Harvest comming up, not sure what to do

[rave420]

Hello,

i need some inspiration. I will have a lovely harvest coming up, 9 plants, grown under 320w CFL and supplemented with one 150 hps during the last 2 weeks.

Either way, most of the plants foilage is gone, so i think i'll do a minor trim job before chopping. After chopping, i think i'll just hang the buds upside down underneath my stairs where my warm water heater is (in the dark).
How long should it take the buds to be ready to go into a jar? Am i looking at 2 days? 7 days?

Also, what is that whole paper bag deal about? I read some people hang their buds like i want to for 4 - 6 days, and then put them in a paper bag for another week. Does it have to be a paper bag? Can i just put them on some newspaper and stash it in my drawer? I think the idea is that the paper bag acts as a desiccant of some sort.

How much weight loss should i be looking at before jaring them?

Some ideas would be nice, maybe you could talk a little about how you handle your small, personal harvest? The buds will have mostly amber trichomes, don't know if that matters. I also read it helps to let the soil dry out completley before chopping, apparently that reduces the moisture inside the plant tissue?


Oh so many questions Maybe someone can shed some light. Check my sig for the grow i am talking about.

 

[Bruce_Lee]

I've heard that you dont want to remove the leaves, leaf 'em on LOL.

You're supposed to let them hang dry with them on. When they get about 3-4 days in (the stem should bend and not break), take the fan & sugar leaves off, and remove the buds from the stems and let dry on a screen / or jar up and burp multiple times (2-3) a day, and less n less.

You dont want the moisture to wick away the terpines and flavines (does spelling count?); which take away the aroma/taste.

I think...

Anyone?

 

[RetroGrow]

You want to remove the leaves. If you allow the leaves to stay on the plant while drying, they will curl up and hug the bud, making it extremely difficult to manicure. Get them off while they are still "standing up".

 

[kash_959]

yea, no leaves when drying. it makes it too hard to take them off when you try to put them in jars...
Let the small buds dry for 3 to 4 days.. the big colas for atleast 7 days, until the stem bends or some people prefer it to snap...
Then, you can cut up the buds off the stem and put them in jars for 3 to 4 weeks... the longer the better. Burp the jars once for 15 minuites daily for a week and then decrease the burping amount

 

[Bruce_Lee]

Some say; leaving the fan leaves on - allows them to fold over the buds. Allows the moisture to evaporate slower. This keeps the resin from evaporating.

BL
.02 cents

 

[rave420]

well, i am two weeks into flushing now, 90% of the plants original foliage wilted and then fell off, here is a picture

I call bullshit on "resin evaporating", sorry mate. While terpenes and phenols (the stuff that gives the herb the aroma and flavor) might evaporate, the resin itself will go nowhere unless moved by a solvent (butane, alcohol)...

The main thing i am concerned about is storage. I still have some 2 1/2 OZ of medical herb around that i payed out of my ass for, and i want to smoke that first. So i need to store the buds, i dont mind curing them for a long time.

As you can see, i dont really have any huge buds or colas, no bud is thicker than a golf ball. So you say i shall pluck the leaves off, and than hang them (under my stairs, with my water heater) for 3 - 4 days and thats it? My RH is around 0 - 15 %, so that should help to speed things along. Would it be smokable after 3 - 4 days?

Cheers, your help is appreciated

 

[kash_959]

0-15% r u serious.. dude that's a bit low lol
in that case, you should leave the leaves off... even though it'll b quit hard to get them off wen they are dry because you don't want to dry that quick and 0-15% will dry it way too quick...
Unless you can get the humidity to 30-40%... with that you can dry a lil longer which will be better coz if you do it too quick, it'll b harsh and not as gud as it can be.. the potency will not be affected tho.
Additionally, if you have all that other stuff to blaze, then why don't you cure this bud for a month atlest.. then you will have sweet juicy dank for when you finish the other one.
The small buds will be dry enough for curing in 3 days, the big colas will be around 7 days. This is at 30-40% hum

 

[Weedman Herb]

I can't believe how many people are still responding to threads with "I've heard" and "some say" ...

I trim mine fairly tight to begin with and hang it until it feels a little crispy (even though buds feel dry to the touch they still contain a fair amount of moisture) and then I go Old School for about 3-5 days in Paper Bags ... then it's into the jars. Jars get burped for 1 hour everyday for 7-10 days and then they are closed for medium to long term storage ... If humidity is low put a bucket of water with the tail of a towel hanging out of the top (to wick the moisture) and train a fan on it. On the weight thing ... You got a good looking first harvest and shouldn't be thinking about what it might weigh ATM ... run around with your arms raised High to celebrate your Thus Far success ... weigh it when it's dry and you will know what you need to when you need to IMHO ... generally weed loses about 80 % of its harvest weight after drying ... depending on how dry you like it (yeah there are different levels of "dry" as a personal preference ... Much about this hobby is subject to change due to personal preference) ...

 

[Agent-Smith]

Weedman is right, wait to worry about the weight when it is dry. I trimthe buds completely of all leaves exceptforsomeofthe close sugar leaves which I still trim short and close to the bud. I then lay them on racks for 6-7 days, then it is cut from the stems and put into jars then burped for 15 minutes a day for 2 weeks. After that, leave the lid on and hold out as long as you can LOL.

 

[RetroGrow]

Some say; leaving the fan leaves on - allows them to fold over the buds. Allows the moisture to evaporate slower. This keeps the resin from evaporating.

BL
.02 cents

Resin does not evaporate.

