When I look at the buds on the plant, you get all these funky colours and bright greens and orange/red hairs and shiny white crystals .
Then I’l trim wet , ans it looks like a fresh bright neon green Christmas tree .
3-4 days later. The bud is unrecognizable !!!
Looks brown and dead!!!lll
My friend mentioned this was to be expected months before I harvested.
Just wondering what happens, does the flower die and the moisture evaporated, and then dries up.
Wondering what reaction is happening in this process…
And how do i grow and harvest buds that still are bright light green ? Or other bright colours? Lol
All my stuff turned out pretty dark with purple and dark leaves .
Is strains!? Temperature consistency ? Lights?
Thanks .
Hope you all know what I’m talking about .
I have a few really good looking pre dry pics that looks like some triple A l. But dry it looks outdoor!!! Lol
If I took my time with trim it would look a lot nicer , with a manicure. But. I think it’s fine As is. Unless the leaf make it harsh to smoke. I’ll just trim before smoke.
This was a very lazy dry trim I did today for the first time. I think I could do a better manicure.lol but this will e smoked and I want to check these terps people talking about lol
One strain has a very nice smell and distinct .
Appearance shows abundance of trichomes. And taste is negligible lol . Colouration not perfect. 2/4 lol buzz is perfect 3/5 lol
It depends on strain and how you dry/ cure. And also when you harvest. What happens is alot of the sugars break down to make terps we all love and usually the buds don’t stay as vibrant as they were when alive. Unless water cured. Or frozen for concentrate uses. I’ve seen lime green bud that was water cured. And I’ve seen brown buds that was after dry, an cure. Purple tends to stick around if it’s there and most pistils will inevitably turn red/orange. Unless they don’t, and that’s a characteristic of the plant. There’s tons of variables.
I don’t think I can top your original answer intelligence wise, lol. I’m a fairly simple man, but what I can add for @Calix is to focus on temperature and humidity when drying. I try to keep temps at 60f and humidity around 60% and I hang the whole plant. What you want is a longer, cooler drying period, opposed to a quick, hot dry. When you hang the whole plant it allows it to dry slower and gives it more time, instead of individually trimmed branches, which can sometimes dry out in a matter of days. Make sure you don’t let them get too dry before jarring, or the cure will take a lot longer and won’t be as good. After a few harvests you’ll start to dial it in a get a feel for when it’s dry enough to jar and you’ll start to have your own style. A small hygrometer really helps get the humidity right for the cure.
Hope this helps. Like I said I’m a simple man, lol. There was a time when I would measure all the variables and time how long everything would take. Now I just go by feel.
Sometimes I just throw everything out the window and go with my gut instinct. I’ve dried and cured bud in a few different ways like water cured, cob cured, sun dried, even the oven and microwave (long time ago lol, haven’t owned a microwave in almost a decade) but I really want to try the freeze dry cryo cure method.
Anyone ever freeze dry buds? If so, how did it turn out?
My first batch went pretty well , but it’s all been drying individual branches and perhaps too quick a dry at 4 days . The stalks are not fully snap snap so possibly still some moisture to spread .
My temperatures have been around 18-20 and for the RH it’s been floating between 56-61%. With exhaust fan.
I think I left the actual fan in there too long. Which is my 2nd Time in a row doing that! Argh!
I have one more plant to chop , hopefully I can tune up that drying tent .
I dry my plants after stripping everything bit the buds on them for 3 to 5 days, then I trim them and dry another day or so, up until the stem on the bud snaps, and bends. Nothing to crisp. Then I jar in quarts and burp everyday for two to six months depending on impulsive intake lmao. I also use every last bit of trim mixed with popcorn buds for butter, hash, hash oil. Anything really. (Fan leaves are composted) for later integration in gardens.
Good trick i gotta get one of those little meters.
I’ve been trying all sorts of curing tricks the last couple years. For me #1 is you have to dry the plants untrimmed. Just take off fan leaves and hang them. There should be airflow in the drying area, but ideally just a ‘trickle’.
Once they’re dry enough that it will just barely burn in a bowl (still pretty wet maybe like 5 days) i put them in bulk into closed paper lunch bags. They’re perfect because the buds do continue to dry, just way more slowly.
I used to wait until stems snapped before jarring, but thats too dry imo. Now if the tiny stem of a sugar leaf will snap is around what i consider ideal.
I recommend them because they are accurate and they all maintain a reading within 1% of each other. The only downside is the batteries don’t last long because they are active before you get them.
In the past I’ve use the stem snap technique but like you I would use the very small stems as my guide. It worked pretty well.
Just hung it back up. Might try the Paper bag Fromm here’.
My Jared stuff From June 08 that I dried is reading 65 %. That’ is not too bad hey? Should be a little less? I’ve been leaving the lid off about 1/2 the day that’s the majority of my 9lb hammer chop.
Something I’ve done in the past is empty out the jar and just leave it on newspaper for the afternoon. It’s just more work is all. Paper bag is probably a fine idea too but Ive never done it.
Just used the freezer in the kitchen, tried both bagged & unbagged: unbagged worked pretty well, bagged destroyed it & made spinach.
