You could most definitely to help guide someone along the process and make sure you have all the supplies ready for them. You would have to find someone you trust, obviously, so that comes hand in hand with how much you can expect from said person to do the task correctly
You could possibly transition to flush a day sooner and hope for the best then you could make sure nutrients don’t dispense, water level is filled, etc. properly. I’m not sure 100% but, I would imagine you do another drain/fill to give fresh water during flush, so you’d have to show them where the bucket/hose is located to drain your unit, and then fill it with X amount of distilled or RO water… I’m assuming it’s on high level so I think it’s like 2.75 gallons right? Or 2.5? I forget exactly… I really should know this.
Then, youd have instruct them to put on gloves, have scissors and all supplies ready to go, have them cut the plant, ( maybe even instruct them to cut branches off from the bottom instead of the entire plant to make it easier ) Then have them lay them all out on a trash bag or trim tray, etc something like that, instruct them to hang them to the support racks upside down etc… Meanwhile, keep in contact via text/phone, then start the Dry mode on the Grobo phone app once everything was in place? … then it would be a 3-5 day wait after that till the next step… Obviously you’d want them to make sure everything seemed in order before they left the area etc, like the Grobo lights are off, fans are running (I’m assuming the fans run during dry mode), and possibly snap a shot of the humidity and temp inside the Grobo for you?
I’d consider any kind of temperature or humidity changes that might occur if say, you’re not home and you don’t have your heat running/AC running/dehumidifiers/humidifiers, windows open, etc. because they will not know as well what the right thing to do inside your home is to keep the environment the way you want it.
If they’re a good friend they probably won’t mind taking on the task and possibly would enjoy the process too I would imagine?
After a few days, you’d have to have them take the branches down and start bucking the buds off… I think this is the hardest part to be honest depending on their level of weed knowledge. I would be most concerned with lost trim/kief in the process unless you really think of a good way to do this and explain to them the process somehow. I would probably tell said person to remove all big leaves (fan leaves) and then cut the buds at the stem that meets the branch and then pile them all up, etc. I would also advise to tell them to just simply cut the entire cola off at the stem instead of trying to break that down into smaller buds. Make sure they use some kind of tray to be able to save everything… it’s up to you whether you save the leaves but I probably wouldn’t myself, but a pile for all “flowers”, pile for all stems, and have them scrape up all the kief and put that in a jar afterwards.
I wouldn’t tell them to trim anything per-say, and not worry about de-leafing too much of the tiny sugar leaves or anything, that can be done in dry trim state later on, plus, that’s part of your fun, right? Just cut the main bud stem and set it aside… Big fan leaves will be pretty easy to distinguish and that wouldn’t be too hard to explain. .
The only thing that might be tough is burping containers. Some people on the forums suggest doing it daily, some not so much. The internet will give you various advice in this manner… but I think your buds will be just fine regardless. You could possibly have them go and burp the jars every couple of days or even once each week leading up until your return to do the best you can…
If you know this person well enough you could do a facetime or video call and talk them through these steps in real time to reinforce any stuff you talked about previously…
I’m probably forgetting some stuff too.
No, I haven’t harvested my own plant via Grobo yet… but I do work in the medical industry and I take care of everything from harvest to bucking to machine/hand trimming to packaging.
Oh… I forgot about taking the roots out and cleaning the Grobo… this is another really tough aspect that you’re gonna have do your best with. I would probably advise them to please push the main stalk down through the coco, take the roots out, throw in a trash bag or compost it asap. Then maybe do a final drain of the Grobo… This is the part I’m hung up on:
Do you need to clean the Grobo and sterilize before going into Dry Mode??? I really don’t know this one. I mean, they could sop the rest of the water up and it could be dry down there before they hang the plants, but, is there a risk of pathogens? I would think it would be best to at least get the reservoir dry and wipe it down with vinegar then maybe some isopropyl or something because I doubt they will be able to perform a complete clean out, it’s a pretty big task to get that reservior clean.
Also, now I’m wondering… what do people do with their pH probe in that time? It’s bad to let it dry out, isn’t it?