Q&A: About bloom duration - Seriotica

Question:

Hello Serious Seeds Team,

Hello Simon,

today my Serioticas are 7.5 weeks in their  bloom phase. Now I got two questions for the next steps and want to ask if you are willing to share your experience with me?

1. If ALL the pistils are turned brown, we can understand this a sign for ripeness. So for it is easy to understand. On the other side the Seriotica can be harvested a lot earlier (after 5.5 weeks). Now I'm in a conflict as I read Frenchy Collinis (RIP) „Dimensions of Ripeness". He says that the real ripeness of the resin can has a very small sweet spot of around 3...4 days. Compared to a fruit. An it can be verified by the trichomes or more exactly by the single trichome itself. If the trichome contains ripe resin its has around 80% amber color. 

Now I just want to understand the two different views and bring them together. Maybe the articles are old and not longer valid as they where written in 2016 as far as I remember. 

The second thing is the part of drying. I'm a fan of the idea that was promoted by Flo from Florganics. He was here in Ulm a few times. And if I understand him correctly, the idea of turning the lights off three days before harvest and after this time putting the plants into pure destilled water with a few drops of phosphorous acid came from you. It keeps the stomata open and helps the plant to reduce Chlorophyll. If I remember correctly this is because the plant can't refresh its carbonates without light and therefore it consumes the proteine shells around the Chlorophyll. 

Do you have a harvest and drying recommendation?

My plan is:

1. 72h before harvest: Lights off

    21°C / 40% rH

2. After harvest: put the plants into destilled water with a few drops acid for three days

    16°C / 50% rH

3. After three days: Hang the plants upside down for around 10 days (until the stems are a little dry but do not crack)

    16°C / 50% rH

4. After drying phase one: Put the trimmed buds into a pizza card to ensure homogeneous humidity in the buds. Around a week

    16°C / 50% rH

During phase 4 measure the water activity from time to time with a closed jar and a precise rH sensor. If the rH is below 60% the buds are ready. (No fermentation as this will change the terpene profile of the plant).

Answer by Simon:

Hi,

You can follow whomever writer or guru you prefer. I see it like this: What is ripeness exacactly? What you or I prefer always differs somewhat, its personal. So you need to find what you prefer. Which stage of ripeness. 

Serioticas differ in flower time. That is not what I would have preferred but it is how it came out. So some are ready before others. 5,5 is extremely fast and very few have this. Most are around 7 weeks.

I don't agree that it is like a fruit. A fruit really has a point at which it is best. A few days later it starts to rot, and a few days before it is not really sweet yet. 

Cannabis has slightly different effects while it is ripening. And different people prefer another effect. It is not that it is not really tasty if you harvest with many pistils still white. it is less heavy, stoney is all. So very different from fruit in my point of view. You can harvest over a period and the proiduct will be fine but a bit different in effect. 

Riping of cannabis is a slope and you choose to harvest at which point you prefer the effect. Is my idea. 

Checking for white/coloured pistils is easy and a good way to start at least. You can also check the trichome colour. But you will see that if the first amber ones appear that the majority is still opaque. That is my preferred stage and it happens around when about all pistils have turned color. But different plants differ in this. So you have to find for yourself what you like best with the cultivar you prefer. 

Flo was right that I introduced this idea and it is correct that glucose (a Carbon hydrate) cannot be produced without light. So they need to eat what is there as starch in the leaves/buds to keep living in the dark. The starch gives the sore throat and black ashes when smoking.

They can also not take up nutrients if they are not present in the water. So Flo's recommendation is a good one. 

You can furthermore dry them slowly after harvest. The first week the enzymes in the plants stay alive and they will break down starch. So keep them hanging in the dark without much ventilation to keep moist present in the plants to keep the enzymes working. Not in a fully closed small closet, keep it a bit open to let moisture escape but do not use blowing fans etc. Do not let it be too dry, then they dry too quick.

Your schedule is fine. I would take 14 days for stage 3, you do not want to clip the buds off if they are still a bit too wet. Fungus can attack then. Not sure about the number of 50%, see how it goes if you wanna do this. I think it may be better to keep it a bit higher in stage 3 to keep the enzymnes going for at least a week.

And in stage 4 use a bigger cardboard box with space above the buds. Keeping the box closed works well to dry them slowy further and to cure them. I like to keep them in that closed card board box untill smoking. A typical cardboard box with 3 layers if you look at it from the side, from the supermarket, is fine. No need to burp etc. Bad gasses can get out. Less risky in a box than in glass. 

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Seriously,

Simon from

The Serious team