Hello everyone. I understand that hanging your plants after trimming them for the drying process is the best way to do it. However sometimes I end up with smaller buds that don’t have a stem big enough to hang them from. For these I have a soft screen frame that I put them on. Listening to Danny Dankos freeweed podcast he said that this is a bad practice. He said that this can lead to uneven drying within the bud and damage the trichomes one side.Should this be a concern big enough for me that I abandon the screen technique? Any information will be greatly appreciated, thank you.
I really don’t think it’s damaging your buds enough that it’s going to ruin the quality of your smoke, the only other option would be to leave the bud of the bigger stem and hanging, it’ll add a little extra drying time but you won’t have to be worried about flat buds or damaged trichs
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Just personal use ? The buds can dry uneven. But if its for yourself and your small buds you cant fit anywhere than don’t worry about it. Wont affect it enough aslong as your moving it so it doesnt flatten. yes trichomes will be damaged but just be as gentle as possible ! 
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I agree with everyone here. I don’t even use a screen for larf. I just leave it on a tray until dry enough to roll into a joint, then i just dispose of it properly.
I believe the best method for drying is a whole plant hang for two weeks at 60F/60rh. the slower the dry the better the smoke. leave everything on the plant during drying including the leaves and all
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True, temps above 70 degrees give you that grass smell. I highly recommend keeping it around 60 to help deal with fluctuations. My cure room sits around 55. I feel temps are the most important part to retaining quality so don’t overlook it.
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Slow, even drying at low temps and fairly high humidity is the key to a good cure. Keeping the outside of the buds moist as the whole bud dries allows it all to cure well. Once plant material dries it won’t cure any further even if re-moistened.
Lots of ways to do that but as this is an old thread I won’t elaborate unless there is further interest.
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I’m all ears… Uh eyes lol
I was hoping I had a previously saved explanation but it’s old so here’s what I’m doing now that works as good as before.
I trim my plants in parts by taking off the biggest ripe colas first then letting the rest of the plant go for another 10 days or so to let the lower colas ripen up.
I only take as many colas as I can trim up in an hour so they don’t go all limp on me. Starting at the base of each cola I snip out each bud and trim them good so they are a more uniform size. I don’t much like trimming so anything smaller than a dime goes into the oil pile with the sugar trim and popcorn buds. Most of my stuff gets made into cocobudder, oil or hash so nothing goes to waste other than fans and stems.
Then I put the buds into doubled paper bags and keep them down in my cool basement, About 100g of fresh bud in each. Each day for the first few I’ll dump a bag out into a tray and after breaking up clumps gently I’ll let them air for an hour or so then put them back into the bags. After a few days I can do that every two or three days for a week then skip for a few days. If conditions are right it can take 3 weeks before they are dry enough to go into jars for a few weeks burping. It’s usually around 40 - 50F and 60%RH down there but a fridge works too and takes even longer.
Still pretty moist so it’s kinda do the same thing as early drying by dumping them out to bust up clumps and the plastic tobacco cans I use are great for that as they have smooth insides so even if a near full can that is all one big clump just slides right out unlike mason jars where you would have to dig them out. Minimal handling is best.
A slow, even dry and cure is the best way to get smooth, tasty buds. Most of the curing is while they are wet/moist and once dried down but still flexible and not really dry enough to make good burning joints is when I put them in mason jars for long term storage and aging. Freeze them if you want but that will stop the aging and older pot well cured is the best!
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I hang the whole plant for 7 days, then chop the buds off and trim them to my liking, into a brown paper bag for 2 more days, then into the jars, left open on a 12/12 for a few days, then closed off and burped as needed. Never have “Hay” and its always dank. My room is 55% rh and 80*.
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I’ll definitely have to try your method. I can’t get temps below 64°f without it being ice cold outside, so if I can I’ll use a warmer method. Also I’m not able to function in a house that cold. I have no body fat at all. 70°f is ice cold to me. I have to bundle up to keep warm. FML 
Gotta make sure I take care of me too. If I freeze to death in house temps that make my fingers blue I’m pretty sure that’s bad. Drying weed in temps that low might be the standard, but my body demands outside heat like a cold blooded animal. Like a lizard I’ll run into issues if I’m in the cold too long.
I get through it though. Funny enough like plants I’ve learned to adapt. When I’m outside I can concentrate the feeling of my exposed skin to feel the heat from UV light even when it’s cold out.
I did find out that we have a function like photosynthesis where we process sunlight into nutrients. It’s more than just vitamin D3. Apparently we have a response to other forms of light including UV, but what happens is escaping me rn. I just woke up.
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My .01 cuz i ain’t got .02😂 Cut entire plant when 50/50 opaque/clear tricomes, hang for 10 days or until main stem goes from green to light tan/brownish, trim, and put in jars bone dry…best bud Evah. Swampy here too, could nevah hit those temps, a/c set to 74 average relative humidity 62.
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You absolutely HAVE to cure your buds! And I agree with @LabRat except I do hang mine by the bud if it’s small it will still hang over a piece of bailing wire tied somewhere, anyway I let them hang 5 to 7 days I do it by feel so when you squeeze the nugit should feel dry on the outside but you can tell its still moist inside. Then they go 2 jars of which I “burp” twice a day for an hour or so. I do this for 2 to 4 weeks by that time you shouldn’t have to "burp " them anymore. This process is what gives your smoke that great flavor and it’s also still converting THC so it gets stronger as its curing. Grow on! Burnso
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This is very close to my drying method that I got out of cannabis culture 20 years ago. Hang until shade leaves are dry, usually around 4 days for me. Then trim the big shade leaves off and put into paper bag for a week. Then the final step is into the mason jars and sealed into the freezer. As long as there’s no excess moisture your buds are in cure now and will continue to improve in the freezer. On a side note, if the buds weren’t crashed, dried in 4 hours flat, they can be put back into cure. I had some decent buds from https://bcbud.store/. I put them into mason jars with a humidity package and about a month later, they went into cure again.
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