4/18 Day 99/89 - Somebody grab a synthesizer cause Its the final countdown. Everybody is on plain ro flush and its just a matter of days now. TB is really purpling up all over the plant. I've seen a few other tbomb grows go purple as well. GSC is filling in and probably could use another 15 to 20 days but I can only give her until the end of the month. GSC is 10 days behind TB from seed and 9 in flower.
4/20 Her day is arriving. Trimmed all fan leaves and large leaves from buds. Going to harvest over weekend and will be experimenting by "washing" the buds. I did spray with milk a hand full of times in flowering due to horrid rain storms that rolled through. Will be utilizing 3 bucket method I found on another forum by Doc Bud.
4/23 Day 104 Harvest!!! I am washing the buds, from everything I've researched on washing, sounds like once you start you won't want ot consume unwashed buds. 1st bucket contains 4.5 gal of tap water, 1 cup organic pure lemon juice and 1 cup baking soda, next 2 buckets are plain water to rinse and all buckets are room temp. I swished around the buds in each bucket for about a minute, hung on a line and had a box fan blowing for 1.5 hours as they drip dried. Then cut buds from stem and placed in the drying rack. I'll post close ups, weight, and smoke report once fully dried and sampled in the harvest report. Buds are very sugary and dense and I anticipate a drying time of around 8 to 10 days at 68 to 70° 50 to 60% rh.
4/28 picked up a 4 liter cvault. My local grow shop has best prices around at 32.50 for 4L size, estimated to hold 8oz and I think its gonna be close. I think washing is also changing the way it dries. Seems very consistent slow drying through the buds. Some of the fluffy low buds where dry enough to grind and sample. Flavor is very clean and washing didnt seem to mess with potency and buds are very very resinous. Me thinks I stumbled upon a new must for my harvest. Sucks it adds hours of work and I washed around what looks like 6 to 8 oz. Cvault seems to have a cult following, would be awesome if we could get them as a aponsor here.
Look at those big dark nuggets! Ive heard of a water cure, but never a "quick wash"! Thats neat. Bet its like the water cure but much faster. I wonder how flavor retention will stack up to an air cure. Can't wait for the smoke report
@Agronomist, I was a bit skeptical at first, but I saw too many trusted grower testimonials in other forums that I had to try it. The trichs really stood out after washing. The washing is supposed to enhance flavor by rinsing away 3.5 months of dust, over spray, insects, etc and create a smoother smoke. I sprayed diluted milk during flowering as a pm preventative (nasty cold rain rollled through for 3 straight days) so I wanted to ensure any residue was washed away.
The bud wash turned out great. It was unreal the amount of dust and debris that floated out of the buds. Drip dried the buds on a "clothes line" with a fan blowing over for 24hrs and dried out the excess moisture from the wash and then placed into my drying racks. Smoke was very smooth. Was an interesting experiment but not quite sure it was worth the extra effort. Maybe if you have a pet hair situation or really dusty grow area then I could see incorporating this into your harvest routine but I think it was a one time thing for myself.
Being 2560 miles away from my stash is rough, but I have met quite a few kind people here on Maui and have sampled some nice home grown intense sun raised buds. HI needs to get with the times