Best ways to dry and cure

I am a few weeks off harvest but I was wondering wot r the best ways to dry and cure it’s my first grow I have read a lot of different stuff online but still a bit confused as to wot is the best way

5 Likes

What i have heard is you dry it in a dark ventilated place until the stems are brittle. After that you stack it into a mason jar or any jar, and make sure there’s not a lot of room left, the less oxygen inside the better, and open it acouple of times a day until there’s no humidity, then seal it to be properly cured.

Never done this myself tho.

6 Likes

I dry in the same area as I grow, so it is well ventilated and humidity controlled. Big advantage is also carbon filter and ventilation system that keeps the smell inside.

I trim wet buds (big discussion of pros and cons of wet and dry trimming is here) and leave them on branches 40 - 50 cm long. The goal is to have them not dry too much quickly. Usually it takes about 7 days till stems are dry enough to break. You can have longer time by cutting longer branches and vice versa.

Then I strip buds from the stems and put them into jars (or plastic tupperware). This is curing phase, again the point is to dry them slow. From the start when they have a lot o humidity inside I vent jars few times every day. At the end it is only once per day. This phase can take another 7-10 days. The slower the better.

There are also some topics in FAQ that you may check:

14 Likes

GrowFAQ has a whole section on harvesting/curing, so I’d recommend giving that a gander.

I do what @MadScientist described :grin: Hang branches from drying lines in a dark room with good indirect air circulation. After a few days to a weekish (depends a lot on bud size, branch size, and relative humidity – I wait until popcorn buds easily snap off the main branch), cut off the buds and put them into mason jars (maybe 75-80% filled). Open jars morning and evening, stick your face in, and enjoy. If buds are clumping/sticking together, pull one out to see if it’s too wet – a hint of damp means leave the jar open for an hour or two, moist means remove the buds from the jar for an hour or two.

I used to put everything in paper bags to dry before jarring, but I had less space and I think it was just the style of the times :slight_smile:

Drying and early curing, weirdly, requires you to pay a lot of attention and then usually do nothing.

10 Likes

This is great, getting high on terpenes only… HAAHAHAHAHA

6 Likes

I live in a very dry climate so I have to do things differently. I usually remove fan leaves and hang without trimming. This will be dry and brittle on the outside within about three or four days. Then i do a dry trim and jar up the bud about 75% full. I place a small hygrometer in the jar and wait a few hours. If the RH reads more than 62%, burp the jars. Repeat burping daily until they hold 62% RH . Then cure for a few weeks at that temperature.

14 Likes

I hang for a week or two until the stem barely snaps. The amount of leaf i leave on depends on how frosty the leaves are and how dry it is environmentally. (I save as many sugary leaves as i can for edibles and hash) Then i manicure the buds and leave in a jar closed overnight. The next day i check humidity by shaking the jar and touching the buds. (checking stickiness) After a few days to a week they are ready to seal and cure. How long of a cure depends on how well i grew the plant. The more feed the plant stored the longer the cure. During the jar dry period if the buds clump together and don’t shake apart, dump the jar out and spread the buds out flat for a few hours to dry. Then try drying in the jar again.

11 Likes

you have to watch out an make sure you dont have to much ventilation as to dry your matierial too quickly when it comes to drying low an slow baby low an slow an dark lol

10 Likes

Slow dry is perhaps the most important thing here.

The amount of time that you will hang them will vary a lot as your ambient humidity.
The trick is, if you have a too dry environment, a good idea is to use a humidifier or leave a bit more of material on the stems.

I used to live in a place where the average humidity was around 80. It was easy to let them slooow dry. I even used a dehumidifier (not heavily) after the second week with fear of mold.

Now where I am right now is a bit on the dry side normally. Last harvest I used a humidifier to control better the drying process.

People love to talk about curing, but it is very difficult to improve a bud that dried too fast and / or too much.
A properly dried bud will be pretty good even before curing, and the cure will just improve it.

Of course, after your slow dry process it is time to cure it, the jars are amazing as many people already mentioned. After the humidity stabilizes at the jar I like the 62% boveda packs a lot too keep the humidity.

7 Likes

Has anyone dried in the grow tent b4? I am thinking of doing this as I am limited for space obviously I woukd keep the carbon filter and fans going but in total darkness wots people’s opinions on this

2 Likes

Sure, it is good idea as long as you don’t need the tent and can afford leave the lamps off in it…

4 Likes

I have dried in grow rooms plenty of times and find it easy. You have total control over everything. A tent should be comparable.

2 Likes

I used rolling closets to dry in for several years. These are great, they are covered to hold in a bit of moisture and keep light out. They are open on the bottom to allow air circulation without having drier areas. On real humid days i could open them a bit to allow more air. A fan moving the outer air was all that was needed, no fan was needed inside the closet. When we needed less closets they broke down easily.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Honey-Can-Do-Garment-Rack-Cover-in-Blue-GAR-02198/204989480

7 Likes

I dry in the grow room because of the controlled conditions and I use the same methods that @LemonadeJoe talked about.
For the new growers: Make sure you’re checking your buds for moisture when you crack the jars, this is the time to do it. If you have trouble with this step after feeling and slowly squeezing the bud, take a bud, smoke it, and see how it burns. You’ll be glad you did. :wink:

5 Likes

I just cut some trial branches off my girls today. I cut off all the leafs that I can reach the stem of and hang them in my grow room until the stems are brittle. Then I cut them off the stem and trim them up. Then drop them in a glass jar with a boveda 58% pack. I still open the jar everyday and shake the buds around for 7-10 days to release the out gassing.

Here’s how they hang till the stem snaps lol.


8 Likes

I dried my last plants in my tent to utilize the carbon filter. But at the time I didn’t have anything switched over into it, so I didn’t need my lights.

2 Likes

Subcool uses, or did use a drying tent for drying his weed all the time. He controlled humidity with a bowl of water and the front flap. Take a look at some of the videos.
I think it’s a great idea as long as your conditions are right.

2 Likes

i’ve heard boveda packs take 48-72 hours to regulate the humidity so they only really work if it’s sealed for a while… that might only apply to using boveda packs to raise humidity though

1 Like

After reading up on how they work, they use osmotic pressure to regulate moisture to which ever level the pack is. So I’d say your right on that one.

I’m doing it easy and simply…
I cutting whole plant and hang up in tent where grows. Drying for a week to 10 days at low temperature and RH about 60%+.
Before dryes completely, I remove buds from stem and put it in the glasses.
I checking jars and ventilation once in a while another two weeks.

Then I hide in cold and the dark for the next month. Best dryes is between two and three month from the harvest.

5 Likes