Growing Curing vs drying

[carbonhalo]

As I sit here rubbing hash off my fingers I ponder my premature harvest thanks to unseasonal heavy rain starting patches of rot in the heavier colas (colae?) I am reminded of a harvest in the 80s on a very hot day. I placed a few plants sectioned into a cardboard box and left it in unairconditioned house while I did other things for about an hour.
When I returned the top layer looked the same, but the box didn't seem as full.
As I pulled it out for curing storage the bottom 1/2 box had composted down to a thin slime.
I kept it drying in the open air for a day, by which time it was dry enough to smoke.!
It tasted like shit (but still better than rapid dry) but it was some of the strongest weed I'd had at the time. Who would have thought of composting to concentrate the goodies?.

I have wandered somewhat from the topic I started.
After harvest I usually leave the plants hanging in a shed.....cold and just damp enough to slow dry for 2-3 months. I will bring 2 plants at a time into my bedroom to dry for 2 weeks before stripping them and bringing in the next 2.
Stripped buds live for a week in a bowl before bagging (but not sealing the bag for a few more weeks)
I've found these the optimum times to keep the sweetness and flavour.
The last 20 years I've lived in a (usually) very dry area and by the time I've harvested the next crop the last year's is starting to be a little too dry and that wonderful aroma is not as obvious.

Do those timings work in other climates?
Tell me how long you cure vs dry.

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

The way I did it when I grew was to dry them in the open until the thicker stems crack but not break. This usually takes 2 or 3 days. Then I cut the main colas and buds away from the large stems and place them in Ball Jars to cure. I open the Ball Jars once or twice a day to let them dry a bit and close them up again, making sure they aren't moist enough to mold. It takes a few weeks to a month before they start to develop the characteristics of the strain.

This method always produced very good results with bud that has a great smell and flavor and is extremely potent.

 

[carbonhalo]

I assume you mean Bell jars.
Do you vaseline the lip? I assume not

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

I assume you mean Bell jars.
Do you vaseline the lip? I assume not

No, Ball Jar, but you can use whatever brand of canning / Mason Jar you prefer. No Vaseline needed as they have a proper seal and can be used multiple times.



Bell Jar

Ball/Mason Jar

 

[Egzoset]

...dry enough to smoke. ... ...last year's is starting to be a little too dry and that wonderful aroma is not as obvious.

Do those timings work in other climates?

Humidity has a fire-retardant effect in the cigarette/"joint" consumption method IMO, using my form of vaporism it partly defeats it instead and rainy days don't help it. We're "legal" now and submitted to the rules of a captive MONOPOLY market belonging to the SQdC, a "filliale" of the SAQ itself at the service of our provincial alcohol industry. Reminding the reader we lost a most crucial legal cause « Free-the-Beer » in Supreme Court... Our politicians wanted that SQdC contraption to avoid any risk of an appearance reminescent of « banalization », which is a "mission" translating as denial of consumer pulsions, so to speak: e.g. it's invisible, sealed, over-billed/over-taxed (not to mention the water in it is worth 5+ thousand canuck dollars a litre, euh...), in short anything besides « DULL » mari-caca escapes the market this artificial structure was created to tame down. The result being perpetual punishment of collaborating/submitted consumers forced to trust into the « "legal" is "safer" » utopian dogma. The only way to appreciate aroma/taste fully is when TRUST and RESPECT are part of the deal. It turns out with our SQdC i sense even less trust & respect than any of those rare instances before when i didn't call back twice.

At that point i'd settle with freeze-dessicated trichome glands, from true "bio" hopefully. At least it's only vaporisation i manage with anyway, as an ex-smoker i was exposed to side-effects from secondary/tertiary thermal reactions, in short a multitude of contaminants. Some people would be quick to call that progress i guess.

Without a natural right to home-grow the product could as well become a 3-D printed designer-drug, with disposable synthetic support substrate to optimize convective extraction. It would sell a tape with red liberal slogans on it... Etc., etc.

Maybe someday we even get back the characteristic scent of burnt cannabis, available as some e-Liquid. In a decade or two...

P.S.: get a microscope to double your pleasure!! Enjoy.

 

[G_Chem]

So my preferred way to dry and cure…

Trim the sugar/bud leaves but leave the sun leaves while it stands. Take the plant whole out of the soil, roots and all. Wash the dirt off the roots then pat dry with paper towel. Hang upside down in a dry warm place to dry. You know they are ready when you pull a bud back and it snaps off.

This allows the buds to mature a bit longer as the plant dies. The sun leaves are left because they are easy to trim off once dry unlike the sugar leaves.

Next cut the buds and fill mason jars about 3/4 full. The first week open them to air out once a day. Next week do every other day. The following two weeks, 1-2 times a week. A month is the proper cure time but the strains terps become more prominent 2wks in.

