Saturday, May 28, 2022
I grew some plants. Third time's the charm.
They began, as we all do, as little spindly nubs.
That third one is a runt that didn't make it. It grew, but slowly, and its leaves were distorted and small.
The laboratory includes a humidifier, webcam, and digital thermometer/hygrometer.
After discarding the runt, I potted up the survivors and added another humidifier.
Soon, though, the plants began to ail. They drooped and began to yellow and shrivel.
It could have been any number of things:
Reasoning that the problem had something to do with the container geometry or its contents, I "potted on" into larger containers with fresh mix.
My grow space lacks height, and I've read that cannabis roots like to stretch out laterally. So, I found this tub in the local hardware store, drilled some holes in the bottom, and placed it suspended on a rack above a baking sheet.
This time I used sexy bark mulch.
The other plant I potted up to a larger conventional pot, though after a while I ended up putting it in a tub too.
The plants were much happier in these new containers.
As you can see, they're starting to get close to the lights, so it was time to train the plants by tying them down.
After adjusting to their bondage, the plants looked as healthy as I've ever kept.
In late February I switched the light schedule from 18 hours on down to 12 hours on. This signals to the plants that Winter is coming and that they should begin producing flowers to reproduce. Except that they won't reproduce. I will smoke them instead.
In March I visited Paris for a week for work. In that time, Pasha kept the plants alive.
When I returned, I was greeted by very happy flowering plants.
How do you know when a plant is done and ready for harvest? Opinions differ online, but what I gather is the following:
Trichomes are difficult to see with the naked eye. Growers use a jeweler's magnifying glass, called a "jeweler's loupe," to inspect the trichomes.
Here are the plants well into flowering, but a while before harvest:
Taking a phone picture with the loupe works better than I expected, but I still haven't gotten the hang of it.
In May I returned to Paris for work. Beforehand, though, I harvested the plants so that nobody else would have to care for them so close to the end. It was close enough, I think.
I snapped off the branches one at a time and roughly trimmed off the leaves using special trimming scissors. I'll do another trimming after the flowers have dried. For now I'm just removing most of the vegetation.
That's most of the first plant. Paper bags in the refrigerator? I'll explain later.
The following morning I harvested the other plant.
I'll weigh the harvest after it's dry. Later that afternoon I departed once again to Paris.
This is my first time attempting to properly dry a harvest of weed, and I've chosen an unorthodox and possibly risky method.
The reason is that I was going away for a week right after harvesting, so I sought a "hands off" method that would dry the buds slowly while I was gone.
Usually what people do is hang the branches (or the entire plant) upside-down for a week or two in a temperature and humidity controlled environment with some airflow until the branches snap without bending. Then the buds go into jars that are periodically opened ("burped") until the desired relative humidity is reached inside.
It's getting humid and warm in New York these days, so while the standard method probably would have worked fine, I sought an alternative.
Some people (i.e. at least two people on the internet) dry their weed in the refrigerator. The idea is that the fridge is a self-cooling and dehumidifying cave of sorts. To regulate the humidity in the immediate environment of the weed, you put the buds in paper bags and stick them in the fridge. Then you regularly give them a shake, and less regularly put a sample into a jar with a hygrometer to see how the dry is coming along.
Others on the internet have told me that this is foolishness and that all of the weed will smell like refrigerator.
Well, it's now been two weeks, and "refrigerator smell" has not been an issue. However, the weed is not drying quickly enough. I put some buds in a jar on the counter for several hours the other day, and the humidity settled at 99%. There was condensation on the inside of the jar.
Granted, everything happens more slowly at 34°F, but I'm concerned about mold developing.
I'll keep giving the bags a shake and take a jar sample again in a few days. If they haven't begun to dry more by then I'll consider putting them on racks outside of the fridge to dry instead.
I bought a six pack of those giant Ball jars, and I'm wondering if that will be enough. Assuming the buds don't mold into the world's most expensive compost pile addition, I'll weigh them once they're curing.