So I Harvested, Whats The Next Step?

[dwcattempt]

So I Just Harvested, And The Buds have been trimmed up and are hanging from strings in my closet. I have fans circulating the air and it will stay under 80 and humidity is around 45%.How Long Do I Leave them hanging before putting them in mason jars. i am assuming that you let them dry to the touch and then put in jars but i am not sure and this is the 1st harvest. help a brother out

 

[judgewah]

Check out the sticky thread ontop of this forum by the man himself.. Harvest time....... a tutorial explains it all.

Hang till pretty much dry enuff to smoke but stems still a little bendy than jar em up.

 

[Cyproz]

do those have some seeds on them?

 

[KaleoXxX]

congrats on your harvest!

hang dry like 4-7 days and cure in jars for 2-4 weeks burping the jars at least once a day

even if there were seed, you could just grow this weed again right??

 

[Minnestoner]

dont use old spice on them, tastes like shit

 

[KaleoXxX]

ya no old spice, there not old navy sailors and dont need to atract girls

lol good one Tommy Chong id give you 2 reps if i could

 

[chitownsmoking]

nice sativas u wanna dry for about a week then into jars to cure

 

[llLOU]

NORMALLY YOU DRY THEM FOR A WEEK OR TWO, WHEN THE STEMS CRACK WHEN BENT IT IS TIME TO JAR THEM UP. i HAVE FOUND BUDS THAT HAVE BEEN DRYING FOR A MONTH , AND THEY SMOKED UP FINE .

 

[Roseman]

We DRY pot, so we can CURE it.
We CURE pot, to make it taste sweeter, smell sweeter, to avoid bud-mold, to make it more Smokable, to get the chemical and clorophyll taste out, and to increase the potency. A GOOD cure takes 4 weeks, and some conisours (mispelled) cure it up to 6 to 8 weeks.

The idea behind curing was learned from tobacco growers. Curing is a biological process of allowing the SUGARS and STARCHES to change into something MORE pleasant to the taste and smell. Normally the SUGARS and STARCHES taste HARSH and not so pleasant. To grow, Plants need SUGARS that convert into starches from Fertilizers and sunlight. Curing also removes alot of clorophyll or the clorophyll taste that is sort of a grassy leafy medicine chemical taste and leaves a sweet tastey pleasant taste.
Also, we cure pot to avoid MOLD that can come within 30 days AFTER Drying.

We cure pot in jars, in darkness, in a cool place. After being placed in the jar, we store them in a dark cool place, then we re-open the jar once a day, smell it, inspect it, let it breathe for a few seconds and then re-seal it. IF we smell an unpleasant "nose pinching" smell, or see white growth, we need to immedialtey remove it from
the jar and DRY it some more for a few more days.

When you first harvest the buds, save some moist large stems in the refrigarator, in a baggie. If you dry it too much, you can add a small piece of stem back, to remoisten it some.

I have CURED pot one week in jars, and tasted it, and then Cured it 4 weeks and tasted it. If you will try the same experiment, or ask any experienced grower, you'll learn (taste) the difference. It is much more potent, and mush sweeter tasting, and smells much better too.

 

[KaleoXxX]

sweet mother of ganja rose man!

 

[SimplyBaked]

sweet mother of ganja rose man!

You took the word right out of my mouth!

Question rose man: When u have them in the boxes like that drying, do you close the box? or leave it open like it is?

 

[KaleoXxX]

i think its left open for airflow

 

[Roseman]

Many hydro growers drain the tank and fill it with plain water, two days before harvest. Called Flushing. (I quit doing that, I just could not taste any difference. I do not use a nute soup, and I beleive that FLUSHING is necesary in a HYDRO grow, IF you CURe properly) Soil growers also FLUSH before harvesting and should too. YEA, I have 14 books that say you should flush, but I don't.
I cut the longest branches, put them on a NO STICK tin-foiled covered tray, and go to my kitchen table. I try to catch any fallen trichomes on the no-stick tin foil.

I have three boxes, one for the big FAN leaves. (for making oil) one box for the TRIM leaves, the leaves with trichomes on them, that I manicured off the buds, FOR HASH. I've manicure much more since I learned how to make HASH. I want some naked STEM at the end of the buds to fasten my tape to, so I can hang it in the drying box.
AND One Box for the smaller popcorn buds. (small buds with no stems)

I manicure them, and cut the leaves off. I manicure closely. IF you leave those leaves on, by the time the buds are dry, the leaves are crispy and harsh to smoke.
I string masking tape across the top of the box, making rows about 3 or 4 inches a part. I wrap a piece of masking tape, about 4 inches long, around the tip end of the stem, and hang it from the masking tape, in rows, not letting the buds touch each other. VERY IMPORTANT.

