Wonder Pie

I initially thought I was having problems germinating these babies, but they just seemed to get going a little slower on my initial batch… about a week behind exactly compared to other seeds I germinated at the same time. I threw another batch in the pool out of fear and a couple jumped out quickly so now I have TWO babies growing and well… I’ll just have to grow them both now. That gives me the chance to experiment a bit. 😎 Have to give a big thanks to Green House Seed Company for sponsoring this gig. I feel honored to have been selected in the pool of folks they have chosen for this. I don’t think they did this lightly. And amazingly generous too. Gonna use the food on some other hybrids I'm growing this summer because it appears you gave me that much by my math. Anywho… I have a very soft spot for Amsterdam. I made it one of the main destinations during my honeymoon… and that would be almost exactly this time of year as my 30th anniversary is May 19th, like tomorrow. My wife is from Scotland and we were married in 1990 (in Scotland) and we took a driving tour of Europe before Euro days … which meant changing currency a lot besides languages. Paris for a couple days; high school buddy in Switzerland; Germany; and then bicycle nirvana in Amsterdam. Kid in a candy store. There were only two shops I visited and I still have T-shirts for both these places. One is the Bulldog, and I’m surprised how many people recognize that shirt at my local Harborside dispensary even today. The other was the Hard Rock Cafe which I’d be surprised if it still existed. But that was back in May 1990, when even the republicans in charge here were not COMPLETELY insane, such as today's varietal. Hopefully, about a month after these babies are harvested, this stuff should be just about cured and useful for the many celebrations which will be necessary when we clean out the infestation in our government. Keep your fingers crossed. ======================================================= So the basic plan is to veg the girls indoors under KIND K3 LED lighting (my norm) for a few more weeks... around when we hit the summer solstice. Then they will be transplanted into their final containers, probably one at 10 gallons and one at 7 gallons - both fabric - and they will remain outdoors after that point to be harvested when mother nature says so. I used to move from seedling containers into quart containers but I have mainly eliminated this stage for both indoor and outdoor grows - for different reasons. I have also eliminated my use of a seedling tent/grow light environment for that first week as just not necessary. I've structured my new diaries too so that week 1 actually starts at the end of the first 7 days after sprouting, which I call the seedling stage but for which there is no equivalent on GrowDiaries. For indoor grows (predominantly autoflowers these days) , I now move directly from the seedling container to the final container - which I've learned needs to be no larger than 3 gallons. I've given my outdoor autoflowers mostly 5 gallon fabric pots this spring but I think that was unnecessary at this point. For outdoor grows, I now move from seedling container to a 2 gallon plastic pot instead of that quart container. That allows vegging without the roots getting contained significantly before I make the final move outdoors into a BIG container... and I've learned from past grows that 10 gallons is WAY adequate for anything I grow on my patio. Good luck to everyone playing. Let's have some quarantine fun.

Things are starting to move along. Last week when I had my plants out for a bit of sunshine SOMETHING took a liking to my older pie and was noshing on it a bit. Good thing I didn't find out what is was. Gave her some veg nutrients for the first time a couple days ago. We're entering a VERY hot spell for our area - about 90 degrees for a 4 day spell here over the theoretical pandemic "holiday".

