Guestion about Harvesting and or THC content...

[The-Sorcerer]

I grew Nirvana's Big Bud for the first time...I had some trouble with the grow...The plants were over fertilized like 3 times and overwatered multiply times, beginners flaws... , at the end of Week 8 into flowering...They were underwatered for like 3 days since I calculated my time wrong of being away from the city...When I came home, the hairs were ALL BROWN! Before I left the city, they had like 75% hairs brown, the top was still white haired, I watered them for the last time and the day after...I harvested them, dried them for 4 days with curing...

The problem...

I tried smoking it... it seems as though it doesnt do much at all, almost nothing... I know that if they are harvested too late, the THC drops...but THAT MUCH? They are almost useless... How can I fix that in my next grow? It seems as though I did something comlpetely bs... Also in Nirvana Seeds Site...it was written that Big Bud has Moderate THC content, but I dont think thats the case... I put so much time into taking care of these and now they wont even take effect...thats the saddest thing ever...I am totally clueless on how they are SO inefficient...

Here is my grow:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=116806

 

[mexilandrace]

I have never even seen a big bud plant let alone smoked one so take it with a grain of salt.

It's supposed to be weakish, kind of plants you need to run a couple packs to find a semi decent keeper.

However, sometimes the drying is the most important part. A bad dry or not long enough can render a very weak smoke. It may be they aren't really dry enough or they dried to fast or any myriad of potential issues.

I would set it up for a nice cure period. I am always surprised how much better stuff gets after a couple weeks or more.

How wet is it? Is it completely dry? If it is still moist at all try to quick dry a little bud to REALLY dry and then smoke that and see if there is a difference.

I didn't look at your pics, no time this morning, I will check back later, good luck.

 

[resin_lung]

That sucks. I just looked over the pics from your grow.I wouldn't say that it went too long or the thc "dropped", problem I see is that there's no resin on them buds. I see teeny tiny signs of resin glands but they don't look developed at all. As far as what to do next time to improve your results..... I would start by getting some good soil (there are tons of great threads with lots of recipes), more light, ventilation to handle the extra light, and new genetics. and get that over/under watering problem situated. It's all part of the process. Keep at it.

 

[Bush Dr]

I just looked over the pics from your grow.I wouldn't say that it went too long or the thc "dropped", problem I see is that there's no resin on them buds. I see teeny tiny signs of resin glands but they don't look developed at all. As far as what to do next time to improve your results....

Agreed, very green too, what was the flowering feed?

Looks like too much N and not enough P/K

Big Bud needs crossing with Northern Lights before it's worth bothering with IMHO

BD

 

[The-Sorcerer]

I made a terrible mistake prior to flowering... being novice and all... I took off almost all of the leaves ( I thought the buds are then revealed better to the light but I took off too much of those, so maybe it didnt have energy to grow THC or something similar? )

Oh, and about the drying... Yea they are still kind of wet...Ive been drying and curing them for 4 days now... I will give it a go today...smoke and see what happens... I dry them with this method:
Open air 24H, Cure in a sealed bag for 8h, then open air 16h, cure 6h and so on until they are dry... this method is told that it works within 3-4 days...but mine is like +1 day... they dry very slow ...

 

[Dr Dog]

Normal causes for "brown" hairs are overheat and pollination

But teh hairs should not be used for age or ripeness of the plants, you have to go by the trichomes. I would think you probably chopped them while they were inmature, thus week smoke

 

[Weedman Herb]

You should not be sealing that weed in anything yet ... You dry Then cure ... the buds should be on a line in a well ventilated space for about a week (or until they feel dry) then you jar them and burp (open) the jar daily for about an hour for another week to 10 days. You Really have no clue and should have asked 100 questions Before you even bought seeds IMHO. Are you trying to fuck this up? You've made some Big mistakes by doing things Before you ask the people who might Know what you obviously don't. Let me guess ... you heard this wasn't that hard and everything else you heard from someone who knows someone who has a brother that grows? Next grow I want to see you asking questions and hanging out in the grow forums and someone with the knowledge you wish to have might decide to help you. If you keep winging it or taking advice from people who don't really know there isn't much hope for you as a grower of fine cannabis ...

 

[RockyMountainHi]

I have tasted Big Bud about 4 times - and it was the first strain that I knew I didn't want to grow.
Ever.
I know the strain has some fans that boast of great yeilds and "really good" buds - but wouldn't they have named it "Big and really good Bud" And one toke of my buds gave a BB grower head rushes. Nuff said. -

naaa seriously, the strain isn't know to have every plant be kick ass, that's for sure. And - beating up a plant along the growing process dosen't help. But on the bright side - think how much better you will do next time.