I separate the bigger buds from the smaller ones IN DIFFERENT BOXES.
I put the boxes in a dark room, NO DIRECT LIGHT, un-covered, and blow a gentle oscillating fan across the top, but not on them.
The big buds take 7 days, the smaller ones 5 days. Popcron buds take 3 or 4 days. Some take 5 days. I never leave 2 buds on one stem.
If you dry them too much, you can add back moisture. If you do not dry them enough, you get rotten buds and mold.
Dry them til the end of the stem will SNAP when you break it, but not crispy dry.
Again, the big buds take 7 days to dry, under a small fan,the smaller ones take 5 days.
Keep them in the dark with little light to see and inspect.
I never smoke them then, NEVER.
VERY IMPORTANTLY I then CURE them 30 days in wide mouth jars, opening the jar for ten seconds EVERYDAY , for 30 days.
Every day, I sniff them, smell them, for any funky moldy smell. If they do not smell right, then dry them outside the jar another day or two.
I've lost one jar, out of hundreds, the 30th day, after I skipped the 28th and 29th day, it went bad, to Bud MOLD.

I can not emphasis the importance and difference if you properly MANICURE, Dry AND Cure them.
CURING MAKES A BIG MAJOR DIFFERENCE.
DO I HAVE TO Cure 30 days?
Definitely, I do know for sure, I tried smoking buds cured for a only a week, for two weeks, three weeks and 4 weeks. You should try it too, and you will find what I found. Buds cured 4 weeks not only taste better, they burn better and get you higher too. It has something to do with some scientific complicated SUGAR PROCESSING. or the sugars change . I am 100% sure, you will agree, if you test it like I did. CURE FOR 30 DAYS!

DRYING? They say dry them til the stem will snap. Well, I get stems the thickness of fishing line and I get stems the thickness of a pencil, even bigger. That tells me that you can not DRY them ALL the same amount of time. So I sort mine, fatter stems from skinny stems. The skinny ones, I DRY for 5 or 6 days. The fat ones, I DRY for 7 to 8 days. IF YOU OVER DRY, YOU CAN REMOISTEN THEM. IF YOU DO NOT DRY THEM ENOUGH, THEY WILL ROT ! I dry mine in the open air, moving air, moved with an oscillating fan. A gentle breeze, in temps of what central air or central heat gives me, which is around 75 to 78 degrees and humidity of 30% to 40%.
AND YOU MUST DRY AND CURE THEM IN DARKNESS. LIGHT IS THE ENEMY WHEN DRYING AND CURING. I do DRY mine in a room with the shades pulled down, it is not very DARK, but it is not any direct LIGHT, just some leaking light. I read up on Drying and Curing in 4 books I bought, and the above is what they all say.

Save the trim leaves for HASH, you'll be so glad you did.


When I put my buds in Jars, I put them in the jar one bud at a time, feeling it, to see if it is VERY dry, overly dry, or NOT dry enough.

I also save several large pieces of the STEM, for later. I store some freash MOIST stem in the refrigerator, in a baggie. When I check a jar, if I find a VERY dry bud, a bud too crispy and dry, I add a short piece of fresh moist stem to the jar, for a half day, to re-moistion it.


Daily inspecting the jars, opening and smelling them, is of the upmost importantance.




Those pics are a mixture of my 2007 and 2008 crop. The 2007 crop, I did not trim close. I trimmed, but not close. I'd leave a half inch, to keep the scissors from getting glued together and I was just lazy and in a hurry. (it is not smart to hurry) I always got a lot of very dry, too dry, bud leaves, that smoked harsh. More times than not, I threw them away or gave them away.

And then I got a KIEF Box with a screen, to make HASH, and I started trimming much closer. The 2008 pics, I trimmed close and everytime I opend a new jar, I went and trimmed them again, to make MORE hash.

Now I reccommend trimming as much as possible and making hash, I never leave any leaf to go into the jar now. I pluck off what I can not trim off.






Buds without STEMS, I just spread out in a box, NOT LETTING THEM PILE UP OR TOUCH EACH OTHER. I stir them everyday.
Proper Harvest and DRYING and Curing are as IMPORTANT as GROWING.
Attached Thumbnails





Popcorn buds drying:

 

[SOFTWHITE]

Very nice Rose

 

[dwcattempt]

no seeds on them

 

[dwcattempt]

oh your not supposed to use old spice on them. thanks for the tip

 

[dwcattempt]

thanks roseman this helps out alot.

 

[Ganjatopolis]

I was talking to the (bartender?) at Greenhouse at she said that they just take big cardboard boxes and put the whole dry plants in, then trim them before they go for sale. They sit in those boxes for a couple months, though. And a thing I do with mason jars is I put one or two mature, cured buds in each mason jar and it seems to make them cure faster. If you want too try it, go ahead, if not they will still cure. Just don't forget to burp them.

 

[dwcattempt]

i am guessing that burping is opening the jar to let it dry out and putting it back on

 

[Ganjatopolis]

You open the jar for 20 minutes a day to prevent bud rot. Cardboard doesn't need this since the paper soaks up the moisture.