My Sweecret laboratory. 5th Sweet Seeds competition grow diary 2018/19

[jadenugs]

Update on the dry and cure

Cream 47

As expected the temps in the attic rose as the weather got warmer and the buds dried quicker than I had hoped for. I'll also admit to not checking often enough in the last couple of days and never got them into paper bags, so by 10 days they were a bit over dry. Not too over dry but enough for bits to break off when they went in the jars. The first week's drying was nice and steady though so hopefully there won't be too much chlorophyll left in them to spoil the taste.

After a week in the jars the buds still felt a bit too dry so I put a slice of carrot in each of the two C47 jars to add some moisture. I left them in for a day and they ended up a bit too damp and lost their smell a bit. Because of this I never did the same with the other strains. If I do this again it will only be for an hour or two and will be more closely monitored

Since then I've been leaving the jars open for a day every second day and fortunately the aromas are returning, but not quite as strong as when they were first dried. Lucky escape really, I'm glad I never left the carrot slices in any longer.

The aroma in the jars smells of freshly sawn timber. She was jarred on 11th April so that's 17 days curing so far with the jars being burped once or twice a day, barring the days when they were left open. The buds are feeling more firm again

Buds removed from the stalks.

And in the jars. She weighed in at 108g on our lass's baking scales. Quite pleased with just under 4oz.

Crystal Candy FV

Jarred on 12th after 10 days drying so has been curing for 16 days. The aroma from the jars is mild but sweet, fresh like cucumber with a hint of mint. I'm not good with smells unless they're really strong but this is what it smells like to me.

Removed from the stalks and ready for the jars.

She weighed in at 78g before being jarred up.

Sweet Pure CBD

Jarred on the 12th after 9 days drying. I wish it had stayed cooler up there for just a few more days but never mind, 9 days is enough. I just prefer a longer slower dry. Smelling of oranges still but more lemon coming through now, much like refresher chews, nice! Less of the rubber smell from earlier.

Ready for the jar.

Weighed in at 91g and only filled one jar. The buds must be more dense than I thought.

Green Poison CBD

With this one being the last to be chopped I caught it in time before things warmed up and placed the whole stalks in a brown paper bag for the last couple of days drying. Total of 10 days drying and jarred on the 14th, 14 days curing up until now. This one is the star of the show in the aroma department and is really strong and sweet smelling of fruit salad chews. proper candy shop this one

Taken from the stalks and ready for jarring.

She weighed 117g before being jarred. More bud than the C47 but not quite as firm.

I'll leave them curing another week or two before doing a smoke report with more pictures. I took some with the buds spilling out of the jars but decided to save them for the smoke report and use these instead for now.

Happy gardening and be lucky

 

 

[Punta Roja]

@jadenugs

 

¡Alta calidad!

Nice going mate...

[Serpent]

A magnificent haul @jadenugs and yeah, drying can be a dark art in itself and easy to miss the optimum if you're not checking on them constantly. Enjoy your smoke and looking forward to the toke reports

[Sweet Seeds Apolo]

It makes my mouth water 

 

Congratulations for the final result of the harvest. 

 

Sweet smokes!

-Apolo

[Smokebelch]

@jadenugsAnother awesome diary is nearly complete, nice harvesting update, love the photos of the rootball being cut open. Time to enjoy the fruits of your labours.

[bluntz27]

Exellent harvest mate, enjoy your rewards  

[jadenugs]

@Serpent

@Sweet Seeds Apolo

@Smokebelch

@bluntz27

 

Thanks lads, it's great to have them dried and cured Smoke reports coming soon

Sorry for the late reply, been really busy but I have managed to get some hash made yesterday

[jadenugs]

Sweet 4 strain hash

 

It was only 16C in the attic so a good time to make some ice water hash.

 

Here are all the tools I used.
Black bucket for pre settling some water and ice to make the water ice cold.
Cheap 5 gallon 5 bag bubble bag kit off fleabay.
I only used the 220 work bag, the 73 and 25u but on afterthoughts I should have put one more in. You'll see later why.
A 5 gallon bucket that I had to cut the rim off last time because I couldn't stretch the bags over.
A tea towel and 25u screen for rolling the water out of the hash.
Rolling pin.
Chopping board and small cleaver to chop the hash cakes up.
Some parchment paper to dry it on as it stuck to the cardboard last time.
Mixing bowl to stretch the bags over and an electric hand mixer.
Some ice and the fresh frozen trim with a few airy buds. Cream 47 and Crystal Candy FV in the bigger left hand bag, Sweet Pure CBD and Green Poison CBD in the other. It all got mixed together though.

 

Bucket of ice water that had been settling  poured in to cover screens and trim added.

 

Topped up with ice and water ready for mixing

 

After 18 minutes mixing.

