My trkich's won't fall off!

[Trich-Pilot]

The Bubbleman and Youkon Biker dude will probably be the ones to enlighten us as to find a solution to my problem. I started making ice-water extracted hash a few months ago and have had continuing and improving success with the help of your forum. I started out with some comercial 'high-grade' compressed Jamacian seeds and the plants my friend grew here in Costa Rica from them. First batch was ok but green so I abandoned the drill/paint mixer for a wooden spoon and went from 15 minutes to 12 minutes mixing time. I've made some good hash in many colors of beige to brown but none that's bubbled. Mine's dry by morning as I have it on top of the fridge, properly chopped on cardboard,which has a low ceiling over it allowing warm airflow. So my friend got some seeds from Holland and grew a beautiful 5' 6", 90 day wonder (Moby Hash) We trimmed and froze the heavily trich-laden trim and I 'processed' it in the bags and got some beautiful dark brown (semi-transparant) hash although most of the heads were only slightly amber to clear at harvest. I re-freezed the trim and did a rewash and noticed there were still many, many trich's still attached afterward! The first wash only yeilded about 1 1/2 % and the second was pretty green (over thrashed, even with the wooden spoon) with an even lower yeild. I use refrigerated water with ice that I make in bowls in the freezer from fresh well water and break it up into lots of big to small chuncks, and plenty of them, so I know its cold enough (I think). Any suggestions? I guess I could use the trim to make butter with the boiling and cooling method but I'd rather extract those trich's for the bowl. Also, what's the average yeild on say, 200 gr. of fresh-frozen trim of the exotic varieties like the 'Moby hash'? How long does the trim need to be frozen before extraction? Any and all help or advice will be appreciated, Thank you all! T-P

[Bubbleman]

well i can say that 200grams of fresh is not very much trim at all.
maybe 50grams of dry... So you can't really figure out your ratio's accuretly with wet material as so much of the starting material is water/moisture...

200grams of dry material should yield anywhere from 7 to 15 grams of Nice bubble.
But fresh bubble is a whole different story..

You may want to look into a bubblenow, which will mix for you everytime PERFECTLY.

thanks for sharing your story, i hope we can help get to the bottom of it.


Bubble man

[YukonBikerGuy]

1) Refrozen trim
Hmmm, thats the first time I have heard of someone refreezing the trim before the second mix. All that pre mixed trim frozen into clumps just isn't optimum for hashmaking, the trim needs to be all seperate leaves that can rub against each other and the ice to knock off the trichomes. Instead of refreezing the trim, just top up with ice and cold water and mix for the second run immediately.

2) You were not clear about whether you were using frozen dry trim, or frozen fresh trim. Better chances of meltiness from fresh frozen trim in my experience.

3) Some strains will never make melty hash, some strains slightly melty, a few strains will make FMCD bubblehash, it may just be that you have not found that 'gem' yet. When you do, you will hope you have cloned that lady well.

4)Try for an even shorter mixing time on the first run. 'Short' to me is 6 minutes, for some people its 3 minutes. Short mixes have a better chance for meltiness.

5) Usually from trim, the majority of the trich heads are extracted with the ice and water; if you look at the trim after making hash under magnification, you will see that most of what is left is trich stalks, and not the resin laden heads. If you are making hash from bud, (in my experience) there will be much more left in the insides of the buds where the ice-friction does not extract them, and this material can be used in another way like cooking butter, or what have you.

6) Yield varies by strain, ripeness, mixing time, methods and dryness. The best estimate is a 3-10% return from good material. When I run crap material like my veg trim, the returns can be much lower, like .5-3% Crap material rarely bubbles for me, and has never melted.

7) As Bubbleman has pointed out, the Bubblenow machine does perfect mixing, every time. It makes better hash in less time with less effort, in my opinion, its a no brainer.

8) You didnt say if you were using Bubblebags, or a knockoff brand, or how many bags you are using, of what micron sizes. Use the best, get a Bubblebag 8 bag set for maximum resin seperation. You will have a better shot at finding a melty grade of hash the more you seperate the heads by size. In my experience, I have gotten meltiness in the 120µ through the 45µ grades, but usually I find the best hash in the 90µ bag.

9) Personally I find that keeping the trim in a deep freezer for a minimum of 2 weeks before processing it makes for better hash. Don't ask me why it works, just a tip I picked up from a friend that seems to make better hash.

Just a few things off the top of my head for you to think about, hope it helps.

YBG

[Trich-Pilot]

First, Thank both of you guys for your prompt reply and pragmatic advice. The 200gr of FRESH frozen trim was what was left over from the original 300. My friend had to take a few branches off a week earlier due to breakage. The plant yielded 508 grams of well-trimmed FRESH buds. I can vouch for the 'well' part. Very nice smoke and the best hash so far. Another friend ordered the Bubblebags online for me from Canada as we're here in Costa Rica. I have a 5 gallon 5 bag set (220 - 150 - 120 -75 -20 micron) they cost $69.99 + $15 shipping, very nice quality with sizes embroidered on the bags with good draw-strings and retainers, is that you? I didn't really see the package they came in. I would like to fill-in the set with a 90 and 45 mic. bag as it seems these are important sizes. I am going to SoCal in a few weeks and have a friend who grows my medication (purple kush) and I haven't asked him what he does with his trim. If he'll relinquish it, I'll be ordering another set of bags to use there and will for sure get them from you. Do you know of anyone using air or water pressure in the cold water extraction, like jets or streams to gently 'blast' the trichomes off? I've been considering it and have the tools for such tinkering. What is the method used by the "Bubblenow" device that makes it all come out so good? Thank you again for your continuing patience and help.Trichomes are my Spaceship... Trich-Pilot