Critical Jack Auto & Chronic Ryder Auto in Coco & Airpots

[ledbud]

sorry to see you go bro.
pop in and check post when you free.

[teetee]

Hi Ledbud, I have been keeping a low profile recently, and like you, I've been well busy at work and home, so no worries. Hope you get more time in your schedule to get back on the site soon.

I chopped the Chronic Ryder on he 30th Dec, but I was taking buds off from her from 26th Dec. The decarboxylation worked great... I know it's a sin to use buds before proper drying and curing, but we just cannot score very easily at the moment, and the smoke is good, so why not? Both strains are good, but I mainly stole from the Chronic Ryder, simply because she had been flushing for longer. No cracking, no choking my guts up... nice and smooth! Looking at the trichs with a USB microscope is easy, and I saw all trichomes had gone proper milky. I didn't see many ambers, but I realise this is a strain specific finding, and I believe a lot of other growers' 'amber' trichs are actually brown trichs that show the THC is degrading. Very milky is good for me, and the curing process will make the most of the cannabinoids. Already she's a strong, clean smoke, but when cured.... mmmm I can't wait!

I like to manicure my buds when wet, so I remove all leaves, keeping the trich laden sweetleaf aside for making either cannabutter or bubblehash.... that's all bagged and in the freezer.... waiting for the landlord to piss off so we can get cooking one night soon.

The buds were sorted according to size and brown paper bagged for 6-7 days until they reach a stable RH of 65%. Towards the end of the 6-7 days, I put them in glass jars for a few hours, to even out the humidity within the buds, and then brown paper bagging them if the RH rose from 65 to say 70ish. Slowly but surely I get them to 65% stable, checking with a Caliber III cigar hygrometer, and 'burping' the bags or jars one or two times a day.

Once at stable 65%, I put the buds in some Violet glass screw top jars, with a Boveda 62 humidipak added to bring the RH down to 62% and leave them for a further 2 weeks to cure.

The Chronic Ryder is almost at the curing stage, most bags are stable at 65%, one or two are still a few days away. Dry weight is 100.5g, and I estimate we smoke around an ounce a week (approx 28g), and we've been smoking her for a week and a half so lets say the total dry weight was around a conservative 140g... just under 5 ounces! I'm well stoked.


The Critical Jack 2 had a massive harvest, so I decided to keep the large buds and cola intact and hang them upside down in a cardboard box to slow the initial drying process down a little. I have about 30 big tops drying this way, and about 10 brown paper bags with manicured buds in them. The buds are really hashy and sticky I think she might give me well over 7 ounces all in all.

Critical Jack 1 is on her own now, and she has the whole tent to spread out in now, so I have tied down and pulled apart her branches to get the most light.... she will probably give me over 5-6 ounces as well by the look of it. She still needs a couple more weeks though.

I'm now gonna roll a nice home grown spliff, and I'm gonna add some of that lovely scissor hash that I patiently gathered during the chop..... yum.... everyone's asleep or occupied, and I have the day off!

I'm gonna plant some more seeds this week. Probably 3 Blue AutoMazars, or I might do 2 BAM's and one Auto Think Different.
I don't see the point of growing anymore than 3 plants in this tent, there's room for 4 but space gets really tight during flowering, potentially reducing the yield for each plant. I believe the tent size plays a bigger part in determining the final yield, not the number of plants.

Anyways, here's some pics from the final few weeks.....

day 66 group shot

day 66 CR

day 66 CJ2

day 66 CR cola

day 72 CR

day 72 CR cola

day 72 CJ1

day 72 CJ2 cola

day 72 CJ2

day 74 CR cola

day 74 CR side bud

day 74 CJ2 cola tip

buds in box

air dried cola from CJ2

Thank you to Autoberry and Ledbud for the expert coaching and advice over 2014..... I wish you both a fantastic 2015... best of growing karma to you all!

[ledbud]

looking very nice bro.
so yum yum, you done well for new grower.

[teetee]

cheers Bro, was a long time coming, this time last year I was cursing my luck about that DWC grow with the pineapple chunk...

got 2 Blue Automazars in and one Auto Think Different in 20L airpots and Coco, all waiting to hatch!

Just skinning up some Critical Jack now for the 1st time.... will give dry weight later tonight for that.... should be good!

[ledbud]

really good grow bro and nothing like smoking your own grown buds.
happy growing karma on you new grow.

[teetee]

just done dry weight on the Critical Jack 2... I can't quite believe it... 251.4g that's 8.8 ounces

[ledbud]

fantastic bro. star grow.

[teetee]

OMG I almost forgot about Critical Jack 1.... she was squashed at the back after a slow start, and I ended trimming lots of branches off....well now she has loads of room to stretch out (with the help of a bag of yoyos, a few bits of soft-wire and some string).
She's on day 88 with an advertised finish of 70-75 days.

I also have 3 new babies... 2 Blue Automazars and one Auto Think Different, 12-24 hours old in 20L rocket pots again. I have disconnected the Blumat watering system.....

As you can see, I had to tie her main cola down cos she was getting too tall.....

.... and she has lots of nice fat sticky buds for me.....

She's into her third day of flush, and I will take her down next weekend. She looks like she's gonna deliver over 6 ounces.

I've cranked up the lighting from 20/4 to constant 24 hour lighting, mainly for the new seedings.

Thanks for checking in!

[ledbud]

happy growing karma teetee bro.
TD is strong smoke and good yield, I never grow blue automazar but going to grow it some time soon.
keep up the good work and you will always have smoke bro.

[teetee]

Day 93.... this was a 70-75 day Auto.....

Well, the remaining Critical Jack 1 has been flushing for 8 days, so time for the chop!

She really took advantage of the space left by her sisters over the last 2 weeks, and has swelled up nicely...

....so I dug out my digital microscope to look at the trichs...

....so I chopped her down, and she's now in brown bags, with some nice fat sticky buds hanging in a box.
She gave me loads, and I'm expecting well over 6oz once dried. I'll let you know!


Finally, while uploading from the microscope, I found this pic of a nanner from one of my previous grows.... that Barney's Farm Pineapple Chunk... what a bastard, eh?