Creme de la Chem from Mephisto Jan 22

FirstCavApache64 said:

Congrats bud, another one into the EZ Bake oven lol. I love the drying machine, it looks so high tech. It's gotta be a good feeling to catch a break for a little bit with no plants to worry about. Hope your buddies plants like their stay in the UFO dome. Enjoy your harvest bud.

Click to expand...

Thanks. They could have gone for a couple more days maybe, but they were in the zone and timing of other things influenced the decision to chop. All the trichs were either cloudy (80%) with some amber (20%). I nailed them with 24 hrs of continuous light from the 10,000k bulbs and they responded well to that. Kinda opposite of the other broscience opinion of 24 hrs of total darkness. Next time I’ll try 24 hrs of 10,000k light, then 24 hrs of darkness…

I love my drying/curing cabinet. Set it and forget it. Takes all the worry out of the final step.

Mango Smile next up outdoors…

Glad you got them where you want them. I'm never really 100% happy with my decision to chop until I've sampled the bud once it's had a good chance to cure. I love those stacked image shots, the details are so incredible. They sure look frosty as hell. I don't know if I'm going to do anything outdoors yet or not. Just not sure it's worth the increased hassle when I seriously don't need the yield. The girls I just flipped should be done end of May beginning of June so I could get some Auto's going for outdoor then but I'm thinking I might just take a short break to enjoy some summer without a schedule. I'll figure it out then, depends on how things turn out with this run too. I've never run any of these strains before so I have no clue on what my yield is going to be.

it is probably the toughest decision to make - when to chop? Looking at the stacked photos, all the trichromes are either cloudy or amber (no clear), and it’s about 90% cloudy and 10% amber. The ambers showed up in just over a day after I hit them with the 10,000k T5 lighting continuously…I coulda run them longer that way, but would run the risk of scorching them. I’m still searching for the sweet spot on the 10,000k bulbs.

i don’t plan on running anything indoors this summer, too tough to control humidity and temps, so the outdoor grow will scratch that itch…this Is my favorite hobby, among many…

the Cannatrol cabinet has been full and running for 12 hrs and I’ve already emptied the spent water pan once. It’s doing a mighty fine job…

I’m gonna germinate Mango Smile (my house) and Bubba Trouble (GF house) in a couple days and get them well established. I’ll start hardening them off in mid April and they’ll go in full sun 1 May. I’ll start a new thread for that effort…planning on the milk carton extreme horizontal training again. Worked well last year and kept the plants low key and screened from neighbors…

That's great, I'd love to see the bubba trouble's done outside. Bet those girls will get nice and big with good sunlight. I just never got the tree work done I needed to open up my growing area and don't feel up to moving plants around chasing the sun. If I had a cleared area I could plant in ground I'd be much more likely to do a couple outside. I'll probably just do a couple big autos I've been wanting to run. Night Blood and one of Gnome Automatics strains are on deck but I'll most likely take a break for a little bit first to clean up my whole grow room really well and organize it better. As crowded as my tent is now after only one week from flip I'm going to be having my hands full for the next 9-11 weeks. Then I'll be wishing I had the EZ bake bud dryer 3000 myself lol.

Dew point down to 57.7%; was hovering between 60% and 61% yesterday. Spent water pan is dry so I think it has hit equilibrium…low RH in the house is evaporating out of the catch pan whatever it removes. Target dew point for the dry cycle is 54%; 2 and a half days to get there. I’ll rearrange the shelves later today to get the more densely packed trays down at the bottom where the fan is. Initial setup put the less dense trays at the bottom to allow more airflow upwards from the fan. I’ll buck down some of the bigger colas then too.

there is also a setting for a hold cycle (68 degrees/54% dew point) I’ll use for a few days since the unit is so packed…directions state max load is around 2 lbs. I blew right past that so some extra time in a controlled environment won’t hurt…

without this contraption, I’d be stressing heavy over drying conditions…now I’m just patiently waiting…good place to be.

