Cinderella 99

👉 Harvest day arrived. I chose this day because the overall look of the plant. The majority of the leaves had a nice fade, the majority of the trichomes were cloudy, and majority of the pistols red. The trichomes still had a fair number of clears and only a few amber. I also noticed that some of the tricombes looked like they had ‘popped’ and were missing heads. The stubs that remained had an amber tip. So the overall trichome maturity was a little further along that is obvious. My goal wasn’t a certain number of amber, but a large majority of cloudy. I may have been inclined to wait a few more days because there were still a generous amount of clear. But the previous day I noticed a bright green calix jutting out of the one of the main colas. Upon closer inspection it was an emerging male bud, I cut it out right away and took it outside. It hadn’t opened up so I am confident I wont find any seeds in the buds. I decided that the overall plant was ready and putting it off longer would risk the appearance of seeds. I grew this sativa dominant plant for its uplifting effects so I think it was exactly where I needed it to be. 👉I started harvesting by taking the highest branch, and working my way down the plant one branch at a time. I would then seperate the cola end of the branch then wet trimmed it. I then weighed each branches end cola and documented the weight with the corresponding position on the plant. I took the wet trimmed cola branch and hung it on the dry rack with a clip that has a number on it (matches the number order harvested). I then trimmed the rest of the branches buds off, wet trimmed them, weighed, and recorded the amounts to add up with the other branch inner buds. This plant had 13 branches, 13 colas (obviously) and they way I harvest it shows the higher up on the plant (closest to the light) the bigger. I am doing this to judge differences in buds from different areas of the plant. I like the looks of the biggest and prettiest buds and always pick the best looking buds to consume first. Different areas on the plant were also in slightly different stages of ripeness, so there may be noticeable differences between the tops and the middle...OR I'm just high. 👉This plant was modest, with modest sized buds, unlike 3 of the 4 autos I had grown previously. All the buds were spaced out on the branches and not as large per bud as the others, much like the gorilla glue. While smaller, these buds were dense with small calyxes. Super frosty, again just like the gorilla glue, with a very modest lemon pine scent. Very sticky when touched. 👉When I trimmed it I didn’t do a close trim. I trimmed all the large leaves and trimmed the tips off most of the sugar leaves that remained. Then hung the cola with branch stem on the dry rack. I have a small oscillating fan on the floor with a long piece of cardboard set at an angle to deflect the current upwards towards the buds. I also have a dehumidifier set to 45% RH. I placed each bud in its own paper bag after 1.5 days. Then 1.5days after that I have final trimmed and weighed each one, documented and placed in its own jars. The buds on the net were also sorted from good buds to larf and also weighed and put in a separate jar. I use a trim tray with a screen in it and a catch tray, The frosted sugar leaves were left in the tray after trimming, then crumbled up and run over the screen. I also got a small bit of scissor kief, which is in its own jar as well. I was able to make 3 kief pucks, weighing 3g total, from the trim tray. Final in the jar total was 239g with minimum larf (about 40g). 👉Review for the plant: Was a beautiful plant that seemed to thrive in slow motion. The supplier says it flowers fast, but it went a little past the 65 day estimate given. No biggy though because I anticipated that it would go long, so it was on schedule as far as what I expected. It grew to the size the breeder stated (37”) and was about 4’ across at its widest, and probably 3’ at the narrowest, it was basically oval shaped. I used the soft garden wire to support the branches and buds, and used a little more than one 32’ roll of it. The top two colas were identical in size. And each branch set cola below that were also identical, and size was less with each step down the main trunk. Except the bottom-most two branches. These hade more buds, and even though they were mostly larfy and smaller, the secondary branches off these two branches were super frosty. I trimmed those branches together. The end buds of these branches were nice and plump. I am curious if these mega frosty small buds are any different than the main plant buds are. 👉I still feel like my dry technique could improve. I am limited somewhat in what I can do, but I think the way I am drying is adequate and while it may not be optimum, its also not detrimental. So mostly wet trimmed, hung by branches on rack with controlled humidity and oscillating fan. The wind currents are moderate. The buds in the dry net are turned over occasionally and inspected for any mildew (which there was none). After 1.5 days I placed each bud in its own paper bag and placed back in its clip. The net buds were also put in bags. After 1.5 more days they felt dry and firm and I close trimmed them, weighed them and put them in jars with moisture control packs and hygrometers. I numbered each jar to track each bud or group of buds. Some of the smaller buds were a little too dry, but the larger upper buds are just right and they require the routine of opening the jars to allow the excess humidity to escape. The dried weights of most buds were about 15% of the wet. The wet had the larger stems still attached, so I am guessing with the stems included the dry% would be the typical 20%. Right now the aroma in the jars is mild with lemon hint. The plant had a mild aroma when growing so I am not surprised that the aroma is weak. The small shaded popcorn buds I took a month ago have a medium aroma of light citrus. If like the last 4 plants, while 6 weeks is a nice place to say its cured enough, the buds cured potential may not be reached for a few months. Ive never had this much experience with individual plants and how they all have individual highs, and how the buds change as it ages. Its very fun and very easy to over think things while high on Tangerine Dream. 👉I made some mistakes during the grow, the biggest was allowing the green algae to proliferate on the side of the pot. I had been good about spraying the outside with a solution of H2O2 to keep things at bay due to the constant moisture of frequent fertigation. I started seeing the run-off EC shoot up high very quickly. Finally I realized that there was far more algae on the side of the pot than I thought when I turned my work light to the side of the pot (dark pot, dark green algae, in the shadow). I was doing a low EC fertigation every 3 fertigations, when before I was doing it 1x a week. I did a thorough spray and wipe down of the exterior of the pot and repeated that for a few days until I wasn’t getting any more green runoff when I sprayed the pot with the pressure sprayer. My Ec immediately returned to normal. I also had a nutrient burn as a result of this episode of high EC in the pot. 👉Next mistake was I was adding a little extra Calmag to the mix. I was seeing some purple stems creep in on the upper level fan leaves. So I upped the Calmag thinking my RO water needed more. But what I did was create calcium lock out. My nutrient mixture was clouding up overnight. So I started getting a lot of brown spots that looked like classic calcium deficiency. I did a bunch of reading and came across how too much calcium in the nutrient mix can cause the calcium to fall out of the mix and cant be absorbed by the plant. So I cut back the calmag and the brown spots stopped spreading. By that time the good fade of colors began. The fade was yellowing center of leaves and some started having a bit of purple on them. So when harvested the plants leaves appearance was saying that it was ready. 👉Some of the positives I had with this grow is that I didn’t kill it…lol…and I learned things that will help me going forward in my quest to grow more good big buds. I enjoyed opening the tent having that feeling of happiness and wonderment as I see my magical frosty plant. I have gained confidence in my grow strategy and the results have been far better than I anticipated when I started doing indoor growing one year ago. I have ideas for my next grow that can help make things easier and hopefully almost make some good big buds that could win a blue ribbon at the county fair someday.