3) Barney's / Wedding Cake Auto / Micro

I envy you guys who get to cut down your plants with scissors. I have to get my heart rate up, sawing back and forth for over a minute or so. 😛😄 But as far as I'm concerned, this space is better used as a dry diary... So... On Day 1 of the dry, she was pretty wet. There was only a 9 point difference between the temperature (69) and the RH in the tent (60). This was a good start. With my first two grows, you'd see this difference widen over time, indicating that the VPD from the dead plant was decreasing as it got drier. I like using this as a strong indicator of how dry the plant is. On the 2nd day of the dry, I got concerned with the level of humidity in the tent. Was getting readings like 71F 66%RH. That's too wet for the 2nd day. My prior grow, she was a smaller plant, so drying her with the AC Infinity exhaust fan set to level 1 was fine. 10% of 200 CFM is 20 CFM. It's a 12 CF tent, so 20CFM can be fine for a small plant. Light power efficiency isn't the only advantage of mini-tent growing. There's also exhaust fan power efficiency, too. My AC Infinity never runs above level 4, really. Anyway, I decided to turn the fan up to level 2 from 1 and started getting readings like 71F 58% RH, which is about where I like it to be for the 2nd day. A lesson learned - that larger plants might require a level 2 fan setting. I hoped to achieve a difference between the numbers of 20+ by end of Day 5. We were on the right pace. On Day 4 of the dry, was getting readings like 70F / 56%, RH inside the tent with the fan at setting 1 - a difference of 14.. So I was getting the indication that although still wet, the plant wasn't generating as much humidity as she was earlier in the dry, when a setting 1 was getting a difference in the single digits. So the plant was definitely dryer. Was aiming to do the trim the morning of Day 6. I'd always rather have a cure be too wet than too dry. She seemed on the right pace from my earlier experiences. On the morning of Day 5, I went to check the girl for the first time. She was doing well. Those long annoying sativa leaves she was sporting were all shriveled down. Tugged on one and it fell off easily. So she was nearing the end, certainly. There was a strong grassy smell to the girl, which had me sneezing a bit afterwards. LOL. But that was to be expected, having spent five days untouched to the world outside the tent except for its air. The most important thing I did was squeeze the smaller buds and they were just a bit too squishy in my opinion. They felt like they needed a little more time. That's the good thing about having gained prior experience with something you're doing. You get to just rely on your subconscious a little bit. And finally, the climate margins inside the tent had widened to readings like 71F / 55% RH, a difference of 16, at fan setting 1. Also a sign we were near the end but not there yet. So I was planning to start the trim on Day 6 for a number of reasons, some which didn't have anything to do with any kind of plant. My schedule best permitted a Day 6 trim. Hey. I'm being honest. There comes a point that you just can't let a plant run your life. So I left Day 5 thinking the trim would start the next morning. When next morning came, I saw exactly what I was hoping to see. At fan setting 1, the difference between the temp and the RH in the tent had widened to 25. If my prior grow was a good example, this meant she was ready. So I started the trim. Have a great grow day!

It was a 10 hour long trim. Yielded nicely. 5.47 oz dry weight. Very little larf. Of the 155 grams extracted, only 9 grams of larf buds, which I threw out. She was able to cure for at least 8 weeks without me touching it. Still haven't smoked them after 8 weeks.. Had a grassy smell early on, but in the last couple weeks of curing, that smell seems to be going away. Smells more like weed now? But maybe I'm imagining things. I'll be back with a smoke review when I get the chance to try her. SMOKE/OVERALL GROW REVIEW: So here I am more than 9 weeks after jarring the girl and I finally get to taste her goods. So I was vaping my 1st Wedding Cake Auto results from my prior and second overall grow yesterday until it finished sadly. My best overall grow yet, in my limited opinion, in terms of quality. She was even dried and cured fairly well. So this morning, I got to cleaning my vapes and all the associated items in order to give the new girl a good clean comfortable welcome. Did so, grinded up some of the stuff and proceeded to vape. Interestingly, I instantly remembered the feeling because it was very similar in feeling to what I was vaping yesterday. But it hits in a different place. It's like you recognize it's your wife/girlfriend kissing you, but instead of on your mouth she's kissing your neck, to be family-friendly.😂 I think it might also do a significantly better job at doing what it is intended to do for me - lift depression and anxiety. And the really interesting thing is how this benefit continues with you after you've come down from the high. In the few days I've been vaping this one, I’ve noticed increased productivity during those moments I'm not vaping. And because of this, my vape session frequency has decreased, which is good. But it's a leafier grind and a slightly harsher smoke. Her taste is slightly earthier/grassier than my last vape, but less so than the first grow - the Green Crack Auto grow. In terms of potency, she also ranks second to her older sister, so though she yielded more, she might be around just as long as her sister for me, cuz it takes more stuff to reach levels, know what I mean? So overall, if I was to rank them, my first grow is my worst quality grow (as it should be), my second grow is my best quality grow, and this grow is overall in the middle of those two grows. So let's try to score these grows on a 1.0 to 10.0 scale with 10.0 being perfection.My first grow (quality + yield) scores a 7.5, say. My second grow a score of 8.9. And this grow would be an 8.7 (aided by the yield, otherwise if same as second grow it would be an 8.5.) I'd be happy bowling high 8s from now on. I attribute the slight harshness/grassiness to the way I dried the plant firstly, and to early harvesting secondly. Firstly, I will try to not set my fan in my dry tent to setting 2 during any part of the dry again. I rushed that dry because I needed to empty the tent for the grow I have now. Big lesson learned. I think it lead to an imbalance of how quickly the outside of the buds or plant were drying as opposed to the inside. And secondly, bulging swollen buds create a better bud/leaf ratio that reduces the amount of chlorophyll that needs to be cured in the first place, according to what I learned from Perfect Gardens. And finally, I’m increasingly thinking that Day 42 is the right day to install the flowering lamp for all my grows from now on and no sooner. Letting a plant stretch too much too early just creates an inability to satisfy the plant’s needs in my setup during late flower that ends up not satisfying me aesthetically, and is harder to grow, trim, dry and cure. Small-as-I-can-plants-forever is my thinking now. That could change tho. (Is yield more important than bud density/quality/profile?) But it feels good to vape. That's what matters. This batch will dry and cure more with use. That might improve things. I've noticed buds get drier and cure more over time, so.. Things might improve with this bud. And she smells slightly differently from my last grow of this seed/strain. More skunky less citrusy. I see why clones are popular. The seed pheno thing. But.. I say don't be so OCD. What's wrong with meeting different members of a family if it's a cool family? So overall, I like this girl AND her sister. Her sister had a cuter smile, but this girl tells better jokes. Live a little. 😁 But it is nice that increasingly, I feel like harvesting, drying and curing are the last places of large mystery with my growing acumen. I am starting to actually feel more confident as a grower overall by now. Nice thing to say a year later. That was my overall overall goal. Thank you once again, GrowDiaries community, for your amazing help and support. Have a great grow day. Check out my YouTube page at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtLdjlvS0mK9Pu3pkumUu-w