Someone's first grow

[JD1stTimer]

Hey, here's a plant that is someone's first attempt. I have a few questions about these pictures:

1. Think it's ready for harvest? It has been flowering for more than ten weeks, but I've heard that it just keeps growing new flowers even it's on 15 hours of darkness. The grower is getting impatient.

2. If the grower were to use good genetics instead of bagseed, would the yield be similar with the same setup? (76 watts of CFL)

3. The grower and I tested some popcorn buds still a little damp mixed with tobacco so it would burn and it took like two whole joints to barely feel anything. Will the big buds, when properly dried and cured, be way better? We smoked some dried leaves early on and it was about like poor schwag.

4. I'm using tor to read these boards but it's really slow. Is it way overkill?

5. How important is it to be vague about who is growing, and how bad is it to show your face? I want to post pics in the sexy pic or two thread but I'm worried.

I know it's a lot of questions, but I REALLY DID read the FAQs and I didn't see them there. Apologies in advance if I just missed it somehow. Here's pics.

[Weedhound]

Your poll left one out.....the $10 pocket microscope that will tell you if your plants are ready to harvest. Let me see if I can find a link....

[JD1stTimer]

Sorry folks, I don't see an edit button. My apologies, a couple of my questions are dealt with in the FAQs.. :/ If there's any more commentary on the subjects I would appreciate it though. I see that when to harvest has been answered in the FAQs, oops, but my friend doesn't own a magnifying glass. Also, in the FAQ on drying and curing it says that proper drying and curing does not increase potency, but other people have told me that when it is dried properly it is way more potent than when damp. ?!

[Weedhound]

http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-faqs/25001-when-harvest.html

[JD1stTimer]

Yeah, sorry about that weedhound. I don't see how I missed the harvest Q in the FAQ.. :error: Also, I'm curious how anyone thinks it looks... to me it looks pretty phat considering the virginality and cheap/easy to find equipment. (He used four CFLs in a parabolic pendant lamp with three two-way light-bulb splitters [$1.96 at wal-mart] with a white posterboard box around it like a cabinet, miracle-gro time-release soil, and jack's classic african violet food when the time-release ran out)

[Weedhound]

np....I don't think it increases potency (imho) but curing helps with the harshness and taste of your yield for sure... ;)

[JD1stTimer]

Funny thing, so far it just smells like grass (Not the good kind, the mowed-down backyard kind.) Absolutely just the slightest grain ?!?! smell right when the cabinet is first opened, and a slight minty smell from broken stems. I know, I'm probably acting like it's the first grow ever done on earth, but I think all of you can remember how exciting and special your first girl was ;) , and how hungry for support you were, especially since you can't just open up and talk to all your friends about it.

[Weedhound]

That's perfectly normal.....part of the curing process is removing that smell (chlorophyl) sp? from the bud.....that's what you are smelling. When it's done curing it'll smell great. :thumbsup:

[burnable]

Sorry folks, I don't see an edit button. My apologies, a couple of my questions are dealt with in the FAQs.. :/ If there's any more commentary on the subjects I would appreciate it though. I see that when to harvest has been answered in the FAQs, oops, but my friend doesn't own a magnifying glass. Also, in the FAQ on drying and curing it says that proper drying and curing does not increase potency, but other people have told me that when it is dried properly it is way more potent than when damp. ?!

When the bud is still damp, not only will it not burn but the cannabinoids are not yet ph neutral and will not be psychoactive. All the thc molecules need to dry up for the bud to be fully potent. Curing in glass jars allows the shedding of moisture to occur evenly and prevents quick-drying portions of the bud from overdrying. Proper drying is pretty important

The less pleasant grassy smell is the chlorophyll rich plant material that will abound when you're drying a bud with a lot of leaves. The flower itself will smell good even before drying, but the non-resiny stuff needs time to leave the flower. After decent drying, the grassy smell should be gone. You can get a good smell sample by brushing your fingers along a flower and smelling them (not too often). If even that smells grassy, you've got poor genetics or your growing methods need revision

[JD1stTimer]

Thanks for the info Weedhound and Burnable! I'm gonna tell the guy to get a good magnifier. I saw one on the Radio Shack website that looks good. I brushed a flower and it didn't leave any scent on my finger... ?! Probably a good thing cause when I walk in there I don't smell anything either... maybe someone was running a very stealthy strain that the original baggie came from? Doubt it, cause it's mexischwag around here. (Border state) But anyways, even if it's worthless I guess bagseed just goes that way sometimes. :)

[JD1stTimer]

Wow I just tasted around a gram of a sample my friend pulled about two weeks ago. MMMMM, I didn't cough at all either plain or mixed with tobacco, until I put my roaches in my pipe, and it seems to really work. Being dry really does make a great difference!

[hydrocannabis]

so then U R saying that U got high. right.

thats Y when U buy weed it is alwase dry.

[JD1stTimer]

Yeah, exactly. I don't think it's just because of decarboxylation though. Burning it would take care of that for you right? I think the main thing is that you can get a lot more plant material into your skin instead of mostly water.