-GC

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

this is how you do it:


remove all the fans leaves, while they're still up - then cut your plants from the bottom - the more branches that you leave together, the longer they'll take to dry - so separate the branches - the branches hold a lot of moisture


then hang them upside down from a rope or a clothes rack, depending on how many plants you have

you usually need a dehumidifier and set that at either 45% or 50% (45% is usually the most ideal) and keep it running and keep an eye on the humidity in the drying room and maintain the humdidty to stay between 45% and 50% - also, you want air movement so you'll want a fan in your drying room to help circulate the air - don't aim the fan directly at the plants

they should be nice and dry within 5 to 7 days - and then you trim your buds, and then put the buds in a paper bag to dry a little more as you're trimming them up - they may need an additional day in the paper bags - close the bags and then every few hours, open the paper bags to get a little air movement - and then when they seem perfect to you, jar everything up - they'll also cure up nice in a turkey bag if you trimmed up pounds and dont have enough jars - so it depends on the yield

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

oh - and let me add that you'll really notice a diffence in the high after 2 weeks of curing - i think it's the most ideal at 30 days - but 2 weeks minimum - ive had ppl who cant wait and i tell them to let it finish curing if they can and they always notice a difference from no cure to 2 weeks

 

[carbonhalo]

Wash the dirt off the roots then pat dry with paper towel.

Sounds a bit excessive....I missed a step. I bash as much soil off on the edge of the pot. I hang them roots up whole, so I need two horizontal poles 7 feet off the ground. After the 2 month minimum cure I cut the root ball off so they don't dump dirt in the house. Then hang the 2 drying plants over a cupboard door for 2 weeks before stripping and bringing in the next 2
This year's crop isn't bagged yet... I have a number of big soup bowls full of drying bud on every horizontal plane in my room.(except the bed of course)
I find it easier to get to sleep at the moment with all those terpenes in the air.
The harvest is still damp enough to be impossible to smoke without sucking a lung out of your chest.

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

nobody hangs roots during the drying process....where are you guys getting this stupid idea from?

why would you hang the roots?

 

[G_Chem]

You leave the plant as whole as possible to allow for it to die as slowly as possible. Having experimented for years on this, the longer and more drawn out the drying and curing process the better. I’ve even tried leaving the plant whole and drying in the soil, which is even better but it’s hard to find room for that.

Ya’ll do what you want. Smoke your Schwag

Source: 3rd generation pot grower who’s been growing weed since he was a teenager.

-GC

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

No you don't hang the roots

thats the dumbest thing ive ever heard

 

[G_Chem]

Lol ok Krink, you do you bud. Explain to me why it’s so dumb? Cuz you increase dry time? Patience is a virtue my friend.

-GC

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

ya know what?

you guys think you know more than me on this - you go right the fuck ahead, but i guarantee you don't

should look like that

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

see what im doing there?

drying in my flower room - why? because it already has the perfect conditions with a 4 to 1 negative air pressure with a filter

only thing i need to add is a dehumidifier


not once has one of you even mentioned anything about humidity which is the most important thing during the drying process

 

[G_Chem]

Krink that doesn’t impress me in the slightest. So you’re drying some bud… And that didn’t answer my question at all.

There’s multiple ways to skin a cat. I wouldn’t hold my nose up to your weed, I’m sure it’s great. But there’s good and there’s better.

When I was younger I was (and still am) of a very scientific mind, I wanted to constantly perfect what I was doing. I’ve tried countless experiments from UVB lighting to injecting plants with syringes, you name it and I at least contemplated it.

At least you’re drying with most the plant intact. The main stems still there. That’s the most important part, the roots really aren’t nearly as important.

-GC

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

that's when they're really fresh - same day


im not trying to impress you, but you don't know what you're talking about for once G_Chem - i know you think you know everything, but this time you don't

 

[G_Chem]

Lol it’s funny how weed growers can be about their process, as if to critique is like insulting their child. Once again there’s multiple ways to go about it. You still haven’t answered my question and just keep posting pics of your drying room, which for me is not my grow room.

I’ve got a 2 stage going right now hoping to make it 3 eventually. To use my grow room for drying would hold up the next crop. Not acceptable to me.

When a plant is left as whole as possible it is able to properly mature the buds in a way that chopping them up doesn’t. It takes experience and smoking buds side by side to tell. End of story. Once again ya’ll welcome to dry your weed however you like. Simply saying how I do it.

-GC

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

Lol ok Krink, you do you bud. Explain to me why it’s so dumb? Cuz you increase dry time? Patience is a virtue my friend.

-GC

why is it dumb? is that the question you're asking me?

yes it does increase dry time - big time - also - you got dirt all over your buds now too since the root balls are hanging above


its dumb

 

[Mr. Krinkle]

come back here @G_Chem

im not done fighting with you yet