So in the last couple of weeks I tried to make the night time temperature go down enough for them to turn color and they did - the sugar leaves turned a deep bluish green, really nice coloring!
I harvested over a 2-day period. Day 1 I hand-plucked the sugar leaves off plants # 1, 2, & 3. Day 2 I hand-plucked plants 4 & 5, trimmed all of them and cut them down whole.
I hung them to dry in my closet/former grow room with a boot tray of water with a towel for evaporation. My last grow was a disappointment in the end due to me not realizing how dry it is in the house (here in the living room it's 19% RH due to it being January in Canada and the hot water heating radiators are going full time).
When they were dry enough, I did the final trimming, removing all the waste and dividing the buds into 2 classes: Top tier which are the nice tops of the big colas, and 2nd tier, which are the rest. I think I'll learn to make hash with the 223 grams of wet sugar leaves. I'll be adding more to this final entry in the coming days - this has been really tiring!
Final numbers for 5 ShishkaBerry plants:
Top tier buds (dried not cured) 372g
2nd tier buds (dried not cured) 150g
Hand plucked sugar leaves (wet) 223g
Waste (Sticks, stems, burnt leaf tips) 128g
I'm basing my comments on the taste by the glove-hash I smoked - wow it's really good! I'm looking forward to next month when these buds will be ready to enjoy ๐
I'd like to thank all my new friends here and the other growers that have helped me along the way ๐
Finally, I left you with an outtake video from one of the defoliation sessions ๐บ
Stay tuned for updates...
UPDATE 1: Today I might have made some tincture or something, not sure. I slow-roasted the dried but not cured previously hand plucked sugar leaves and crumbled them up and put them in a mason jar (51 grams 100% dry weight) and added a little bottle of Absolut Vodka (375 ml). I shook the mixture vigorously for a couple of minutes then placed it in a cool area of the house to sit for a few weeks before a first test - not totally sure what I'm doing here).
UPDATE 2: Possibly made Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) out of the Alsolut vodka - ShishkaBerry mixture: I strained it so that there was no plant material, reduced it in a double boiler style, not sure what to do with the gooey stuff that's left as a result.