Hey guys. About to harvest and I asked this question in a different way in another thread but I don’t think I was making my situation clear so I’ll give it another go. If you were in my position, what would you do…?
I’ve got (3) great look Amnesia Haze girls that are about ready to go. (I’m going to try to post photos - I’ve got some incredible close ups but I’m not fluent in how to include them via my mobile phone)
They’ll be getting harvested next week and for a number of reasons, I’ll be turning 100% of the product into RSO or some other oil that I can then use in canna caps. I use thc/cbd products for chronic pain but my lungs can’t handle smoking (after 20+ years of cigarette smoking that I gave up 10 years ago). I know that probably sounds like a waste or poor use of good smoke but it is what it is. I need to take the stuff in caps.
So, if YOU were going to harvest specifically to make RSO, are there any additional drying / curing steps you’d take? Any steps you’d skip? Trimming maybe? Some specific way to dry or cure? Any advice would be great.
While potency is still very important, appearance isn’t at all. Taste isn’t an issue either but I don’t want performance to suffer.
I’ve got a half dozen white widows (FEMS) that are about to turn from veg to bud and I topped them multiple times - they are huge so I’m hoping to learn something from my first harvest (the autos) that can help me on the large FEM harvest in the coming months.
Thanks in advance for any help you can give. Never thought my grow would be so successful so far. Most of that is thanks to help from this community.
Congrats @sweet1231 on your growing success. Nothing is more exciting than harvest time. I too don’t smoke my meds. I vape or ingest via canna caps or edibles. Because I don’t smoke it I do not do a close trim. I cut off the fan leaves and any other larger leaves that don’t have tricomes. The others I just keep on the plant as it dries and cures so when I process it into concentrated cannabis oil, butter or coconut oil I get all the sticky goodness I can.
I do my canna caps using the coconut oil. Others here just grind the flower/bud very fine and fill the caps that way but it bothers my digestive tract so don’t do it that way.
Good luck and check out the recipes on the forum as there are lots of options on how to process into oils.
@AnneBonny - I’ve read up on the process of stripping the sticky goodness from my plants any number of ways and they all look overwhelming to me as a newbie but I am determined to give it a go. Currently I just purchase rso (or similar) products at the local stores in Seattle and then, like yourself, mix it with coconut oil and fill my gelatin caps.
My wife doesn’t understand why I want to go thru all the work (buying seeds, germinating, growing, etc, etc, etc) when I can just skip right to the last step and buy oil but that’s another conversation.
Another quick question, because you don’t trim much (besides the larger leaves), do you find that the drying time is extended at all? Do you have a specific drying process you can share?
@sweet1231 Funny I had the same conversation with my husband. It was mostly the cost for me and the fact the dispensary didn’t always have what I needed. Plus I prefer knowing how my meds are grown, what goes into them and how the end product is processed.
I don’t find that it really makes a difference. Honestly, for me, it depends on the time of year. I hang in the open air near my tent for a couple of days while still on the branches. When they get limp and feel drier I trim everything off the and put them in a paper bag with a humidity gauge. Actually I bag them when the stem snaps instead of bends if that makes sense. My last harvest in the winter only stayed in the open air for like a day and half because the house was so dry with forced hot air heat. Now, because it’s summer, the plants I took down on Saturday are still hanging and I will put in paper bags tonight.
I think each harvest is different though. The density of the buds makes a difference too. After they hit about around 60% I will jar them up and put in a boveda pack and burp in the morning and at night for a couple of weeks. After that you can do it every couple of days. You will notice changes in smell as it cures too. It starts out as a grassy (freshly mowed lawn) smell and then changes over to the smell you know and love.
@AnneBonny - hey AB, I think I’ve got the general idea / process that you use in my head, (a) a day, two or more hanging on the branch (depending on bud size/density, time of year, etc), then (b) into brown bags before (c) the cure which is a quick burp every day or two (for an extended period of time - I’ve seen estimates of 3-4 weeks from a lit of folks)…
My question - generally - how long do you leave the buds in brown bags? I really think after reviewing the processes of a lot of experienced people, yours looks like one that is something I can aspire to duplicate. And is there a trick to not allowing any of the sticky goodness from rubbing off (for lack of a better way of saying it) on the bags of jars? I’m guessing there isn’t but I’d hate to find out afterwards there was and I should’ve asked. Thanks.
That’s the general idea @sweet1231 . Except you need to burp two - 3 times A DAY. That’s only for a couple of weeks and decrease gradually. Keep an eye on your humidity and you can tell by the smell if you need to burp more or less.
