I know it hasn't been too long yet, but you got another update for us? Just started from the beginning of your journal and read my way through - Have to say... PROPS buddy. Things are looking great. For your first harvest ever, you should be extremely proud - you did very well. I do have a question though - did you flush the Short Riders before you harvested? You may want to do this for your Aurora Indicas. About 2 weeks or 10 days before you plan to harvest, flush them out REALLY good with just plain ole Ph balanced water. You could also add a flushing agent to the water - Fox Farm has one called Sledge Hammer - I've also heard of Royal Flush, and Advanced Nutrients makes one called Final Phase. Plain water will do pretty good, but adding a flushing agent will do even better. The reason we flush before harvest is to get rid of any excess fertilizer and salt build up in our plants. The flushing agents will break the salts down to aid in flushing them out. A general rule of thumb is 3 gallons of water for each gallon of pot size you have... so if they're in 3 gallon pots, flush (pour) 9 gallons of water through EACH pot. This sounds excessive, but I can assure you it is not going to hurt them. It will make one HELL of a mess, so my suggestion is to do it either outside, or in your sink or bathtub. The end result will be a VERY smooth smoke, virtually free of all additives and chemicals.
I don't know if it's true or not, but this is something else I've heard about flushing - Some people say that when you burn weed that hasn't been properly flushed, the ashes will be pretty much black in color. IF you flushed properly, the ash should be almost white or light gray - similar to the ash from a cigarette.
I am subscribed to this thread now. Again, props on your grow. You seem to be on track to have another great harvest with the Aurora Indicas. It's nice to see someone who knows what they're doing - you were patient enough to wait and watch the buds - not harvest early like many people do their first couple of times. Anyways man - good luck and I'll be watching until the end.
If you get a chance, come check out my journal - I'm growing a couple of Short Riders also. I am using 250watt HPS through entire grow, but it's in a small closet so should be ok - 100 watts per plant is the general rule of thumb I follow. My Short Riders are getting insanely tall though - I thought they would maybe be 14"-30", but they are probably close to 42" already, and keep getting bigger. They have started to bud nicely, now it's time to sit back and watch them pack on the weight. I sure wish you had a scale so I could see how much you yielded. Oh - last thing - when did you start to really notice trichome production on the Short Riders? I'm at day 40 or so, and although I have plenty of buds all over the plant, they aren't getting frosty AT ALL yet. I know they will, I'm just wondering how long it was before you started seeing "the frost" show up?
