Newb Outdoor Grow / 4 Clones / Smart Pots / On a "Budget"

October 19, 2019 cont.
Big ups to all trimmers out there, especially to those of you trimming 10-12 hours a day or more for weeks on end. You're all bad asses!

I'm very happy with my harvest considering I wasn't sure I'd even get to this stage. I feel like most of the bud is not very compact, kind of loose. Honestly, I don't really know. They seem to have good heft to them, I'm just a newb and not sure how good I did! Here's my thoughts for what they're worth:

Lemonade: smallest of all the plants, but had the most dense buds.
LemonJack: buds have heft but seem a little loose?
Tangie: seem a little tighter than LemonJack.
Capstone: tightest bugs of all the plants.

All the plants except Lemonade were roughly the same size. It will be interesting to see how they all compare once they dry.

October 20, 2019
Homemade drying box for bud n leaf. This was an absolute hack job trying to finish up before my daughters came home. They know I grow, but the entire house smelled like a grow room and there was shit all over the living room. Trying to make dad look like a pro lol! Used an old box, some foundation line, an old screen and a small fan. It's not pretty, but should do the trick!

December 14th, 2019
Time for the reveal! All my bud has been doing the burp n seal in Mason jars, then locked down with some Boveda packs and a small humidity reader. It's been interesting to level out the humidity and smell the bud take shape. Today I'm unpacking and weighing! I will say I'm a little more impressed with the look of these buds than when I first harvested. The drying and curing has helped them tighten up more. Still lots of room for improvement, but very excited about this!

Here are the final results:
Lemonade: 16 grams
Tangie: 28.6 grams
Capstone: 33 grams
LemonJack: 40 grams

Reflections & Smoke Report (at the end)
What a wonderful experience to be able to grow my own! It's been a dream for a long time and for many different reasons I haven't been able to until this past year. What a privilege. I can only hope someday I'll be back in the countryside with much more room to grow these beautiful plants to their full potential!

I'm very pleased with the grow and the harvest. I learned so much, some thanks to all the good people here at THC Framer and some from the interwebs. I definitely learned a lot through trial and error. Some thoughts about my grow and what I could have, should have done:
- Start Date: Start earlier, doh! If you want bigger plants start them on time for your area.
- LST: This definitely helped my final outcome. I did very minimal training to spread the main branches out.
- Transplanting: clone to solo cup to 1 gallon to 5 gallon was too much given I started late. Probs ok on normal schedule.
- Bugs: check early and often! I almost lost 1 plant and could have easily killed them all
- Water/Nutrients/Ph: So important! I used minimal organic nutes and ph'd everything!
- Harvest: Need to learn more about how to tell when harvest.
- Drying/Curing: I need a better drying setup. Curing with Boveda packs was awesome!
- Clones: I took clones too close to flower stage. Of the 6 cuttings only one survived and is a mutant, still LOL.

Smoke Report!!!
I've been able to spend some time with each strain and here's my feeling about each:
Lemonade: weird buds, smell great, smoke is a little harsh, not much flavor, decent head/body high, dry eyes
Tangie: nicer buds, classic tangie smell, smoke is decent, ok flavor, nice head high with energy boost
Capstone: decent buds, earthy but sweet-ish smell, smoke is decent, mild flavor, nice focused energy
LemonJack: decent buds, huge citrus smell, nice smoke, good flavor, amazing snuggle energy good head/body mix

If you took the time to get this far, thank you! I finished my grow journal before I started my next grow. Hoping to do a little better this year :)