👉 This is the first staggered harvest I have done. The highest parts of the plant were definitely ahead of each lower level of flowers. So it made sense to give this a try. Also, there were so many sugar leaves in the flowers I knew I was facing some major trim time. So I started at the highest branch of colas and that was the main stem…what I call the Queen cola, on April 4. I was also very busy with work and life so I spaced out each successive branch by a day or two…or so. To harvest I would cut each major branch from the top down. There would be one major cola ( and best specimen) on each branch. That cola was trimmed so it was still on its stem and then weighed. I recorded the weight of the cola then assigned it a letter, put on a clothes pin, then hung on a rack. I would weigh the cola over a couple of days till it had loss 75% of it wet weight. I would cut from the stem for the final weight, then place in a jar with a hygrometer. I would monitor the jars and if they were above 62% I would take off the jar lid, then replace when humidity was back down. When stable I put a humidity pack in some of the jars, but not all, just to see if I can observe a difference after the cure. 👉 My last trim penance was served on May 1. Almost a full month. The first cola harvested is already being tested. I did a close trim and removed as many sugar leaves as possible. I think I spent over 10 hours in total. So glad I chose to stagger the job. I trimmed any frosty sugar leaves over a trim tray with a screen for a bottom. I also scissored a bunch of the larf buds into small bits to add to the trim. I made a nice small wafer of just trichomes with no plant matter. Very nice, sweet stuff. I’m letting the large pile of trimmed sugar leaves dry out till crispy and will hand grind them over that screen and press the kief produced into pucks. It’s green and has lots of plant material with it…but its still sweet, and a very nice topper to a bong or joint. 👉 There were a lot of nice buds of what I call secondary flowers. Those were on secondary branch ends mostly. These buds were placed on a dry net. After 24hrs, I placed them in a paper bag. When they had lost 75% of their wet weight they were put into a jar with a hydrometer. Almost everything that wasn’t a branch end flower was put in the larf bin. Lots of larf. I didn’t weight any of it dry and just the wet weight from a couple of branches. I plan on making bubble hash and extracts (oil and tincture) with the larf. Of course planning and doing are two separate issues. I have acquired all the proper gear and done lots of research. I am also experimenting with the drying environment. In the past I was using a direct fan to oscillate directly on the buds for 24 hrs. At 24hrs the buds were put in bags and also kept them in direct wind. After a couple of branch sets I decided to stop oscillating the fan and make the breeze indirect. I still put the buds in bags after 24 hrs and kept the wind indirect. It took a few days to get to 25% doing it this way, as opposed to 2 days in bags with direct wind. The slower is supposed to be better, but risks moldy buds. I’m not doing everything the same way so I’m curious to see if there are perceptible differences in jar aroma and taste. To further complicate things to eye-roll status, The staggered harvest should have improved the lower level of flowers to the same ripeness. I can honestly tell buds from the same plants taken at different levels. The lower ones are noticeably weaker. I won’t start testing to see if there is improvement till the flowers are at least 4 months cured.