lusid's Cave of Blunder & Husky Hut

I thought my heater's thermostat was bad because my tents were 87 degrees, so I took it out and the heat rose back up. Then I remembered we're having a mini heatwave and I took all of the ACs out of the windows. It's supposed to be in the 70s for the next bunch of days. I hate growing in the spring and the fall.

I've been in wet trim harvest hell all day. I still have a lot to do, but it felt good to get a chunk of plants out. Too many delays. This was a weird month.

I was 2 cans short of the normal amount of butane that use, (8 for a 1/2p) but I did a run anyway. It didn't look like a whole lot when I put it in the oven, but it turned into a monstrous muffin that hit all 4 walls.

That sucked, but at least I know I can use less butane now. I also think I may need to go back to a smaller column because the yields keep getting bigger.

*edit. I deleted the video from Instagram because my IG page was gone on my computer, and it looked like it was getting killed off. So I deleted the video with my phone. Now the page is back, so I think it was just a glitch.

lusidghost said:

I was 2 cans short of the normal amount of butane that use, (8 for a 1/2p) but I did a run anyway. It didn't look like a whole lot when I put it in the oven, but it turned into a monstrous muffin that hit all 4 walls.

That sucked, but at least I know I can use less butane now. I also think I may need to go back to a smaller column because the yields keep getting bigger.

*edit. I deleted the video from Instagram because my IG page was gone on my computer, and it looked like it was getting killed off. So I deleted the video with my phone. Now the page is back, so I think it was just a glitch.

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I've wanted to learn how to safely do that for years now, but YouTube instructions and flammable gas under pressure didn't seem like a good match. I think I'll start with squishing first since I know how to run a hydraulic press already. Did it take you a long time to get good at making shatter?

FirstCavApache64 said:

I've wanted to learn how to safely do that for years now, but YouTube instructions and flammable gas under pressure didn't seem like a good match. I think I'll start with squishing first since I know how to run a hydraulic press already. Did it take you a long time to get good at making shatter?

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Not really, but making stable candy-like shatter was hit or miss until I figured out that moist material and condensation were to blame for it waxing up into crumble.

I took screen shots of the video.

Brr.

Keeper

The weather is on my side now. Days are staying cool enough, nights are staying warm.

I think I may have screwed up that shatter. I have a piece of hemp string hanging from the door that hooks on the handle, so that the door opens when I release the vacuum. I do this because the metal latch grinds really hard if I open it afterwards, because the door has a thick gasket that pushes outward when there is no vacuum.

It's hard to explain, but anyways, I fucked up and closed the door on the string, which leaked in air and caused the concentrate to sit in a 92 degree oven overnight. I re-vacuumed it when I realized, but now it looks flat and a little darker than normal. I haven't opened up the oven to check it yet. I did turn on the pump which usually causes a little bit of bubbling, but nothing happened. This may have been a massive blunder. Luckily I have plenty of material due to the Amazonian larf jungle from a couple of grows ago. I need to order more butane though.

lusidghost said:

I think I may have screwed up that shatter. I have a piece of hemp string hanging from the door that hooks on the handle, so that the door opens when I release the vacuum. I do this because the metal latch grinds really hard if I open it afterwards, because the door has a thick gasket that pushes outward when there is no vacuum.

It's hard to explain, but anyways, I fucked up and closed the door on the string, which leaked in air and caused the concentrate to sit in a 92 degree oven overnight. I re-vacuumed it when I realized, but now it looks flat and a little darker than normal. I haven't opened up the oven to check it yet. I did turn on the pump which usually causes a little bit of bubbling, but nothing happened. This may have been a massive blunder. Luckily I have plenty of material due to the Amazonian larf jungle from a couple of grows ago. I need to order more butane though.

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Do you recall where you picked up the vacuum oven by chance? It's not on my next purchase list but it's a wish list item for sure. Thanks

FirstCavApache64 said:

Do you recall where you picked up the vacuum oven by chance? It's not on my next purchase list but it's a wish list item for sure. Thanks

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I bought it (Across International AT19) off of Amazon almost 6 years ago for around $1500. But, they screwed up and labeled the 1.9 cu ft model the price of the 0.9 model. I ordered it, but they sent me the 0.9 model. So I complained about false advertising in the reviews and Across International almost immediately contacted me. We worked out a backdoor deal where if I canceled the order and deleted my negative review they would swap the 0.9 for the 1.9.