These babies were moving along so fast I decided to top both of them this morning. One of these I plan to let grow fairly wild except for topping, and when I move her outdoors she will get transplanted into a 10 gallon fabric pot; and the other I'd like to prune substantially and put her in a smaller, either 5 or 7 gallon pot. The temps were really hot last week and we had a couple of 100 degree days in the tent but the girls don't seem to be any worse for it. I went looking around for awhile in the Product Guide looking for some instructions as to whether you should feed with the grow powder every feeding or every OTHER feeding. I was confused because the Hybrid powder feed bag has a note on the bag itself clearly stating "feed every other watering"... but the Grow Powder had no such note. I eventually landed at the Greenhouse website FAQ with the following statement... <https://shop.greenhousefeeding.com/us/faq-en.html> "Green House Feeding will work perfectly in soil. When growing in soil, we recommend feeding the plants only every other watering (water – nutrient solution – water – nutrient solution) to avoid salt build up in the medium. We also recommend flushing the medium 2-3 times with pH-balanced water during the whole cycle depending on the flowering time." ============= Today is June 1 >> the one year anniversary of my retirement. I celebrated this day last year by going to the High Times NorCal Cannabis Cup up in Santa Rosa for the 2nd year in a row. I had fun documenting those trips in some of my diaries. Unknown when such events may happen again, but they will. Have faith. 👊 Instead, this year we are treated to a rage tweeting fool trying to put out fires with gasoline. The protests against our rampant state of police brutality here in the US have actually spread worldwide now, except honestly they're better at protesting in other countries. We're frankly getting what we deserve for electing an idiot, and it's bound to get worse before we can figure out how to end this. But this is the world we created. We will get thru this. Scathed for sure, but I'm still pretty confident there is something positive that will come after this. I use meditation. ============= June 6 >> <sigh> While meditation is useful as a personal tool to help stem the madness we are confronted with - it isn't something that helps you move fast, should you have that (ahem) need. It's clear that we actually need to move faster now - "Law Enforcement" murdered Eric Gardner many many years ago in an almost identical fashion to the current murder of George Floyd, and countless others. I'm a "senior citizen" in today's america - or what's left of it - I'll be 63 in August. Today I went out and got involved - unfortunately for the first time in my life I can admit - but it was worth the wait in some respects. I was impressed. As a protestor I'm over-equipped with my new eBike, in that I can probably escape attempted kettling and other known police tactics because of my bike. Today's march went from Hayward City Hall to the Police Department a couple miles away. We essentially blocked an intersection and held a vigil on bent knees for probably 9 minutes or about the amount of time it took to murder George Floyd. I think I waited too long in my life to do this - do it - you WILL feel better for it. I'm a retired California State professional transportation engineer. I've spent more than 30 years observing traffic in the State of California for various purposes. Everything from just basic counting cars to counting how many people were in those cars... to counting/observing/DIRECTING traffic in periods off distress like earthquakes, firestorms, hazardous material spills, whatever. One thing I consider myself an expert at at this point is judging motorist behavior, because you see a lot in that many decades. You'd be amazed at what kinda large loads are moving on our highway system after dark when you wouldn't be delayed by the movement of those objects/goods. Motorists consistently behave badly under certain circumstances. It is a fact of nature in my book. EXAMPLE ... overturned car blocks a multi-lane freeway... standard operating procedure at some point is to shut down the mainline - even if only for a couple minutes - to move debris around and establish something resembling normal temporarily. Now - if they can pull that off in only a few MINUTES - we might be OK. But what usually happens is somebody spills some diesel fuel or even something as simple as milk into a stream (which will kill many of the fish there). Anywho - why did I bring this all up? Ahem... as the professional traffic observer I claim myself to be... I'll say it again. I was impressed with the behavior of the traffic around the protest I was involved with today. I'd say 90% of the traffic that we interacted with was on our side - so to speak. Honking horns - driving SLOW - raising fists. There's something happening here folks. It's time we all got up off our butts and contributed to it.

Things are moving along nicely after topping. Both these girls are starting to bush out a bit. Very dense. Will have to prune these soon - but we're probably only a week away from repotting into a final container. I'll probably give them both haircuts then. June 9 >> Decided to give all of my photoperiod girls (5 total) undercarriage trims this evening at the beginning of the light cycle in the tent - where they won't be for much longer. Gave them a good feed afterwards. I'll eventually get around to discussing how much easier it is to use the powder feeding regimen that Green House Feeding Co supplies (versus the liquid nutrients I've been using for a couple years now) - but today is not that day. I'm using these nutrients on another baby of mine just for fun, that's a White Widow. Been busy harvesting and trimming autoflowers the last couple days - cutting down the last 3 CBD specialty babies (20:1 CBD) in the morning to clear the patio for the big girls (CBD Farming diary). The original plan was to get everybody transplanted into their final containers and moved outdoors by the summer solstice and let mother nature take over. We'll probably be a few days ahead of that schedule.