Growing is a learning curve - for me, getting to that first harvest wasn't a pretty sight either. It took several attempts and a few years; but it was time well spent.

nevermind ---- I'd try to stop the abuse of the current garden - let her gather what strenght she has and do her job. While she finnishes - pick the next strain, and order up the beans, so you have something to start fresh on.


I know it's a burn to invest so much time, love and care to ask yourself what for now, but I suspect you will look back on these days and be glad.
Maybe a lil later,,, lol


I grow in high altitude and there is no way in hell I have had any plant that I thought was ready when the breeder said it would be - so some more time won't hurt you. - And stress can delay development.

Ya did good - next time will be betta. - get-it? betta?

 

[mexilandrace]

looked at the pictures, I woudl say you harvest a couple weeks too soon, bud under CFL or any low intensity light needs a bit longer than the plants grown under the big boys.

you can make oil out of the harvest if you decide it's weak sauce, I am sure there is a qwiso thread here, check it out, oil will concentrate the good stuff and may yield you some decent results comparatively.

I would also make sure it's dry enough, it doesn't sound like you dried it long at all to me.

spend 20 bux on a carson microview, great little scope and much much easier to use than the radioshack style microscope people recommend so much.

 

[Mr. Greengenes]

It's true that the harvest looked a bit early, but The Sorcerer mentioned that he'd cut all the sun leaves off, which means there wasn't going to be any more growth any way. That is a huge mistake. Sun leaves are the carbohydrate storage 'bins' among other functions (like handling high heat). Each leaf taken off reduces yield.

Those plants don't look that unhealthy, they're just poor genetics. I used to think that if something was grown really badly it would have reduced yield but not potency. Since touring some local growrooms, I've had to revise that. It is possible to grow so badly that the plant doesn't really get a chance to even mature. In that case, you'd get both reduced yield and potency. So, I've seen grows that were so miserable, they reduced the potency. Yours doesn't look as bad as the ones I'm thinking of TS. You've got bad genes, simple as that. True, you probably reduced the potency some, but if that had been some resin bomb strain, you'd still have plenty of potency to spare.

 

[The-Sorcerer]

The reason I chose Big Bud as my first grow was because it was said to be Easy for beginners ( Difficulty ).
+Thanks about the grow

My next strain Im very interested in growing and smoking is Nirvana's FULL MOON, because of its description alone, which sounds something like this:

We came across this beauty on one of our many research trips to Southeast Asia, to be precise, at the Full Moon party held monthly on the Thai dream island of Koh Phangan. Full Moon is everything you would want Thai weed to be like. This totally tropical Sativa packs a trippy, almost spooky, visual high. Under high wattage bulbs, its popcorn buds become somewhat tight and heavy. Full Moon has a sweet scent and an unmistakably Thai spicy flavour.

Seedbank The Sativa Seedbank
Type Indoor
Indica / Sativa Sativa
Feminized No
Yield 400 - 500
Effect High
Grow height High
Flowering weeks 13 / 14 weeks

Something that is very odd to me though is that almost everybody replied that I might have harvested too early... I thought I harvested too late...because Ive heard everywhere that you have to watch the pistils of the plant, if 75%, 1/3 of them are amber...or brownish etc... then it is time to harvest... wtf ?

But yeah... the plants suffered from:

1. Multiply overwaterings ( About 4-6 times )
2. Over-Fertilization ( About 3 times )
3. Didn't get regular FLUSHES during a quarter way into flowering...because I didnt know about what the FLUSH is used for yet and so on...
4. I had to break the plants life cycle several times due to a person coming into the grow area...that must of fucked them up quite a bit aswell xD, but I have no choice on wether the person comes or not

But what do you guys think of FULL MOON as the next grow? I would die for a VERY SPOOKY, VISUAL HIGH xD
I love the weeds that make your vision totally different than being sober xD

 

[The-Sorcerer]

Agreed, very green too, what was the flowering feed?

Looks like too much N and not enough P/K

Big Bud needs crossing with Northern Lights before it's worth bothering with IMHO

BD

I never thought that P/K was so essential in the plants growth, but turns out it is, eh... :O ,
I dont know if I can find a fertilizer here rich in those particular things...
I maybe have the opportunity to add some P or K into the soil seperatedly...but dont know about the fertilizer though...

 

[K.J]

Something that is very odd to me though is that almost everybody replied that I might have harvested too early... I thought I harvested too late...because Ive heard everywhere that you have to watch the pistils of the plant, if 75%, 1/3 of them are amber...or brownish etc... then it is time to harvest... wtf ?

No, it's not the pistils you want to watch, it's the trich's, the resin glands. Do some searches on the forum, lots of info about it here.

