Colorado Growers Thread

[RockyMountainHi]

I'm playing with the girlz in steel cages approach
.

 

[Eternaldust7]

Any tips on curing here in CO? I've tried a few different things... I've changed it every time i've harvested in fact and I can't find a happy medium. Its either too wet smelling or just crumples into dust. What i've tried - hanging for 3 - 5 days line style then 7 day jar opening the jar for 30 min or so / day. A 3 day paper bag dry and 4 day jar cure (this one ended up crumbly dry... truly a disappointment). I think I've seen a post around here that recommended a 2 or 3 day hang dry and then jar, open every other day for 8 - 12 days. I don't have huge yields, but I want quality stuff out of my own garden, I've done this with the blueberry I have on both methods. Mazar I Sharif on the latter and NYCDxC99WW on the prior.

I'm trying to find a happy medium here and asking for input that wouldn't send me to the store buying a humidifier or humidor. Any advice would be awesome.

 

[Eternaldust7]

I'm playing with the girlz in steel cages approach
.

That picture is great lol. What ever works right?

 

[fishinnutt]

Any tips on curing here in CO? I've tried a few different things... I've changed it every time i've harvested in fact and I can't find a happy medium. Its either too wet smelling or just crumples into dust. What i've tried - hanging for 3 - 5 days line style then 7 day jar opening the jar for 30 min or so / day. A 3 day paper bag dry and 4 day jar cure (this one ended up crumbly dry... truly a disappointment). I think I've seen a post around here that recommended a 2 or 3 day hang dry and then jar, open every other day for 8 - 12 days. I don't have huge yields, but I want quality stuff out of my own garden, I've done this with the blueberry I have on both methods. Mazar I Sharif on the latter and NYCDxC99WW on the prior.

I'm trying to find a happy medium here and asking for input that wouldn't send me to the store buying a humidifier or humidor. Any advice would be awesome.

The key in my opinion is to flirt with disaster (mold) Common dogma says to hang your stash until the stems crack, if you do that here, you get crumbly powder dry stash. I hang till the outside is crispy feeling and the stem still bends 4 - 7 days. I then attempt to slow drying down further by placing everything in a paper bag, I usually have a couple of days in the brown paper bag. At the point they come out of the brown bag they are still internally dangerously moist but, I put them in jars and close up the lids just long enough for the internal moisture to redistribute, I then open the jars back up for as long as it takes for the buds to start feeling crispy externally. At first that lid might come off for many hours, after a week or so of playing it by feel you can then feel more comfortable to burp the jars for five minutes twice a day.

The idea for me is to dry it as slowly as possible without over drying it in the first place. When drying with this method, you can lose everything to mold if you are not careful. This method is more about feel and visual assessment as it is about some arbitrary number of days doing this and that. If you flush your stash good and dry it with some semblance of the techniques above you will have tasty stash that will last for years in a jar and not be crumbly powder. If you have stash now that is too dry, take a fresh leaf off one of your plants and enclose it in the jar with the dry stash, it won't fix any locked in hay flavor but, it will get the moisture level more acceptable in your stash.

 

[orpanic]

I avoid brown paper bags, I think it sucks the moisture out too fast, it acts as a desiccant, IME and you lose terps and flavs...I hang the whole plant usually till lil crisp and keep 'some' moisture in stem to be released while I cure in jars. open a few minutes a day and if they are wet feeling, then I take them out of the jar and lay them out on the table to get air moving around to get the chemical change process to occur, until crisp on the outside, back into jars, repeat till your nugs are fairly dry, furthur cure. Air change is your friend at the beginning of the jar phase, stagnant/non-fresh air = mould, if not dry. see what works for you though.

 

[BudGood]

+1 on that, except I cut the plant into sections, but our drying/curing method is very similar orpanic. I do trim while wet though, seems a lot easier for my liking, as it seems I knock off shitloads of trichs in the dry trims I've done. I do trim mostly over a large sheet of paper, so all is collected, but I'd rather those trichs stay on the buds.

I love these new smilies!

 

[rmccinc719]

the olny thing i do different from these other guy's is i like to put my meds into shoe boxes for a few day's before i put it into jars. i think it brings out the moisture a little slower than jars keeping from getting the buds to wet again to fast. i like to cure for about 3 weeks but i seem to only get 2 weeks max before my patience are banging down my door for meds.

 

[orpanic]

isn't a shoe box the same thing as a brown bag? A desiccant draws moisture out, not sure how that is slower by drawing moisture out than a glass jar. If it works for you, great.