As for the brown bag that varies too by strain, bud density etc… My GL I put in a brown bag with a hygrometer and humidity was only in the 50’s when I checked the next morning so I jarred it up. The GG on the other hand I jarred up and hygrometer was showing humidity in the seventies so I dumped it back in the bag for a couple of days until humidity got down to the 60-65% range.
There’s no real trick for the trichomes that I am aware of. It doesn’t really rub off per se. Just be as gentle with it as you can when you handle it and wear gloves when you can. I have to remember not to touch it when I burb it in the morning or I’ll go to work with smelly pot hands. I keep a box of alcohol wipes on the shelf near my tent since it’s the only thing that takes the stickiness off. ~ AB
@AnneBonny - gotcha. And great timing too - took a look this morning and it’s very apparent that the amber has started appearing in a couple of the girls. Will let you know how it goes. Wish me luck.
I have @HornHead. I have done the quick wash method and then heated it until the alcohol cooks off leaving the concentrated oil and I have also done moonshine that was 90 proof that I put keif in and set it on a dark shelf for a month or so, agitating every few days for a tincture. Both work great, it’s just a matter of what you want for an end result.
The infused moonshine I would put in a glass of iced tea or lemonade. The CCO I cook with, infusing honey, hard candy, and make vape juice.
@AnneBonny, @HornHead - at the risk of getting laughed out of the forum…am I an idiot for considering washing my harvest before drying and curing it?
I know it sounds counterintuitive but I stumbled upon a video the other day with a grower actually washing his bud (in 5 gallon buckets) before drying and I thought he had to be insane but (realizing no one knows less than me about this stuff so…) after researching the process, it seems most people have had really good results do it.
There are quite a few videos out there - here’s one - YouTube
You guys are probably already aware but it’s basically a 3 tub bath of
(1) h2o2 and water then
(2) baking soda / lemon juice and water and
finally (3) water rinse.
I did notice when I took a close look at my trics the other day that there seemed to be some leftover spider matter on a few leaves. (My grow is completely outdoor and by no means clean. We do get a lot of spider/spider webs here and I have had to wipe them from my plants but I haven’t seen any “pests” that have attacked the plants themselves.)
Ok peeps - I’m nuts for even thinking about it, right?
Not silly at all @sweet1231. I wash my harvest in a water/peroxide mixture then plain water before I hang. Sorry I didn’t mention that step as it’s an important one. You’ll be shocked at what rinses off. Especially on an outside grow.
@AnneBonny - thanks for the quick reply AB. So after the peroxide wash and the straight water rinse, do you hang them at all in the sun before they go into the dark? I’ve seen a couple of growers do that to get rid of some of the surface moisture.
You want to avoid full sun because photosynthesis still happens after the chop. I hang under a pavilion outside on a string until the excess water is drained off and the plant material isn’t obviously wet any more before starting the dry/cure process.
@Myfriendis410 - Just wow. Can I ask if you use the peroxide wash and rinse alone or if you (like some) include a baking soda / lemon soda wash as well?
Just a heads up for the group, anyone who needs free 5 gallon buckets, check with your local grocery store’s bakery department. Safeway was happy to give me gratis as many as I wanted. They were relatively clean, although I did an extra scrub just to be above and beyond. I know buckets aren’t a huge outlay in the overall scheme of things but hey, free is free. And I shop at Safeway anyway so…
I only do the peroxide wash and water rinse as I’m trying to remove all traces of powdery mildew. It does a great job and the treated flower stays fresher longer in the jar (a side benefit).
@Myfriendis410 - my concern is dust, spider webs, insect droppings, etc although I’m not concerned about taste (growing mine to produce cannacaps for my own use), just hate to be putting disgusting stuff in my body if it can be easily avoided. And where I’m located we just tend to have quite a bit of outdoor spiders, etc so… I guess I’ll try the three tub method and add that baking soda / lemon juice rinse to my process. Doesn’t seem to have any negative effect on other folk’s plants and I think mine could use the extra bath.
I have done a thread on canna capsules, how I prepared all of the cannabis and the encapsulating machine I used and where to get it cheaply, Amazon and also the capsules and all with step by step pictures and for the very same reasons, because I have to cut my smoking down because my lungs can’t handle it anymore because I have emphysema, there are quite a few of us that have some form of copd that restricts our lungs from smoking it,so I do edibles and capsules to, I’ve just got a mb2 butter maker to make it easier to make cannabis butter and cannabis oils
@sweet1231 I do it like @Myfriendis410 and hang in a shaded area so it’s not in direct sunlight. It really is amazing what comes off them, even on an indoor grow.
