263g- The water cure part 2

Ok, many of you saw my post regarding my little water cure / smoke report. To those of you that took the time to rep me and give positive comments, thank you.Like many of you, I love to learn, to try things for myself even if I don't know what the outcome will be.It makes life interesting.I became very interested in water curing , and after I read Videoman's great how-to on this subject I had decided I must try it.After seeing and smoking the results of the first mini-test, I decided to try it with a whole plant. The plant I used was the smallest little girl of the 8. I harvested her a couple of days short of 8 weeks as she showed ~60% amber trichs.As you can see, I left the buds on the stems to make the water cure easier as you do not want little loose buds floating all over the place.The 263g is with stems , so if I get an oz. after drying and removing stems I will be happy enough.

Ok let's see what's going on here:


First I manicured it like normal, leaving only the sweet leaves covered in crystals.


Then I took a cooler ( no bottom drain unfortunately ) and placed all the buds inside carefully.Remember leaving everything connected to the stems will make this water cure much easier.You can remove stems when it is dry.Then I filled it up most of the way with tap water.I used 2 jugs of water to hold the buds below the waterline.It is very important that you make sure ALL the plant material stays completely submerged to avoid mold.


I just placed the cooler into a corner of the garage.As always, I will empty the water and replace it with fresh water once a day for 6 days.On the 7th day I will empty it out and dry it up.I suggest you gently rotate the buds each time you change the water so that all of the plant material gets evenly cured.




I will update this with some pictures of the drying process I intend on using as well as pics of the finished product .The more I get into this water curing the more I like it.In all honesty I will probably air cure the other 7 plants and will smoke on this one while I wait .However I am officially a fan of the water cure process.If nothing else, it is the perfect way to get some top quality smoke fast while you wait out that air cure time. I am hopeful that I will get a better picture of the effects of water curing by using a large volume of bud instead of a little mini bud.

Yet again I wish I could rep you. is this a fully mature harvest?

looses the point of growing good smoke doin it though

FilthyFletch said:

looses the point of growing good smoke doin it though

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That's kinda a matter of opinion though. If you grow a strain for it's taste then yes, it is a waste of time water curing. If you grow a strain for it's potency, then water curing can be a good alternative because of the decrease in mass and slight increase in potency.

Well, according to the trichs it was fully mature and then some.About 60% amber trichs to 40% cloudy.I harvested 2 days shy of 8 weeks.Nirvana says flowering weeks 8/9.Kind of confusing.I started this plant and another on 12/12 8 days ahead of the other 6 so I could see how they were going to stretch.Of these first 2, I harvested this one yesterday but am giving the other one another day or 2 as the trichs were only about 40% amber on her. I wiill harvest the other 6 plants all at once , in 1 week.

FilthyFletch said:

looses the point of growing good smoke doin it though

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Like I said, at this point I am only water curing about 12% of my total harvest. 7 of my 8 girls will be cured the old fashioned way. The taste suffers, but the green is GOOD.No lie.The minibud I tried got me about as High as the WW and Bullrider I bought from the local dispensary for top dollar.And that was 3 weeks premature.I can smoke this one water cured plant while I wait for the rest and save hundreds of dollars on meds I would be buying while waiting.....

shamegame said:

Like I said, at this point I am only water curing about 12% of my total harvest. 7 of my 8 girls will cured the old fashioned way. The taste suffers, but the green is GOOD.No lie.The minibud I tried got me about as High as the WW and Bullrider I bought from the local dispensary for top dollar.And that was 3 weeks premature.I can smoke this one water cured plant while I wait for the rest and save hundreds of dollars on meds I would be buying while waiting.....

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shame. that grow looks perfect. like u got a top and evry other cut grew almost kina exactly the same. do u have a closeup of the nugs like 2 se the 60% amber. most the pics iv seen of harvest the trics all look amber. not sure about this but I do have pocket micrascope just not sure what the heck im lookn for but I figured the amber color. do u use a micrascope?

Grap_Sknk said:

shame. that grow looks perfect. like u got a top and evry other cut grew almost kina exactly the same. do u have a closeup of the nugs like 2 se the 60% amber. most the pics iv seen of harvest the trics all look amber. not sure about this but I do have pocket micrascope just not sure what the heck im lookn for but I figured the amber color. do u use a micrascope?

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My little Fuji camera dosen't have a macro function,I use the microscope from radio shack, 60-100x magnification it was only 10 bucks-the only downside is to use it properly you have to clip off a sweet leaf tip and look at it on a flat surface.I will try to see if I can get a pic using that or my 15x jewelers loop.

