Hawk's Granddaddy Purple & THC Bomb Grow Journal - 2023

[Hawk518]

Cut them down and start trimming ALL that leaf off!!

Thanks @Greenadian ! That's exactly what I ended up doing. Still can't believe I was so fixated on the trichome colors, that I totally missed the spider mites!!

 

[Hawk518]

10/31/23 - Noticed quite a few more spider mites on both plants. Used a sticky to wipe away all the visible spiders and webbing. Started to trim the hell out of them both. Noticed a few branches where the buds had really started to dry up – so dying off. Will wait til tomorrow (to hopefully get advice from Forums) before chopping them both.

Game Plan: chop them down; bud wash and then start to dry them in the tent. Hopefully, I’ll finish off with SOMETHING after all this time and effort! Put the big fan on them.

PS. there is NOT a huge ring of spider mites behind the right cola in first picture! That's a wreath on the wall.

 

[Hawk518]

11/2/23 - Chopped both plants and trimmed as many leaves as I could. Then did a bud wash. Three 5 gallon buckets of water with: 1. Hydrogen Peroxide; 2. Lemon Juice & Baking Soda; 3. Plain water. Think I’ve lost at least 90% of the THC Bomb to the damn spider mites. Hung the bud stems to dry w. a strong fan on them. Will start a proper dry tomorrow.

 

[Hawk518]

11/3/23 - Started the Drying process. Put the hanging flower stems in a tent w. fans in it. Fans Not blowing directly on them. Covered the tent so it was dark inside. Will check daily and hope I can Cure these in 1-2 weeks!

Place loose buds on a drying rack inside the tent. Debated putting them in a food dehydrator, but no idea if that is insane, so held off!

 

[Hawk518]

11/4/23 - 3 fans inside tent. None blowing on the hanging buds. The garage smells very strongly of pot. When I opened the tent – damn, it Reeks in there! Strange that it wasn’t a pot smell, but a cut grass stench.

 

[Hawk518]

11/10/23 - This is one week of drying. Did the stem test and got a very strong cracking. Might have over dried the THC Bomb? Started to trim the THC Bomb. Gotta admit, I don’t find trimming as hellish as described, but I still had an extremely difficult time doing it. First time attempting to trim wasn’t easy just cause even w. glasses on, very difficult to see what exactly I should be trimming off! Stopped after two hours. Had more than enough buds to place in a mason jar to start the curing process. Will try to trim all the rest tomorrow.

 

[Hawk518]

11/11/23 - Spent the day in trim hell. About 6 hours! Need to find a light w. a magnifying glass so I can see what to cut better! Filled 3 large mason jars w. a Boveda 62% pack and a cheap hygrometer w. the THC Bomb and 2 of the Granddaddy Purple. Still a lot more GDP to trim. Trying to get the Humidity to 62%. What should I try to get for the temp? Put the jars in a dark cupboard.

Will have to weigh when done. Curious how much I’ll get out of this.

How do these buds look? Did I do an acceptable job? Is there anything that I should I do differently?

 

[Hawk518]

11/12/23 - Finished trimming the Granddaddy Purple. Put buds into mason jars w. Boveda 62% pack.

Burped the mason jars for 20 minutes. Humidity went from low 40s yesterday to 50% today.

 

[Hawk518]

11/13/23 - Burped the mason jars for 20 minutes. I’ll do this twice today. How long should I burp the jars? I’ve now seen anything from 20 seconds to over an hour! Humidity in low 50's. Smell is still pretty horrible to me. Don’t think the stench is from mold. Any ideas??

 

[Hawk518]

11/14/23 - Burped the mason jars. Still a stench to them. So, put all the buds in paper shopping bags, folded the bags up and put them in a dark, cool cupboard. Will check again tomorrow morning and hopefully put them back in the mason jars.

 

[Hawk518]

11/14/23 - The more I read, the more I think I know why my buds smell bad. I dried them within acceptable Temps and Humidity. I had fans blowing to circulate the air, but the tent wasn’t open enough to allow much fresh air in. Also, a few of the branches were touching each other. I’m guessing that the lack of fresh air resulted in the lovely stench I have now? Is there any way to save this harvest? I’ve taken them out of the mason jars and placed them in paper bags in hopes that this might help “fix” them. I’m in no rush to smoke these, so, if it takes a while to get them in good shape, I’m ok with that. I should probably try a small bud just to see…

As always, any advice / suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

 

[Hawk518]

11/15/23 - The buds smell much better today after time in the paper bags. I’ll put them back in the jars soon – probably tomorrow morning.

 

[Hawk518]

11/16/23 - The GDP paper bag didn’t have a stench anymore, so filled up the 3.5 mason jars again. Placed a Boveda 62% pack in. The THC Bomb paper bag still had a bit of a smell, so decided to just wait til tomorrow to jar them.

 

[Hawk518]

11/17/23 - The THC Bomb buds didn’t smell horrible anymore, so put them into 32 oz mason jars. Added a Boveda 62% pack since they seemed a bit dry.

A few hours later, I took them outside and burped all the jars in the hopes that the humidity would be higher outside than inside. The humidity rose to 50% (+/- 2%).

At this point, just hoping that I have SOMETHING that is smokeable...