Sickmeds William's Wonder: grow journal. review and all things Wiliams Wonder
- Thread starter Jogro
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Jogro
Well-Known Member
I've got Wonder Kush beans, but haven't popped them yet.
I will journal this one when I get to it, but its probably going to be a while before that happens.
SSHZ
How's the smell coming along?
Jogro,
I remember your first grow, but I don't remember you saying that the smell was that bad. You always said tangerine with a bit of skunk. I hope I can keep my grow intact.
BTW. I am just starting a WW grow myself. shall I begin a grow journal?
How's the smell coming along?
Jogro,
I remember your first grow, but I don't remember you saying that the smell was that bad. You always said tangerine with a bit of skunk. I hope I can keep my grow intact.
BTW. I am just starting a WW grow myself. shall I begin a grow journal?
Very smelly, for sure. I've had worse though. Biggest thing w/ these is the smell comes on very early, earlier than most. Exactly 3 weeks left so I expect it to continue to get worse and worse as it finishes. There are hints of "sweetness" in the smell, but it's very "Afghani" to say the least.
Journal away....the more, the merrier.
Journal away....the more, the merrier.
Jogro
Well-Known Member
Haven't grown this yet, so I can't speak from experience, but I've seen a posted journal on this, and it looks like yield is a bit lower than the pure strain. In exchange you supposedly get similar or even slightly higher potency, somewhat less "stoniness", and better scent/flavor.
I've actually grown a separate tester for Sickmeds, which is also a hybrid Williams Wonder x a diesel dominant cross, and its also a heavy yielder, though a longer-finisher. I may post a report on this, we'll see.
I'm pretty sure I mentioned in more than one place, that this should be considered a "high odor" strain.
In terms of the smell quality (rather than intensity) when the buds first started flowering, the scent was of sweet tangerine/citrus. After a few weeks of flowering, the citrus became a little more grapefruit like and was overpowered by a more conventional "weed" type smell. Some people describe this as "skunk", but I don't think that's the most apt description of the buds. The plant does put out a fairly typical skunk scent if the leaves are rubbed during veg, though. In any case, anyone familiar with the scent of cannabis is going to recognize this in short order; it most certainly does NOT smell like a room full of oranges, or anything like that!
After dry and cure, the scent in the jar has a noticeable "floral" quality with a strong classic weed background. One of the other posters described this as "honey skunk", and I think that's reasonable. Dried smell is strong, too; you probably don't want to be walking around with a baggie of this in your pocket!
As an interesting addendum here, I've just cracked open a jar of my original grow with the buds now cured for well over 6 months. In this time, almost all the green color of the buds has cured out, and the buds have taken on a tan color. Correspondingly, the weed ("skunk") portion of the aroma has gone down, and the citrus/tangerine and floral aspects have come out a bit more. So it looks like this is one of those strains that (at least in terms of scent) benefits from prolonged curing. Maybe I'll post another picture on this a bit later.
That's up to you, but I'd love to see it. IMO, the more the merrier.
If you don't want to start your own, or are feeling a bit too lazy for a "full" journal, by all means post it into this thread, or even just post an abbreviated one.
I think your experience correlates pretty well with mine. I think what you're calling "Afghani" is probably exactly what I'm calling "conventional weed" smell, above. As already mentioned, I found the last 2 weeks to be the worst in terms of smell intensity, though that's probably true of most strains.
I made a new one only because my grow also has another strain and I wanted to keep this post just about William's wonder instead of diverting it by adding other strains.
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/741825-wiliams-wonder-spoetnik-1-250w.html
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/741825-wiliams-wonder-spoetnik-1-250w.html
Bear Country
Well-Known Member
JOGRO, Can you post a picture of those cured buds?....I just want to see if its what I remember from back in the day.
Jogro
Well-Known Member
Sure.
Here they are again from earlier in this thread:
If I get a chance, I'll see if I can get a new shot of the now 6+ month old buds up shortly.
Bear Country
Well-Known Member
Those look beautiful!!! So I'm guessing that they have changed color now that they have more then six months on the cure ha? Nice Nice!!