Deciding when to harvest is always a test of patience, especially if you haven't grown that strain before.I am by no means an expert but here is how I do it:

First, it depends on your strain.Is it looking like more of an Indica or Sativa dominance?Often times Sativas will have an extra
2-5 weeks longer flower time than a strong Indica.Indica average is about 8-9 weeks total flowering , Sativas usually take 9-12
weeks.Regardless of what I have in the garden I do not start checking with my microscope until about halfway through week 6.Then I usually start checking every other day when I start my 7th week in flower.The weather is great here and I think it
helps everything finish a little early.I look at hairs, but I know many factors including warm weather can make them change
color WELL before the plant is ready so I don;t put too much weight into that part of it.But usually 50-80% of the hairs will
have turned red or orange when the plant is done.


So at week 7 I check them every day, and when I see that there are virtually no clear trichs, and about 50/50 cloudy/amber
, I usually harvest. Of course definitions of the word "done" vary.More cloudy trichs will give you more of an up high and more amber will give you that couchlock.

But there are other signals the plants will give you on their own.If you dont overfeed and/or flush correctly during flowering you will watch your plants go through that final metamorphasis to it's final stage. Strains vary a little but as a rule you will see the fan leaves yellow all the way up until they are gone.Then the smaller leaves close to the buds will follow suit, and finally there will be literally nothing left but the buds and some very pale green or yellow sweet leaves ( the leaves that grow out of the buds and from their base).

So for a basic set of questions you can ask yourself to help you decide:

1.) Has my plant flowered for or very close to the length of time quoted by
the seedbank?

2.) Are the trichomes the right balance of cloudy/amber for the type of high I
prefer ( check multiple locations on the plant, not just one! )?

3.) Does the plant LOOK done? Has it burned through most of it's leaves ?

4.) Have many or most of the hairs turned color?

5.) Do the buds look finished?Are they fat, and have the calyx (sp?) all
swelled up ? ( takes some time to develop an eye for this )

When the answers to all these questions are " yes " , or very close to yes, it's probably safe to harvest.

I'm tired. Good Luck

Rite on bro thanx..I se now and notice the clear n cloudy trics. skunk is a lookn like 10 weeks

i still dont understand why people whant and Do water cure what a waste!

What can't you understand? It's seems kind of like cooking with a microwave, doesn't taste quite the same, a little different consistancy, but it does the trick and is done in a fraction of the time.
I like my smoke with a good flavor, but if I need to wait two months for that, it would be nice to have a little something to make do in the meantime.

when you say fraction of the time get real. i can cut air dry and smoke within 5 days without swamping the bud and losing the taste!

Well, I'm still a newbie, but from what I've read there's a difference between drying for a few days and truly curing the bud.
I guess you experts will have to fight it out till I catch up.

trailer park guy said:

Well, I'm still a newbie, but from what I've read there's a difference between drying for a few days and truly curing the bud.
I guess you experts will have to fight it out till I catch up.

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Exactly.Not only is it fully cured, but it gets out any bugs that could be hiding in your buds, gets any residue from spraying, gets all the salts and leftover nutes out,chemicals,everything.Air curing won't do that no matter how long you cure.

Nice thread Shamegame. I've been thinking about this for quick curing part of my first batch.
I was thinking a good way to do this would be to use a tupperware like container with plenty of holes drilled into it and then submerging it into the water.
I thought this might just be a little easier to keep it from floating and you can just pull the container out and dump the water.
Probably just one of many ways to do this, but I thought I'ld throw it out there and see what people think.

shamegame said:

Exactly.Not only is it fully cured, but it gets out any bugs that could be hiding in your buds, gets any residue from spraying, gets all the salts and leftover nutes out,chemicals,everything.Air curing won't do that no matter how long you cure.

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maintain low nute and salt levels and flush regulary,

you can use clearX to help release nutes from soil the main problem is most people wont flush and soil get toxic fast!

when i say flush i mean good filtered ph'ed water and 80-90% run off so 3 gallon pot needs 3 gallon flush at least every 2 weeks and 10 days before harvest!

and the real treat is to allow to dry slowly truning these into sugar, when you water cure you have a false feeling of flushed. i am not bashing your method. to each his own!

I have a question on this....Say you're growing something with many-o-chrystals....would water curing wash away most of the chrystals? For instance, White Widow?

BloodShotI'z said:

I have a question on this....Say you're growing something with many-o-chrystals....would water curing wash away most of the chrystals? For instance, White Widow?

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Not unless you are careless. THC is not water soluable. So the crystals will not dissolve, but some might fall off if the bud gets handled a little roughly.

abudsmoker said:

when you say fraction of the time get real. i can cut air dry and smoke within 5 days without swamping the bud and losing the taste!

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id rather smoke water cured weed than non cured just freshly dried weed. you know how that weed youre smoking and how it tastes a little different than the weed you normally smoke. thats not quality weed youre tasting. its chlorophyll. people water cure weed because they would rather taste nothing but rich quality smoke instead of something that tastes like grass.

understanding why people water cure is easy to understand. its for people who want to smoke, get high, and not want to wait for their buds to properly cure.