Blue Cookies by Crop King Ended up tasting green and poor after flushing, drying and still curing.

[TEng8708]

Hello I have been growing marijuana for 3-4 years now and have grown a variety of strains. I recently was given some blue cookies by crop king plants that had some problems from a friend. He was using straight tap water throughout the whole veg stage and they looked weakly and stems were real thin like twigs. I ended up vegging them for two weeks using green planet nutrients, adding some organic nutrients to the soil like worm casings and glacial rock dust. I watered only using natural running spring water from a spring in my nearby area. I got the plants looking healthy enough to go into flower. I flowered them for 9 weeks as recommended by crop king with the leaves turning dark blue and purple with the crystal looking very fine and sandy by the end of week 7. I flushed these plants for 14 days starting at the end of week 7. I used only spring water Rezin and liquid weight at a ph of 6.2 as advised from a professional at green planet, I was told the Rezin and Liquid weight would not affect taste or smell but enhance it. The spring water I use has a base ppm of 300 thats as far as i could get the ppms down to after 2 weeks of flushing.
I bought a Wedryer its a hanging basket thing you use to dry weed. I cut off all fan leaves and cut the plant into manageable length to fit inside the baskets (stems still present). I had the blue cookies in there for 10 days and thats when the stems started snapping.
Me and friend trimmed the weed and put it into the jars, it smelled and looked really good at this point. We cured it for a few days and decided to try a bud to see how we did and to our dismay it tasted like total crap. Not like hay, like green weed. I still currently have the bud in jars and is on the 2nd week of cure as i have heard it takes a long time sometimes, but im thinking theres some problem that happened along the line that im not aware of that may have occurred. I have previously never had this happen with any other strain i grew in the past. I have posted some pictures to give you an idea of what the plants looked like in their final days and the trimmed bud. Defiantly does not look like hay weed or bunk so im really concerned with figuring out what happened so i dont have this happen again as i have 11 roses, Cotton candy kush and sorbet dreams in week 3 bud right now and worried this will happen again.
If you need more information i will provide it thank you for your help.

 

[Jimster]

Everything looks good, although the leaves are really an unusual color which can sometimes indicate a nutrient problem... but the buds look great. Buds can take a few weeks to cure, with enough moisture present to support the curing process... a bone dry bud won't cure properly. Since you have done this before and are following the same process (I'm assuming), then it just might take a while to finish curing. If it's too dry, I sometimes add a small slice op an apple, but not too much as too much humidity can cause mold.
Back to the leaf color. I was reading an article the other day about secondary nutrient issues, such as too much Calcium causing magnesium issues, even though Cal-Mag is widely used. Same with P or K, which high levels don't affect the plant directly, but they cause absorption problems for other nutrient, causing deficiencies. Anyhow, one of the symptoms of either P or K overdosage is a dark blue/green leaf. The ones on your plant look very dark green/blue to me, but maybe it is a strain specific characteristic. I've never seen colors quite like that, but the buds look excellent. Hopefully they will mellow once they cure a little more. I don't know if high P or K changes the tastes or not, but they look like they turned out great.

 

[TEng8708]

I am using the Green Planet Hydro Fuel A+B, Massive, Rezin, Liquid weight, Vita thrive and enzymes complete. This food should be pretty high in P and K, but i do wish to add PK spike or PK 13/14 in the future. I also add worm casings and glacial rock dust (contains secondary nutrients) to the soil in the last week of veg or when i transplant from a 1gal bag to a 5gal bucket. Will the pH of the soil have any affect ? i heard some of these synthetic nutrients can cause the ph of the soil to go lower than what you mix your solution as. I dont know the ph of my soil as i do not own a soil ph test kit, but i always maintain a ph of 6.2 . EC around 2.1, I verified with green planet that this EC is fine, I also alternate between feeding and plain spring water with enzyme complete to make sure im not over feeding with nutes and keeping a healthy soil zone.
I was told the blue cookies strain is supposed to have these blue leaves, but its my first time growing it. Ive grown white cookies in the past and its a good high with a vanilla cookie taste.
Its also my first time curing weed, I used to to bag my weed after it was done drying and never got a green taste. The weed currently in the jars is not wet at all its pretty much dry but not over dried.
Thanks for your response, tips or knowledge is always greatly appreciated !

 

[TEng8708]

I just read an article that P in soil is best absorbed in soil at a pH of 6.2-7.0, maybe i should increase my pH to 6.3 or 6.4 to be on the safe side? Ive used 6.4 in the past with no issues.

