DRYING AND CURING

[Dr-Greenthumbz]

looking for some good tips on drying and curing.

have been told that 5-7 days hang then, chop the buds to then place them on a well ventilated tray overnight, to then tie them into a bag for the day then onto the tray for the night, and repeat this untill 3 cycles are finnished. is this the best and quickest way?

am looking for speed and quallity in good mix.

any help?

 

[Lean Green]

Ask ten people, you'll get ten answers. When my buds are dry to the touch, I jar them up. A few hours later, they will feel moist again. I then take them out until they are dry to the touch and jar them up again. Repeat until they are at the level of dryness you prefer then you can start the burping process. It's very humid here and this works for me. I used to lose a lot of stuff to mold because I didn't dry out the big colas enough and try to cure them when the middle was to moist. I bet if you try out the search function and you will find plenty on this subject.
One other thing, the general consensus is that slow drying is best. I agree.

 

[Hazy Lady]

It's a little like asking "how long is a piece of string?", In the case of drying/curing there are many variables, size of bud, how much leaf left on etc etc, I'll tell you my way but whichever way you go the most important thing before any drying is to flush the plant's, without a 2/3 week flush all the curing in the world will not make your bud taste good, so, in my case I sever the stalk, remove any fan leaves and hang upside down in my closet that is dark, 68f and has a little fan on the floor and an air-brick high up, the stalks stay in here for around 7 day's, i check each day to make sure it smell's right and no signs of mould and around day 8 when the bud is dry but the stalk just has a little life in it, dry enough to break but not snap with a shower of dust - that's too dry, i start to remove each bud trimming all the bud leaf as i go, all these buds now go into my pickle jar's( if you use pickle jars you'll have to eat the pickles first) now for the next week i open each jar, gently remove each bud and every bud and lay down, i usually do any final trimming at this point and as i finish emptying/trimming each jar i start to replace the buds in the jar's when all the buds are replaced i replace all the li'ds, in all about 30 mins out of the jar each day, a week or so of this and the buds are in perfect condition to be sealed up and only opened every week or so to see how things are going, 2 months in the sealed jars and i rarely find cleaner tasting, smooth smoking flowers.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

chop before lights on cut plant main stem at soil level before plant see light
remove all larger fan leaves any tric covered 1's go in a bowl.
i trim buds so when dry i manicure them, now i place my bud in large brown apper bag no more then half full. after 2-3days flip pile over bottom will feel dry top moist moisture will even out when buds fliped. every day open bag let fresh air in after 4-5 days max i manicure and place in open large ziploc baggie. after few days i seal the baggie 10 days off plant most my strains you wouldnt know they wernt cured unless i told you.

also as mentioned use plain PH'd water last 2-3 wks

 

[Dr-Greenthumbz]

chop before lights on cut plant main stem at soil level before plant see light
remove all larger fan leaves any tric covered 1's go in a bowl.
i trim buds so when dry i manicure them, now i place my bud in large brown apper bag no more then half full. after 2-3days flip pile over bottom will feel dry top moist moisture will even out when buds fliped. every day open bag let fresh air in after 4-5 days max i manicure and place in open large ziploc baggie. after few days i seal the baggie 10 days off plant most my strains you wouldnt know they wernt cured unless i told you.

also as mentioned use plain PH'd water last 2-3 wks

nice one. will do. am 2 weeks away from cutting and have allready started the plain water. just to clarify what is the best ph? 5.7/6.3??

 

[PiffGuru]

ive heard the chop b4 lights on thing many times now... whats the logic behind that?

 

[Weezard]

Need a G. C., free.

Need a G. C., free.

ive heard the chop b4 lights on thing many times now... whats the logic behind that?

It's a holdover from outdoor growing.
UV degrades THC.
Assays proved that potency is highest in the morning and decreases during the day.
So for maximum potency one would harvest at dawn.

It still may apply with non-UV light sources, (like LEDs), because of other variables.
(Transpiration/water content, temperature, starch conversion, heck maybe even phytochrome levels.)

In light of this, I did a harvest of LED grown buds at 0, 6, and 8 hours.
No gotta G. C.* so hadda do a bio-assay.
The results were inconclusive.
(1 hit disqualified the judges)
Anyone here have access to a G. C.?

Weezard
* (Gas Chromatograph)

 

[PiffGuru]

I c.. Ill have to remember that for my next harvest.. So That increase and decrease from Uv only effects the potency when the buds are still on the plant I take it.. Or else it would kinda b pointless.

 

[Maj.PotHead]

nutrients are still in rootzone when lights are off min lights come on nutrients begin being pulled back into plant.

also you'll know when youve flushed enough when you remove a large fan leaf chew stem if its bitter then still needs flush longer. but if it's sweet like water ready for salad then you've flushed enough and can harvest

 

[Dr-Greenthumbz]

SWEET!!!!

SWEET!!!!

thanks for all the replys. it has really helped shape my view of drying and curing. will look forward to the end result even more!

am stoked to hear bout the morning chop thing. was told by a friend that they should give 24 hrs of light before you chop them! would you do that and then give them 12 hrs dark time before harvest???

 

[PiffGuru]

I like that.. Ill have to chew more of my fan leaves stems.. In the past I did that with a bud leaf that had a shitload of trich's on it and the trich's were so rigid that they hurt my tongue.. lol

 

[lysol]

Dry till stems snap, put in jars and try to remember to open everyday for like 15-30 minutes for the first few weeks, wait until its all purrrty, roll that shit, light that shit, smoke that shit

 

[PiffGuru]

I have an issue with the amount of time people say to keep the jars open for... I would think that 10-20 minutes would be good for a full jar, but what about if you have like 1/3 a jar full.. wouldnt it make sense to only have to keep the jar open for a shorter amount of time per day?