Drying and curing in CO

Whats your process ... In this 30%RH state?

My one buddie says hang whole plant for 3 days.. Trim.. Paper bag closed for 2 days

another says trim....humidifier in dying room timer so it goes on 10 min every 2 hours.. 5 day dry.. Into jars .. Burp every 12 hours for half hour

Trim, hang in racks or on lines till its ready for jars, then air your jars once every couple ays till its done. No need to reinvent the wheel here.

chef c said:

Trim, hang in racks or on lines till its ready for jars, then air your jars once every couple ays till its done. No need to reinvent the wheel here.

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Simple is good. How long do you leave the jars open for when you air them? I've seen the numbers range from 15 minutes to 3 hours,* and would love to hear a Coloradoan weigh in. I'll be harvesting my first plant in a couple weeks, and am starting to newbie-freak about curing properly.

* Surely, the number is affected by ambient conditions, but I'm betting one of these extremes -- if not both -- is bad information.

OK the initial dry is what will really make the difference in how long to "burp". When i first started curing things i was putting them in the jar too wet, and would actually have to take the buds out, put them on a paper plate up to 12 hours.
I have found the perfect dry for my curing process is I let the buds dry until the top cola bud is bending without breaking, but just barely. Much more dry than i ever believed. Then typically all the burping they need is when i open it up to gab a bud or two and close it back up.

Thats the thing.. Sometimes it dries in 2-3 days... Anyone add a humidifier?

As long as you jar it at the right time it should turn out fine. Check the stems every 4-8 hours for dryness I wait till I can hear the fibers breaking when i bend the biggest stem. Practice makes perfect tho. Ive added humidity and saw no difference but I did get a slower dry on racks and ive also been inattentive hoping for a 5 day dry and ended up with shitty over dry crap.

As long as you don't over dry it you can still pull a good cure out of a fast dry.

I have completely changed my set up this last year to exhaust from the rooms into my house, this has helped to keep humidity up in the basement, and has helped to slow drying times, but unless you are really attentive to the humidity levels and getting it set up right trying to use a humidifier is going to fight you more than help. Humidistats are available and with a little diy wiring (and possibly a thermostatically controlled environment) you could make a curing room or box, etc. Cost preventative though unless you have a line voltage heat/cool thermostat and humidistat sitting around waiting to be used. If you are really interested we could look into the theorys and prices.

Jus Naturale said:

Simple is good. How long do you leave the jars open for when you air them? I've seen the numbers range from 15 minutes to 3 hours,* and would love to hear a Coloradoan weigh in. I'll be harvesting my first plant in a couple weeks, and am starting to newbie-freak about curing properly.

* Surely, the number is affected by ambient conditions, but I'm betting one of these extremes -- if not both -- is bad information.

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Dont freak bro you already did great wrk. This is the easy part. Of course there are gonna be guys who wanna make this to hard for,a 'noob' like you, but you know what I say... To hell w that. Like I said before you've done great this far, you will b fine in the next part. Like tru stated, the WORST that can happen is putting em in to early and pulling em back out for an evening. Mine usually 3-4 days in 50ish degree room low humidity. I like this. It makes the 'bud feel' consistent from grow to grow. When they feel hard (what you may think is too dry) they're ready fr the jar. But this is not the end of the drying process. The stems, depending on strain could take another week to give up the ghost. It could take two more days. YOU DECIDE!! And as far as how long to leave em open? I ShAkE eM uP!! Smell em blow all the dank air out maybe touch a bud or two and enjoy my amazingness and put the lid all the way back on until tomorrow or the next day when I repeat the process until I forget to do it, and then I go back and do it again! Have fun with it! You made it! You deserve to, and as far as waiting three months to smoke it? Nope, I start bud testing like four days after they've been jarred up man! How else you gonna kno???? Most important thing, DON'T WORRY ABOUT A THING, CUZ EVERY LIL THING GONNA BE ALRIGHT! -Bob marley I can't stress enough, well done have fun! Smoke it up!

First off, HAPPY 4/20!!! Secondly, if you're heading to the Cup, be safe and have fun; if you're not, still be safe and have fun!

Anyway, thank you all so much for your input, you guys are great! Chef, to hear you describe the process, it sounds like I just get to play with it, which is perfect (I'm imagining myself rolling in a bed of nugs)! Honestly, you guys have taken a lot of the load off of my mind. And it's good to know that I've got a couple more plants a few weeks into flower, so even if I end up with chlorophyll-tasting or dry buds from this plant, I'll be able to dial it in much better next time. After all, the other plants have benefited greatly from my mistakes with the first. I'm beginning to ramble, and y'all have a holiday to get to, so enjoy the day, and THANK YOU ALL AGAIN!

zubey91 said:

Thats the thing.. Sometimes it dries in 2-3 days... Anyone add a humidifier?

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I know I do,I dry in a tent and keep the humidity at 40 percent , early on the humidifier isn't even running and I actually have to exhaust the tent due to excess moisture. I would also put the dehumidifier in the tent but hydrofarm dehumidifiers were engineered by morons and the fan runs all the time. possibly a smaller dehumidifier would work for that.

Those large flat screen TV boxes work great.

Just string them with wire through out the box...great for large colas or cola clumps.

Burp boxes until dry enough for jars. Just folding the box tops in is enough. I use tape

I've tried hang drying and rack drying, but if you don't use a humidifier it dries out way too fast. And I don't like humidifiers during drying.

Slows drying to what I want.. consistent. Not powdery dry on the outside while the stem still bends...uggh..hate that.

So don't pack the boxes...leave enough room for air....and don't let the buds touch.

I went from a hasty 3 day dry to jar, to a week or more.

I also keep temps cool while drying.

Nah im drying and curing right now and I can put them in jars when the outsides get crisp and they will be wet as fresh cut in 12 hours because the inside isn't dry completely I judge by checking stem frequently for that point of dryness that tells me its ready for jars. From that point on you control the amount of moisture by burping or dumping them back out again if need be. If they are turning to dust in 3 days you had other issues. You can dry in a temp controlled room with slight air flow hanging them anyway you want as long as you aim for the right time to put them in jars. How long they dry means nothing as far as i've seen, in fact id say a quicker route to get the buds in the jars sounds much more pleasant than what states with high humidity have to put up with.

I almost have it perfect, i did a med sized test bud.. Dried it in a shoe box for 3 days, the stemis still bendy, the outside of the bud is dry but not crispy, it def hardended up. Just stuck it in a sealed paper bag until tomrrow then in an airtight jar. Im concered that itll be too dry tomorrow. We will see.. If that is the case i will try another one with a glass of water in the drying box