 

[Jimster]

I just read an article that P in soil is best absorbed in soil at a pH of 6.2-7.0, maybe i should increase my pH to 6.3 or 6.4 to be on the safe side? Ive used 6.4 in the past with no issues.

Usually the "flavors"strains" , Blueberry, Grape, Tangie, have a lot to do with flavors that are present and not their appearance, but there are always exceptions. High Potassium is supposed to be hard to leach out of the soil, which is what causes the nute lock in those cases. I personally prefer my Ph closer to 7 (Neutral), but anywhere between 6.0 and 7.6 have caused me no problems.
You sound like you are on top of the game and hopefully the longer cure will help to reduce the harshness you described. 35 years or so years later, I still get apprehensive during the drying and curing process...more the drying, since the cure takes care of itself for the most part. I constantly walk the line between too dry too fast or too damp/danger of mold. Best of curing to you!

 

[RippedTorn]

You know what the problem is. The pros you talked to, professional penny grabbers. What does that Rezin smell like, plum sap? Road tar? Liquid w8? I'll tell you straight up, most that shit is nothing but direct contaminants. Not fertilizers or precursors or whatever they tell you, just shit to absorb into the plant.

Let me tell you I just saw a GG4 grown with Botanicare and flushed with molasses. It taste like tree leaves soaked in toothpaste and molasses, ate out of a half melted styrene cup. My GG4 smelled like rich chocolate when fresh, then rich chocolate kerosene when cured.

That bottle fed bud though, will never cure out. It will sit until it's tossed at a homeless person. Or some idiot who thinks botanicare fumes = "gas" buys it up one gram at a time..

As soon as you put something foreign in the plant, a foreign sugar a foreign "resin booster", youve ruined your pot. People need to stop beating around the bush and call out these shitty growstore growing practices. Its bullshit. Healthy Cannabis makes its own carbs and resin.. I guess it takes someone telling growers, "hey, I just saw some Dutch Treat that is identical to your GG4 in every way. He ruined that Dutch Treat with KIND and molasses"

 

[Jimster]

You know what the problem is. The pros you talked to, professional penny grabbers.

I have been a staunch supporter of the minimalist approach, with 4 ingredients to my grow...Promix, Composted manure, wood ashes, and Jacks generic 20-20-20 fertilizer, applied every 10 days as needed. Nothing else is really needed, but the new generation growing practices make it sound like you can't grow anything except trash unless you have a ton of potions and powders in pretty containers. I guess it's a lot like new cars, however. All cars have 4 wheels, are pretty decent when new, and get you from A to B in the same amount of time. The difference between a Kia and a Lexus is quite large, but the end result is the same, just the cost is different from a transportation point of view....$20K for the Kia, $75K for the Lexus. It's a big money grab, but many are new growers who don't have much experience other than what they see and read. Advertisements alluding to buds the size of basketballs are tempting, but the results are not typical.
I'm not saying that some of these things don't help, I just maintain that identical results can be realized without relying on expensive and exotic compounds. Sorry for de-railing the original thread, it's just that it bugs me when advertisers are not truthful. The toys for Christmas always look a LOT more fun on TV. It's a disappointment when your sea monkeys weren't benevolent and noble sea creatures, they were just brine shrimp. Don't fall for exaggerated advertising!

 

[Aqua Man]

You know what the problem is. The pros you talked to, professional penny grabbers. What does that Rezin smell like, plum sap? Road tar? Liquid w8? I'll tell you straight up, most that shit is nothing but direct contaminants. Not fertilizers or precursors or whatever they tell you, just shit to absorb into the plant.

Let me tell you I just saw a GG4 grown with Botanicare and flushed with molasses. It taste like tree leaves soaked in toothpaste and molasses, ate out of a half melted styrene cup. My GG4 smelled like rich chocolate when fresh, then rich chocolate kerosene when cured.

That bottle fed bud though, will never cure out. It will sit until it's tossed at a homeless person. Or some idiot who thinks botanicare fumes = "gas" buys it up one gram at a time..