I really don’t need to do an outdoor run this summer to add to quantity, this plus stuff from previous grows more than satisfies my needs. I just like growing these plants and torturing them into weird shapes.

I wish I’d taken a baseline picture when I put these in the cabinet but I was stoned, and well, you know how that goes. Anyhow, couple days left in the dry cycle and the’ve lost some volume and density. I had to turn the bigger buds since they were developing flat spots.

they are still pretty sticky, and fragrance is developing. I’ll shift the trays around every couple days to give each a shot at the lowest position above the fan.

the cabinet is up on blocks in a washer drip pan just case the spent water pan overflows. Wouldny ya know it, I didn't get it positioned correctly last time I emptied the pan (that whole stoned again thang), but the blocks and pan did their job.

19.7 oz at present.

Retired engineer said:

I wish I’d taken a baseline picture when I put these in the cabinet but I was stoned, and well, you know how that goes. Anyhow, couple days left in the dry cycle and the’ve lost some volume and density. I had to turn the bigger buds since they were developing flat spots.

they are still pretty sticky, and fragrance is developing. I’ll shift the trays around every couple days to give each a shot at the lowest position above the fan.

the cabinet is up on blocks in a washer drip pan just case the spent water pan overflows. Wouldny ya know it, I didn't get it positioned correctly last time I emptied the pan (that whole stoned again thang), but the blocks and pan did their job.

19.7 oz at present.

View attachment 5110406View attachment 5110407View attachment 5110408View attachment 5110409View attachment 5110410View attachment 5110411View attachment 5110412

Click to expand...

I read on Reddit that cannatrol only can hold about 2lb wet (8or 9 oz dried) but u seem have been able to dry 19oz dry . Is that due to you cutting them up individually?

Slattgod said:

I read on Reddit that cannatrol only can hold about 2lb wet (8or 9 oz dried) but u seem have been able to dry 19oz dry . Is that due to you cutting them up individually?

Click to expand...

I buck most buds down to final size, leaving a couple prizes. That makes the trays kind dense at first, I arrange them with the least dense at the bottom to start to let some of the denser trays to shrink, then move the trays around. I’ll probably buck some more branches down in the next day to even out the airflow. There is a final hold cycle that I’ll probably let run for a couple days too…

Shifted over to cure cycle, waste water pan is empty. Audrey 2 decided to provide a strategic overwatch position.

Beautiful situation you got there sir

Bike247 said:

Beautiful situation you got there sir

Click to expand...

Yep, optimized as far as I can tell…

My goodness did I thoroughly enjoy speed reading your grow. You left little room for doubt about your engineering background. Very nice to say the least.
As luck would have it, I am germinating 3 Mephisto CdLC beans right now. It’s only my 2nd indoor grow and I have a lot to learn. My medium is a similar layered approach with mostly dry organic nutes….although your grow may have altered my thinking.
The one question that I have is concerning your watering/feeding schedule. I’ve been told by some experienced growers to allow the soil to really dry out between waterings. Not bone dry but to the point where the pot is light when lifted. With my first grow this would take 3/4 days. I only have a single LED (HLG 320 qb, R-spec), so no side lighting which may dry things out quicker.
Still it seems your watering method is almost polar opposite from the “heavy watering then dry out totally” approach??
I used fabric 3 gal pots and from the looks of my roots after harvest I believe the sides may have dried out and killed the capillary roots….
When I pulled the roots there was a smallish rootball that didn’t come close to extending to the margins of the pot.
I don’t wanna take up too much of your time, but could you advise on the optimal conditions for the soil?? Mine will be amended, so I only anticipated top dressing a few times along with a liquid silica over the life of the autos. However, your soil was also amended (guano, ocean Forest, etc), yet you fed your plants at a level that many have told me would be far too much.
Hey your proof is in your pudding….and some fine pudding it is. I am so glad I happened upon your grow. If you could respond to my conflicted watering/feeding confusion it would be greatly appreciated.
Take care and congrats on an outstanding grow.