 

[RockyMountainHi]

pssssst, I'd go less by the interesting story (aka sales pitch) and more by popular concensus (real world results).


Your Full Moon may or may not be, - never grown nor have I ever heard about it. - Sounds like a LONG assed flower time (Thai sat.) - ak48 might do ya better on the learning curve - the reward could be sooner and about double - and that always makes school more fun.

Nirvana is a great choice - atleast till ya get totally confident if ya plant it ya can harvest it

Ya could do a search - first about nirvana strains and maybe later about "flowering nutes"

here's a thread about "Best Nirvana Strains"
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=129663

 

[lordbudly]

full moon doesnt sound good for you, its an unselected landrace sativa, and your in a semi micro cab, until you get training plants down id advise something a little more indica, look at the flower time, from whatever time you decide to go 12/12 you have to wait atleast 3 months,and your yield wont be that high, sure they try to butter it up and say you have a good yield, but those yields are basically every strain in an unlimited grow space all vegged for the same time, and a sativa vegged the same height as an indica or the same time as an indica and then stretches to be 3x atleast its normal height will definitely yield about the same as an indica a quarter of its size

for the sativa high you seek, that is way way way better suited for you cab, choose this http://www.nirvana-shop.com/regular-cannabis-seeds/ppp.html

 

[The-Sorcerer]

I read a topic about LST though, I think I could do it with the full moon ...Id like to try atleast...
But thanks for the tips (Y)

 

[plantsman]

Sorcerer, I just read through your entire grow and man, did I recognise some problems there. WOW!

Firstly, I am pretty sure that the strain you were growing is crap. DITCH IT. I grew a strain called CITRAL from CH9 seeds and it looked just like your one. Hardly any trichomes on really small bud sites...shit!
I think its partly the strain because I grew other seeds (Blue Cheese and Domina Star) exactly the same fucked up way (first timer) and they were absolutely covered in trich's!

So dont beat yourself up too much.

BUT you had other issues, most importantly was your soil. Im sure you know this now but it was just too wet and coarse. I used multi purpose compost with 20% vermiculite and 20% perlite which was ridiculous!! It held loads of water, didnt let the roots grow and therefore the plants couldnt get any of the nutrients it needed.

I would recommend making your own soil mix. Buy Sterilized Top Soil from any Garden Centre, coco coir (if you can get it) if not Peat and some perlite. Mix together 2 parts soil, 2 parts coco or peat and 1 part perlite. This works wonderfully for me and i'm sure it'd improve your set up.

I would recommend visiting the organic section for advise. Its a reall easy way to grow and all you'd have to do is basically add some worm casts or mushroom compost or other organic food to your soil mix and away you go!

Keep the faith man, I had the same problems as you and more (I had plants maturing with just 1 bud on top, seriously!) but now I'm getting fat crops of fresh bud every week and its covered in trichomes...

Peace

 

[The-Sorcerer]

O, 1 more thing I dont understand... If not watch the pistils of when to harvest... How can it be done and When?

Like... with a magnifying glass of some sort? If so... In what stage of flowering should I carefully examine the top of the plant? middle part of the plant? or the whole plants trichomes?

 

[K.J]

O, 1 more thing I dont understand... If not watch the pistils of when to harvest... How can it be done and When?

Like... with a magnifying glass of some sort? If so... In what stage of flowering should I carefully examine the top of the plant? middle part of the plant? or the whole plants trichomes?

First, I highly recommend spending some time searching the forums, reading books about growing, etc. You'll learn a lot and it'll benefit you massively in your future farming endeavors.

As for the trich's, it depends on what you want. They go from clear, to cloudy/milky, to amber. If you want a more heady high, take them when they're clear to cloudy (50/50? your call), but if you want a more couchy body stone take them when they're 60-70% amber. Lots of variables in between.

I personally look for about a 50/50 cloudy/amber ratio. It's just guesswork, using a 60x handheld scope or jeweler's loupe, and I would check both the crown bud and some of the ancillary buds before making your decision. If you watch your plants close enough, you'll know when it's time.

 

[mexilandrace]

O, 1 more thing I dont understand... If not watch the pistils of when to harvest... How can it be done and When?

Like... with a magnifying glass of some sort? If so... In what stage of flowering should I carefully examine the top of the plant? middle part of the plant? or the whole plants trichomes?

dude, read your own thread.

spend 20 bux on a carson microview, great little scope and much much easier to use than the radioshack style microscope people recommend so much.

not to be a dick about it, but you really need to study more and actually learn how to do stuff and not just blindly go about it. The information is at your fingertips if you only would look for it.