As soon as you put something foreign in the plant, a foreign sugar a foreign "resin booster", youve ruined your pot. People need to stop beating around the bush and call out these shitty growstore growing practices. Its bullshit. Healthy Cannabis makes its own carbs and resin.. I guess it takes someone telling growers, "hey, I just saw some Dutch Treat that is identical to your GG4 in every way. He ruined that Dutch Treat with KIND and molasses"

I have been a staunch supporter of the minimalist approach, with 4 ingredients to my grow...Promix, Composted manure, wood ashes, and Jacks generic 20-20-20 fertilizer, applied every 10 days as needed. Nothing else is really needed, but the new generation growing practices make it sound like you can't grow anything except trash unless you have a ton of potions and powders in pretty containers. I guess it's a lot like new cars, however. All cars have 4 wheels, are pretty decent when new, and get you from A to B in the same amount of time. The difference between a Kia and a Lexus is quite large, but the end result is the same, just the cost is different from a transportation point of view....$20K for the Kia, $75K for the Lexus. It's a big money grab, but many are new growers who don't have much experience other than what they see and read. Advertisements alluding to buds the size of basketballs are tempting, but the results are not typical.
I'm not saying that some of these things don't help, I just maintain that identical results can be realized without relying on expensive and exotic compounds. Sorry for de-railing the original thread, it's just that it bugs me when advertisers are not truthful. The toys for Christmas always look a LOT more fun on TV. It's a disappointment when your sea monkeys weren't benevolent and noble sea creatures, they were just brine shrimp. Don't fall for exaggerated advertising!

I'm a hydro grower and probably frowned upon by you organic dirt growers. I don't disagree with you though and I am a very firm believer that supplementing a diet is only beneficial to a plant, person, dog, bird... every living thing etc. if it is deficient. Plenty of nasties can be taken up passively in every living thing. Adding more than adequate levels of anything required often has a negative impact on any living thing. So while i may not practice exactly what i preach I do understand the difference.

Eventually I will transition over. The reason i started hydro was because of how comfortable i am dealing with aquatic plants and i already had a good understanding of how everything works.

 

[Aqua Man]

Hello I have been growing marijuana for 3-4 years now and have grown a variety of strains. I recently was given some blue cookies by crop king plants that had some problems from a friend. He was using straight tap water throughout the whole veg stage and they looked weakly and stems were real thin like twigs. I ended up vegging them for two weeks using green planet nutrients, adding some organic nutrients to the soil like worm casings and glacial rock dust. I watered only using natural running spring water from a spring in my nearby area. I got the plants looking healthy enough to go into flower. I flowered them for 9 weeks as recommended by crop king with the leaves turning dark blue and purple with the crystal looking very fine and sandy by the end of week 7. I flushed these plants for 14 days starting at the end of week 7. I used only spring water Rezin and liquid weight at a ph of 6.2 as advised from a professional at green planet, I was told the Rezin and Liquid weight would not affect taste or smell but enhance it. The spring water I use has a base ppm of 300 thats as far as i could get the ppms down to after 2 weeks of flushing.
I bought a Wedryer its a hanging basket thing you use to dry weed. I cut off all fan leaves and cut the plant into manageable length to fit inside the baskets (stems still present). I had the blue cookies in there for 10 days and thats when the stems started snapping.
Me and friend trimmed the weed and put it into the jars, it smelled and looked really good at this point. We cured it for a few days and decided to try a bud to see how we did and to our dismay it tasted like total crap. Not like hay, like green weed. I still currently have the bud in jars and is on the 2nd week of cure as i have heard it takes a long time sometimes, but im thinking theres some problem that happened along the line that im not aware of that may have occurred. I have previously never had this happen with any other strain i grew in the past. I have posted some pictures to give you an idea of what the plants looked like in their final days and the trimmed bud. Defiantly does not look like hay weed or bunk so im really concerned with figuring out what happened so i dont have this happen again as i have 11 roses, Cotton candy kush and sorbet dreams in week 3 bud right now and worried this will happen again.
If you need more information i will provide it thank you for your help.

Genetics can and will cause the leave purpling you are seeing ( cannot say if this is the case here as i have not grown it). Flushing will not remove excess nutrients that the plants has taken up if it was over fed and i see some tip burning that would lead me to believe they were over fed at some point. What temps/humidity did you dry it in?

 

[MIMedGrower]

Thick shiny curled down leaves and a feed strength of 2.1 with all those additives shows over fertilizing. Over fertilizing causes bad taste and harshness.

And for the religious sounding bottle haters. Properly fed plants in any method can reach great potential in smell taste and potency.

 

[TEng8708]

Okay what is a safe EC or ppm to stick by ? I used to follow the schedules advice but was told thats just a base line and i could raise it.

