waterboy

Hey, got a new camera for Xmas so I thought I would try it out on my favorite subject. By the way this is pretty much for growers, it will be obvious why.

As you start learning to grow you struggle to get your plants to stay alive long enough to bud out. Pretty soon after a few grows you get that part down. So what happens is you have these grows that are producing good quantity of bud, however it is not always the best quality. It might be a little harsh, you know the stuff, your throat gives out before you can get high.So what to do to get better bud to smoke beside waiting until the next harvest?

Here is what I do, and if you have never done this on this scale you don't know what you are missing. I could ramble on about it but you wont believe until you try it.

Step 1. You have been here - Too much average pot. This is Paradise Seeds Dutch Dragon, ok but the potency is lacking and it is a bit harsh. Well trimmed, bottle cured for 4 months - perfect moisture.

Step 2. Ok, nothing new here - start breaking the bud down first into bigger clusters

Step 3. Then smaller and smaller pieces.

Step 4. What you want is to be able to trim off only the very outside of the bud, hairs and leaf parts only. No stems or false seed pods or anything that is not green.

Step 5. Keep rotating the bud being careful not to trim very deeply. If you cut off the tops of some seed pods, fish them out. I normally keep a pair of tweezers handy. All of that roughage is where the harsh taste comes from.

Step 6. This is tedious but well worth it.

Step 7. You will end up with a small naked bud, which I toss.

Step 8. In fact you will lose something over 60% to 70% of your harvested weight. But for kick ass - bet you can't smoke the whole thing - I wish my baby mama's koochi tasted that good - dope, WHO CARES

Step 9. Absolutely clean and ready to smoke. This is the same product that I was not that proud of and was wishing I had something better to smoke. I had a lot of pot so why not. In fact that is a good reason when your harvest exceeds the amount of stash you can have on hand. You cannot sell it, unless you like to take chances. Any I was smoking three bowls to get a good buzz. Now 1/2 bowl does me or I'm no good (or real good, depends on how you look at it) for anything, unless it's rambling along. If you have the quantity try it. peace

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mattdreads

I'm trying to put my head around this one, but I'm not there yet.

props for having the patience?

I'd opt for a kiff box if my shit was so bad I couldn't smoke it without a sore throat. lol

but I do love smoking the catalyx's. I just leave the little bits at the nodes for last, and once I've got a bunch of stem, I pluck all those little guys and then you've got a few bowls of what the did I do exactly last night?

happy clipping
-Matt

alleycat

waterboy----Hey I'm glad you figured out how to get the best weed from your stash, but next grow, a proper flush, and you shouldn't be having that problem.

Its the whole bud it sounds like that hasn't been flushed, normally it's the leaf material left on the bud, that wasn't properly flushed, that gives you that choking feeling.

You might want to look into water curing, it flushes all the yield, and you will get the same smoothness from the smoke, and not near the amount of yield loss you are cutting off.

Water curing loses like 15% of the weight, and you are losing about 1/2 you said.

Happy Growing

Alleycat

mattdreads

a much better response from the catman

definitely listen to him.

thanks AC


-Matt

waterboy

Thanks Alleycat, I tend to ramble when I get blitzed. I have tried water flushing and was very disappointed in the results. Tasted better but the potency was not there. Wasted about 8oz on that experiment! I actually have some good grows under my belt, great genetics including a good flush, however on my last grow I had some temperature issues that impacted the potency of the product. Clearly this extreme type of trim is not for everyone, but if you have the quantity it is worth it.

There is absolutely nothing to be gained by smoking stems and other roughage.You mention that it is unflushed leaves that cause the problem with the harsh taste, I have to differ on that point as the leaves are fine. Tell you what, trim your stash tight. Go ahead and smoke the leaves and then smoke your leftover trimmings and let me know what tastes better? These waste products do nothing to increase the taste or potency of your stash, only the opposite. The argument that it is better to flush and leave those items in your stash really doesn't hold up unless you do not have the quantity of stash required. I have the ability to grow much more product than I could possibly smoke, so why not go for the best possible end product. If I was more frugal and salvaged more stash the quality would decrease so why would I do that.

