Drying / Curing Test Before Real Harvest

I have a few questions about the drying / curing process. I took 3 sample nugs from 1 of my 3 plants and decided to figure out what works best before I do a true harvest in a few weeks. The test nugs are 8 weeks 3 days old. The plant is some sort of sativa. I checked the trich's and 85% are milky and 15% are light cloudy/clear. Below is the process I've followed so far, if I've done anything wrong or if you have any advice I'd be grateful to hear it.

Drying:
After cutting and a light manicure I hung the buds in a cardboard box. The top of the box is removed and I cut a square hole in both ends. I put the box in a completely dark area with a humidity of 50%-53% and temperature of 74F-75F. I did not use any sort of fan or air flow. (On my first grow I placed a fan in front of the box and I think it dried them out too fast because the bud never got that weed smell - just smelled like pine?)

I inspected the buds moisture level daily. For the first day and a half they were damp. After 2.5 days the surface of the bud was dry but I can tell if I was to squeeze it the inside would still be damp, but not wet. The stems felt between dry and damp but they did not snap, only bent. I figured this would be a good time to put the buds in a curing jar. I'm going to leave them in the jar over night and then open the jar in the morning while I get ready for work and then close the jar up for the duration of my workday. Then open the jars again when I get home from work etc etc until I am happy.

Questions:
Did I hang dry them long enough? The buds are <= 1g each and I did not want to over dry them. Is 2.5 days enough? When they are still semi-damp should I put them in paper bags for a day or two and then start the cure? What is the purpose of drying in brown paper bags? Is it faster or slower drying then if you were hanging?

Thats all I got, check the pictures. The first picture is of my current SCROG grow the buds came from. Second is the buds.

Sounds like you've done a good job so far....Keep them in the jar opening it daily or twice daily for about 30 minutes each time, do this for another week or so and you should have some great nugs. Most important you want to prevent them from drying to fast, or staying wet in a sealed jar.

Istaysmoking said:

Sounds like you've done a good job so far....Keep them in the jar opening it daily or twice daily for about 30 minutes each time, do this for another week or so and you should have some great nugs. Most important you want to prevent them from drying to fast, or staying wet in a sealed jar.

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So it should be ok if they are damp in the sealed jar, they'll still dry like this? I am not 100% sure on what happens during curing. The air trapped in the jar pulls the moisture out of the bud? Where does it go? On the glass jar walls? Then you open the jar, let new air in and drys them a little more?

Ok so I put the buds in a jar last night, woke up this morning and they seemed fine! Not wet like I was worried about. I let them air out for 30 mins and then closed them back up in the jar for the duration of my work day. Came home from work and opened the jar they seemed ok again. I didn't place them back in the jar, put them in bags for 3 hours and about to stick em back in the jars over night and repeat this process (minus the bag dry) again tommorrow. My goal is to have something smoke-able by friday. I know the curing process takes longer then 3 days though but I dont want that damn grassy taste on friday!!! They have a mix of a grassy and skunky smell right now...so maybe the jars will help a little?

Got home from work today and checked my cure experiment. The buds are a little dryer then yesterday, the stems still bend (will they ever get to a snapping point?). Touching them leaves that nice sweet weed smell on my fingers mmm. I am very happy so far with the outcome. I am pretty sure that by tomorrow they'll be ready for smoking. Maybe not 100% cured but good enough for now

you got it jus keep it all in the jar as u smoking it over a period of days and will keep getting nicer, prob is the last one is always the sweetest and i always kick myself for not leaving it all to get as nice lol we cant have our cake and eat it though

sweetsmoker said:

you got it jus keep it all in the jar as u smoking it over a period of days and will keep getting nicer, prob is the last one is always the sweetest and i always kick myself for not leaving it all to get as nice lol we cant have our cake and eat it though

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lol yeah. I know I thought about just letting them cure for another week after seeing such good results thus far....but I figure I can do that when I do the real harvest haah for now I need some smizoke!

i know that feeling i always give in wit a little bit in the end lol at the mo every time i walk in my room i gotta have wil power, they soooo nearly there

I like to water cure a few so i can stand the wait of the jar cure. They won't look as pretty and will
end up weighing about 10% less than air cure but if your not trying to sell then that's no big.

I think you may have longer than you think before harvest, they don't look anywhere near ready - they look at least a month out.

