Harvesting and Drying
Harvesting and drying can be tricky when you are still learning this process. Some growers choose to hang the plants whole while keeping all the leaves on the plant until the plant is dry before they cut off the leaves and manicure the buds. Personally I never agreed with that approach. It is much more difficult to manicure your buds in this manner because of how close you have to get to the buds when the buds are dry and more brittle. When your leaves are dry, when you trim them, you will not get anymore shrinkage from the drying process which makes you have to get closer to the bud and risk more trichome damage and or loss. Manicuring the buds at the time of harvest can be faster and allows the wet pieces of leaves that you left after you made your cuts, to shrink into the bud and have a more naked look without damaging your precious trichomes.
Personally, I like to leave certain bud leaves on the buds to protect the valuable trichomes and it also adds a great look to the buds but people in my market want fully naked buds and I have to please my market. I harvest my plants in easy to manage branches. Harvesting goes a lot faster this way as it is easier to spin the bud with your left hand while you are cutting with your right (if left handed then it’s the opposite). When you have a big branch that contains multiple branches, it is a slower process because the branch is harder to hold and maintain a spin while you are trimming. As Im cutting branches off of my plants, I am putting them into mason jar cardboard boxes to collect them to the harvest room. I always trim all of the big fan leaves off of the branch first and then work my way from bottom to top of the branch. As I’m working, I’m spinning the branch with my left hand. When I’m trimming the special bud leaves, I’m not cutting one leaf at a time. Where ever I can, I cut sections of leaves with a precision pruner that has a spring in it so all you have to do is press it down and it springs back up for you. Certain 3 fingered leaves and greater, need to be cut at the base of the stem so you do not get that stem hanging out of your dry bud making it look like a low end product. You could come back when the bud is dry and look for them to cut off but this will take you more time and it is easy to miss some of them. Not all 3 fingered special bud leaves need to be cut at the base of the stem. You will have to make a judgment call on which leaves need to be cut at the base and which do not. As long as you cannot see the stem, then that will be a good judge of which ones to cut off at the base and which you don’t need to. As I am finishing manicuring branches, I am placing them into another cardboard box but not stacking them too high. I am always careful not to flatten them so they look like perfect buds. Once my stack of manicured branches is getting heavy, I hang them onto coat hangers to dry. I originally took into account when I cut the branches off of the plant, to leave a triangle section so that I can hang the branches to dry without the use of clothespins. On branches where this is not possible, I simply hang the branch by the most bottom bud on that branch. On very small buds, I don’t hang, I just place them into a cardboard box to dry. When I am hanging bigger top buds that contain a lot of water, I don’t allow those buds to touch each other. However, on most of the other branches, I hang them so they are right on top of each other in up to 2 rows on each hanger. Smaller buds dry faster than big tops and as these buds dry they shrink and don’t sit on the branch as much as when you first put them on. I do it this way so that I can try to dry out my buds slower and get a better tasting product. I harvest all the tops of the plants first and then I move on to mids and bottoms. I hang all of the tops together on each coat hanger. When I hang up the coat hangers containing the main tops, I don’t let those touch the other coat hangers but I keep them as close together as I can without them touching. On the coat hangers with the smaller buds, I let the buds touch the next coat hangers slightly so that they will dry slower.
I hang the buds until they are first dry to the touch. That means that when you touch the buds on the hangers, they are dry on the outside but still soak and wet on the inside. You don’t want your buds to take too long to dry and you also don’t want them to dry out in a short time either. The period that I use for how long I want the buds to dry to the point when it is first dry to the touch is 5 days at the earliest and 9 days at the latest. The more times that you harvest, you get a feel for when things well take longer or shorter so you either add a fan when you need to, to make them dry faster if it is taking too long or you stack them closer together and enclose them in a smaller space if they are drying out too fast. I never use dehumidifiers to dry out my buds and would suggest not doing this unless you are pulling over 10 pounds a crop. If you are using a dehumidifier only use it for short periods of time to get things along and then you can use fans. For all periods that you are using fans, only use them if the buds are soak and wet and only for up to 12 hour periods with a 12 hour break in between if you even need to use it again.
Harvesting continued in the next post...
