Cloning issues

When to harvest means what kind of effect you enjoy most.
THC content reachest maximum when 70% of the bud hairs change color from clear/milky to red/brown.
That produces a heavy "couch-lock" stone most people look for to-day.
However, you can get different highs off the same plant by harvesting buds earlier.
THC is only 1 component of a marijuana high. There are many other cannibanoids in the marijuana plant.
You've been smoking for decades like me. I'm sure you've noticed how some pot makes you sleepy, some makes you horny, some gives you severe cottonmouth, some makes you laugh like a loon, etc.
This comes from the mixture of the different kinds of cannibanoids in the pot.
Strains determine some of this, but when you harvest can affect it too.
Try cutting a few buds when they are 25% color change, others at 50%, the rest at 75% (past that point the pot degrades rapidly losing it's high and tasting terrible).
Usually, the earlier harvested buds produce more of a active, head high.

Store pot in a humidor or tightly sealed in tupperware or similar container.
If you've got a lot and are storing for longer than a few months, I suggest using one of those seal-a-meal things.
Don't use the kind that suck the air out, that will crush the buds.
Keep in a cool dry place.

 

trader..Radio Shack has a nice little hand held microscope, 60x I think, for around $10. Perfect for judging trichome maturity.

 

Thanks guys...

I've noticed that some of the lower, spread-out branches, have changed a bit more than the ones towards the top of the plant...(still getting mega-light)...and I thought I might harvest several of those first.
Coming up on 6 weeks...oh boy...

I'll definitely check our local Radio Shack...(although sadly, it's a small one and the guy's a putz)...for the microscope.

When I see these little Trichromes...I hope they look JUST like in the picture! Wish I had a macro-lens for my digital camera. I'd love to "share the event".

 

Ranger,

I learned practical curing in the fields of Mex and Columbia in the late '70's-'80s when I was a kid playing big-boy games.

Since that time I've become a fair amateur (with some formal trainning) underground chemist/physicist because I have this psychotic compulsion to understand the How's? so I can ask the appropriate Why's?, especially concerning our favorite type of flora.

And I LOVE that plant- so I soak-up any and all info that pertains to the subject I can find, and spend 'way to much time analysing it.

But I got to tell you- At home I never really managed to duplicate the gold look of santa marta or alcohopulco gold even when I personally carried seed home from the origin. That leaves me to suspect I was lacking something that the plant uptook from the soil.

Corroboration (maybe)- circa 1980 different seed stock was brought to a main source (rumored to be the original source) of SM gold and grown in order to expand commercial potential.
The weed cured to look the same, but lacked the power (you must've experienced that disapointment a few times back then- wgat a bummer!).

There were also low land farms putting out "gold" weed that was the result of "dead on a stick" harvesting. But the "gold" wasn't that rolex gold. More of a yellowish.
---
I generally quick-sun (although I think of it as "sweat") cure some buds at harvest for a quick taste.

One other thing- the radio Shack scopes are 30x, which is perfect for chems as well as trichomes.

 

gecko, maybe sun-curing has to do with the latitudes of Mexico and Columbia.
I have experimented with sun-curing weed, with varied success. But I never got it to that stunningly beautiful sparkly Columbian that I used to buy in the mid-70's.

I too was involved with the import/export business re:marijuana, back in '67--'68.
Some friends bought a WW II-era bomber and would land in about 50 miles inside of Mex. to pick up tons of pot, then fly back low, under radar, to the desert around the Salton Sea in SoCal to unload it into trucks.
A bunch of hippie's and a Korean War pilot/beatnik. We were making so much money.
But then one trip in, co-ordinates got mixed up. The trucks went to one place, the plane landed in another.
Since taking off from the U.S. side with all that pot wasn't an option, the pot was unloaded in the desert and the plane took off.
Some off-roaders found approx. 50 tons of pot stacked up in the middle of the desert and turned it over to the cops believe it or not.
There went our $$$, paying for all that pot and never getting it. Luckily I got out of it then. Some continued on a somewhat smaller scale (twin-engine Cessna), made a lot of money and then got caught, jumped bail and were in hiding for the next decade.

 

Oh my...the stories we all could regale each other with! Such a life in those days.

My "calling" was a different country...farther south...and smaller product. Sadly...had MAJOR problem coming thru Mex. City Airport once. Fortunately that was in the 80's.

I can't BELIEVE the numb-nuts in the 4-wheelers turned the crap over. Geeeeez....in Florida when a bale washed up...it was "party-time" for the local area residents. One place became so famous...due to currents...that it was nicknamed: "Bale beach".

As to planes...ha. How about a Cessna 310 with (illegally) modified 421 wings? S.A. coast to Philadelphia...non-stop. Sadly that crowd met with an un-timely demise also. Made the papers big-time in the 80's.

Love the story about the bomber though...damn those were the days.

If anyone has landed in the Bahamas...you have to laugh when you see the DC-8's in the water...just sitting there right on the approach pattern...left to rot.

What a time it was.

 

Radio Shack (here) doesn't have the scope. Damn. Small towns have their headaches.

Can't seem to get the heat in the rooms under control. Have plenty of ventilation...but the damn things come on SO often it's ruining my average CO2 ppm. And putting glass into the 600 & 400 in the veg room isn't doing much 'cuz the little duct fan isn't changing the air fast enough I suppose.
The CO2 generator is propane...and the ballast is hung near the roof...but the heat crawls above 87 too quickly.

Any thoughts?

 

Air cooled hoods or a stand alone air conditioner.

 

Yeah I got one of those too.
It eats batteries pretty fast but other than that im happy with it...
I use the mag glass mostly- but the scope comes in handy that last week or so.. If i could ever get past cloudy with this anxiety disorder I'll be amazed....L.O.L.
Rangerdanger one note on the differences of harving early+
If you dont wait long enough for the cloudy trichs- and harv a bit clear still- the weed has a burnout couchy effect- loss of energy.. Then when it hits mostly cloudy the speed buzz comes into play..In my experience anyways.
Hell I even smoke the 2 month old male leaf when testing for breeder males..
I usually smoke it at every stage the first couple runs through my grow- so I know the plant (strain) better....

 

MeanG...I think I'll go the way of the air-cooled hoods. Don't need yet another drain of electicity...and it's only hot in the summer here. Winter = Good heat!

Got the Radio Shack magnifier today. Damn hard to get the little leaf into a position so you can see the trichromes from the side..rather than overhead.

Friday represents 6 wk. / flower. The trichromes are visible...more clear than not...and the pistils seem in the range of 60% browning, yet the plant in general seems ready to be harvested.
The large fan leaves have been withering and falling off for several weeks...yet plant looks healthy in general.

First time at this...and don't want my best effort to be thwarted.

 

For future reference a Sunpenton WA-1010 10,000 btu standalone a/c only uses 6.2 amp(.5 amps more then a 600hps) of power and will maintain a average room temps very efficiently and they only run about $350-400.