Sweet Autos: Mohan Ram, Blow Mind, Crystal Candy and Killer Kush

[delagdo]

Day 65 to Day 71
 

The Killer Kush Auto was flushed with half-strength nutrients on day 65, had a day without watering on day 66 and was cut on day 67. It's impossible for me to dry it slowly in the attic room, with the current weather, but I hung the plant whole after trimming, and covered it with a binbag. By today, day 71, the outsides were already getting crispy and it had lost two thirds of its weight so I cut it into bits and put them in shoeboxes to slow the rest.

Here's the tent on day 70, still looking full with five plants remaining:

On the left, taking up the top and bottom space is the younger Mohan Ram Auto. At the top in the middle is the Blow Mind Auto and top right is the Mohan Ram Auto. The Crystal Candy Autos are at the bottom, the older one in the middle and the younger on the right.

 

The humidity has been fine without the dehumdifier running any more, it has been around 55-60% in the tent typically.

I've decided that the older Mohan Ram Auto and the younger Crystal Candy Auto would be next to go, and I am going to cut them tomorrow (day 72). I flushed these with water without nutrients, but pH'd to 6.2 on days 69 and 70, and today I haven't watered them.

I will end it for the Blow Mind Auto, older Crystal Candy Auto and younger Mohan Ram Auto on day 74 or day 75, they will all be more or less where I want them then and I have run out of time anyway.

I haven't managed to get very many pictures recently but here's a few trichomes, first from the Crystal Candy Auto on day 68:

 

And here's some from the Mohan Ram Auto on day 69:

 

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by delagdo

[delagdo]

Day 72

 

Harvest day for the older Mohan Ram Auto, and the younger Crystal Candy Auto. I took some pictures of the plants once they had had a trim, first here's the Mohan Ram Auto:

 

From the side it was a like a solid pyramid of weed. From above it is s solid cross:

 

One main cola:

 

Looming over the eight miniature versions surrounding it:

 

A few shots of the calyxes and trichomes:

 

 

[delagdo]

Day 72 (contd)

 

The younger Crystal Candy Auto was started six days later so it had been in the tent for 66 days when it was harvested. Here it is after a trim:

 

A slightly closer look at the main cola:

 

It's very leafy so not so much fun to trim, but you can see I left most small sugar leaf on and I will just vape that. I don't usually have enough trim to bother doing anything with but this time I have a fair bit and it seems a shame to waste it, plus i have some spare isopropyl alcohol, so I may try some qwiso extraction on it.

 

Those two plants are now hanging up to dry with bin bags over the hangers. The Killer Kush Auto is very nearly there, all now piled up in one shoebox just losing the last bit before it can go in a jar.

 

Three plants remain in the tent:

Mohan Ram Auto (younger), Crystal Candy Auto, Blow Mind Auto.

 

From a different angle:

[delagdo]

Day 73 and Day 74

 

On day 73 I flushed the remaining plants with plain water ready for their imminent harvest. They are look just about perfect to my tastes, which is just great because I'd have to cut them this week and tidy everything up even if they didn't.

 

I took some pictures on day 74. The younger Mohan Ram Auto:

 

 

 

 

[G_lab]

Nearly there delagdo! Top job  nice buds and awesome pics as well. Those trichomes look solid! 

[delagdo]

Thanks @G_lab, it's a shame the competition isn't running another couple of weeks too so this could be my entry, since today is the official last day, I've done so much better than last time. But I cannot be sad at all - actually I can't stop smiling when I think about what's in the tent and hanging up just outside it and in these photos, it's going to keep me going for a while

[delagdo]

Day 74

 

Here's the older Crystal Candy Auto:

 

A closer look:

 

The Blow Mind Auto:

 

 

 

At the moment I am most excited about the Blow Mind Auto above the others, this picture illustrates why:

 

Good luck in the contest everyone!

[jadenugs]

Excellent growing and photography mate, you've certainly mastered the new lens. Nice work

[Serpent]

Some awesome trich development on the Blow Mind @delagdo and I can see why she's the one your most excited about

[delagdo]

Thank you ever so much @jadenugs and @Serpent, your encouragement throughout has been really appreciated. I wouldn't say I couldn't have done this without you, but I can definitely say it wouldn't have been as much fun without you, and I honestly think I couldn't have done it as well as I have without the help and support shared in this community.

[delagdo]

Day 75 and Day 76 - Final Harvest

On day 75 I cut most of the fan leaves from the remaining three plants, leaving sugar leaves. On day 76 I harvested them, which was 72 hours after their final watering. The coco pots were almost dry by then but not quite fully.