I've only done this once before. It was in winter and I only needed one bag of ice but this time I found I had to top up with ice half way through so I used all my ice up. Bang goes the second run This is why I mixed this run for 18 instead of the 15 minutes I did last time, to see if I could get more out of it.

 

I then left it to settle for half hour.

While I was waiting I cleaned up the paddles on the hand mixer. Talking of the paddles, just a note on safety when using an electric mixer if you haven't used one before for this and plan on doing so. I couldn't find my old mixer the last time I did it so I bought a new one and used that. It worked a treat. This run I couldn't find the new one but the other turned up so I used it. The problem is the paddle blades are flat, not round like the others and they grip the creases in the bag which I found out when it pulled the working bag into the paddles and jammed. Could be dangerous if you're not ready for it.

The work bag pulled.

Glad I saved the rim off the bucket when I cut it, I can just get the bag over it with a struggle if I squash it in a bit. This way it makes it easy to lift the bag up and wash down the insides of the bag to make sure all the resin is washed down onto the screen. Probably not needed when it's been sat half hour, but just to make sure I get it all if any has stuck to the sides.

 

 

[jadenugs]

The 73u bag inside out over the mixing bowl, loosely so I can push down the centre and wash the hash into a pile in the middle.

I then gripped the bag tight under the bowl to tighten the screen and scraped the hash off. Here is the 73u on the pressing screen ready to be rolled.

I put a double sheet of kitchen roll between the screen and towel to soak up more of the water, folded it all over into a sandwich and rolled it lightly. Here it is with the water squeezed out. There's some green contaminant in there because I never used any bags between the work bag and this one. So, as mentioned earlier I think I'll have to add another size up next time to try and prevent as much green getting to this point.

It looks like a small amount of the contaminant has got through to the 25u bag too.

Washed into the middle.

Scraped off and ready for rolling.

Rolled and ready for breaking up.

 

On some parchment paper. 73u at the top and 25u at the bottom.

 

After marking the parchment paper with both grades I changed my mind and decided to give both their own piece of paper so they wouldn't  get mixed when I chopped them. Here's the 73u chopped up as finely as I could. Excuse the 75 marking instead of 73

And finally the 25u. I transferred them both to a plant saucer each for stabilty and they'll be left to dry for about 4 days. I'll then freeze them ready for a finer chop with a Stanley blade and further dry, before rolling into balls and I'll get some more photos up. Any tips or pointers for next time would be much appreciated

I'm excited about this nice blonde looking hash, even though there is a bit of contaminant  

Cheers for looking, be lucky

 

[Openairbud]

Excellent guide Nugs, looks a decent return too. I'll be investing in some bags for sure 

[Serpent]

Nice little guide @jadenugs and enjoy your hash

[jadenugs]

@Openairbud Thanks mate, yeah you can pick them up dirt cheap and it looks like these will last a few good runs if I'm more careful with the mixer There's always the wooden spoon though for a safer bet but more work I think it's safer if you just keep the mixer in the middle away from the sides of the bags. Stop the mixer every now and then, and move some of the trim from the outside to the middle with a wooden spoon. Even safer would be a battery powered drill with a plasterer's paddle I reckon.

 

@Serpent Cheers bud. Can't wait to try it

 

Not really a guide lads, I'm a newbie at this so it's just my experiences with these plants from start to finish for the diary

Edited May 4, 2019 by jadenugs
spelling

[BeardedBeardiae]

Nice work @jadenugs looks like it'll be nice hash. Agree that a bag between 220u & 73u is beneficial but your 25u will go black and squidgy and wont be effected. 

The hand mixer i got has screw shaped beaters as well as the cross shaped ones and the are just as effective but will not pinch the bags, very useful as I've got 1 gallon bubble bags and tjere aint much room. Took me ages to find/modify a bucket to fit perfectly.

[jadenugs]

 @BeardedBeardiae good tips mate, thanks. I have the screw shaped one's in my drawer. Just checked and they're for the new mixer I couldn't find, which has the round wire beaters that are ok anyway. I will find the mixer out for the next run I do and try them to see if they don't break the green up as much. I imagine they'll be more gentle on the material for that dude The 25u has dried darker like you say. I've got more pics and I'll get them up when I roll it into balls and take more pics. How do you press yours? I usually do it by hand when dry sifting and the only time I've done ice water I did the same but was thinking of using the Frenchy method this time with a heated bottle of water.

 

[BeardedBeardiae]

Last run i used the hot water in a glass bottle with parchment paper which i think is the frenchie methid from utube. But didn't have the patience to roll it into balls, but i tend to pick bits off when rolled flat then into snakes. My 120u stuff got made into cookies. 

Unfortunately my hash and most of my weed never gets to cure properly as it doesn't last long enough. I am working on that though.