Harvesting and drying can be tricky when you are still learning this process. Some growers choose to hang the plants whole while keeping all the leaves on the plant until the plant is dry before they cut off the leaves and manicure the buds. Personally I never agreed with that approach. It is much more difficult to manicure your buds in this manner because of how close you have to get to the buds when the buds are dry and more brittle. When your leaves are dry, when you trim them, you will not get anymore shrinkage from the drying process which makes you have to get closer to the bud and risk more trichome damage and or loss. Manicuring the buds at the time of harvest can be faster and allows the wet pieces of leaves that you left after you made your cuts, to shrink into the bud and have a more naked look without damaging your precious trichomes.
Personally, I like to leave certain bud leaves on the buds to protect the valuable trichomes and it also adds a great look to the buds but people in my market want fully naked buds and I have to please my market. I harvest my plants in easy to manage branches. Harvesting goes a lot faster this way as it is easier to spin the bud with your left hand while you are cutting with your right (if left handed then it’s the opposite). When you have a big branch that contains multiple branches, it is a slower process because the branch is harder to hold and maintain a spin while you are trimming. As Im cutting branches off of my plants, I am putting them into mason jar cardboard boxes to collect them to the harvest room. I always trim all of the big fan leaves off of the branch first and then work my way from bottom to top of the branch. As I’m working, I’m spinning the branch with my left hand. When I’m trimming the special bud leaves, I’m not cutting one leaf at a time. Where ever I can, I cut sections of leaves with a precision pruner that has a spring in it so all you have to do is press it down and it springs back up for you. Certain 3 fingered leaves and greater, need to be cut at the base of the stem so you do not get that stem hanging out of your dry bud making it look like a low end product. You could come back when the bud is dry and look for them to cut off but this will take you more time and it is easy to miss some of them. Not all 3 fingered special bud leaves need to be cut at the base of the stem. You will have to make a judgment call on which leaves need to be cut at the base and which do not. As long as you cannot see the stem, then that will be a good judge of which ones to cut off at the base and which you don’t need to. As I am finishing manicuring branches, I am placing them into another cardboard box but not stacking them too high. I am always careful not to flatten them so they look like perfect buds. Once my stack of manicured branches is getting heavy, I hang them onto coat hangers to dry. I originally took into account when I cut the branches off of the plant, to leave a triangle section so that I can hang the branches to dry without the use of clothespins. On branches where this is not possible, I simply hang the branch by the most bottom bud on that branch. On very small buds, I don’t hang, I just place them into a cardboard box to dry. When I am hanging bigger top buds that contain a lot of water, I don’t allow those buds to touch each other. However, on most of the other branches, I hang them so they are right on top of each other in up to 2 rows on each hanger. Smaller buds dry faster than big tops and as these buds dry they shrink and don’t sit on the branch as much as when you first put them on. I do it this way so that I can try to dry out my buds slower and get a better tasting product. I harvest all the tops of the plants first and then I move on to mids and bottoms. I hang all of the tops together on each coat hanger. When I hang up the coat hangers containing the main tops, I don’t let those touch the other coat hangers but I keep them as close together as I can without them touching. On the coat hangers with the smaller buds, I let the buds touch the next coat hangers slightly so that they will dry slower.
I hang the buds until they are first dry to the touch. That means that when you touch the buds on the hangers, they are dry on the outside but still soak and wet on the inside. You don’t want your buds to take too long to dry and you also don’t want them to dry out in a short time either. The period that I use for how long I want the buds to dry to the point when it is first dry to the touch is 5 days at the earliest and 9 days at the latest. The more times that you harvest, you get a feel for when things well take longer or shorter so you either add a fan when you need to, to make them dry faster if it is taking too long or you stack them closer together and enclose them in a smaller space if they are drying out too fast. I never use dehumidifiers to dry out my buds and would suggest not doing this unless you are pulling over 10 pounds a crop. If you are using a dehumidifier only use it for short periods of time to get things along and then you can use fans. For all periods that you are using fans, only use them if the buds are soak and wet and only for up to 12 hour periods with a 12 hour break in between if you even need to use it again.
Harvesting continued in the next post...
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