Graduation day! Last girls outa the tent and we shut that down for the summer. Mother nature is now in charge of all lighting and ventilation duties for the remainder of the term. It feels like crossing a finish line of sorts - kind of a PITA tending to plants both indoors and out on different lighting and feeding schedules. Now we can get into a more consistent routine. And I get to spend more time with the girls. The original girl was transplanted into a 10 gallon fabric container, and the v2 girl (only a few days behind #1 in germination) was transplanted into a 7 gallon fabric container. I've trimmed all my outdoor girls in a similar fashion, removing everything up to one node below where I made my initial topping point. These will get topped again, maybe later this week or next after they acclimate to the new containers. One odd thing I noted this morning when I checked up on the girls was the morning dew. It was odd because the other 3 big girls on the patio didn't show any signs of dew at all. Have no idea what to make of that. Night sweats? They look happy enuf. 😎

I decided to do both topside and underside pruning today to kinda get it over with for all the girls on the patio. Now we're pretty much done in the major structural maintenance part of the program and we just have to keep these babies fed for a few months. In trimming the underside, I took off all the new water branches under the spot where I originally topped the plant the first time. Beyond that they were just topped again, although a couple spots on v2 will clearly be FIMs. They're really starting to take off in the vertical growth department, almost doubling in height last week. The stalks on these babies are quite sturdy.

Everything is moving along in a nice boring fashion. Nothing complicated, no serious bug chomps like my gorilla glue, no minor structural damage to tend to like my white widow. Boring is good. 😬 Both girls grew about 7" last week. These girls are quite sturdy in the structural department, very resilient to wind which we've had plenty of and seems to be getting worse each year. Both girls have recovered well from their recent topping. The smaller v2 girl seems to drink more... but it's probably only because she's in a 7 gallon pot and she just feels lighter because there's 3 less gallons of soil compared to her sister. I let both of them dry out with no fluid for a couple days this week. No wilting, all stable. Most of the photos this week are of previously topped locations on each plant. ------------------ (there's a reason we call these things diaries... what follows is kinda personal diary stuff... might even be a rant of sorts) -------------------- TWIAH (This week in American History... can't say I'll add this to every week at this point, but Jeebus the amount of fodder is amazing)... I'm getting old in a relative sense... I'll turn 63 this August. I retired a little over a year ago after 30 something years of working for the State of California. I got involved in politics with a fool named Howard Dean almost 20 years ago. I've seen the inside of this sausage and I'm afraid it ain't pretty. Here's the deal this week... and it's pretty crazy even on the surface. Our nutcase president apparently knew that his buddy Putin had contracts out to pay the Taliban to kill OUR military personnel... and he did SQUAT about that, when sane observers were presenting him with possibilities to retaliate. Think about that for a bit. 😡 Then ask yourself who's side he's really on. And why. <<sigh>> I keep wondering why everybody has been firing off so many fireworks lately... in advance of what? July 4th? Not buying that yet. I have hot tub... it's like every night... keep wondering if folks have a bunch of leftovers from Chinese New Year they weren't able to use but it's gotta be more than that.