It was a huge pain in the ass because the delivery truck couldn't get up my road, and then there were shipping errors on my part. Plus it came in a huge wooden crate like a video game drop box. I'm sure my neighbors were wondering what was going on. Whatever though, the headaches were definitely worth the significant amount of money I saved.

Thanks, I knew they would be pricey but hadn't looked at them yet. Going to be hard selling the wife on one as our stove for the kitchen was just 600 bucks.
I really want to get a nug smasher rig so I can make dabs for her. It would limit how much she has to smoke and help her lungs I'm hoping. I've never tried shatter before but I have had live resin and that was really nice.

FirstCavApache64 said:

Thanks, I knew they would be pricey but hadn't looked at them yet. Going to be hard selling the wife on one as our stove for the kitchen was just 600 bucks.
I really want to get a nug smasher rig so I can make dabs for her. It would limit how much she has to smoke and help her lungs I'm hoping. I've never tried shatter before but I have had live resin and that was really nice.

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There's nothing wrong with some tasty rosin. Shatter is a bit out of fashion in the mainstream these days due to live resin and a resurgence in rosin, but I keep trucking along. In 20 years I hope to be seen as the Popcorn Sutton of shatter.

I just got done harvesting my last plant. It was a pain because everything was flopped over after pulling the other plants and taking off the upper scrog net. That net was way too heavy and ended up entangling and dragging my colas down like sailors trapped in a fishing net during a sinking ship. I would have been better off with a bunch of stupid looking yoyos. Lesson learned. I'm going the BK route and using a few layers of regular thin trellis net from here on out.

My next cycle is growing slow because the veg room has been getting cold at night. The room is maxed out electric-wise, and also at the mercy of the weather temperature-wise because it was a converted porch, so I'm trying to figure out a way to help regulate it. I'm thinking of buying another Cloudline fan and keeping the room sealed, venting only when it's necessary. When I seal it up the temp rises, but the humidity gets outrageous. So hopefully automation will be able to balance that.

I've done a ton of upgrading this past year. The year+ before that was all experimentation. Aside from upgrading my lights, I have my system built and I'm sticking with it from here on out. Nothing but fine tuning ahead. No new mediums, no new nutrients, no more pheno hunts. (Well small ones maybe. Come on. So many potential keepers out there.)

I also realized I haven't taken any pictures of my second tent's plants in a long time. I have one plant that is looking funky, but everything else is doing pretty good. It seems like the back plants are the most susceptible to problems. I think their end of the slab is drying faster from gravity and building up salts. Could increase the ml amount to the back rings or add more cycles overall. I'm not sure which would work better. I think cutting several inches off of the slabs would be a good idea too. I'll try that on the next run.

Also that shatter turned out alright. It's a little pliable, but it snaps instead of stretching. It's a far cry from my ideal sandy texture, but it's still in the shatter category. The color would have been lighter hadn't I fucked up, but whatever.

Yesterday was my son's birthday, and because of it I totally forgot to give a second watering to my vegging plants that are still in 4" rockwool cubes. They have been drinking a lot lately and are usually pretty dry by the time I water them after 10 or so hours. I woke up this morning and realized my mishap, and had a vision of walking in and finding the plants all wilted and dead. So I ran in, and they were just chillin, looking happy to be alive. Thank god.

Glad the plants were still good. Hope you guys had a good birthday. We had my daughters birthday last weekend.

I just transplanted all of the clones onto their slabs and then took a bunch of drying bud off of their hangers.

This cycle is looking pretty rough from the cold spell we had before I bought a heater. I think I got everything sorted out, but they are still too dark green. One plant is pretty fucked and the rest have some burnt leaves, but I think the burns have stopped progressing. I don't expect a great harvest, which is okay really. This run was to thin the mother herd more than anything.