Here is a quick video of our solitary Northern Lights hermie plant on harvest day. We had to isolate her from the main area after the plant started displaying intersex traits.
It was a hard choice to move or kill the plant, because the plant was about 3/4's of the way through the flowering phase and we didn't really have another place for it. And yes this can be expected for some strains, but we didn't want to pollenate any of the other plants.
She was ultimately quarantined to the veg tent where we had our clones for the the next cycle. It was pretty fun to watch the clones also go into flower mode. However it took nearly a month for them to re-veg. Delaying the next cycle.
We were pretty sure this NL plant hermied as a result of human error. We made a couple mistakes with lighting and light leak during the vegetative phase. So this wasn't unexpected. We were happy to find that only one plant hermied.
The lighting was 12 LED bulbs putting out a combined total of 108w.
If anyone has any input about the leaf coloring that would be great. We did reduce total feeding strength about 2 weeks prior to harvesting.
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Got a couple or a lot of weeks left in your flowering stage? Starting to worry if you're going to have enough days to get to the harvest before it gets too cold?
Welcome to the unpredictable world of New England weather...
This weekend brought the first real break in an otherwise long and continuous stretch of very hot and near unbearable levels of humidity. However that also meant dangerously low evening temperatures. Some parts of New England saw well into the mid-40's.
While that's not going to kill your crop. It's not going to help move things along much either.
Luckily the temperatures in the greater area appear to be coming back into the 60's and 70's.
Courtesy of https://www.news10.com/weather
If our crop was a football team (go Pats btw), we'd be looking at a hail Mary toss right about now to get to the endzone (i.e. Harvest). Case and point, we're about 2-4 weeks in of a possible 8-12 week flowering cycle. And the temps have started to drop below the 50's.
We're hoping for mild couple of months into late October. But who really knows. We read the farmer's almanac, which if accurate said something about a cold winter. But we don't need to get to winter...just to middle fall.
We aren't going to be creating any outdoor palace for these ladies. It's just fingers crossed and hope for the best.
How's everyone else managing things around dropping temperatures?
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Looking back at one of our first indoor grows. Such a mix-matched set-up. Half the plants were 100% sativa the other half were 100% indica. That was a fun test of our abilities at maintaining an even canopy...
This was photo was taken very early in the vegetative stage. They had all been recently transplanted from solo cups into either 1 gal or 5 gal cloth grow bags. Medium is coco coir.
They literally exploded into monsters, doubling in size in about 1-2 weeks. Gotta love pH balanced nutrients feeding. They do wonders for your garden.
In our opinion, when your plants are under 2 feet tall, they are so easy to train. It's at this point in your grow when you first begin to transition to training mode. I miss the daily low-stress training and super-cropping.
Looking forward to our next indoor grow. For Sure!!!
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Here is a quick and easy guide for turning your kief into hash. The process is quite simple, it is safe, and does not take very much time. You can get this completed in just 5 steps and using about that many items.
What Supplies you will need:
kief
clothes iron
wax paper / parchment paper
paper towel
optional items:
tape (to help hold the wax or parchment paper in place)
scale (to compare starting weight of the kief and final weight of the hash)
razor blade
Total time: ~ 45 - 90 minutes(depends on how long the hash is allowed to cool during step 5)
So, lets get started turning your kief into Hash
Step 1:
Carefully pour your kief onto the center of a sheet of wax / parchment paper. You do not need a large amount of paper. You want to ensure that there is enough paper to fold around the pile of kief.
For our example approximately a 12" square sheet of wax paper was more than enough for our 1 gram of kief.
Note: kief can be stubborn coming out of the contain it is being stored in. To get the last bits out of our grinder and help position the kief on the paper we used a razor. This is completely optional, and be careful if you choose to use them. They can cut the paper, the surface you are working on and even you if you are not careful.
Step 2:
Once you have the kief centered on the paper. You need to fold the paper around the kief. It is best to create a square or rectangular pocket within the paper. And then fold the excess paper around that pocket.
This can be a little tricky.
Just be careful as to not spill your kief as you are working to create the folds and the pocket out of the paper. Once you get past the first couple folds the kief will be locked in place.
Step 3: Heat, Press (flip), & Repeat
After you have folded the paper, one or two pieces of tape are helpful at holding the paper in place.
Next we wrap the wax / parchment paper in a damp paper towel. This is very important as it will help prevent you from damaging your clothes iron.
Take the hot iron and firmly and evenly press down. We like to start by doing this for a couple of seconds, then remove the iron and flip the kief so you can press the other side.
We like to do this for at least 5 minutes of each side. It is likely not necessary to heat and press for more than 10 minutes on each side.
Oh and don't forget to turn off the iron once you are done!!!
Note 1: You are working with a very hot iron. Make sure you are working on a surface that is safe for this type of heat and that you have cleared the area. Always be careful working with a heat source, so as not to accidentally burn yourself or things in the area.
Note 2: While you are pressing the kief, monitor the wetness of the paper towel. If it appears to be drying out, stop heating it and make it damp on both sides again.
Step 4: Chill Out
Again friendly reminder. Don't forget to turn off the clothes iron.
Now onto the easiest step: put your freshly heated and pressed kief bundle into the freezer.
Possibly a slightly less easy step: wait 30-60 minutes.... (perhaps smoke a little to pass the time)
Cooling the hash will harden it and make it a little easier to handle when you unwrap your kief bundle.
Step 5: Unwrap and enjoy (and storing tips if applicable)
Once the kief bundle has properly cooled. Carefully unwrap and remove all the layers (i.e. paper towel, the tape, and inner paper).
Once you get to the hash, it should be hard enough now where it will come off the paper will very little effort.
At this point you are done. The hash is ready to be enjoyed.
