Washing your buds at harvest.

Have seen a couple people online doing it in videos. I'm assuming you loose some trichomes. Anyone have info on it. Does the theory hold any water (pun intended). Or is it just a laughable matter haha?

I think it's stupid af. But seen the vids too.
Biggest rationale: wash off powdery mildew. (Cervantes did it.) My criticism is : throw if fucking out man and improve ventilation.

Other reasons: washing off chems. A lot of knuckle heads using tons of foliars and stuff.. I bet the stuff crackles without a wash.

Saw some people soaking and drying.. Even saw one guy take his hose to each bud.. I am gonna assume they are washing of pesticides or such. Lot of outdoor stuff.

I saw a video the guy trims, then puts baking soda in one bucket, lime juice in the second, and water in the third. He said I wash all my veggies why wouldn't I wash off my buds. He said if you haven't done it you owe it to yourself to try it once. I'll try it maybe when I have ten plants but not two on my first grow hahaha!
Bud washing starts at 13:00min. I forget if he says why.
I agree with everything you said. Still curious if it does anything. I don't see how a properly cared for bud needs to be washed. If I grew tomatoes in my house I prolly wouldn't wash them? I don't know lol

I just keep my tents super clean, use filters on all air intakes, no foliar or pesticides during flowering, good personal hygiene and thorough sanitizing of the whole setup between runs. Never had to wash my buds.

I've got large rooms with linoleum floor, quite dirty often, like a greenhouse. I can see my air filters catch some so I know its in the air.
dried peat moss/perlite. I've rinsed my buds and did see debris, I've shaken them before trim too and seen some fall. I shake all of them know, any remaining debris is why my buds might be better than most. I refuse to wash my buds before drying them, FTW

Nope not for my way of thinking. My garden is all organic as with my yard, when I pick a tomato fresh off the vine from my garden I don't wash it because I want the beneficial bacteria that is on it to go into my gut. You have to have bacteria from vegetables its a good thing. When you wash sometimes only the good bacteria dies off and the bad bacteria lives and this is not good. Same thing for antibacterial soaps not good to use.

Had fungus gnats stuck on my buds last run. I filled a small tub with a gallon of distilled water and took whole branches and swished them around in the water for 15 seconds. Gnats washed right off, hung the bud after that. Drying took a little longer, but they all ended up curing and smoking fine. I don't know if I lost any terps or what chems are water soluble, but the THC/trichs do not seem to come off with luke-warm water and the smell didn't go anywhere; no significant change. I've seen outdoor plants get drenched in the rain and turn out just fine.

Edit: after 15 seconds swishing in distilled water, I thouroughly dried each branch with paper towels. And by thouroughly I mean I used an entire roll of paper towels for about a lb.

trichs dont dissolve in water. vigorous shaking will mechanically remove trichomes. if a spot of trichomes lost in a shake or rinse affects your high the weed was ill to begin with. chlorophyll dissolves in water not oil.

PCXV said:

I've seen outdoor plants get drenched in the rain and turn out just fine.

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^^^^^

You can have mold on weed and not really notice it, because it's just on the hairs. It makes them grayish. Then when sprayed off they're back to nice red or orange color. A salad spinner is pretty much required to get most of the water off.

GrnMonStr said:

Nope not for my way of thinking. My garden is all organic as with my yard, when I pick a tomato fresh off the vine from my garden I don't wash it because I want the beneficial bacteria that is on it to go into my gut. You have to have bacteria from vegetables its a good thing. When you wash sometimes only the good bacteria dies off and the bad bacteria lives and this is not good. Same thing for antibacterial soaps not good to use.

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Just FYI antibacterial soap has been proven to be a myth lol. But I agree with the rest... wait I agree with you.. sorry been a long week. Hitting some scotch pretty hard lmao

I have rinsed quite often and quite gently and especially if I got some icky spray on them. I like ambient or cool water, no chemicals or soaps or salt ever. I seldom spray my plants but use Neem and pyrethrin on soil and room as needed.