I've been very busy recently, with some expected things outside the tent and a couple of unexpected things too. Also, I'm sure you know how trimming is - long, tedious, sticky - so thank you for understanding why I didn't manage to grab any final photos of the plants once sheared, before I finally cut them and went to bed very late. You will have to make do with these shots I got today of the multiple stage drying process:

The hanging plants are, left to right: Mohan Ram Auto (younger), Crystal Candy Auto, Blow Mind Auto. In the boxes underneath are the cut up older Mohan Ram Auto and younger Crystal Candy Auto - they had hung for four days before going in the boxes, once the outsides went crispy. The glass jar has the Killer Kush Auto in it, for the final stage of drying now the stems snap - daily burping of the jar.

A closer look at the drying buds - first the Blow Mind Auto:

You can see I didn't exactly do a great trim job, even though the Blow Mind Auto and the younger Mohan Ram Auto weren't too tricky. Both plants had nice long petioles on most of the leaves, and a decent calyx:bud ratio. I just ran out of time and energy to cut every last leaf.

Here's the younger Mohan Ram Auto:

The picture above doesn't capture the way it glistens, so I put the camera in close to try and show you some trichomes:

In contrast, the Crystal Candy Auto was more difficult to trim. It's more leafy, with the leaves more closely attached to the stems. I ended up leaving a lot on it that could have gone, but it felt a bit pointless or even destructive to remove. I do not need to worry about presentation or 'bag-appeal' and just think of this as packaging. I don't really think it looks too bad either:

The Killer Kush Auto is now dry and being kept in the jar, being burped every day. Here's the entire plant:

The Killer Kush Auto clocked in at 66g. I am more than happy with that, and I would be happy if all the plants yielded the same. However, some are even bigger still, so I am very happy indeed!  I will be back with some further updates once it's all dried.

Edited May 24, 2019 by delagdo

[jadenugs]

The buds look great hanging to dry mate. I know the feeling about wanting to get done while trimming and not always finding the time for all the pics you want to take at the end.

Not to worry dude, you've shown your plants off spectacularly throughout the grow with some amazing photos.

 

Enjoy your rewards

[delagdo]

Drying Update

Hello! This is long overdue, I'm afraid I have been very busy. My in-laws visited and we hosted them for several days while we celebrated my eldest son's birthday, and we have been on a camping trip. Finally I have found time to get on here and let you know what has happened.

There is a bit of bad news, so let's get it out of the way: the older Crystal Candy Auto had some rot. I now think this was a botrytis infection present before harvest - there were some clues I missed, but I have never had this before so I was slow on the uptake. Some leaves died off very quickly and became soft and crumbly. My wife said she thought it smelled like bread mould when I brought it down for trimming. The mould was actually visible in the picture of it hanging up I posted on 24 May - this is a 100% crop of the right hand side:

 

When I realized I immediately put it all in water for a water cure. I've thrown out anything with visible damage, which was most of it, but I do have a decent amount saved which doesn't look visibly affected. I don't trust it enough to vape it even after a water cure, but I will experiment perhaps with making some isohash. It might work and give me something useful, but if it doesn't I can afford to scrap it.

I'm feeling better about it now, thank you for asking! Actually, while it sucks that I could almost certainly have avoided this, I didn't take it too badly because I still have plenty to keep me going - it would be a different story if the whole crop were lost. It's a harsh learning experience but I will survive, it could have been so much worse. It was a mistake to switch the dehumidifier off for the last few weeks of the grow despite the humidity drop. I perhaps should have trimmed some of the very dense foliage earlier. I'm reviewing my drying technique which has never been a problem before, but I have never had such thicc colas before either.

Another mistake I won't repeat is placing the part dried weed under drying plants, as shown in my pictures above! The mouldy plant was hung above the older Mohan Ram Auto, and the younger Crystal Candy Auto Consequently I lost a few buds from those too, because visual inspection found some contamination. I placed the rest in sunlight for a few hours for the UV to kill any spores, and then dried extremely thoroughly. The remaining younger Crystal Candy Auto seems OK and mould-free and I am happy to vape it.

I thought the same was true of the older Mohan Ram Auto, but after lots of sniffing I concluded there was something musty beyond its naturally woody aroma, and looking very carefully with the microscope there's very occasionally some tiny bits of the mould visible here and there, on pistils especially. I am water-curing this batch now too, but I think I will be alright to vape it after this water cure. Hopefully it will retain its effect but lose its smell, and be good for use as occasional secret agent public mission in the Pax.

That's the bad news dealt with. I am very glad, and I think I am very lucky to say that the other three plants haven't been affected at all. I still have more non-mouldy weed in the house than I ever have. I won Photo of the Month for May , and I also was awarded 5th place in the overall contest for the Cream Mandarine XL Auto and Jack 47 Auto diary, and my incredible trophy for March Grower of the Month has arrived, so a little bit of bud rot hasn't been enough to bring me down.