Things are moving along nicely. Temps have cooled to a moderate level in the mid to high 70's for a pleasant change. Late afternoon wind is the new norm, but these girls have rather muscular branches when I compare them to the other girls on the patio. This will bode well when those flowers come. I did another round of underside fan leaf pruning this morning, mainly just to get those puppies outa the way for watering and lifting the plant container, which causes me to rip them anyway. v2 has enough trimmed away that it should no longer be an issue, but the big girl will probably get another underside pruning in a week or so. Maybe an internal branch or two may also go away then. 7" of growth on the bigger girl last week. She's happy. Patio is becoming a rather lush garden. Still a long way to go. I need to make a new spreadsheet or something to track how much fluid I'm giving my girls. What's I've been doing (keeping notes on a calendar on the wall) hasn't been working. I make a decision each morning based upon how heavy the girl is (how much fluid is still in the tank - so to speak), how hot and dry the next 24 hours is gonna be, and how much the girl traditionally drinks. We move from feed to dry to water to dry and repeat the cycle, always erring on the side of more water. The dry is important because plants that are constantly wet are usually not happy. And since all the girls drink at different rates and some I may wanna back off on nutes (like GG4) - you just can't keep this stuff straight in your head with 5 different personalities drinking... at least at my age. 😕 The big girl I usually give about 1.5 gallons of fluid to, and v2 gets a gallon a day in the smaller container. She's light as a feather every morning and I'd be worried if I had to leave her a day without fluid. No wilting events to speak of this summer as yet. Mother nature has only cranked up the heat for maybe 4 days so far this summer. Fine with me. July 8 > Added a few pics of my wall notes (TWIAH)....... Nice that the 4th of July weekend is over and my pets can get a rest from the regular evening fireworks. Been crazy. Not even counting our crazy racist president cranking up the racist because he thinks that will help get him re-elected. Ummm ... whatever. 😠 T-minus 4 months till we eject this clown from the jet he's flying. The fireworks will be worth it then.

Still motoring along in the vertical growth department with about 7" last week, the big girl has begun to flower quite clearly, v2 not so much, but showing clear signs of starting to get serious flowering. I noticed flowering get going a couple days ago with the big girl. The food I gave the big girl was hybrid feeding powder, while I gave v2 "grow" powder for probably the last time. I'm also using the Green House Feed on my White Widow (she's a monster), and I even gave a little to my Gorilla Glue because I didn't like how she was looking with my usual nutrient setup. I'm becoming a fan of the powder stuff as opposed to the multi-part liquid system I've been using for the last couple years for the simplicity of it if nothing else. I'll have to do some math to make sure I have enough of the hybrid powder to last thru the summer to cover at least 3 plants before I let the GG in on the action. The temps have been quite warm the last couple days.... about 90. The only thing predictable is that the forecast will have the temp 5-10 degrees on the low side. There has been almost no fog to speak of so plenty of direct sunshine to gobble up. I'm going to have to up the amount of fluid I've been giving to v2 lately. I was generally going 1.5 gallons/day on the big girl and 1.0 gallons/day on v2... but she's telling me consistently she wants more water - so she'll get the same as the big girl for the next week and we'll see how she swims.

v2 clearly started flowering this week so both girls are within a week of each other in the growth and flowering department. Both girls are now on Hybrid powder. Did some math last night to make sure that I'de be able to feed 4 plants all summer; that way I can include my Gorilla Glue with the same food, along with the White Widow. Just happen to be growing a lotta hybrids this summer. I did my calculations basically using two periods of watering/drying to each feeding. I'll have to do the same math in a week or two to see how much of the booster we have, but we don't start using that until week 3 of flowering according to the instructions. Temperatures have moderated. Fog is here today so nobody is stretching for the sun in the photos. Temps should stay in the 70's all week. Nice.

