Grow Making do with what I have pt 1

[Madri-Gal]

Dutch passion has put a lot of effort into their yields on the autofems to insure the grower has a nice harvest. I've grown some of the L, XL and XXL. The XXL's can yield over 5oz each indoors under 600w. Can fit 4 of those in a 4x4 tent, not a bad haul for autos!

Quite respectable indeed. Thank you for sharing your autogrow journey. I look forward to your photo flower. It should be fun to see what they do.

 

[psychonaut]

Quite respectable indeed. Thank you for sharing your autogrow journey. I look forward to your photo flower. It should be fun to see what they do.

Glad to share. I'm gonna do 4-way LST and probably scrog with 4 plants all different strains, still trying to decide if that's the right way to go or 2-plants, I'm just pondering the stretch but should be able to keep it managed under the screen so long as they all finish around the same time. So far thinking Bruce Banger, Cheese, The Church and either Skunk #1 or Orange Hill Special. The Orange Hill Special is slightly sooner to finish than the other 3 but I've grown that a number of times and it's a dutch passion photoperiod feminized and it's very potent and great flavor!

 

[psychonaut]

Wanted to give an update, while my heart is still broken. The 2 ADL's that I hung up whole succumbed to bud rot, so both of the plants were disposed of entirely. The big girls huge main cola had rotted about 25% of the insides out. The smaller plant had only shown a few spots but I discarded it anyway.

I expect it was from not defoliating those leafy plants fast enough and when the plant shrunk from drying the whole inside of the plant was trapping moisture creating the perfect environment for mold. I should have split the limbs off and drying them that way. I was hoping due to the low RH out here that the whole plant would have made it but the outdoor drying space was just too warm.

Lesson to learn here, dont dry the whole plant untrimmed and branches still intact.

Anyhow, apologies from a rather bitter note here at the end, I'm moving on to the next effort

 

[Madri-Gal]

Wanted to give an update, while my heart is still broken. The 2 ADL's that I hung up whole succumbed to bud rot, so both of the plants were disposed of entirely. The big girls huge main cola had rotted about 25% of the insides out. The smaller plant had only shown a few spots but I discarded it anyway.

I expect it was from not defoliating those leafy plants fast enough and when the plant shrunk from drying the whole inside of the plant was trapping moisture creating the perfect environment for mold. I should have split the limbs off and drying them that way. I was hoping due to the low RH out here that the whole plant would have made it but the outdoor drying space was just too warm.

Lesson to learn here, dont dry the whole plant untrimmed and branches still intact.

Anyhow, apologies from a rather bitter note here at the end, I'm moving on to the next effort

Oh no! I'm so sorry that your lovely grow ended that way. How heartbreaking. I learned a lot about autoflower from you. It's sad it ended this way.

 

[Disrupt]

Sympathies. Know just how it feels. So disappointing after such a labor of love.

Do you have some drying in a different space? Could the mold have spread to cause more damage? At a minimum, recommend trimming and inspecting everything that's left, flower cluster by cluster, under magnification. You might want to consider freezing or freeze-drying to be safe.

 

[Killick]

You might want to consider freezing or freeze-drying to be safe.

Freezing or freeze drying? When would you FD, and why? Ive been reading about FD for purging bubble, but haven't read much about other uses for the unit.

 

[psychonaut]

Thanks for the sympathies. Hopefully someone can benefit from my loss. I destroyed the plants, they got buried in a hole outside for mother earth to consume. I cant take any chances with mold, luckily everything else was dried and cured with far less leaf and under much different temperatures weeks prior when weather was more favorable for that drying technique. Just in the past 3 weeks it has warmed up considerably here which I think contributed to the mold growth.

Results on dry weight yields are -
Skunk #1 Auto early bloomer - 88.5g
Skunk #1 Auto later bloomer - 52.5g (mids) 84g (tops)
Auto Orange Bud - 38g (mids) 55g (tops)
Auto Blueberry - 45g

Several grams of dirty 150u dry sift from each of them as well.

Plenty of meds to make it through to the next dispite the loss of my sativas.

 

[Moses Baca]

Agree, my sympathies. That hurts. Glad you disposed of them properly.

 

[Disrupt]

Hopefully someone can benefit from my loss.

Definitely - considered the whole plant drying technique, now there's a reason not to try it!

When would you FD, and why?

Freeze-dried a fresh harvest twice after discovering a single moldy bud on the growing plant. If you hang the rest up to dry, you risk losing it if the mold spreads. Of course, it's only useful if you intend to make concentrate. It's not as good as concentrate made from cured flower, IMO, but it's better than losing everything.

You don't need a freeze dryer - just a faucet aspirator, some vacuum marinators, and Damp-Rid from the hardware store. Been using this method for years. (Also freeze-dry the cured flower before extraction to remove the last of the water, rather than toasting it and losing terps.)

 

[Madri-Gal]

Definitely - considered the whole plant drying technique, now there's a reason not to try it!



Freeze-dried a fresh harvest twice after discovering a single moldy bud on the growing plant. If you hang the rest up to dry, you risk losing it if the mold spreads. Of course, it's only useful if you intend to make concentrate. It's not as good as concentrate made from cured flower, IMO, but it's better than losing everything.

You don't need a freeze dryer - just a faucet aspirator, some vacuum marinators, and Damp-Rid from the hardware store. Been using this method for years. (Also freeze-dry the cured flower before extraction to remove the last of the water, rather than toasting it and losing terps.)

Oh my, I haven't felt so ignorant in awhile. Just reading "faucet aspirator, some vacuum marinators, and Damp-Rid" sent chills down my spine. Of the three, I only know what Damp-Rid is. "Faucet aspirator" sounds like a complicated way to suck up mucus using the kitchen sink, and "Vacuum marinator" sounds like a high tech way to either infuse foods, or put flavor into a carpet cleaner. I did stop and read about what you are talking about, so I'm going to recover. You know some complicated stuff, @Disrupt. Thank you for providing an alternative solution to prevent the spread of molds.

 

[Disrupt]

"Faucet aspirator" sounds like a complicated way to suck up mucus using the kitchen sink, and "Vacuum marinator" sounds like a high tech way to either infuse foods, or put flavor into a carpet cleaner. I did stop and read about what you are talking about, so I'm going to recover. You know some complicated stuff, @Disrupt.

Mostly from decades of lab work adapted for the home kitchen...

You could probably use a faucet aspirator to suck up mucus, or anything else. Most labs have bench vacuum for sucking up stuff, but faucet aspirators are a useful backup. Basically just a pipe that attaches to the end of your faucet with a much smaller pipe sticking out at 90 degrees. As water rushes through the bigger pipe, it creates a respectable vacuum in the smaller one. Simple, inexpensive, and surprisingly handy.

A vacuum marinater is designed to marinate foods much faster than otherwise possible. FreshSaver sells a good one that it frequently includes in 2-for-1 sales.