Jogro
Well-Known Member
Thank you.
As promised, here are some new pictures of the buds after roughly 8 months cure time. Again, there has been a tremendous improvement in scent. Almost all of the weed/funk scent has gone away, and now there is just a strong sour citrus/floral scent, kind of like lemon candy.
Now that I'm actually comparing the old vs new images side by side, I see the color change is more subtle than I thought earlier. I do think the green color has mellowed a bit and you can see a little more tan.
Maybe its just me, but does it seem like nobody ever actually CURES buds anymore? I always see these pictures of bright lime green buds everywhere. IMO, truly cured buds should have shades of tan and gold in there, a bit like cured tobacco, for the best flavor and smoothest smoke.
Top two images are in room light; bottom one is with a flash to highlight the trichomes/crystals. If you look closely you can see a few nanas scattered around, but take my word for it, you'd never notice when smoking!
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Jogro
Well-Known Member
Here is a closeup from that last bud shot, just to give some sense of what the trichomes on these 8 month cured Williams Wonder buds look like. The image is just a cropped and enlarged sections from last bud shot, above:
Incidentally, I've just started a new grow report on Chemical Wonder, which is a (so far) unreleased line from Sickmeds consisting of mostly Williams Wonder x Chemdawg genetics. The details are in the report, with the link here:
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/744422-sickmeds-chemical-wonder-grow-report.html
Incidentally, I've just started a new grow report on Chemical Wonder, which is a (so far) unreleased line from Sickmeds consisting of mostly Williams Wonder x Chemdawg genetics. The details are in the report, with the link here:
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/744422-sickmeds-chemical-wonder-grow-report.html
In my 35 years of smoking weed, I've never had anything around long enough for a well done cure. Maybe a few months, but nothing longer than that.
50 days flowering today of my W.W., but having serious dog (pet) issues and haven't done much in the room lately other than water. I'll give an update at some point.
50 days flowering today of my W.W., but having serious dog (pet) issues and haven't done much in the room lately other than water. I'll give an update at some point.
Jogro
Well-Known Member
You've never smoked schwagg in the summertime that was left over from the previous years Mexican harvest?
OK, seriously, I realize I may be a bit of an outlier in terms of this, but I usually won't even test buds until they've cured for at least 4 weeks (after drying).
For what its worth, breeder DJ Short said he won his HT magazine cannabis cup for Blueberry with year old buds that were too late to enter the year before! He's definitely an advocate of the "long cure".
Personally, I don't really think buds improve much or even at all after more than a few months in the jar, though depending on the strain, they can improve in terms of smoothness and taste with a few extra months cure time. Of course they definitely can degrade in terms of reduced potency too, so you still want to keep them dark and cool.
If you've got the patience and want to do the experiment, you could try putting a FEW cured buds into a small (eg baby food) jar and toss them in a sock drawer or something for six months just to see what happens.
So you should really only have two more weeks on these. Other than (maybe) pick off yellowing leaves, I don't really think there is much more to do on these. If you wanted them to go purple, I suppose you could reduce temps now. . .but IMO that's more of a "party stunt" than anything else.
Forget the dog. . .what I want to know is, is your wife denying you "attention"?
colocowboy
Well-Known Member
I think cure is subjective, different strains have different "sweet spots". I notice that chem/og/SD tend to be better tasting with shorter cures. Some Chem phenos are best just dried out and smoked! Just as a for instance.
I think the vast majority falls in the 1 month to 1 year category but after a year the taste and thc degrade substantially IMHO. They convert to cbn and then even a good sativa will put you to bed.
As for the nature of heat, I have had it happen such that I made my self a day sack and carried it in my pocket. To my surprise the turpines were a lot stronger, like the smell and taste were amplified somehow. These instances were while on vacation in hot parts of the country so I was generally sweaty and hot for the duration. Ever have that phenomenon?
I think the vast majority falls in the 1 month to 1 year category but after a year the taste and thc degrade substantially IMHO. They convert to cbn and then even a good sativa will put you to bed.