Vertical growth has definitely started to slow down as the big girl grew only about 2" last week. She is flowering profusely though, and this is the 3rd week of flowering so we start to add booster feed now, at least for the big girl. v2 can hold off one more week on the booster because that's about how far behind the other girl she is. I meant to feed everybody this morning but I had an early tee time so everybody just got water today and we'll feed the girls tomorrow. It's been warm and v2 was looking a little thirsty late this afternoon when I took pictures. August 1 >> Decided to do some serious underside pruning on v2 - this will probably be the last of that for this girl. Was prepared to do some hatchet work on the big girl but she has reached that point in flowering where I'm not sure I can bring myself to take off any more. Even the stuff that would otherwise turn into popcorn buds looks luscious at this point - so they will stay. I'll think about it again tomorrow evening. =========================================== TWIAH >> President nutcase has apparently decided that using federal forces to incite rioting in "liberal" cities is a viable political strategy. He's trying to whip up video to use in commercials to scare the folks that actually still watch commercials. Oy... we just passed the 100 days to go mark in this clown's presidency... at least until we boot his ass outa office. Odds are we're shaping up for a fight even if he loses - so he needs to lose big - but EVERY sign is there that he will lose by historic margins. Will probably make McGovern look good in the end. And I will be giving out Wonder Pie's to all my consuming friends to celebrate. Happy days on the far horizon. 😂 😁 💪

The flowers on the big girl are really starting to come along nice. It's already to the point where you can tell she's flowering from a distance, where the pistils stand out at the tops of the flowers, but the secondary flowers are starting to fill in nice and she looks like she's gonna get pretty fat. v2 is still just flowering heavy at the tops, so still a week or so behind the big girl. I've started giving v2 some extra fluid later in the day to compensate for her smaller container. Both girls are now receiving booster powder feed. I love the way I can see the flowers on these girls, and the big girl has got some fragrance going. I think I'm in love. 😍 TWIAH >> Today (August 4) was a good example of the significance of the axiom "You should live every day as if it was your last". Sure, it was another example of our idiot president doing something stupid (calling the explosion(s) in Lebanon an "attack" - for no other reason than his addled brain)... but today the world became a LOT smaller. Turns out I have a nephew who was one of the THOUSANDS injured in the major blast in Beirut (morning Pacific time). He's the son of my littlest sister, who just turned 60 a few days ago... who himself just got married a week ago. He's OK... wounds on 3 of 4 limbs... but he's alive and will live to love somebody tomorrow. The apartment is not inhabitable. At present it looks like a non-hostile event. Just a stupid decision to store Ammonium Nitrate (huge amounts for a long period of time) way too close to humans. This stuff is used for 2 things - fertilizer and bombs. It's what was used to blow up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City back in the day. So... every once in awhile... take a step back... take a deep breath... and remember the simple joy of still being alive. Try to share that joy while you can.... because you NEVER know when the worlds gonna go boom on ya. 🙏

The big girl here is really starting to put on some weight. And she seems to be drinking more. Maybe it's me... but I've upped her daily fluid amount to two gallons, and she seems to be drinking every bit... so we'll keep at that as long as it stays warm, and it's gotten a bit warmer the last couple days, a little over 80. Still nice. v2 gets a measured 1.5 gallons a day - I just don't give it to her all at once. Give her a couple minutes to drink up and she'll drink. It's considerably easier measuring out food for these girls using the powder from Green House Feeding... that is if you have a small scale to measure the powder (and who doesn't if you spend this much time messing with cannabis). It's NO SMALL THING to be able to put the powder back in the bag if you oops - over measure something. Try that with liquid food. In fact - I dare you to even try to pour liquid from the larger containers I purchased into smaller containers that are more handy - without spilling this stuff.... which is like pouring money into the ground. I eventually decided to use a cup to transfer liquid fertilizer between containers safely, but it's work. Then you factor in that I'm using 5 different kinds of liquid stuff of which 2 parts differ between vegging and flowering. With the powder food, you only use 1 thing during veg and a max of 2 things during flowering. Simplicity has value. August 14 >> Had a major near-wilting event as the temps jumped up to 105 today. I was up relatively early for what turned into a 28 mile bike ride - hydrated all the girls before heading out. But when I got back home early afternoon there was some major distress going on in the big girl. Nobody else on the patio was showing the same level of distress - but nobody else has buds this fat at this point yet either. I'm not afraid of at least one near-wilt event. It teaches the plant that we're nearing the end of the road and it's time to up the resin production to protect those flowers you've been working on. So I threw two gallons of water on her and she was back to normal in about 2 hours. Whew. Dodged a bullet somewhat. I've been giving the big girl routinely 2 gallons a day lately because she seems thirsty with all the buds. Gonna have to keep a closer eye on her going forward - we're heading into a hot spell - although today was a projected peak heat day.

