Hard Black Ash (no “bro” science plz)

[weed420420420420420]

There is definitely such a thing as super dried bud with the dehumidifier on full blast for months and it still wont stay lit or taste right.
Dont overfeed in late flower. Some strains can handle it and just get danker but mostly not.
Stay away from cheap obsolete fems if you're running any. Grow regs and be patient. Or CAREFULLY selected fems from the likes of dna, csi, in house, barneys, dinafem.
If you have any windstorm split downs DONT use duct tape. Support shit so it doesnt happen.

 

[growsince79]

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I think a pre harvest flush/nute reduction helps speed chlorophyll degradation.

 

[weed420420420420420]

Most definitely. Even call it at the last 3 weeks. You dont wanna try and overflush too quickly either. Like a flush shouldn't be one big event where you dump a bunch of water.

 

[growsince79]

I’ve read through all the threads on black ash, won’t burn right, harsh smoke etc. and there seems to be 2 groups... 1) “didn‘t flush” and 2) “didn’t dry & cure properly”

My question is for those in camp 2. Drying and curing. Nobody seems to elaborate on the dry and cure and what exactly leads to hard black ash that doesn‘t stay lit.

Dried for 10 days until buds felt crunchy, but still had some give to them if squeezed. Then jarred and burped a few times per day for about a week. I left a bud out in low humidity overnight until it was crunchy and still burns to black char instead of ash.

Buds were never sprayed, no PGRs, dried 10 days @ 59*F and 40-45% RH

So what exactly would need to be done to prevent the harsh flavorless smoke with nasty black char instead of light whispy ash? The buds smell amazing and the high is fantastic. Is a 10 day dry too short? Is jarring too early or too late responsible? Do I just need to let them sit in the jars longer and eventually the smoke will get more flavorful and smooth? Or is it doomed once you get that black charred ash?

Most definitely. Even call it at the last 3 weeks. You dont wanna try and overflush too quickly either. Like a flush shouldn't be one big event where you dump a bunch of water.

I don't flush until the last week, with the goal of preventing foxtails and getting color in the fans but nor the sugar leaves. Sugar leaves should start getting a bit lighter or even purple but no yellow(except maybe tips).

 

[GNick55]

I think a pre harvest flush/nute reduction helps speed chlorophyll degradation.

absolutely a nutrient reduction as the end nears with even the last watering being just water..

 

[Homesteader]

Letters are free here, so at least once could you spell out your abbreviations? What the heck is PGR?????

It means Plant growth regulator

 

[Dothraki]

The next grow will be in soil with pre-digested liquid organics. I’m planning on following their guideline and it includes some tapering off and feeding with less nutrients later on near harvest. Like a flush but with some form of calcium phosphate.

 

[Madbud]

Sounds like mold to me, black ash and throat burn. Lets see pics of some buds.

 

[Treecutter]

I don't flush growing organic. I do adjust ph to around 7.5 and water only for the last2 weeks before finishing so the roots lock out. Gives the same effect as flushing without all the hassel.
All your doing on the flush is starving out the nutes so the plant starts going hanible lecter and starts eating it self speeding up your cure.

If you wet trim most of it and then dry trim the little stuff after its hung, it gets a little hard to keep the bud together under 45%. I even tried a silicon brush at 40% and ended up withabout 2/3 shake and 1/3 bud because it crumbled. That batch just got turned into oil.

As far as flavor and smell, I've always found it best for after its been in a jar for 4 to 6 weeks.

Stems and leaves left in it will hold the moisture and give you black ash and mask your terps on flavor.

I usually cure 65F to 68F at 55% 2 to 2.5 weeks then jar with 58% boveda packs in a jar 4-6 weeks. Then its vacume sealed and distributed to card holders. No complaints yet.

 

[Treecutter]

Calcium phosphate "BONE Meal" is slow release and to much calcium in flower will increase your nitrogen uptake, increasing leaf growth giving you the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve. There is bonemeal made from fish byproduct that works faster.

It can buffer your soil for you, but straight tap water will do the same thing. Never heard of flushing with calcium phosphate but I do find new ways of doing things all the time I've never heard about.

 

[Dothraki]

Calcium phosphate "BONE Meal" is slow release and to much calcium in flower will increase your nitrogen uptake, increasing leaf growth giving you the exact opposite of what you are trying to achieve. There is bonemeal made from fish byproduct that works faster.

It can buffer your soil for you, but straight tap water will do the same thing. Never heard of flushing with calcium phosphate but I do find new ways of doing things all the time I've never heard about.

Yeah, I‘m not sure about the nitrogen but I guess it’s pretty widely used. It’s called Herculean Harvest. I assume it’s better to use along with the whole rest of the line but I know there’s others that use it with different lines. I’ll be running the same line though.

I don't flush growing organic. I do adjust ph to around 7.5 and water only for the last2 weeks before finishing so the roots lock out. Gives the same effect as flushing without all the hassel.
All your doing on the flush is starving out the nutes so the plant starts going hanible lecter and starts eating it self speeding up your cure.

