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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PRUNING
Plants that are regenerated, cloned and even grown from seed will need to be pruned at some point to encourage the plant to produce as much as possible and remain healthy. Pruning the lower limbs
creates more air-flow under the plants in an indoor situation and creates cuttings for cloning. It also forces the plant’s effort to the top limbs that get the most light, maximizing yields. Plants that are
regenerated need to have minor growth clipped so that the main regenerated growth will get all the plant’s energy. This means that once the plant has started to regenerate lots of growth, the lower limbs that
will be shaded or are not robust should go. The growth must be thinned on top branches such that only the most robust growth is allowed to remain. Once nice aspect of regenerating plants is that some small buds
left on the plant in anticipation of regeneration will not sprout new growth and may be collected for smoke. The plant may provide much smokable material if it is caught before all the old flowers dry up and
die with the new vegatative growth occuring. Try to trim a regenerated plant twice. Once as it is starting to regenerate, collect any bud that is not sprouting with new growth and smoke it. Then later, prune
again to take lower clippings to clone and thin the upper growth so that larger buds will be produced. If a regenerated plant is not pruned at all, the resulting plant is very stemmy, does not create large buds
and the total yield will be significantly reduced.
HARVESTING AND DRYING
Harvesting is the reaping of the bounty, and is the most enjoyable time you will spend with your garden. Plants are harvested when the flowers are ripe. Generally, ripeness is defined as when the
white pistils start to turn brown, orange, etc. and start to withdraw back into the false seed pod. The seed pods swell with resins usually reserved for seed production, and we have ripe sinse buds with red and
golden hairs. It is interesting that the time of harvest controls the “high” of the buds. If harvested “early” with only a few of the pistils turned color, the buds will have a more pure THC content and
will have less THC that has turned to CBD and CBN’s. The lessor psychoactive substances will create the bouquet of the pot, and control the amount of stoneyness and stupidness associated with the high.
A pure THC content is very cerebral, while high THC, high CBD, CBN content will make the plants more of a stupid, or hazy buzz. Buds taken later, when fully ripened will normally have these
higher CBN, CBD levels and may not be what you prefer once you try different samples picked at different times. Don’t listen to the experts, decide yourself based on what you come to like yourself. Keep in
mind, a bud weighs more when fully ripe. It is what most growers like to sell, but take some buds early for yourself, every week until you harvest, and decide how you like it for yourself. Grow the rest to
full maturity if you plan to sell it. Most new growers want to pick early, because they are impatient. That’s OK! Just take buds from the middle of the plant or the top. Allow the rest to keep maturing.
Often, the tops of the plants will be ripe first. Harvest them and let the rest of the plant continue to ripen. You will notice the lower buds getting bigger and fuzzier as they come into full
maturity. With more light available to the bottom portion of the plant now, the plant yields more this way over time, than taking a single harvest. Use a magnifier and try to see the capitated stalked trichomes
(little THC crystals on the buds). If they are mostly clear, not brown, the peak of floral bouquet is near. Once they are mostly all turning brownish in color, the THC levels are dropping and the flower is past
optimum potency, declining with light and wind exposure rapidly. Don’t harvest too late! It’s easy to be too careful and harvest late enough potency has declined. Watch the plants and learn to spot peak
floral potency.
Do not cure pot in the sun, it reduces potency. Slow cure hanging buds upside down in a ventilated space. That is all that is needed to have great sensi. Drying in a paper bag works too, and may
be much more convenient. Bud tastes great when slow dried over the course of a week or two. If your in a hurry, it’s OK to dry a small amount in-between paper sheets or a paper bag in a microwave oven. Go
slow and check it, don’t burn it. Use the defrost power setting for a slower, better drying. It will be harsh smoking this way though. A food dehydrator or food preserver will dry your pot in a few hours, but
it will not taste the same as slow-dried. Very close though. And this will speed your harvest time (which can be nerve wracking, with all this pot hanging around drying.) Dry buds until the stems are brittle
enough to snap, then cure them in a sealed tupperware container , burping air and turning the buds daily for two weeks. Once experienced grower told me to dry in an uninsulated area of the house (like the
garage) so that the temperature will rise and fall each night, as the plant is drying. If you treat the plant as if it were still alive, it will use some of it’s chlorophyll while it is drying, and the smoke
will be less harsh. |