Mother Nature decided to crank up the temperature control last week and we've been in the middle of bonafide heat wave here in California. We've been pushing 90-100 for four days in a row. Crazy part is we actually got some serious thunderstorm action on Saturday night. Thunder enuf to shake the house a few times (and rattle the animals). How rare is this? Out here we see this stuff about once every 10 years along the coast, maybe. Having grown up on the east coast - it brings back memories. Actually had a lightning delay on the golf course Sunday morning. I've had a frost delay before - but NEVER a lightning delay in 30 years out west. Girls haven't had a bath all summer either so they probably enjoyed it. Humidity level is still bearable (50-60%). At the beginning of the heat wave we had a near wilt experience with the big girl - and ever since then I've been doubling the fluid for the girls - giving them an extra dose in the afternoon when I get back from wherever I happen to go. Today (Monday) is the first time I've backed down to only one dose of fluid - it was still 90 today - but there was cloud cover for most of the day. Instinct is telling me it's time to take a look at the trichomes on the big girl. She's been fattening up quite nicely and she's clearly ahead of the other girls on the patio. She's also the only one giving off a noticeable scent at present. August 20 >> WOW. Trichome inspection says this girl is ready for harvest like NOW... that being the big girl. v2 still has a ways to go.... but golly... big girl gets flushed tomorrow morning. Won't have time to actually harvest her until early next week - but damn - this heat has advanced the world a week or two.

Well... we didn't make it thru the latest heat wave unscathed. The big girl caught a case of the wilts early on because she was the most developed girl on the patio but she recovered with adequate hydration in a couple hours. Then a couple days later we had actual thunder and lightning storms around here (which happens less than once a decade). I was out on the golf course (or rather - waiting out my first ever California lightning delay on a golf course) when the girls got drenched a bit, which I think led to damage to a couple of bud tops. Such is life. Trichome inspection led me to flush the big girl the next day, and I will harvest her tomorrow morning. I'd have done it today but my wife is leaving for an extended trip to Scotland this afternoon and this morning just wasn't that time. 😌 I'm not gonna pull the trigger on a harvest week diary until I harvest v2, and I figure she has at least a week or two to go. Everybody on the patio is starting to fatten up but I'm gonna guess v2 will be next in line. I'll get more into trichome inspection on all the other girls probably tomorrow after I harvest (and wash) the big girl... my wife will still be airborne somewhere. I have a LOT of backlogged stuff to mess with from my spring autoflower harvest. Still have hash to make from the trim and whatnot... I need to make another batch of butter for brownies. I'd been holding off on a lot of this stuff because my wife started working from home during the pandemic (like everybody else)... and that lasted until she was able to retire about a week ago... now she's off to tend to her aging folks, and I can monopolize the house again, and crank up the tunes. It is a bittersweet time in my life and I have to keep a smile on. 💪 ================ August 25 >> So today was harvest day for the big girl. Thankfully with all this smoke in the air recently there was a nice cool fog blanket this morning... so I wasn't in a huge hurry to chop this girl down. Actually took me about an hour to gather all my bud washing equipment and disinfect everything because this is my first bud wash of the year, so I'm glad the sun didn't come out. I went looking for some YouTube video and other references on bud washing (because the original link I used in a previous diary a couple years ago no longer functions because that user went away or whatever), and I found a nice article from another Netherlands outfit called Spliff Seeds (I grew one of their Purple Berry Kush's to great effect last year) that lays out some good info on bud washing... but of course I had to convert things from metric... not a problem as a retired engineer. 😬 here's the link... (I wish they would let you create clickable links in diaries, but it's probably somebodies anal retentive security issue)... https://www.spliffseeds.nl/harvesting-cannabis-with-bugs-or-mildew/ The sequence isn't exactly the same as I used to use but close. 3 stages is what I've always done. The first stage is listed as "anti-mold", but this is the first time I've seen anybody say that the idea is pH SHOCK, and you may not need to add the baking soda if your tap water pH is >8.0. Now... my tap water weighs in at like pH >9.0.... which is why I've been using a 35 gallon tank the last few years just to hold water that I adjust the pH down to 6.0 for use only with my cannabis plants (I also throw a fish tank aerator into that tank). For the first time I tested the pH of the water to which I added some baking soda and it was over 10.5.... so it's clear to me NOW that I don't need to add much baking soda for stage one at all. Stage two is lemon juice and hydrogen peroxide and is listed as "anti-bacterial and antiseptic", and this worked out to be very close to what I remember using as far as concentration levels go. It worked out to be basically one cup EACH of lemon juice and 3% Hydrogen Peroxide combined with 5 gallons of water (I use two 5 gallon containers for the first two stages and a 10 gallon rinse bin for stage 3). Those concentration levels I believe are higher than recommended in the referenced article but within acceptable limits. I learned something about pH reading the article. I threw in a few photos of what the water looked like AFTER washing was done - but the most noticeable effect was it killed a handful of small caterpillers which can be found in the stage 3 rinse bin dead. I found a rather large one of these critters alive as I was yanking off fan leaves this morning - I always freak when I find some living critter feasting on my girls. It was an ugly but swift death. Overall this mornings operation took me about 90 minutes from the moment I first cut the big girl until everything was washed and hanging to dry. That marks 20% of the work done on the front end (pre-trim) for this years outdoor crop. Long long way to go. August 29 >> Flushed v2 today. Will probably harvest her next week sometime.

