What's up my fellow Cannabis Lovers and Enthusiasts!? It's time to welcome you all back to another edition of:
It's been quite a while since I last posted, and as I started to type this out, I realized that I left a post unpublished in my drafts from Week 10 of our first outdoor grow! So I did end up publishing that last night, and if you did read it, you will already know that this is the last post of our "After Hours" outdoor grow!
First off, the reasoning for my absence, to put it simply, is I've had a lot of stuff going on personally (more mentally than anything else), and honestly, I'm thinking about starting to blog about that as well, maybe in a personal development community or a mental health awareness community? I'm not sure exactly, but I have a lot on my mind, to say the least!
I do want to apologize for becoming distant over the past few months, yes I was going through some personal issues, but if I'm going to be completely honest, I recently lost my full-time job as well. Like I said, this should probably be saved for a different post, but I'm going to try to start posting at least once a week, in at least one community or another! I also want to extend a quick thank you to @futuremind and @jonyoudyer for checking up on me in the Discord group. I know I didn't respond for a while, and I apologize for that as well, but I wanted you both to know how much I appreciate you both!
Other than that, I would like to inform you all that the "After Hours" project is continuing, even through the winter months! And I am happy to report that I have started a makeshift, indoor setup started, using the light that a very generous contributor provided a few months ago! You know who you are, and I thank you yet again!! :)
So, my posts may not look as pretty for the time being, but with all that being said I will have a few more posts in the works for the Weedcash Community!
Anyways, let's get on with the "After Hours" Update!
If you don't remember, and I don't blame you if you don't since it's been about 3 months or so since my last post, but I had started my very first ever grow, using a very cheap (around $80 in total) outdoor setup using 5-gallon buckets and FoxFarms Potting Soil, and of course, the Lemon Skittles seeds I had gotten out of a few previous bags.
In my week 9 post, I discovered a male, and unfortunately, it wasn't the last! I ended up with only two females out of 5 plants, which was just under a 50% male-to-female ratio! Not too bad for some regular bag seeds! Overall, I thought they looked pretty healthy, other than the fact I started to neglect my trimming responsibilities.
I did water fairly regularly, but after a pole light was changed to an LED bulb in our backyard, I started to fear a regression back to the Vegetative state! I left the plants going until September 16th, which is when I started to trim the fan leaves and the smaller, non-sugar leaves before harvest.
I left them for a little over a week, until I realized the buds weren't fattening like they should have been, and this is when I really started to worry about a regression to the Vegetative State!
I did end up harvesting on September 25, which was a lot earlier than I anticipated, and it also that forced me to harvest during the evening hours, which I know is a no-no. However, without receiving an adequate amount of darkness thanks to that LED pole light, so I knew that it didn't really matter at that point.
I ended up following a guide that @jonyoudyer sent me a link to in the Discord group, and washed the freshly harvested buds in a solution of water, baking soda, and lemon juice! The guide called for a total of three 5-gallon buckets, but I only had one available, so I had to rush it a little I feel to get it all washed properly.
I hung the buds up to dry in a closet with a fan to circulate the air, and I'm assuming that the humidity was off quite a bit, because the drying process only took about a week! The majority of the denser buds were still a little squishy, but not damp or wet by any means, and the smaller buds were darn near crumbling apart!
So, on October 1st, I got an old pickle jar, our current stash jar, and another 3.5 gram container, and filled them almost completely with the freshly harvested buds! They were extremely potent in smell, and left my hands really sticky with sappy resin afterwards! The pickle jar wasn't a five gallon jar by any means, but I'd say it was at least a gallon or so! Our stash jar holds about an ounce, maybe a little more.
I started smoking on it about a week after that, slowly, just to try it, and let me tell you, I am extremely impressed with the high! I waited until the majority of the Pistils were amber, and the high was immediately intense in my head! The flavor was lacking a bit, but I feel that was due to possible potassium or other deficiencies and not curing for very long. But, overall, I was extremely impressed with this first batch!
That was coming on about a month ago now, and I still have a little bit left! I haven't had to buy any in about a month, and I used to get a half ounce every week, so I feel like I got a pretty decent haul out of my first outdoor grow as well!
After cleaning up the residual trim leaves from the cured bud, I downloaded HiGrade, a mobile app that supposedly rates (and if you buy the premium version at $80/year, "tests" the THC percentages using a specialized camera attachment) the quality of your buds, by taking a few pictures of it at different angles, and I am happy to report that I got 4 out of 5 stars! I doubt its that accurate, but it made me feel good :)
Anyways, that about sums this one up, and if all goes well, I should have a new post ready in about a week for a new "After Hours" series on my Irvine Seed Company Tester Seeds!
I hope you all have a great week, and don't forget to tune-in next week for a new "After Hours" Series Installment! Stay Trippy, My Little Hippies! ✌️💚