 

[Mt Toaker]

Curing and why you do it! is something I posted here, all the information here would be very useful to you :smile:

I trimmed mine all the same day I cut them down and then just hung them for about a week, until the stems snapped cleanly. Then I put them in jars and would open for a couple minutes every day or every few days to let the gases exchange out with clean fresh air. I was very pleased with my results. The best I can explain it is the buds almost crumbled but maintained a consistency better than a grinder would, a green sticky pillowey pile of goodness. Quart sized mason jars work great, I left mine pretty much on the stem because I liked the way it looked, though I found that the main stem holds more moisture and actually ended up re-hydrating the bud in a couple jars that were not dried to that clean snap so watch out for that.

 

[jammie]

excellent post on curing mt toker-thanks. i use small scissors to remove the buds from the stems and then place on a creen frame to dry. that way i can inspect each bud for and sign of mold. big colas look nice but i've had a couple plants that harbored mold deep inside and that 10-14 day dry time caused it to spread. keeping them on the stems does slow dry time and make for a slightly smoother smoke but if humidity can be monitored and controlled you can still do a slow dry of individual nuggs.

 

[Bruce_Lee]

terpenes and phenols = those are what I am referring to / my mistake

 

[rave420]

i had a look at the RH again, and inside my room it's 15 %.
Do you guys think that is going to be a problem?
I could put my buds outside to dry? Sheltered from wind and rain of course, outside the RH is MUCH higher (around 40 - 60%).

I bought a 12 pack of 250ml jars. I find these little jars hold up to a 1/2 oz of dried bud.


I have the strange feeling that my bud will be a lot different than the stuff i buy.
The nugs i grew are somewhat fluffier, and more brittle. They are absoloutley coated with trichomes, and if you press on it it sticks together because of it. I actually get sticky fingers just handling it. I can just take a pair of scissors, make one cut and take that chunk and smoke it as it is, because it's so fluffy. It burns clean and smooth, leaving a tiny bit of white ash. A whole bowl turns to a tiny pile of white ash in just one toke, it holds no cherry.
The stuff i buy, is thick and and compact, and seems so... swollen? It is coated in trichomes as well, but i need to break it appart, wich seems to expose a lot of plant matter without trichomes. It is much more compact and heavy, and i can take multiple tokes of one bowl. Also, i never get sticky fingers from handling these super frosty comercial nugs for some reason. If i inspect them with a loupe, i find that there are a lot of trichome glands missing. I guess that is because of shipping/handling/bagging/pocketing/wraping around your basslack/etc. ?

Somehow, i find the qualities of my bud more desirable than the comercial stuff. It seems to burn a helluva lot cleaner, and i seem to smoke more trichomes per part of plant matter.
Finally, i know what it's like to smoke some well grown bud. I guess the comerciall stuff is so chunky, thick and dense because of weight? I can have a dime sized nug that weighs a gram, or i can have a whole pile of my own fuff buds that weigh a gram too, i feel like i get more potent smoke with the fluffy buds.

Can i hear your guys thoughts on that? How would i get my buds to grow that chunky? Or is that rather undesirable?

Yesterday, i chopped 3 plants, hung the buds including stem to dry. I guess i check a coupple times a day, the smaller nugs seem to dry faster. Here is a pic, thanks for your reply guys!

 

[toastfighter2]

Hey rave420, I was just reading your post about how the stuff you grew is better than most of the stuff that you can buy, and there are a couple good reasons for that. 1) Even if you were growing mex brick shwag, it would be better, because you did it yourself, something satisfying about just knowing that. 2) Yours will be fluffier than commercial because of your lights. If you put a bigger hps light in there, they would be tighter, but still the same quality of smoke(but more of it)(oh yeah, stoners like big thick buds, just like sluts love big thick, well you know) 3) You are very correct in saying how it was handled affects what you get. A commercial farmer isn't going to be careful about putting it into jars and bags(bad place to store good smoke btw), and especially isn't going to take care when shipping it out by the pound(and on top of that, one guy might buy a 10lb bail of pot, then break it into 5lb chunks, and before you know it, it has gone through 5 or 6 people(at least) just to make it into that little baggy)

 

[#1cheesebuds]

Hey rave420, I was just reading your post about how the stuff you grew is better than most of the stuff that you can buy, and there are a couple good reasons for that. 1) Even if you were growing mex brick shwag, it would be better, because you did it yourself, something satisfying about just knowing that. 2) Yours will be fluffier than commercial because of your lights. If you put a bigger hps light in there, they would be tighter, but still the same quality of smoke(but more of it)(oh yeah, stoners like big thick buds, just like sluts love big thick, well you know) 3) You are very correct in saying how it was handled affects what you get. A commercial farmer isn't going to be careful about putting it into jars and bags(bad place to store good smoke btw), and especially isn't going to take care when shipping it out by the pound(and on top of that, one guy might buy a 10lb bail of pot, then break it into 5lb chunks, and before you know it, it has gone through 5 or 6 people(at least) just to make it into that little baggy)

hell yah right on brotha. 2ed this.

This is verry true because when I was 15 teen I was growen mex brick all time and it alwase grew way way way better stuff then the lil baggy it came in. and no seeds.

very nice grow dude. cant wate for the smoke report.

 

[toastfighter2]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention(hummm) you did a good job on that shit. You have the green thumb it takes to get it done, so don't be afraid to step it up a notch(ie re-invest in some lights("trade a quart for a light"), and you will have more dank than you can really deal with(at least by yourself)