Harvest & Curing Chopping bits off to dry / cure at different times?

[eighthdimension]

Hi

Doing my first ever grow.
Havent smoked a massive amount of weed in my life ha! The odd trip to Amsterdam, then a few bags of whatever you get for £20

Basically, I wouldn't have a clue what's a good strain/weed. Wouldn't have a clue where to get weed from now, hence doing my own grow.

When I did get the smalls bags and smoke some, I found that my panic attacks when going outside weren't so bad. Seemed to help me a bit getting outside, being around other people in social situations.
But then, the next bag I got, well, after smoking it i'd feel utterly bolloxed ha, and would just go to bed.

So anyway, decided to grow Auto Polar Express. Very low odour and I read its a sativia/that other strain mix, so wasn't so much of that 'couch lock'. And also read the longer you leave the buds growing, the more of that 'cant be arsed couch lock' feeling will be in the bud...Which isn't really what I want so much.

Plants are 60 days old, there looks like enough bud on there to last me years ha! And I've been pulling tiny bits off, drying it and well, it seems fine to me. Didn't feel like , hey I wanna jump up n down n run outside, but also didn't feel like , oh I just need to sleeeeep, which was good. I've been doing a grow blog on here with pics every 5 days or so.

Also getting quite panicked about the grow, going away soon at xmas and leaving things to cure without going mouldy.

Ok, much waffle, so onto the question..

Could I hack off large chunks of the plant over different days and start drying them at different stages slightly? I don't want to leave them too late that they start to get that couch lock feeling, and run into problems with me being away.
If the plant is sadly dying anyway as its reaching that stage, would it really really harm much if I took off some now, then some more in 2-3 days?

If you did this over a week/2 weeks, would it not give you some but with more of an uplifting feel, then, the later stuff..for when you just want to sleep and wind down?

I'm not fussed about achieving the maximum growth really. I know many would say, noo don't start chopping, wait etc, but I jus wonder if you damage the other bugs in some way by starting to remove bits on different days?

Thanks for reading all that ha, sorry for the waffle.

 

[farmergreen007]

Yes you can do that, a few days between each cutting and you will notice a difference in the high. For instance this year I grew a bunch of the same strain outside and I chopped them over a two week stretch there is a huge difference from the first plants I pulled to the last I pulled.

As for harming the plant... I don't believe you have a problem there either a lot of people cut the top of the plant and leave the bottom branches to fatten up I have seen it done dozens of times with no problems.

 

[bushdktr]

Agree with @farmergreen007 it helps a lot with the learning curve also, you go tasting and find the exact moment by yourself. I usually start with low pop corn buds that will usually have lower cannabinoid content and gives you an idea of a baseline high LOL

 

[eighthdimension]

Thanks for that, really appreciate it. Just spent a couple of hours pulling the bigger buds off and trimming. Man, those leaves are sticky!!
Says 440 grams on the scales. There's so much left on the plant though, and oh, 2 hours of pulling sticky leaves off,..any more big bits i will keep on for another week maybe, but the rest, i think I'm going to shove the rest in these bubble bags things that arrived today.

Haven't touched the 2nd plant yet.

Tip for anyone doing the same, don't spent 2 hours pulling the leaves off with your fingers, wait a day for your trimmers to arrive from Amazon ha.

Ill take some pics of what I've pulled off and how the plants look on my grow blog thingummy.

Oh I know they reduce a lot in weight with the drying, but can that be right, 440 grams from half a plant? The only time I got little bags it cost of £10 a gram. Its all for my own personal use, so not thinking gosh that's worth a lot, its just really? is that how much you get from a 60 day plant grow?

Have a couple of C-Vault jars, some Kilner jars arrived today, lot of reading to do now on that bubble bag thing and drying/curing.

Really appreciate your help. Never managed to keep so much as a houseplant alive before, so your advice really helps.

 

[BR549]

I got that for a whole plant, but your variety is bigger than the ones I've grown, so it sounds right to me. People say you get about 25% of your wet weight, but for me it's been about 22%. If I go by what the local dispensary charges, I think I need a walk-in safe...

 

[eighthdimension]

 

[Coffee&Kush]

View attachment 510861 View attachment 510862 View attachment 510863

Damn, that's beautiful! Great work!

 

[Crazy]

My evil twin sister says:

Brand new to autoflowers and just topped the two that were yellowing. They had gotten knocked badly a week back so root shock? The others are still full on dark green. Back in the day with out door gardening I had great success (yield) with topping then letting the rest grow for a few weeks more.

You have a very impressive yield, I hope mine turn out even /12 as nice.

What you are doing shouldn't harm the other buds, at least not with photosensitive plants. I'm assuming autoflowers are no different. You can get quite a difference if highs from the same plant with a stretched harvest like that.

 

[Dr. Babnik]

View attachment 510861 View attachment 510862 View attachment 510863

Holy cow!
Great work!