Critical Purple Auto

Weird_Jimmy I joined growers choice after this plant was well under way. too much hassle to do a full diary by back filling it so I just wanted to post this plants final results for posterity. Started Jan 21, 2019. Harvest May 14. Strong main stalk, started short and bushy. When it started flowering the main cola just kept reaching up. The size of the plant made it hard to inspect closely as I would have wished. I was on high alert for moldy buds because of their size. I would us a usb microscope to peer as far into the colas around the plant as much as I could. watching for mold and amber trichomes. The plant was just starting to tinge purple. Then on the morning of May 14 during my fertigation and inspection routine, I peered into a small hole in the main cola and saw grey. My heart sank. I got out my usb scope and bright lights and every magnifier I own. Sure as shit...grey fuzzy nastiness. I broke open and peered into the big massive bud and found big massive rot...the entire length of it. I had to leave for work but knew I was screwed...just how bad? That evening I started breaking open other colas...and sure enough...every single large cola had botrytis. I set down and harvested the whole plant right then. I methodically searched thru each bud. The rot was isolated in the large colas. I separated the large rotten core colas. I wet trimmed the rest as I broke the buds apart inspecting for the pestilence. I put the buds on a mesh dry rack. I hung 6 smaller branched buds. I wanted to insure no more botrytis would infect anymore of the plant so I gathered all the available fans in the house (2 small ones lol) and ventilated the dry area. I also turned on a dehumidifier to ad more air flow and obviously remove some humidity. The down side to that is the too fast of a dry. I inspected the buds for the next 48hrs, as I would turn them on the rack. I would random sample a few buds and inspect with the usb micro scope. looking for sign of bad news. Hopefully Ive been thorough enough and my weed is safe. Im pretty anal about stuff like this and dont think the weed is compromised. May 16 the buds were getting dry on outside and getting stiff. Quick drying isnt the best way to get nice aromatic buds. But better than moldy ones in the trash. I estimated that they had lost about 75-80 of their water (I did some sample wet trimmed weighs and weighed those same buds again as an reference). I weighted everything and sorted them according to location on plant from high to low, placing them in jars with boveda packs. Total dry of the non- infected bud on 5/16 is 508g. I weighed the wet weight of the rotten buds, 1124g. , which at 20% would theoretically be approx 280g. So combined weight listed in the grow is the theoretical weight. so sue me. I did everything I knew to try and prevent this. The mold wasn't visible from the outside. I looked more than once a day looking specifically for it. The tent is clean, plenty of ventilation (vented outside house), plenty of air movement in the tent, and used a dehumidifier to keep humidity below 50%. I did some research specific to large bud rot and there wasn't much in the way to prevent it except spreading buds apart at areas where a leave dies. I had a long ripen waiting for the plant to turn purple and the trichomes to turn amber. The buds were just starting to turn purple, the fan leaves were starting to fade, and the ambers were starting to appear. I was guessing 7-10 more days. I didnt set out to grow a giant plant, but now I know I can, I will grow this plant again if the cured buds are as good as they look. I will update the review and this log after the cure.