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One more overhead of the beds in full sun before the plants start coming down.

Sometimes, you get lucky with the weather, and that appears to be happening here. A few days ago, we had a stretch of high humidity 24 hours a day, with predictable results in the garden. We had to remove several spot pieces of mold. Even with Stargus, if high humidity maintains for days in a row, pathogens will form.

Fortunately, we’ve begun an extended heat wave that will last about seven days, and will take us through harvesting at least the first two plants, Royal Kush in bed 21, and Purple Hindu Kush in bed 20. Temperatures will be high and humidity low, which is great for pathogen prevention, or even pathogen death. Either a 100 degree heat will kill the pathogens, or humidity consistently below 40% will slow mold growth to a crawl.

The other thankful thing about this heat wave is a lack of wind. Otherwise, it would be perfectly treacherous fire conditions.

The source for most of the mold has been moth worm scat, so with a warm week ahead, and with very low humidity on certain days, it’s the perfect week for BT. I’m watching moths land and lay, with no success. I sprayed during an inundation of white moths, so I knew eggs were happening all over my plants. Because I can leave the BT on for the week, I’m not worried.

I write a lot about the white moth, but this is the relentless skipper moth.

Purple Hindu Kush has held on. We thought this plant might be an early harvest candidate, because she’s got some huge flowers, and we hoped to spare them from mold. As it is, we’ll still harvest her soon after she hits the eight week point. If the variable humidity held into next week, I’d be tempted to let her stretch, but it’s looking like a return to high humidity by Sunday at the latest. We will not risk the giant flowers this plant produced by further exposing them to pathogenic potential.  

I also suspect this week of heat, this truly Indian Summer, will hasten the harvest dates from everything remaining in the beds. Heat like this is a major trichome producer as the flowers attempt to protect themselves from the blazing sun.

I used to take down plants solely on the status of trichome readiness. I use a jeweler’s magnifying lens to study them on every plant several times a day. As soon as I saw trichomes turning amber, I harvested them.

Now, as I’ve indicated in previous blogs, I have no hesitancy to harvest a plant early, should the weather conditions make it difficult to get to an anticipated harvest date.

And how do I determine a potential harvest date?

First, I know the cultivar. Before I grow her, I have researched how long she flowers and when the expected outdoor harvest date might be. This information is not definite, but it is a guideline. When a particular cultivar tends to harvest is valuable information. The later each of my plants goes into October, the greater the likelihood that some of those plants will come down early. It has everything to do with the weather and pathogens. I also write down the exact date I notice a plant has begun to flower. The clock starts ticking at that point.

As for Royal Kush in bed 21, she is a seven to nine week harvest. Thursday will be exactly eight weeks, and her trichomes are full. Further, she is crammed together, and as such, is a huge risk for mold. So far, it’s been minimal and entirely on the outside, where it could be easily removed. But a plant clustered so closely together is a ticking time bomb. That we make it to 56 days means we’ve reached the middle of her potential harvesting cycle, and that equals full term to me.

Royal Kush–tightly clustered.

Purple Hindu Kush is an eight to nine week harvest, so her perfect day would probably be day 60. We’re thinking that day 57 is close enough. We removed several small mold pieces from her a couple of days ago, so whatever pathogenic resistance she had is mostly gone. It’s time to bring her down and preserve the medicine.

Purple Hindu Kush

As of this morning, October 2, only Purple Hindu Kush and Royal Kush in bed 21 have filled trichomes, though I’m expecting both Night Nurse in bed 14 and ACDC in bed 16 to be ready by the middle of next week. I’ll know more after I look at her trichomes this coming weekend.

Wednesday, October 9

First, my laptop died a few days ago, so I wasn’t able to write anything for several days.

As of right now, four plants have been harvested, washed and are hanging to dry. Purple HIndu Kush and Royal Kush in bed 21 have already been drying for six days.

Purple Hindu Kush.

And as it turned out, Night Nurse in bed 14 and ACDC in bed 16 didn’t last to the weekend. Night Nurse came down Monday and ACDC came down Tuesday. I took this overhead photo to demonstrate how much ACDC had been trained to the sides. In her early days of growth, she didn’t appear to have much potential. But Bee trained her and kept training her to grow out, so that virtually everything on her eventually behaved as if a top. Some of the stems had to grow aways before flowering. They had to find their place in the canopy made possible by the training of Bee. I suspect she’s over a pound, and three months ago, I didn’t anticipate such a yield.

Almost every flower turned into a top.

Here you can see the length of some of her stems in the drying room, relative to the flowers.

The drying room is now mostly full, though we can hang more by building more of the hanging wracks. With the proper timing, we shouldn’t have to. By next Sunday, two of the drying plants will come in for trimming and storage, freeing up room for two or three more plants in the cottage. I anticipate Rainbow Kush coming down next Monday, followed sometime next week by both Royal Kush in bed 18 and Hindu Kush in bed 22. It always amazes me how quickly they all fall, once they start.

A glance at the trichomes for all the remaining plants tells me that I’ve got about 7-10 days left with plants in beds this year. 

The weather is now shifting back to a more typical fall pattern, with higher sustained humidity. One more Regalia spray is in order for the remaining plants. 

No more compost teas, no more insecticides, and no more foliar sprays of any kind after I sprayed Regalia this morning, this grow is now firmly into the grinding hours of plant harvesting, and trimming. During this annual rite of passage, sometimes a plant is ready outside, but it’s made to wait another day while I catch up on the trimming. Trimming is the job that few actually want, unless they’ve never done it before. LOL, nothing like having a group of newbie trimmers, once they realize they are glued to that chair for the entire day. 

Of course, trimmers are given everything they need for this task, up to and including food, beverages, and as much weed as they want, as long as they remain able to trim. There is usually something streaming for diversion, like a long TV show, or podcast, something that just keeps going no matter how long you’re sitting there, trimming away.

Full disclosure: I’ll end up trimming most of this by myself. I’m not complaining. It’s my job.

It’s actually rather zen-like. From years of experience, I have my preferred cultivars to sample while trimming. I enjoy energy, but not too much. I’m there to trim, and as long as I keep trimming, chatting is ok. Not chatting is ok, too. But once the bong comes out, trimming can be quite the communal event. There’s all those fresh buds to choose from.

But even while plants are being harvested, dried and trimmed, plans are beginning to move into place for next year.

New plastic has been purchased to cut out the exact length needed to cover each block of beds. Because as soon as harvest is over, it is immediately time to solarize all the growing mediums.

To that end, in addition to purchasing clear plastic sheets to cover the beds, I have made arrangements with a local butcher to have fish scraps and bits prepared for me in early November, possibly even the last week of October. Before we cover the beds, we’ll bury a lot of fish scraps. There will be plenty of meat on the bones, but I want the bones, too. Those bones ensure that the calcium is strong in every bed.

At my farm, this year’s grow doesn’t end until work for next year’s grow has actually begun. 

Harvest is on.

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