 

[FoCo(No.Co)]

Here's a quick snap of a Trainwreck cut that I picked up at Medicinal Gardens of Fort Collins. Their prices arent as bad as most of the other places up here and they always have a nice selection of meds and clones available. Still, expect to pay $20/g for top shelf and $20 per rooted clone.

PEACE!

 

[MrDank]

for best flavor and smoothest smoke:

Hang the whole plant in a small closet and keep door shut and have NO fans or air circulation. My plants hang for an average of 2 sometimes 3 weeks. When the stems barely start to crack when you bend them, then it's time to trim. Trim leaves off and place everything in a large tub with the large stems still attached. Then I open the tub to let breathe for a minute or two for a a few days. Then i trim every bud off of the branch and place into tupperware for my patients and the rest in mason jars for me

Trimming wet is not ideal IMO because it forces the buds to dry too quickly

 

[elderwise]

Drying in this climate is tricky so I use a multi-step process. I hang my s**t in the open air for about 4 days. Then into paper bags and in the fridge for one to two weeks. The budz are still moist when I put them into tupper ware for 2-4 wks of curing. If they get too dry during curing, I use an apple slice to remoisten them. After curing, they go into tightly sealed jelly jars that are kept refrigerated. This seems to result in sticky yet combustible doob.

 

[cobcoop]

All my shit goes in the microwave, defrost level 3, for 6 minutes.

 

[Bud Spleefman]

All my shit goes in the microwave, defrost level 3, for 6 minutes.

OMG I hope you are joking.

Hand Trimming while wet gave me carpal tunnel so bad I had to have the tendons in my hand surgically repaired. I only hand trim while dry now.... of course if I use the Trim Pro, it has to be wet.

I dry my meds for 3 or 4 days, max. I use a rack I made out of Red Wood with screens that lay flat inside. I bough the screens at the Home Depot, the Red Wood I got at my local lumber yard. I was trying to recreate a Nothern California Red Wood Barn type envronment. Once my buds get crispy, then I bag them in a plastic trash bag for 12 hours, they get moist, I lay them out again, they get crispy, I bag em, they get moist, I lay em out again... until I can leave them in plastic for 12 or more hours and they still break up enough to be smoked in a joint. Then I either freeze, or begin the jar cure, depending on how much meds I have.

I think the guy who said he hangs his plants for 2 or 3 weeks must not be in Colorado, or he lives in the only swamp in the state. I know with the humidity about 20%, you'd have a big pile of dust if you did that.

 

[orpanic]

I think the guy who said he hangs his plants for 2 or 3 weeks must not be in Colorado, or he lives in the only swamp in the state. I know with the humidity about 20%, you'd have a big pile of dust if you did that.

OMG, I hope YOU are joking, a machine trimmer.....

What's wrong with hanging plants for 2-3 weeks, ever heard of a humidifier or a humid closet? The longer, yes longer you 'dry'/hang your herb in a suitable environment will result in the smoothest and tastiest herb ever. "Don't take my word for it!"

 

[Balazar]

I think what most people are saying here is; avoid drying too fast. In this dry environment it can dry too fast causing harsh or bland tasting bud. I think that is why so many CO growers said they used jars. I too use jars and other air tight food safe containers.

 

[Eternaldust7]

Wow, above and beyond the response I expected. That's awesome guys. I appreciate it. I'll be taking the advice of those posts with my next successive harvests until I find my happy medium (without the purchase of the humidifier or humidor). I'll be using the fishinnutt/ FoCo method first. When I get the cash for one of those things, I'll probably end up buying a good(large) humidor from a good cigar shop. Thanks for the huge response on that.

Thought I would share a couple shots of my blueberry (DJ Shorts original blueberry, MDanzig selected females to feminize) with you guys as well. Went 12/12 from seed with this girl, she stands about 2 ft off the net pot. Did a little bit of LST/SCRoG while I still could manage to manipulate the tops.

1st is her next to one of my jars that she'll be going into in several weeks. 2nd is a macro of the resin glands. They all look clear to me still, but with some trichs going brown, I know these are just a week or so behind from going cloudy then another week or 2 to amber.

 

[rudeboy52]

Has anybody grown out the matanuska thunder f**k that has been going around? If so how long did you let her go?

 

[cobcoop]

All my shit goes in the microwave, defrost level 3, for 6 minutes.

OMG I hope you are joking.

What, no roses?

 

[feltonmuggs]

Hey fellow CO growers, check out my grow thread and let me know what ya think!
http://icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=135954&page=3

Good vibes, FM

 

[Kelly.]

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