How long after initial dry can you leave big stems?

I just dried some buds for about a week until they are mostly crispy. Before I cut the big stems, I want to suck as much water from those stems through the buds.

How much water is actually left in these bigger stems after drying? My buds are probably a lil drier than most after my dry but the big stems don't seem to snap just yet so I think there must be a decent amount of water in them. Is this accurate thinking?

I'm not a very experienced grower but my aim this grow was just to slow dry over 5-8 days then slow cure, draining the main stems of as much water as possible before cutting those stems and continuing the cure.

I had my buds in paper bags, but they were a feeling a bit too dry for the bags to do a good job curing so I moved my buds to vacuumed plastic bags where 70% of the oxygen was removed. I'm hoping this will leach water from the stems into the bud more effectively.

Any experienced growers have any thoughts on this?

My suggestion is next harvest read up on drying and curing

number one, ^ do that

number 2, you test a smaller stem to see when it snaps, not one the size of your pinky, if you wait till that snaps, your buds will be dust.
when the smaller buds start to feel pretty crunchy on the outside its time to jar. if you let it take long enough to dry, you'll be good, if you dried too fast, you're fucked.

read up, theres a whole forum about it here with some good stickies

lio lacidem said:

My suggestion is next harvest read up on drying and curing

Click to expand...

I know most people cut em off before jarring but I'm just wondering how to maximize the water drainage from those bigger stems without hanging a full plant

Roger A. Shrubber said:

number one, ^ do that

number 2, you test a smaller stem to see when it snaps, not one the size of your pinky, if you wait till that snaps, your buds will be dust.
when the smaller buds start to feel pretty crunchy on the outside its time to jar. if you let it take long enough to dry, you'll be good, if you dried too fast, you're fucked.

read up, theres a whole forum about it here with some good stickies

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I learned from last years mistakes when to jar.

Growing weed is as much of an art as a science ( especially since there is little scientific literature because of it's illegal federal status in America). I'm trying to experiment and find what works for me.

My goal is to leech as much moisture from those thicker (internodal?) stems after completing my dry in hopes of extending my cure and therefore the quality of my weed.

I know most people cut these bigger stems off after drying, but ive found a sloooow dry produces better medicine and it seems like leaching moisture through these bigger stems would allow the buds to continue their boiological interactions a bit longer and thus produce a better smoke.

202buds said:

Thanks, but I learned from last years mistakes when to jar.

Growing weed is as much of an art as a science ( especially since there is little scientific literature because of it's illegal federal status in America). I'm trying to experiment and find what works for me.

My goal is to leech as much moisture from those thicker (internodal?) stems after completing my dry in hopes of extending my cure and therefore the quality of my weed.

I know most people cut these bigger stems off after drying, but ive found a sloooow dry produces better medicine and it seems like leaching moisture through these bigger stems would allow the buds to continue their boiological interactions a bit longer and thus produce a better smoke.

Click to expand...

Im not saying read up because you wanna keep large stems on im saying it because of the whole vac bag step you talked about. Im all for slow drying and slow cure. I grow smaller 1.5-2 oz plants. I cut them down the day after watering, hang plant whole for 72 hours. I then cut into branches and rehang for 48 hrs. Now I trim them and remove stems. Next into paper bags which get opened every 6 hrs for 48hrs. Then I jar them for the first wrek in jars I open 2x a day for 30 min 2nd week I only open once a day for 15 minutes. Then I close jar for another 2 weeks opening every other day for 15 min then its ready