I just washed my buds, you guys crazy to tell it doesn't work without trying it first. You should see the water after washing couple plants. And I grow organic no till. Never spray anything. The point is, your smoke will be so smooth after you wash your buds with lemon juice and baking soda when harvesting, you will simply never smoke unwashed buds. Try wash half of your harvest and don't another half and try it side-by-side. Simple!

paraordnance said:

I just washed my buds, you guys crazy to tell it doesn't work without trying it first. You should see the water after washing couple plants. And I grow organic no till. Never spray anything. The point is, your smoke will be so smooth after you wash your buds with lemon juice and baking soda when harvesting, you will simply never smoke unwashed buds. Try wash half of your harvest and don't another half and try it side-by-side. Simple!

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Also you should SMELL the water after washing. Pretty heinous. I use carbonated water myself, with no additives. Since THCA is an acid I figure it's good to wash with somewhat acidic water to avoid any reaction, while dissolving anything basic that may be on the weed. Carbonated water is about 4.5, but it completely evaporates, leaving no acid residue that might affect flavor. Plus it's purified water, because the companies use deionized. I think the acidity makes it a better weed cleaner than pure water. Probably mold couldn't grow on the still damp weed because they like neutral pH.

I spin the water off with a salad spinner myself, because I wash after cleaning the buds down. Obviously you couldn't spin whole plants. I also wash and spin the trim. I spin the material once, then spray a little more water on it in the spinner and spin it again. A single spin would leave some of the dirty water on the material. I usually spray rinse it twice after the first wash. Washing without spinning/rinsing means still not completely clean weed.

I guess you wouldn't need to wash the trim if you're going to make bubble hash, because water is involved anyway, but I make dry sift from it, so definitely needs washing or it would have mold spores etc in the dry sift.

I've tried it and I could defiantly see a lil dirt or whatever that came off in the water, didn't effect the smell or high at all.

If rinsing buds was so bad, outdoor growers would panic every time it rains! Again, just search "water cure".

Outdoor grower here, just had to wash half of my one my plants of dirt because my sister was trying to help lol and jet sprayed the dirt; resulting it flying up onto the bud. Drying now, and clean bud it way better than dirt infested bud. Also, I'm with the rain theory, I have had many many storms hit my plants, I shake them off and let them go about hair business. They look amazing to me.

Example;



So I say, wash the bud if necessary

I don't know about washing them. But mine are outdoors and I don't cover them. They have been rained on countless times while in flower. It hasn't hurt them at all. I was considering letting them go another week but the ten day forecast is calling for shit weather for the next week so I really see no point as there will be no sun shine. Letting them go another week isn't gonna be beneficial for them if the growing conditions are not right for peak performance. Looks like they will be getting the axe this evening. Cheers mother fuckers. They are currently soaked right now. One plant is leaning almost all the way over b/c of it's own weight from getting drenched yesterday and last night. It's gonna be a good week.

Illuminati85 said:

I don't know about washing them. But mine are outdoors and I don't cover them. They have been rained on countless times while in flower. It hasn't hurt them at all. I was considering letting them go another week but the ten day forecast is calling for shit weather for the next week so I really see no point as there will be no sun shine. Letting them go another week isn't gonna be beneficial for them if the growing conditions are not right for peak performance. Looks like they will be getting the axe this evening. Cheers mother fuckers. They are currently soaked right now. One plant is leaning almost all the way over b/c of it's own weight from getting drenched yesterday and last night. It's gonna be a good week.

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Rain doesn't affect them much, only if it's causing bud rot or pm. I wash my buds when I have pm, or if they are covered in dirt; with h202 mix and the results were magical

Any other time I wouldn't recommend washingnjsut because it's fine unless you used some kind of toxic shit, which I also wouldn't recommend lol

Shit weather =chop plants is my saying lol if they are close enough

I agree. Mine are ready. 99% of pistils have receded and changed color. Which means it's over for the peak part of the flowering period. Trichome production is the only thing really doing anything right now. I don't want my shit turning into CBN but I am letting them go as long as possible. Hurricane Nate is fucking me up, clouds and rain for the next week according to the weather outlook. Bud rot/PM is exactly what i'm worried about, It's been a long ass six months and I didn't come this far on my first grow to have my Marijuana over took by mold, fuck that. Between stressing about someone seeing them and the rain it's time for them to go and enjoy the fruits of easy labor haha. I think anyone else that would be facing this kind of weather for the next week would do the same thing. 90% humidity outside right now and 81 degrees and cloudy. More rain on the way...

Yeah, harvest my friend. I made the mistake of not doing so and mine were ripped but bad weather was coming ://