Delta

... just an update.

I'm gonna chill for a day or two before removing the rest of the resinous fan leaves. I'm starting to dig too close to the bud with the scissors and they keep getting clogged.

If this happens, then they're not completely dry yet. Especially the stems and center of the flowers.

You don't want to loose all that resin to the tips of the cutters.

Plus, the flowers are still extremely sensitive to bruising.

Also, they are still very susceptible to mold.

Still looking kinda scraggly ...

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Delta

It's Day 12.

The remaining, unwanted, resinous, leaves are now so brittle they just snap off with your fingers. Considerably less messy than using scissors at this stage. Plus, IMHO, the final manicure looks more professional when they are hand trimmed.

I've already proceeded to pick off the leaves on the rest of the plant. I saved the last cola I was working on for the pic.

You can see I've gathered all my resinous leaves in my tupperware.

About ready for the scissors again, too ... here we go!

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Delta

...

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Delta

Here's most of what we have left, a couple branches are still over on the coffee table and not in this pic.

I've removed all branches from the main stem and root ball. They are just easier to work with. You really don't want to remove too much of the stems, yet. But you can get an idea of what the final yield will look like.

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Delta

... of the little tops. The smallest cola is about 4.5-5 inches.

So close to the cure!

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Delta

This one was the reason I broke the plant in half early. It was so big and dense it had a high probability of becoming moldy. That really sucks, did I mention that?

Over a foot of crystally juicy goodness.

Things are becoming very dense at this point. Almost time for a wiegh in. Not 100% dry, yet. Let's wait to get an accurate dry weight.

The smell has matured, as well. Still very fragrant, though. The musk is going away. Smells more like grapes, now.

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Delta

... er ... make that two.

It's day 15 and the buds are crunchy dry to the touch. And, very smokable. But they aren't cured yet and the stems on the colas won't snap, they still bend.

Perfect time to begin the final cuts.

(You can almost make out a cloning accident on my middle finger. Plants got some fresh blood meal that day!)

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Delta

... is a specific manicuring technique to prepare for proper curing.

The objective of curing is to dry out the plant, AS SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE WITHOUT MOLDING. So, I like to leave an optimal amount of stem on each flower or flower pair. If you cut too much of the stem off, the bud will dry out quicker. Another exception is that I always leave about 2 inches of stem on colas because they tend to take longer to cure than smaller nugs.

Save the best for last, right?

About 1/4 - 1/2 inch below the internode should be fine, after the 15th day of drying. If buds must be removed sooner, leave more stem on. You can discard it later.

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Delta

... are prevelent amongst nuggets. The cola pairs are so dense you just leave 'em alone. BIG FAT COLAS ARE THE BEST!

But, what should you do with the little pairs that appear on each branch?

First, remove the top [see pic 2 posts ago], then remove the flower pair from the base stem. If you look carefully at this pic, you can see that I leave the flower pair attached to the base stem, but cut almost all of the base stem off around it.

Leave about 1/2-3/4 inch of base stem that connects the flower pairs. DO NOT SEPERATE FLOWER PAIRS.

Like this (Kinda fuzzy, I know, ask a question if you don't understand):

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Delta

Work in progress ...

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