:

Turns out that I enjoyed the bud wash! It was therapeutic, complete with lemon spice aromatherapy, and it was a cool way to connect to the buds. I hadn’t realized how dense these buds are! With all of the humidity this summer and some tiny gnats flying around early in the grow, it was especially good to do. Surprisingly, little gunk and stuff came off, other than a slight bit of film. :face_with_raised_eyebrow: that I’m glad to have off, since that’s supposed to be wpm, yuck! I gave them a good rinse afterwards. I was able to give them an extra good look-over, and they seem good, I don’t see any signs of mold or bud rot.

I did the bud wash according to Jorge Cervantes’ method that’s been posted on the forum in different threads:

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Congrats on the harvest.

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In exciting news, my skeleton, named Ossi Patella, was in need of a scythe, so I brought one home for him today, he was so excited! :rofl: Nothing but the best craftmanship for Ossi, no expense spared … only $3.18 for scythes at Walmart! :smile: :skull:

Go ahead and judge, but I took selfies with the skeletons. :crazy_face: :laughing: I love Halloween. :bat: :spider:

My peeps on Aisle F9! They were zip-tied while awaiting adoption, but were making the best of it. Resilience in action, what great role models! :joy:

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You just reminded me that I have a skeleton greyhound out in the shed. It used to bark and its eyes lit up. Its still pretty cool, I’ll have to haul it out.

And time for a chihuahua skeleton too - sure they have them.

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They sound like fun!

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OMG that’s awesome - Imma have to buy a full size human skeleton now. I did order the chihuahua.

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Home Depot has some, at least local to me, that’s where I “adopted” mine, LOL, only $30, what a steal. :smile:

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I’ve got an HD near me, and I know Target and Walmart are supposed to have them in too. Hubby will think I’ve lost my mind but it’s just too funny.

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Today is four days after I chopped Marina. Her buds are starting to feel dry, but they are still squishy, and the ambient air is more dry the past day. So, today I gave the buds a rough trim, which basically is a mostly-done trim. I then put her into a loosely sealed “container”, pictured below, that I covered/sealed with foil. Based on my experience, a tightly sealed container might be a tad too much at this point, but I might do so in a day or two. All of this is prepare for “sweating the buds”, per Grove Bags instructions, and then they will go into the Grove Bags.

Here is the clean baking pan that I “sealed” with foil, as much as foil seals, regardless of what Weird Al has to say about it. I put in a hygrometer and I’ll keep tabs on the buds, then go from there:

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Here is what Grove Bags says about bud sweating, which sounds a lot like bloodletting. :upside_down_face: The link is grovebagsdotcom/sweating-cannabis

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Thanks, I might do that someday. I have been using some mason jars (I bought only 4oz and 8oz) for seed storage, dried herbs, “stuff”, a passive essential oil diffuser, and the other day I used an 8oz jar that perfectly creates a Q-tip dispenser since mine came in cardboard. There’s enough headspace to screw on the lid, or it can set right on top, making for a quickie Q-tip grab:

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