I left off News Joint Grow Journal 17 with me finishing my time in trim jai. Now, finally, in Grow Journal 18, I cured my plants for the one “money shot” photo I had been waiting months to take.

I enjoy photos of thick trichome drenched buds posted on social media as much as the next cannabis fanatic, but the one photo I could not wait to take was a shot with jars full of buds. Ironically, with my extremely busy schedule during the days of trimming, I forgot to take a good photo once I placed my full harvest inside mason jars. The cover photo was the only one I took. It was taken on the second day, and almost half of my buds had not even been trimmed yet.

ILNJ photo

After trimming, I placed each bud in labeled and dated mason jars to cure. I stuffed the untrimmed Swabi Pakistani 3 in jars to cure for FECO. I opened the mason jars about thirty hours after sealing them, and the Blood Diamond OG and Steve’s Dream Queen already had a candied aroma profile. The Amnesia Lemon and Prayer Pupil shared a candied smell but were not near full potential. I don’t think I properly dried the untrimmed Swabi Pakistani 3, and the SP3 jars contained a strong hay smell.

I burped my jars a couple times a day during the first three days and once a day for the fourth and fifth day. Though I used no measurement, I thought the moisture of the buds were about perfect. After that, I basically left them alone. I’d bought three Integra Boost humidity control packs from Tru Health Care & Wellness in Peoria but never used them.

Could I stay out of the jars of my curing medicine before thirty days passed? Hell, no. I plucked enough buds from each jar and placed them in separate glass containers in my medicine drawer, and smoked them daily. On a side note, I truly enjoyed seeing my homegrown cannabis inside Illinois brand container. It reminds of the money I’m saving.

ILNJ photo

I’m like those kids in that study who ate the one piece of candy as soon as they could instead of receiving more candy if they had held off and ate the first piece later. So I’ll just admit it: I smoked nearly half my Amnesia Lemon before four weeks had passed. I grew these four sativa specifically for work. I had no “Work Sativa,” so I smoked it.

The eventual thirty-plus days of curing did add to the overall flavor and potency. I was pleased with the flavor and potency of the Blood Diamond OG, Steve’s Dream Queen, Amnesia Lemon, and Prayer Pupil.

ILNJ photo: Prayer Pupil

The Blood Diamond OG had been pungent in smell and flavor from day one and kept adding to it each day. It took a couple weeks for the Dream Queen to reach a stronger more divers aroma and flavor, and it keeps adding and changing as the cure continues.

The Amnesia Lemon was more haze than lemon in flavor until after twenty-five days of curing. Then bam! Full lemon flavor for the rest of the cure. The Prayer Pupil took the longest to fully cure and was worth the wait.

ILNJ photo: Blood Diamond OG

I’ll have way more to say about each strain when I write reviews for our Patient Homegrown Review series and discuss aroma, flavor, and effects. Spoiler alert. I’m please with the final product.

What I wasn’t completely happy with was my yield, but for News Joint Grow Journal 2, I know I can add more yield without losing potency. In my 4×4 Gorilla Grow tent and below my NextLight Core LED Grow Light(sponsored by Aroma Grow Store), my five plants yielded a total 318 grams. However, 102 grams of that was from the late herming Swabi Pakistani 3, which I am using for FECO.

ILNJ photo: Dream Queen

The Dream Queen yielded 90 grams, and the Blood Diamond OG yielded 63 grams. The Amnesia Lemon yielded 33 grams, and the Prayer Pupil yielded 30 grams. The later two plants’ low yield was caused by a few mistakes I make with placement in the tent and low stress training during vegetation and flowering stages. Again, I have I list of things I want to improve on during my second grow and can’t wait to get started.

Stay tuned for Grow Journal 19 in which I give my final thoughts on my first attempt at growing my own medicine at home and how it has changed my life.

Click here for earlier entries of News Joint Grow Journal. A Prairie State of Mind.