If you have done everything correctly and the gods have smiled on your grow, you have flushed your grow correctly and it is high quality, just think how good it would be without the trash? You can tell by reading the nursery forum that there are many grows of less than the best quality, this is another way to improve that dramatically. Clearly not for everyone. Thanks alleycat, your opinion is appreciated.

Blogaphobia

There should be no loss in potency through the water cure method if done properly, only a loss in taste and smell..

One love

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waterboy

Blogaphobia thanks for jumping in. Maybe I didn't water cure correctly, I believe I got the directions from this forum some time ago. I placed my cured pot in a large colander with a lid and submerged the whole thing in a 5 gallon bucket of tepid water. Everyday I would change the water in the bucket, it took about 5 days until the water cleared up. I then set the buds out to air dry. Big difference in taste, sadly also in potency.

I've made enough bubble hash to recognize trichs in the bottom of a bucket and every time I emptied the bucket I could see some going down the drain. Anytime someone handles their pot they will be knocking trichs off, especially when the buds are dry. Water curing removed a bunch thus reducing the potency.

As alleycat and mattdreads point out, the best scenario would just be to grow a perfect crop every time, then there would be no need to tinker with the product afterwords. Sadly that perfect grow seems to be elusive for many, thus the reason I wanted to share another method to add to the others out there that try to address the Taste/Potency.

If somebody has the pot to spare they can give it a try, most will be very happy they did. On the flip side if they are happy with what they have and don't think their stuff can be improved upon, screw it, they shouldn't go through the hassle. JMHO

peace

Caddylack

Nice tutorial, but I don't really get it. I think I'd rather have those nugs you showed in the first pic. As others have said, harshness probably has something to do with an improper flush.

In my first grow, I had to do an emergency tear-down of my grow room, and had to harvest early without a full flush. Even with those factors coming into play, the herb wasn't too harsh and was by no means unsmokable. I didn't feel the need to do anything like this.

Not trying to knock you, just voicing my opinion. If you are happier with your herb after doing something like this, more power to you.

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corvus420

I dont have the ability to just toss out good looking nugs like that after trimming my stash.... all those trimmings at the end of your post would end up right in the bong bowl lol..... I guess smoking brick weed for 10 years will do that to ya tho... any bud is better than no bud IMO..... if anything i would focus on the flushing and curing aspect of this to improve your smoke for the next grow....

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waterboy

Caddylack, Let me get this straight, I harvest 80% of the trichs and tender leaves, what remains on the bud is 20% of the trichs and 100% of the stems and trash and you pick the buds. Is that just to prove a point??

I have been smoking for a very long time and I am much more sensitive to the smoke. When I was young I could smoke old tires, no more. I currently use a Mystifire Vaporizer because vaporizers do not combust the stems and roughage and therefore the smoke is much smoother and tastes better.

The situation I am describing is you have already harvested so nothing related to growing or flushing or nutes or temps or anything else you can do to the plant when it is alive is applicable. It's DEAD and you will not have another harvest for 3+ months. You are stuck with the results of the grow. IF you are not satisfied and want to improve your pot your choices on what you can do are limited. You can water flush, which I did but was not at all happy with the results. Or you can extreme trim, which I tried and which worked better that I could have hoped.

I made this post thinking that perhaps there was someone who is in the same boat as me and would try something different if they were made aware. I am NOT trying to convince anyone to do this. In fact due to the amount of waste this will appeal to a limited number of people.

Hey take it for what it's worth. I have picked up many a good tip from this forum and thought perhaps I would post this as it could be a solution for someone in the same situation as me.

So far every post has been has be cool to the to idea of this trim. I don't know why that is. I also note that no one who has posted has tried this method, but the perception is that it won't work or not worh trying. Lighten up, or try it, at least you will have a point of reference to discuss. peace