I could probably have harvested v2 already but the plan is to take her down Wednesday morning for personal convenience. She was still pretty heavy when I got back from the golf course this afternoon - so she's pretty much stopped drinking at this point and I'll give her a dry day tomorrow to dry out a bit before harvest. Might just stick her in my grow shed (where I've made room by dis-assembling my grow tent - which I will be donating to a buddy so I can upgrade to a larger unit) where I can give her an extended dark period before harvest (read as >> Dale sleeps in). Took a few pictures with my heavy duty Sony camera today. Funky orange light with all this smoke still lingering in the air.

September 2 >> Well it was an eventful summer, pandemic notwithstanding. I harvested the big girl 8 days ago on Tuesday August 25th and she's been hanging to dry in my old grow shed (soon to be retired) until today - September 2. Today I harvested v2 late morning after disassembling my old grow tent to make room and keep her in the dark a few extra hours. I was planning to use my Trim Bag on the big girl when I de-budded her this morning but I decided that while she's ready for hand trimming she's not really dry enough to get good use outa the trim bag - which needs drier buds to be more effective. So I had the (I call it) brilliant idea of pulling out my hanging dry bag and throwing the big girl buds in there to dry for maybe a couple more days... (brilliant part ->) in my front bedroom which would have previously been a forbidden activity if my wife was still in the house. But she's not, and won't be anytime soon... and DAMN does my front bedroom smell nice. 😁 It's also a nicer place to start curing herb - never get's as hot as the shed outside. That's why I'm moving my (future upgraded) grow tent into my garage which also never gets as hot as that shed - because I have a foam roof on my house (with a few solar panels thrown in). 😎 =============================================== There will be multiple future updates as we trim and weigh things. I'm making up any effects or tastes at present. I wouldn't dare taste anything until it's had a few weeks to cure. 🙏 =============================================== September 5 >> I think I'm in something of a state of shock after hand trimming the big girl today in between horse races at Churchill Downs (It was Kentucky Derby Day today oddly enough). I probably have to go back thru my diaries to check this but I'm going to guess that in the past I've ended up with roughly equal weights of buds and trim on average. In this case - not even close... big girl yielded 443 grams of buds against 117 grams of trim. These nuggets are firm and dense, and after a couple hours, and a few fine Dutch beers, I was basically trimming these babies in my hand just rolling them around and plucking what needed to come off. Scissors be gone. That was freaking easy. Nearly a pound of herb outa that one girl. Yum. And hot damn that was only the first plant. I turned out to be correct in my assumption that using my TrimBag would not have been a help here. I'm going to assume the same would happen with v2... but we'll see how she makes it thru hang drying in the heat the next couple days. Unfortunately I have a golf tournament tomorrow in Napa and it's gonna be like 105 degrees. I usually melt around 90 so it's likely to be a struggle. =============================================== September 7 >> Happy Labor Day for those of you still laboring. Golf went well yesterday, I kicked some ass in the heat, shot 5 over and won our two-person team match 5 & 3. 