Bullmark said:

My goodness did I thoroughly enjoy speed reading your grow. You left little room for doubt about your engineering background. Very nice to say the least.
As luck would have it, I am germinating 3 Mephisto CdLC beans right now. It’s only my 2nd indoor grow and I have a lot to learn. My medium is a similar layered approach with mostly dry organic nutes….although your grow may have altered my thinking.
The one question that I have is concerning your watering/feeding schedule. I’ve been told by some experienced growers to allow the soil to really dry out between waterings. Not bone dry but to the point where the pot is light when lifted. With my first grow this would take 3/4 days. I only have a single LED (HLG 320 qb, R-spec), so no side lighting which may dry things out quicker.
Still it seems your watering method is almost polar opposite from the “heavy watering then dry out totally” approach??
I used fabric 3 gal pots and from the looks of my roots after harvest I believe the sides may have dried out and killed the capillary roots….
When I pulled the roots there was a smallish rootball that didn’t come close to extending to the margins of the pot.
I don’t wanna take up too much of your time, but could you advise on the optimal conditions for the soil?? Mine will be amended, so I only anticipated top dressing a few times along with a liquid silica over the life of the autos. However, your soil was also amended (guano, ocean Forest, etc), yet you fed your plants at a level that many have told me would be far too much.
Hey your proof is in your pudding….and some fine pudding it is. I am so glad I happened upon your grow. If you could respond to my conflicted watering/feeding confusion it would be greatly appreciated.
Take care and congrats on an outstanding grow.

Click to expand...

I’ll give ya a longer reply Monday when I get back to my notes…it turned out to be a pretty decent grow, I coulda let them run a bit longer (they went from 19 Jan - 27 Mar), but they were frosty and dense as hell. You’ll enjoy yours I’m sure. More later…

I’m just confused over the correct watering practices. If I water thoroughly and slowly, to the point of a tiny bit of runoff, the soil is very moist for several days. Generally by the 4th day the pot is feeling kinda light and I’ll water again.
Is it better to go lighter with each watering but do it more often??
I see where you are giving water/nutrients multiple days in a row and having one day of nothing (dry day) once or twice a week.

yes, I let them go dry once a week, and volume of water/nutes in a 4 gallon pot I use is usually around 1.0l. I use ph adjusted water (6.4ish), and ph adjusted nutes at around 50% of recommended dosage. I space the daily waterings out over around half an hour - water/nutes/water/nutes. This allows the soil to absorb the fluids over time and more evenly distribute both the water and the nutes thru the soil. Since I’m using water, along with 50% strength nutes, they are effectively seeing a 25% dosage from the combined waterings.

if they show signs of overwatering (droopy leaves etc), I adjust things accordingly. I’ve done it in this manner for quite a while and not had any problems…hope you can find your sweet spot too…

Final tally is 4.6 oz CdlC and 7.1 oz from the 4 way cross. Sticky and stinky as hell so I’ll put this one in the win column.

I bucked them down to final size, but saved a couple trophy buds from each for some stacked focus photography later on today…

Congrats bud, it's always a great feeling looking at the results of a finished grow. They look great!

Bullmark said:

I’m just confused over the correct watering practices. If I water thoroughly and slowly, to the point of a tiny bit of runoff, the soil is very moist for several days. Generally by the 4th day the pot is feeling kinda light and I’ll water again.
Is it better to go lighter with each watering but do it more often??
I see where you are giving water/nutrients multiple days in a row and having one day of nothing (dry day) once or twice a week.

Click to expand...

Here are my root balls, they were coming thru the bottom of the cloth bags too. I was able to shake out most of the soil around flowers in my yard, and the root mass is pretty impressive.

Every once in a while I cut the watering in half for a day then fill the drip pans with ph adjusted water a couple times to get the plants to draw the water from the bottom…

Looking good, I just saw these roots the other week. Let me know my watering strategy was working. Filled out the 5 gallon pot in less than two weeks from a one gallon transplant. Recharge and Great White just seems to kick them into high gear with organics.

Gotta love it when ya the roots grow outside the pot!