Hi all I’m close to harvesting one off my girls and was wondering what’s the best method for curing ?
I hang dry for a week in the dark then into zip lock bags that are then kept in a draw in darkness. Bags are opened once a day and buds moved around for the 1st week or 2 then after that continue with same method but once a week instead of daily.
Cheers for the Info Mate when hanging what temp should the room he at ?
Plastic bags exchange gas with the outside world and are not ideal. Glass jars with a rubber seal work better.
Personally, I cut the whole plant and hang upside down until the outside of the buds are crispy but the stalk is still bendy and will not snap when bent. Leaving on the shade leaves slows drying, if you dry too fast you can lock in chlorophyll and curing will not remove the harsh taste.
I then trim and put the buds into kilner jars, or cheaper jars with kilner rubber seals (cheap jars tend to have cheap seals) I then check every day and if the buds seem too wet, I leave the jar open for half an hour then reseal. This stage can take a week, don’t rush it.
At this stage moisture from the stalk is keeping the buds hydrated and the outside of the bud will rehydrate and may become too wet. You are waiting for the point where the bud is the same level of moisture all the way through, and has enough moisture left to continue the biological processes that allow curing, but not enough for mould to grow. Not too wet, not too dry.
When they are not too wet, still moist enough to squish just a little but not getting wetter when the jar is sealed, I leave the jar sealed for a week then check again, using the smell test to check for possible mould. Buds should remain flexible but not wet. Leave in the jars for 4 weeks, checking every now and then.
I like to breath into the jar just before I seal it to replace any moisture lost from opening to check.
After four weeks you should have moist cured buds, not dry harsh buds. Another month will just make them better.
18-22c 55-60% humidity
have a fan blowing air about, it will reduce the chance of mould.
EDIT :
Don’t worry too much about getting these numbers exact (although don’t have the humidity too high), trim when your plants tell you to by the buds being crispy on the outside, soft in the middle.
Like an armadillo
Cheers for the info man think I’m going to try the jar method I’ll post pics of the process once harvest
Same jars we used to extract mate. Jump on eBay and grab a thermo/hygrometer and go for the 22c and 60% that micro doser suggested. Aswell as a full plant hang. Leave the leaves on for a while and it assists with the removal of chlorophyll a touch faster. Once in jars you need to burp them. Someone said growweedeasy fir the cure method. That’s one thing I will take nebula hazes advice on.
Jars are better than bags mate like MicroDoser says. I’m just stating how I dry and cure and it works for me. I have my humidity at around 30 - 50% depending on how my house is at the time. I dont use humidifiers and i dry in my grow tent that sits at around 55f with fans and extractor running. I also wet trim before hanging them in the tent. You will get a million answers with various different and ingenious methods used by others here on OG. You just need to try some and find out what works best for you.
You nailed it right there.
Trial and error.
Or if it doesn’t work try another method;
@kushyhaze @shroomgod that’s the best answer so far. The method will vary greatly depending on your environment.
I live somewhere very damp, if I tried to hang dry the whole plant with the fan leaves attached, I would lose my whole harvest to mold.
In order to get a good, safe harvest, I need to do an immediate trim when I harvest. I trim loosely, but my goal when trimming is to achieve the highest ratio of resin to plant material possible, so any leaf with less than average resin coverage is removed. My other goal is to handle the buds as little as possible, and to disturb the resin as little as possible. With fresh/wet buds (and careful handling) I don’t have to worry as much about losing resin, and there is way less handling overall than methods that involve moving the bud from one container to another, or multiple trims.
After trimming, the buds are placed on a mesh hanging rack in a dark room with good airflow. It usually takes 2-3 weeks for the buds to dry enough to go into jars. I make sure that the buds have enough moisture left to do a controlled burping cure, but not enough that there is even a possibility of mold. This takes practice. I burp my jars for 10 minutes every other day for 2 weeks, and then once a week. Once the jars reach a stable moisture level, smell good, and are hitting smoothly, I switch to burping once a month. I get very strong smelling, sticky, smooth hitting bud.
Overall, I need to be much more cautious to avoid mold in my environment, and rather than trying to slow down the drying process, I have to do everything I can to make sure everything dries evenly and safely.
So, I harvested my bud last week and it literally dried in 2 days. It was in the dark in my garage. I read others posts and they are drying for a week or two. Seems odd. Maybe it’s just the climate in Southern Cali? Anyway, it’s in jars curing now, only gonna open for 15 mins as I fear they will turn to dust if dried much more. I had also harvested some of the bud off some plants that started revegging and this salvaged bud is the only jar that still smells like hay after a week. Does any of this seem strange?
If it gets too dry you can rehydrate it some what with fresh pulled leaves. I will pull a few fans off and stuff em in the jar if it gets too dry. What better to rehydrate weed with?
You could try leaving the fan leaves on while it dries next time to slow down the drying time. My bud would also dry very fast when I trimmed before drying and I’m also in So Cal. I think it’s the high summer temps.
no more than 75 degrees with fan blowing air around in dry room. do not blow air directly on drying buds. you need to look into how much % of humidity you should keep room . do not want them to dry out to quickly.
the longer the dry the better.