😬 When I came home after that round it was like 108 in my shed, and as noted elsewhere the bud condition was "crispy", so I debudded her yesterday afternoon and moved her indoors, but just ran her thru the TrimBag today and then just hand trimmed the remaining quickly. So the final results.... in terms of weights... Big girl was grown in a 10 gallon pot and yielded 443 grams of buds and 117 grams of trim - trimmed by hand. v2 was grown in a 7 gallon pot and yielded 191 grams of buds and 130 grams of trim - trimmed via TrimBag. (I should note there was some significant spillage of trim here - see pics) I think I'll give this baby a week or two before we taste test her. Need to get a buddy or three involved. ================================================ September 18 >> Time to make some hash from the trim on these girls. Broke out the washing machine and ran two loads with at least 10 minutes of agitation each run. Gathered roughly the same quantity of hash on each run. Really just added another bag of ice for the 2nd wash. Chopped it up and letting it dry 72 hours in the garage - I'll weigh it all after that. September 21 >> The hash weighed in at just under 13 grams all dried out: 160 micron - 0.56 g 120 Micron - 2.29 g 73 micron - 5.34 g 25 micron - 4.79 g ================================================ I've been trying to study the taste of this girl but I sometimes wonder if I destroyed most of my taste buds at an earlier age. It's kinda like biting into pie crust and missing the pie... hehe ... I'm sure the manufacturer won't appreciate that... but's it's a very tasty pie crust all the same...and since I'm sitting on like a pound of this stuff it's a good thang she's tasty. I seeded a couple friends with samples here but I'm still awaiting results. Not exactly like waiting for Trump to tell the truth about something... but at least I can trust what they would tell me. 😷 October 7 >>> Notes from a friend... As requested, some tasting notes: Initially very pungent with a “licorice” note - aroma permeates everything and lingers for days. Faded out after a few days on Boveda. Now has a slight citrusy note. Nice tight buds with plenty of flower - red-purple color. Smokes very smooth, both vaping and in a joint, nice flavor. The high for me feels stimulating, creative, clear-headed. Nicely potent. No paranoia and no nausea. Excellent weed! ======================================================================= TWIAH >> hehe ... final installment. I received my 2020 ballot in the mail today (and filled it out while I was watching Kamala eat Mr. Pence during tonite's VP debate). Oh baby I've been waiting 4 years for this moment. I'm 63 now. I was a child when the Nixon thing went down. This is AT LEAST an order of magnitude, probably TWO worse than that, in terms of government malfeasance. We'll still be adding up the damage from this experience after I'm buried I'm fairly certain. We get what we deserve, and we deserve a pretty good kick in the ass. There is a chance after this jack&ss has destroyed so much of our government that we can repair it for the future, but this is the same thing that happened after Nixon. People put in place firmer rules that (cough) RELIED on the integrity of politicians (there's no such thing as integrity in TrumpLand). We got a vivid demonstration of that failure when the Senate Republicans balked during the impeachment hearings. So there's only one group left standing in the way. Those pesky voters. ......... Wish us luck please... I think we're gonna be OK... but you wanna be on the right side of karma don't you? 😁 ✊ 😎