As for the nature of heat, I have had it happen such that I made my self a day sack and carried it in my pocket. To my surprise the turpines were a lot stronger, like the smell and taste were amplified somehow. These instances were while on vacation in hot parts of the country so I was generally sweaty and hot for the duration. Ever have that phenomenon?
Jogro
Well-Known Member
Absolutely agree with this.
This is subjective, obviously, but in my opinion, nothing is "perfect" with JUST drying. IE, I think you still want SOME curing, otherwise the stuff is just harsh to smoke. But I do think some strains really are best right after drying with only minimal curing time of maybe 2 weeks. If you're VAPING the stuff, rather than smoking it, it may be the case that the best taste is literally right off the plant!
In general, think this depends on not only which stain, but also how its grown, how its dried, and what the exact curing conditions are. I strongly suspect that some terpenes are more volatile than others and just oxidize or just disappear faster. If your particular buds have a lot of skunky, or other unpleasant type compounds in there, it may benefit from having some of those disappear with prolonged curing.
As a counter example, I can tell you that the Green Crack S1 I grew at the same time as the Williams Wonder, stored and cured under nearly identical conditions was NOT improved with 6 months cure time. That one probably peaked after about a month, maybe even a bit less.
I think how the things are stored affects this. If you keep the stuff cool and dry it preserves better. Frozen bud can stay good a while, but even that decays eventually.
Can't be hotter in your pocket than the buds get while being smoked!
I'm sure what you're describing is legit, but I suspect the reason may not be what you think. Stuff in your pocket is subject to friction and pressure and that's probably releasing some of the terpenes and other scent compounds. It may be easier to scent the volatile compounds under differing conditions of humidity. . .that may be at play too.
I think part of the "long cure" jar phenomenon is sort of the same thing too. Just after having sat in an unopened jar for months, a LOT more of the volatile smell compounds have "come loose" into the air of the jar. Its not that the buds themselves are really any better, just that when you finally crack open a long-dormant jar and take a whiff, all of a sudden you're getting a much bigger concentrated burst of smell that you wouldn't have with a "younger" jar.
colocowboy
Well-Known Member
The heat thing wasn't just encapsulated though. For instance I went to Las Vegas for my honeymoon and I had some chem that I had been sitting on (figuratively). I toked it the whole way, I noticed that the flavor and scent became better having left the jar in the car through the heat of the day. It literally got better, more nuanced like the heat baked in some goodness. This was the second time I had noticed a marked improvement like this. I will eventually do some experimentation but there is something to it. As far as quick dry and harsh buds, I have learned to overwater for at least a week before harvest and cut while water logged, in the morning after they have had a chance to pull up some water but before they really get to photosynthesizing. This makes for a little longer dry time but the buds are "soft" on the throat always and are sort of pre cured. Even the green seems to leave faster.
OGEvilgenius
Well-Known Member
I can confirm vaping some stuff tastes better almost straight off the plant. Smoking requires at least a month in the jar to get appropriate levels of smoothness in my experience.
Jogro
Well-Known Member
Well, merely heating the buds a little bit can't possibly ADD anything in there that isn't already there. All it can really do is cause what's already in there to come out. Unless you're talking fairly extreme temperatures, I don't think you're going to get conversion of one compound to another, either.
Speculating, its possible that heating the jar caused water to evaporate from the buds into the air of the jar, concentrating the flavors a bit. I can tell you for sure that a few points difference in humidity will affect both flavor intensity and smokeability.
That's interesting. I know some people do advocate watering prior to harvest; there definitely is a longer dry time necessary after you do that. Personally, I usually do exactly the opposite. I typically try to avoid watering in the day or two prior to harvest to speed drying, with the specific intention of reducing the chance for mold.
I can't say I've ever noticed a difference in smokeability with watered vs non-watered pre harvest, but I've also never really done a side by side comparison to tell. Again, since I pretty much always let buds cure for at least a month before smoking, that may mute any difference.