So I got home today and opened up the jar and the buds felt dry enough to smoke but still need solid 7 days minimum to call it a real cure. Doesn't matter, I weighed out < 1g broke it up a bit and smoked it...and whooa yeah they're good! Taste as I said is a little unfinished but not too bad! I'm pretty happy with this. I am still going to wait another 2 weeks before final harvest but this helped me gauge where I'm at. I'll post pictures of what the buds look like now. I'm gonna try and not smoke 1 of the 3 and keep it curing and I'll post pictures of that when i think its finished curing.

angelsbandit said:

I think you may have longer than you think before harvest, they don't look anywhere near ready - they look at least a month out.

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If you're referring to the first picture you are correct. That is them at like 6 weeks I think. The three little nugs were taken at 8 weeks. I'm going to 10 weeks 11 if I must max.

Has anyone ever tried to dry and cure using a screen? I heard that laying them on a screen for a few days would harden them up. Anyone?

jiggs2269 said:

Has anyone ever tried to dry and cure using a screen? I heard that laying them on a screen for a few days would harden them up. Anyone?

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I've heard of drying with a screen yes, helps the bud dry evenly. But you cannot "cure" with a screen, curing process takes place in an air tight environment, preferably of glass material.

It has been about 6.5 days of curing and I wanted to show some pictures of the bud now. I smoked 1 / 3 buds and it had decent potency but had a little bit of that "home grown" taste after smoking and left a lot of ashes.

The bud that cured for 6.5 days I just took a smoke test and there didn't seem to be such a leftover ash and it definitely smoked smoother and it actually smelled like weed! It was also more potent, im still hizigh ! Curing rocks

added pics of the 2 buds curing for 6.5 days. No pic of the uncured one because well i smoked that too !

To me they still look a little under ready. I was having the same conversation with my buddy today. Him and this other dude always compare grows and it usually comes down to the drying and curing. My buddy just does it way better than the other guy. And sometimes the other guy has a better strain. My buddy cures for about 10 days or so.

My advice is, don't be hasty. Letting your buds cure for at least 2 weeks or more just gets rid of the chlorophyll green grass flavor.

I've done month and longer, fucking awesome results... Flavor is all about the cure.

jiggs2269 said:

To me they still look a little under ready. I was having the same conversation with my buddy today. Him and this other dude always compare grows and it usually comes down to the drying and curing. My buddy just does it way better than the other guy. And sometimes the other guy has a better strain. My buddy cures for about 10 days or so.

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Yeah its only been curing for 6.5 days but so far my tests have shown that even 6 days was better then the uncured stuff in taste/potency. So yeah when I do my real harvest I'm gonna let it cure for 2 weeks before touching and the rest will just keep curing until I get around to smoking it hehe. Curing really is the final touch and done right it will really compliment your grow!

you did everything right other than picking them now, they still have weeks maybe month or more

do you notice how your buds are skinny and thin if you would waited they would have been much more filled in and fatter, at the top of your buds all of those hairs = signs of early harvest, most hairs will recede late and you wont have that sorry i dont want to put you down your buds are nice im just tired of seeing people harvest when things are just about to really get good, you said 8 weeks, i would doubt those plants are 8 weeks, from 12 and 12 or from flower? maybe the amount of light you used but they still needed 2-3 weeks at the VERY very least my opinion id give em 4 for a good flush but hey enjoy

aknight3 said:

do you notice how your buds are skinny and thin if you would waited they would have been much more filled in and fatter, at the top of your buds all of those hairs = signs of early harvest, most hairs will recede late and you wont have that sorry i dont want to put you down your buds are nice im just tired of seeing people harvest when things are just about to really get good, you said 8 weeks, i would doubt those plants are 8 weeks, from 12 and 12 or from flower? maybe the amount of light you used but they still needed 2-3 weeks at the VERY very least my opinion id give em 4 for a good flush but hey enjoy

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The plants in the picture are 6 weeks. At the time of the post they were almost 9 weeks old and they are currently 10 weeks.

jjf1978 said:

If you're referring to the first picture you are correct. That is them at like 6 weeks I think. The three little nugs were taken at 8 weeks. I'm going to 10 weeks 11 if I must max.

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But you're 100% right they are way early. Even at 10 weeks I am thinking they are gonna be another 3-4 weeks because all the trichs are cloudy and hardly any amber. Also tons of new buds are growing and lots of white hairs sticking straight out instead of receding as you stated. Also the bud just doesn't "look" ready. I wanted to take a sample around 8 weeks to see. I'll take another at 10 etc etc...

I'll post some pictures of them at week 10. Thanks for your post and I appreciate the help!

EDIT: Ok I added some pictures. These are from today - week 10 of flower. Look at all the new buds growing out! I couldn't chop them now if I wanted to with all the promising new growth