R 2017-10-17

Hello, First of all i want to say thx for all the info provided on your site. While I agree with most of the info posted, having switched to growing outdoors exclusively organic over the past 4 years has taught me that the harvesting/maturing window really does depend not only on the change in natural light to a 12/12 pattern but also on other outdoor factors like temp fluctuations, light availability (i.e. sunny vs rainy days) and even some variation among seeds from the same batch. Growing (among others) the same strain year after year really opened my eyes to the fact that there is no rule set in stone for harvesting even say when all trichomes turn milky ... because even THAT varies from season to season. Of course growing indoors allows far more regulation of these parameters and this makes it more predictable from cycle to cycle (and this is indeed a good thing for planning ahead). Another thing that I would like to share from personal experience is that drying your flowers SLOWLY really improves the flavour and smoothness of the final product, as does harvesting during dark hours/late night before daybreak when most starches are in the roots of the plant. FAST drying (while definitely more practical) rarely produces similar quality in the finished product imo. Also, I DO NOT remove too many fan leaves at harvest, instead allowing them to hang over the buds for about 5 days before i start removing them in stages (I do try and aerate the plants by shaking them up every 2 days in the first 5 of hanging just to move some air through the buds in order to avoid mould formation ... nobody wants that). Thus, I hang the entire plant upside down for up to 12 days ... removing fan leaves in stages (either as they turn yellow or starting after about 5 days). This avoids the strong odour that comes with chlorophyll bleed from early trimming. This year, i will try and hang them for 14 days before trimming and moving onto curing cycle to see if i can refine them even further. Another important consideration for those looking for smooth bud is the TDS in your water (ideally under 100ppm if possible ... plants may love calcium and magnesium to grow big flowers but smoking bud that grows big using large doses of these gives off A LOT of burn in the throat). Also for those who believe in the NUTE FLUSH ... it's a joke! YOU CANNOT EVER FLUSH OUT ALL THE CHELATED NUTES USED ... sorry to all the hard workers out there using this approach. I started hydroponic, then went aeroponic before discovering the right approach ... natural sun, good organic soil, mycorrhiza, blackstrap molasses, kelp and distilled/rainwater is all you really need! of course, good natural cannabis specific soil took me 4 years to achieve but looking back it was so worth it. NOTHING BEATS NATURAL SUNLIGHT ... I've tried them all! The other advantage with living soil is that the pH of your water is not as critical because the soil will buffer it to what the plant needs. And every pest has a predator in nature that helps keep it in check. The overall costs are WAY LOWER when growing properly outdoors ... and with proper care the soil can be recycled and reused indefinitely with minimal maintenance (i now just top dress with 5-8 year old steer and cattle manure every other year). All you need is good genetics and a decent amount of sunlight during the growing season ... and a lot of TLC for the plants (i.e. weeding, pruning, mulching, building proper support/anchor systems for the fall winds, etc. ... all can be learned in organic farming principles). Lastly, if you've cured the bud to below 50% moisture levels you can safely VACUUM SEAL it (this also compacts it and slows down the sweating) as mould will not develop without ANY AIR in the container. You can then open these bags after about 1 month, let them breathe for a few hours and then re-vaccuum and freeze them for as long as needed without fear. Mould tends to develop at humidity levels above 65% (learned this the hard way in my cigar humidor) and is one of the reasons I'm always hesitant to use the boveda 62% packs to stabilize humidity levels before the start of curing ... it's just so close to 65% it makes me queasy. Sorry for the long post, noticed some of these topics came up in different posts and wanted to share some ideas. Wishing everyone a happy harvest. ;)