 

I know the contest is over, but I have had some fun taking pictures of the harvest anyway. I haven't quite finished but I will post what I have done so far, as I will be busy for a few days before I get a chance otherwise.

It was Killer Kush, with the metal pipe, in the study:

I've not extensively sampled it, but I have had enough to know this plant has given me more of what I wanted. It has a lemony perfume kush smell and taste, and gives a strong, unsubtle body and head high that lasts a long time.

This is the full Blow Mind Auto harvest, minus perhaps a gram or so I took for sampling, with the Dynavap:

 

As I didn't want it to spoil I dried it very thoroughly, by which point what's in the picture above weighed 77g. Here's a closer look:

 

It's lemony! But a very fresh citrus and different to the perfumy kush. I really like it and I hope I haven't ruined it for the cure by over-drying. The high seems fantastic so far, heady but relaxing, happy-inducing and effective in very small amounts.

Here's the harvest from the younger Mohan Ram Auto with the Pax 3:

 

Again that's the whole plant except for a gram or so I took for some early QA inspection. Very dry, it weighed 93g which I am really pleased with. I haven't taken a closer picture yet but I hope to soon when I have a chance.

This was what was left of the younger Crystal Candy Auto, once I'd tore through it and removed any buds with mould, with my ripoff Hurricane bong, which is what I used to smoke through virtually every day for a long period of my late 20s:

There's 50g in the ugly evidence shot above. I probably lost about 10-15g to mould. Again, a prettier, closer picture of a bud to two should come soon.

This is what I salvaged of the older Mohan Ram Auto,  with the prehistoric vaping device the Vapostar, in a minibong:

That's 61g above. Not shown, the 10g or so I threw away. This lot is now in water being cured, I don't know how it will come out but hopefully it will still be useful.

Thanks for looking and sharing this adventure with me, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have! It's been fun sharing this and I still have lots to eventually catch up with other people's diaries. Thanks again Sweet Seeds for this fantastic contest, I feel really lucky to have been able to take part in something so amazing. See you again soon

[delagdo]

As promised here's a few more arty pictures of the end result. First here is the younger Crystal Candy Auto:

 

 

It's got a very sweet smell. At first it was like strawberries and watermelon and very fruity, but as it has begun to cure it has got a very sickly edge to it. To be honest it smells pukey, like the car after you've given the kids too many sweets on a long journey. It's pretty pungent. The taste is nice, very sweet and acidic like strawberries and watermelon candy - I thought I would love that, but I think actually it is a bit too much for me! The effect is nice, I've not had lots but it seems like a rounded body and head high. It might not be quite as strong as some of the others but it is potent enough.

I lost the older Crystal Candy Auto to bud rot, I salvaged a small amount of it, water cured it, and I plan to process it into some kind of extract (perhaps isohash? I am not sure yet). It was less than half of it I saved but even after water curing I still have 45g left - I am sure it would have yielded over 100g if the plant hadn't gone mouldy. I did vape a bit and it did work, it still retained a slight lemony taste, but I don't fancy vaping the rest.

This is the younger Mohan Ram Auto:

 

 

It has a really nice smell. The older plant was just woody and earthy - this one has those tones in the background, along with a fruity berry scent I suppose must be from the White Widow in its heritage. I thought I'd be holding the Crystal Candy jars up to my nose when I'm burping them, but actually it's this one I want to sit there sniffing. It's not a mega strong smell, but the taste comes through really nicely in a vape and it is really smooth. That's a real contrast with the Killer Kush Auto, where the smell and taste are full on, and if you take a huge toke of thick vapor there is a good chance you'll end up coughing - that's much less likely with the Mohan Ram Auto, at least for me it seems.

The high is very indica, and I feel a physical buzz through my limbs and body before the relaxing mental effects begin. It's extremely pleasant and moreish, and can lead to pretty severe couchlock where I've just been staring at my legs, willing them to move for a while before eventually reconnecting to them. The potency is high I'd say, it's not quite as strong as the KIller Kush Auto but not too far off.

I still have some buds from the older Mohan Ram Auto being water cured. I have been changing the water every day for 10 days now, and it was still a little discoloured today. I'll use distilled water for the last couple of days (I have been using tap water) and then I hope the buds will be alright to vape as is, and I will be able to use them out and about without stinking the place up. I'll update you on that, I am hoping I will be able to dry them soon.

I received my Grower of the Month trophy:

Thank you so much Sweet Seeds!

[Serpent]

Just been catching up on this @delagdo and sorry to hear about the bud rot On a positive note sounds like you've managed to salvage some flowers, so all's not lost and loving the 'arty' photos