wow- the lack of simple knowledge is astounding, and disturbing. Let me try to help out.
Drying (more properly desiccating) is simply that- removing the water from the herb so that
moisture does not influence the quality of the smoke. A properly dried bud's stem should snap, not bend. Don't listen to fools who advocate leaving your herb wet, as this is both dangerous (despite reassurance of it not being "too wet" for mold, such organisms are opportunists and will readily grow given half a chance,
especially if it remains in a closed airtight jar for ~23 hours and 50min a day as some people advocate) and unscrupulous (sellers who sling wet herb are selling you a short sac + H2O. If the herb you're going to buy is wet, someone who doesn't truly care about the quality of this good plant is putting cash over care and trying to get away with it. By knowingly buying a soaked stash, you are supporting this kind of practice- pass on the stash).
To best
Dry your herb, remove any large fan leaves and uncrystallized portions of the upper, smaller, leaves. Then hang it upside down in a dark place (sunlight will cause THC degradation and also turn your herb yellow/brown) for anywhere from 5-15 days, depending on temp., air circulation, and humidity. Check on it every so often and when the nugs look like something you would want to smoke, break off a small peice and and sample it. If it gets too dry, to the point of crumbling, you can reconstitute it by placing a few nugs in a jar with a few iceberg lettuce leaves for half a day. Any H2O containing vegatative matter (parsley, orange peels, potato chunk etc) will work, but I like to avoid anything that has a distinctive flavor that could be imparted on my herb- I want to taste my hard grown organic love nugs, not some shitty GM, picked-green, citrus peel from half a world away shipped in curtessy of walmart. Lettuce has a high H2O content and has almost no flavor,so is perfect for this.
Curing (or maturing) your finished herb is a art all unto itself. Some previous posters are semi-correct: curing is, in it's most simplest form, a slow extended drying process. However, I can not recommend the "just open your jar for ten minutes a day blah blah blah" kind of stuff. That only results in herb that has hints of ammonia from degradation and a ripe environment for toxic mold if you are not careful.
What Curing actually does is allows the plant, which is still alive after cutting, to gradually use up all the sugars and starches and other nutrients within it's tissues. This is only done when the cut plants are away from sunlight, otherwise photosynthesis will continue to happen,making more sugars, and a harsher smoke. Ideally, you would cure your plants by having sooo many plants that their combinted release of H20 from drying would raise the hummidity enough to prolong the 'dry' for around a month (think of the pictures you may have seen of tobacco shed down in the south where bundles of plants are hung in the open rafters of attics/sheds- temp. and hummididty could be controlled by opening or closing windows/vents as needed to produce a supple leaf that burns clean with little ash and a clean, rich smoke). Unfortunetly, due to the current legal sysem we find ourselves in, this kind of supper curing is alomost impossible to pull off. Instead, you can simmulate the same conditions by placing your herb in a brown
paper bag (never plastic!) somewhere dark and leaving it for ~14-21 days if not longer. The dark stops photosynthesis, and the paper, which is pourous, prevents the hummidity from getting too high causing mold concerns. Check on your herb occasionaly to see how the cure is going and to turn/move the buds, allowing even drying. I've had herb cured this way that stayed in the cure proccess for over a month, and was phenominal, while dried herb from the same plant, ready after only 5 days, was mediocre, producing a harsher, greener tasting smoke.
Remember though, once the herb has throughly dried through, despite using either a dry or cure process, there is virtually no real way to start the cure process again! That is why patience is a virtue! Ofcourse, depending on where you live, such a long curing time may not be practicle (if you live in a desert for exmple). A way to prolong the cure is to double bag the buds- the thicker the paper the slower evaporation will occur.
Hope this has been informative. Remember, never buy wet herb, and never try to sell it either! You are just bringing bad karma on yourself by doing an injustice to this fine plant that we all know and love! Namaste!
