Kiss Trifecta

So all three Kiss beauties were chopped down on day 124 from seed. They were chopped with mostly cloudy trichomes, but a amber one here and there. We couldn't wait any longer as their buds were incredibly dense, and we started to see some bud rot forming on some lower colas. That means... to the chopping block. Here is what I did, for no particular reason other than I had a ton of chores to do this week, and all of this was done in between a lot of other work that needed to be done for my gardens (and other random house work): On day 124, all three Kiss plants were chopped and hung upside down to dry in my cool (50-60F) garage for about 24 hours. The next day, the tedious washing process began. I try to wash all my outdoor crops, but it isn't always possible due to the time involved for some pretty sizable harvests, and the time I allow plants to be outside of a climate-controlled drying room. To wash plants I do the following, which is pretty common practice with maybe a little deviation...I have been doing it this way for years and I'm not sure where I learned it: 2 buckets, 1 with warm water, 1 with cold. I add ice to this second bucket to keep it cold, because, like I said, this is tedious. In the warm bucket, drop in 1/2 cup of lemon juice and 1/2 cup of baking soda. I stir it around with a branch and you want to see bubbles. Make sure not to use that fake lemon juice crap that is made from oil or concentrate. Lemon juice and baking soda have anti-microbial and anti-fungal properties, and the oxidation from the reaction helps do a deeper clean. Remove branches from main stem. Cut in half etc if need be to be bucket height in length. Dip them into the warm water, swirl them around gently, remove and let drip, and then same thing in the cold bath. Then hang to dry, for 1 more day. Edit: after typing this out, I realized that it isn't that tedious at all. The tedious part is hanging each half or third (depending on the cut for bucket height) branch individually to dry again. The cleaning part is quick and easy. Why do I clean my buds? Doesn't this hurt them? I clean them because outdoor air pollution, bugs, bug poop, and other garbage that clings to the trichomes. A quick clean with a mild citrus wash will remove most of the funk, and you won't notice in the finished product if properly dried and cured. It won't ruin buds if you're gentle and don't knock trichomes off or handle the buds. I keep all fan and sugar leaves on throughout the wash. I don't want the buds exposed to too much during the post-wash dry. The next day after the dry, they are ready for the trim. For many years, I have grown only 2 or 3 plants, until the last couple years I have been growing like 10-20, because it has become increasingly more difficult to get a decent harvest in this part of the world. This year, I grew 20. Only 4 made it to the end, but they were all pretty sizable. So, I decided to purchase one of those automatic mechanical bowl trimmers. I WISH I BOUGHT ONE OF THESE YEARS AGO I was done with what you might call "trim jail" for a single 5.5oz (dry) plant in 10 minutes flat, from growing in the ground, to perfectly trimmed. Yes, I actually trimmed one of these Kiss plants without first hanging it to dry, cleaning it, and hanging it to dry again. I wanted to do the recommended trimming method with this product. It includes a wet blade and a dry blade. The idea is to chop it wet roughly, which actually did a pretty damn good job without mutilating any buds, and then dry it on an herb drying rack, and bring it back for a second pass with the dry blade. At the time of this writing, I have trimmed 2 of the 3 plants, 1 wet, and 1 dried and washed. The bowl trimmer is the best 100usd I ever spent for my growing hobby, hands down. It works, and it doesn't destroy buds. It turns days into minutes. What more can I say? The pictures above are from the plant that was chopped wet and fully dried on an herb drying rack. In the images, I just removed them from drying and I am weighing them before they enter the curing process. I haven't decided yet if I will run them through the dry blade yet. We'll see how they look in a day or two. I will come back to this harvest report and update the weight for the next 2 plants when they are dry. I am pleased to say that 5.5oz for one of three plants that were thrown in a hole all together unattended for the whole summer, is a pretty respectable harvest. These 3 plants, along with Mataro Blue from my other Kannabia diary, were part of an experiment I ran for the first time this year: I did not maintain these plants one bit: 3 plants, about a week old, growing in the same pot, were thrown outside in fairly early spring, to battle the weather and try to survive. The weather was brutal, especially throughout the summer, with record rainfalls. Again, the plants didn't get tended to by me. That means they did not get nutrients their entire life. Not even indoors. Never did any of them show a single yellowing or deficiency, not even in flower. They were also growing in a very sandy soil equivalent to masonry sand. This is not a high tilth black soil. It's blond, and it looks devoid of all value for plants. Yet, Kannabia's genetics made it 18 entire weeks, 17 outdoor, without nutrients or a proper growing medium. Impressive I'd say. Go Kannabia! The two jars pictured are gallon-size mason jars. I filled 1.5 jars with the first part of the trifecta. I will be streaming in updates for the other two plants below as they are ready. Edit October 10, 2023: I decided to give plant #3 away to a friend because I ran out of space and time to dry it properly. Plant #2 was dried and jarred yesterday. Plants 1 and 2 combined dry weight is 400.5g or about 14 1/8oz.