[JD1stTimer]

Okay, I told my friend to get a good magnifier at least 30x. He got a ratshack 60x-100x pocket microscope and called me over. We both looked and looked, and what we see are not any regular trichomes, but they are wide at the base and pointy on top, like rose thorns. They are all clear, even on the very very oldest flowers at the main nodes (The primordia, I guess). So, will we be unable to tell when it's ready except by look and smell?

[JD1stTimer]

UPDATE: My friend is getting tired of this plant and wants to cut it down. Should I tell him to keep it in the dark without water until the soil dries before cutting? Does any of that stuff actually work?

[JD1stTimer]

UPDATE: The plant gave almost one ounce dry. (25 grams). After curing was more potent. Doesn't taste great though, just tastes like random vegetable, and smells like random vegetables too. But it will do the trick, .3 grams is enough for me if it's been a few days.

[temujin8]

the plant looks really weird? lol kinda cool looking though. don't worry my first plant i ever grew smelled like random vegetables to, i think it was due to early harvest and lack of proper curing it smelled really good when it was crunched up... Like it was still on the plant , and that plant smelled hella good :D

[JD1stTimer]

Yeah, it is weird looking, :) It was topped twice then LSTed.

[caspr420]

That is one funky looking plant! What kind is it? And (yes I know I'm a noob) how do you get it to split off into all those separate vertical stems? Or is that just because of the strain it is?

[Delta9Haze420]

Yes I would say using Tor is WAYYYY overkill unless you are reading this stuff on non-personal systems (which is a BIG no-no). For one thing, you never know who controls tor exit hubs (and a fair share of them are controlled by the same people you wouldn't want to know what you are looking at). The exit hubs decrypt all the info so the controllers of the hubs can see whatever you are doing clear as day. Deranged (website) reported a set up of 5 tor exit hubs globally just recently that were sniffing traffic and posted a TON of government and supposedly classified and secret passwords and other info just by scanning (sniffing) the content of tor exit hubs. Tor is really only strong if you know your exit hub, or own one (which I do). And all of that aside, tor can still be used for many things. All I am saying is I wouldn't go to the trouble of using tor or even proxy servers. It is pointless. This is a free speech forum and in the U.S., anyway, there is still something called freedom of speech (or so 'they' tell me). Which means you can say whatever you want on here, just don't say something really really stupid or incriminating.

Be careful, use your head, and you'll be fine without tor.

[JD1stTimer]

Thanks Delta9. I think I might get a static IP address so I can easily set up an exit node. Until then I guess I will turn it off. I'm curious though, does the operator of an exit node know the IP address that the packets come from? I always thought the point was more to keep your ip address anonymous more so than encrypting the content. Maybe I have missed the point though. caspr: if you cut the main stem, two new stems will grow out from where the leaves are attached. If you bend the stem down so the tip of the stem is at the soil level then several of the leaves will have stems growing up at the base of the leaves. It helps you get more yield in a low-light situation, because you can have all of those different flowering points very close to your lights.

[Skrappie]

It seems to me that your buds are trying their best to be tight, but have a problem with low lighting. Do you think you could increase the intensity of your lights? It could be too late for these lovely ladies, but wonâ??t hurt in the future. Take my advice with a grain of salt though; Iâ??m still learning the green arts myself.

[Markass]

looks like it's got a lot more filling in to do...a pocket microscope is the only way you'll be able to judge it correctly..very inexpensive..

[stone_sensation]

Nice plant, I like your LSTing :)

[Delta9Haze420]

Thanks Delta9. I think I might get a static IP address so I can easily set up an exit node. Until then I guess I will turn it off. I'm curious though, does the operator of an exit node know the IP address that the packets come from? I always thought the point was more to keep your ip address anonymous more so than encrypting the content. Maybe I have missed the point though.

Not necessarily (regarding tor operators knowing the address packets are coming from). However, you do have to log in and out of the boards, and other data is transmitted which may be sensitive, which *can* be traced back to wherever your destination is (destination = website or terminal server - ie this website). Your IP is masked from the website or destination server, yes, however the tor exit hub (admin) DOES know your IP. So if they think you look like a tasty target, they can trace your IP to whatever you were accessing (if they put the work into it - which isn't hard for someone good - depending on how many levels of security you use). It takes a bit of work to get enough info out of tor to ident someone, and most people don't have anyone looking for them with enough passion to go to the trouble. The thing about tor is that a LOT of people sniff tor exit hubs just because they can (thats what hackers do, after all), and instead of the joys of horticulture, or some other pleasantry, they spend their day trying to trace the routes of packets sent across the interweb, and many of them target tor especially because they know tor is used by people who don't want to be found.

To answer your question without going on and on - you are correct, in that the primary utility of tor is to prevent your IP being associated with someone else's IP (such as a website's IP). However, inside the tor architecture, there are several security and encryption algorithms built in as well to enhance privacy (theoretically). This allows not only your IP to be masked, but also the contents of the packets being sent back and forth. The encryption is why only the exit hubs are vulnerable. Since all the intermediate tor nodes are sending your data (and IP) encrypted, their security is FAR harder to bypass than an exit hub. Once your packets reach an exit hub though, if done correctly, the packets can be read (since they are no longer encrypted) and a trace back to whatever you were looking at or talking to is much easier.

Sorry for the long narative, I know its a *growing board* :jointsmile:

BTW- those are some very nice LST pics!