 

[PlumberSoCal]

I'm a hydro grower and probably frowned upon by you organic dirt growers. I don't disagree with you though and I am a very firm believer that supplementing a diet is only beneficial to a plant, person, dog, bird... every living thing etc. if it is deficient. Plenty of nasties can be taken up passively in every living thing. Adding more than adequate levels of anything required often has a negative impact on any living thing. So while i may not practice exactly what i preach I do understand the difference.

Eventually I will transition over. The reason i started hydro was because of how comfortable i am dealing with aquatic plants and i already had a good understanding of how everything works.

Frowned upon? HAHAHAHAHA! Love growing outside as natural as I can but very interested in a lot of what you indoor alchemists produce under controlled conditions. At the very least I'd like to get good set of grow lights to use as needed and really want to build a 3" pvc hydro system outside. I like plant and bud porn, no matter where it's grown.

 

[MIMedGrower]

Okay what is a safe EC or ppm to stick by ? I used to follow the schedules advice but was told thats just a base line and i could raise it.

I only give what the plants ask for. Cant advise. Too many variables. But if i see any leaf stress i water only then back off on the feed strength.

More does not equal more of you get what i mean. Plant nutrients are not food like humans eat for energy. Their energy source is light. The nutrients are like vitamins. They only need what they need.

Once the potting soil depletes of nutrients which is week 2 or 3 into flower in my system i start nutrients at about .8ec and work up a little each watering to an average max of 1.5 ec at peak flowering. Then taper back down as they ripen and need less. Some plants never get over 1.2.

All along adjusting down of i see leaf stress. They need way less nutrients than the instructions recomend. As soon as i see tip burn or tacoing or any stress i give water only and add back a less dose of nutes.

 

[Aqua Man]

Okay what is a safe EC or ppm to stick by ? I used to follow the schedules advice but was told thats just a base line and i could raise it.

There is no set right ppm as you found out by the manufacturer recommendations. Get yourself a ppm meter that is calibratable and calibration fluid. The final ppm will depend on what nutrients, supplements and supply water contribute. There are good guidelines out there for different stages of growth but with a ppm meter and planned water changes you can dial in your nutrients and make sure you are avoiding a salinity build up. On my phone at the moment but I will link a thread I posted in earlier that gives a basic explanation of how I do things.

 

[Aqua Man]

Frowned upon? HAHAHAHAHA! Love growing outside as natural as I can but very interested in a lot of what you indoor alchemists produce under controlled conditions. At the very least I'd like to get good set of grow lights to use as needed and really want to build a 3" pvc hydro system outside. I like plant and bud porn, no matter where it's grown.

Let me know when you do I would love to follow along

 

[Aqua Man]

There is no set right ppm as you found out by the manufacturer recommendations. Get yourself a ppm meter that is calibratable and calibration fluid. The final ppm will depend on what nutrients, supplements and supply water contribute. There are good guidelines out there for different stages of growth but with a ppm meter and planned water changes you can dial in your nutrients and make sure you are avoiding a salinity build up. On my phone at the moment but I will link a thread I posted in earlier that gives a basic explanation of how I do things.

Forgot this was dirt not hydro. My info is irrelevant for you.

 

[TEng8708]

well the schedule says i should do around 1800 but since i use spring water my EC goes higher than that, since the schedule is based off RO water. So i called Green planet and they said i could go past 2000 and what's on the schedule is only a baseline recommendation so not sure how i could be over feeding my plants ? They have a Pro level schedule which goes even higher. I get the Nitrogen because i added worm castings but everything else should be in a good range. I even alternate between food and plain water.

 

[MIMedGrower]

well the schedule says i should do around 1800 but since i use spring water my EC goes higher than that, since the schedule is based off RO water. So i called Green planet and they said i could go past 2000 and what's on the schedule is only a baseline recommendation so not sure how i could be over feeding my plants ? They have a Pro level schedule which goes even higher. I get the Nitrogen because i added worm castings but everything else should be in a good range. I even alternate between food and plain water.

How does the nute company know all the variables like light amount, temp, humidity, strain, pheno, watering habits, root ball health, plant size, plant needs, etc. ?

Every grow, room and grower is different. And pretty much every plant.

Smart fertilizing starts very low and gradually works up as the plant requires.

I have never got to 1000ppm’s or 2.0 ec even with a 12 week flowering 1/2 lb bush.