If you wet trim most of it and then dry trim the little stuff after its hung, it gets a little hard to keep the bud together under 45%. I even tried a silicon brush at 40% and ended up withabout 2/3 shake and 1/3 bud because it crumbled. That batch just got turned into oil.

As far as flavor and smell, I've always found it best for after its been in a jar for 4 to 6 weeks.

Stems and leaves left in it will hold the moisture and give you black ash and mask your terps on flavor.

I usually cure 65F to 68F at 55% 2 to 2.5 weeks then jar with 58% boveda packs in a jar 4-6 weeks. Then its vacume sealed and distributed to card holders. No complaints yet.

I think youre right about 4-6 weeks jarred. I’ve noticed that even now, exactly 1 week and 1 day from when I jarred this test branch (which was mature, it was the top cola on a natural grow with no training) that up until yesterday and today the bud has been really harsh but all of the sudden it’s gotten 10x smoother and is burning quite a bit easier now. Can’t wait to see if a couple more weeks translate the smell into taste, because it smells incredible.

 

[Dothraki]

Oh and.... It seemed overdry when I trimmed and jarred it but right now it feels perfect breaking up my hand, which is my preferred method if the bud is real nice and smells great. Helps with flavor and I feel it results in a more full spectrum 3 dimensional smoke. Hard to explain but I’ve seemed to gravitate away from my grinder for those reasons. Anyway, funny how over dried it seemed but slowly came back in the jars.

 

[GrowHobo]

I’ve not read all the posts on here sorry if this has been asked but, did you use the paper bag method? Some ppl call it sweating. Helps the bud get to a uniform dry. Ppl in a low rh area usually hang for two or three days or until outside of bud is starting to get crunchy then into paper bag, burped twice a day until stems break. Helps slow the process to about two weeks usually.

 

[growsince79]

I’ve not read all the posts on here sorry if this has been asked but, did you use the paper bag method? Some ppl call it sweating. Helps the bud get to a uniform dry. Ppl in a low rh area usually hang for two or three days or until outside of bud is starting to get crunchy then into paper bag, burped twice a day until stems break. Helps slow the process to about two weeks usually.

I used to use paper bags until just this year I broke down and bought a humidifier. Now I can hang em as long as I want.

 

[Treecutter]

Lol, yep there using it to buffer the ph mid flower to the end. Just the water in the flush pushes the salts out.

"The biggest mistake people make with Hercules is that they fail to follow the manufacturer sites feeding chart by not increasing the amount used dramatically at the later stages to help uptake nutrients. Mid flowering is listed at the site with 30 to 90 ml per gallon and 15 to 30 ml for the final two weeks of flushing to purge the salt buildup"

 

[AlfaDog]

I stopped hyper focusing on ash color because it's more bro science....BUT at the same time this idea came from the tobacco and cigars industry which had real science backing this theory up genetics and so many lil things can yes have an impact and perhaps to an extent yes flushing I belive has an effect on ash but dark ash is more a result of left over chlorophyll and sugars from the plant and could make it harsh when smoked. To correct this a NICE SLOW dry at 60°at 60% at least nothing less than 50% but try your best to get it up there will slowly dissipate thos sugars and chlorophyll..
.only when plant stems snap and not bendy then be patient and have a long slow cure burp 2-3times a day for a week then 2times on week2 and maybe 1time every other day week 3 and if you feel you need to add a boveda packets to bring up or retain RH 62% is never add the boveda from beggining of cure won't cure properly and its affects on buds trust me your smoke is harsh and ash dark prob from drying with low humidity to not leach out those sugars and chlorophyll and lacking humidity in the buds i don't know how long you've been curing for but if it's longer than 2 weeks and buds are very dry put in a boveda packet and continue curing

 

[Dothraki]

I’ve not read all the posts on here sorry if this has been asked but, did you use the paper bag method? Some ppl call it sweating. Helps the bud get to a uniform dry. Ppl in a low rh area usually hang for two or three days or until outside of bud is starting to get crunchy then into paper bag, burped twice a day until stems break. Helps slow the process to about two weeks usually.

Not with the test buds...those both went about 10 days dry before jars, smaller branches. Right now my big lanky sativa style plant is on day 10 and still drying, single branches hanging. On day 8 I did a half ass trim and into paper bags, day 9 removed and laid out on the paper bags still grouped together, flipping the bunch over a few times throughout the day. Stems still not snapping and not bone dry yet so seems I’ll get a 12-14 day dry this time, humidity is around 50-60% and temps 64*F

The test branches that were cut and dried are just over a week in jars now and starting to burn a lot nicer & not as harsh. I’d say if they were drying in 2-3 days I’d put plastic garbage bags over them to regulate humidity instead of paper, but guess it all depends on density, size, environment etc. And you’d have to keep a closer eye out for mold if there was a spike in humidity.

 

[AlfaDog]

I use my high cfm kit to hang the plants whole with a small tower fan pointing into the corner and have a 6 inch flex ducting running from centre of the tent under the plants to out side where my humidifier sits so I never have to open or disturb the tent and loose all that humidity 60° at 60% for 12-14days

 

[Bluntsmoke]

Put up a picture of a bud if you haven't already

 

[Dothraki]

Put up a picture of a bud if you haven't already

Here‘s the Lemongrass