Note: For storage, we recommend putting your hash in an airtight container and keeping it out of direct sunlight. It can store for a good long time for those who are able to ration out usage.
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Finally the super silver haze plants are flowering. These ladies have been amazing growers, but all through August were acting like true sativa divas. And just would not flip from veg to flowering.
Now that we're in September, it's going to be something of a race to the finish line. Most seed vendors list this strain as having a outdoor harvest time in mid-October. The indoor flowering time is 9-11 weeks.
By our estimate these girls have naturally started flowering in the past 1-3 weeks. They also appear to have made it through their stretching phase. They didn't do anything super dramatic like a 50% stretch, but they do look lean and elongated right now.
We're very excited to see the transition from lean to filled-in as the bud sites continue to develop.
It's pretty amazing to think that these outdoor SSH plants, started from clones that were cut way back in 2017!!!!
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We were cleaning out some old photos, and came across some harvesting photos. Growing your own cannabis can be a bit of a project. But when you get to the harvest it all seems worth it.
...I mean until you start worrying about curing, over/under drying, mold, etc...
Just kidding that is also a fun process and part of a larger learning curve.
Anyways as the east coast approaches harvest. We are excited for all the growers getting ready to go through their first or Nth harvest.
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So here we are, approaching week 11 of the flowering period and we're a bit stumped on whether these plants are ready to be harvested.
We have been judging the maturity of the marijuana plants by trichome coloration. And unfortunately the plants in our grow room have very little amber coloring. Many of the main colas are still clear to cloudy.
The problem is that at week 10-11 we're between 7-14 days minimum over the breeders forecasted flower time for the indica. Which are said to be between 7 and 9 weeks.
That being said we welcome any input on the following photos.
Indica - Hashplant
Indica - Hashplant
Indica - Hashplant
Indica - Northern Lights
Indica - Northern Lights
Indica - Northern Lights
Indica - Hash Plant
Indica - Northern Lights
The SSH (Super Silver Haze), is smelling actually like compost or freshly turned soil. These plants don't smell like mature pot or freshly cut marijuana. They smell very different from the indica in the grow room. However if you get the resin on your glove or scissors it smells very sweet and citrus. That had us very concerned of Bud rot.
Bud rot - is a type of mold that commonly attacks the flowering sites or buds of your plant. The mold will start near or on the stem of the plant inside the bud and spreads out destroying the bud from the inside out. It can be difficult to catch this infection at the start. So when you realize you have a problem - usually by seeing the spores on the sugar leaf - the entire cola could be lost.
The plants [at this time] do not show any sign of mold, but the leaves have been yellowing for weeks. This is something we have not been able to control for most of the flowering cycle. Although plant leaves can turn from a health green to a less desirable yellow-green as the plant approaches the harvest time. We probably could have done better to maintain the overall health of the sativa through the flower period.
Mainly we should not have transplanted these girls from a one gallon to a five gallon plant so late in the flower cycle.
The colas have a lot of white pistils and clear trichomes. Also SSH like most Haze strains is said to require 10-12 weeks of flowering before harvest. So hopefully these girls are going to be ready in the next 14 days.
Sativa - Super Silver Haze
Sativa - Super Silver Haze
Sativa - Super Silver Haze
Sativa - Super Silver Haze
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We just arrived at week 8 of flowering for this solitary Northern Light plant. She was part of a package of feminized seeds, but went hermie about 5 weeks into the flowering cycle.
We're not sure if she is ready to chop. What do you think? Leave a comment below!!!
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Day 53 into the flowering cycle and half of the plants are starting to show signs of sickness. Possibly due to nutrient imbalance. Unfortunately this has been going on for sometime now. But we didn't realize it was not going to self-correct.
Most of the indica plants appear to be thriving. Leaves are green to dark green. But as you can see in the photos the sativa plants have light green and worse yellow green leaves.
The Sativa were transplanted somewhere around 20 - 30 days into the flowering period. They went from a 1 gallon smart pot to a 5 gallon smart pot.
Aside from that they have received the same low stress training, topping and feeding as the indica.
Damage Control:
We're trying to figure out what is needed to bring these beauties back to the healthy dark green color range.
History:
All plants are being fed on an alternating schedule. Nutrients then the next time is plain pH balanced water and then back to nutrients. Both nutrients and water feedings are pH balanced to around 5.5 - 6.5.
On nutrient feeding days the plants receive, MaxBloom and CalMag. We were trying to keep things simple and not use too many supplements.
The leaves below were pulled off one of the sativa plants shown above. We are not sure at this time if this is a nutrient, light, wind or even ectoparasite issue.
Name that sickness
Seriously we would love to know what the issue is and how to correct it.
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Just rolled past day 50. Plant pistils on many of the indica plants have changed from bleach white to red and curled. Trichomes are being monitored daily for consistency changes.
Two ways to tell when the plants are ready for harvest.
Pistil colors:
<50% darkened pistils the plant is not ripe and the harvested flowers will possess lower amounts of THC.
Many experts will say that THC concentrations have peaked when 60% - 70% of the plant pistils have darkened.
>70% darkened pistils the CBD concentration will start to climb and the high will be more couch-lock in effect.
Trichomes:
When the plant is not ripe the resin will be clear like glass. As the plant ripens the trichomes will become cloudy and then transition to amber color.
Clear Trichomes = unripe flowers, that are still building in THC concentrations
Cloudy Trichomes = highest levels of THC
Amber Trichomes = waited too long to harvest
Using both of these methods in combination is the best way to gauge when your crop is ready to be harvested.
Day 50 - Northern Lights.
Day 50 - Super Silver Haze
Day 50 - Super Hash Plant
So do you think these are ready for harvest?
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