Gave my plant the chop and finished the trimming with a spin trimmer.

[TechnoMage]

My Hashberry/Lockdown cross after 66 days of flower.


HBL before the chop



Bud shot



Macro shot of the trichs



This is just me getting the bud off the plant



Then I go through and get rid of fan leaves and stems



Now for trimming, the spin trimmer



Top off, looking down at grate



Loaded up. I’m in no rush so I split the batch in two



10-15 cranks and I have trimmed bud. The smaller popcorn bud will trim faster so after the first trim, I’ll sort out the bigger pieces that need more trimming. Then after running all the bud through once, I’ll take the bigger pieces that need a little more trimming and give them a second pass.



Trimming left over in the bottom. I’ll stick them in a zip lock bag and toss in the freezer until the next time I make hash.



Here’s my old flower cab that I’m now using as my drying cab. I just unplugged the light and set the speed dial on the fan to the lowest setting. Gives me good odor control. The drying racks are just some that I made out of ½” PVC and some metal cloth.



Spread out on the rack with a cheap hygrometer I picked up on eBay. I’ll go from rack to paper bag to jar using the hygrometer to monitor the moisture level.

 

[lietuvonis]

keep them pictrues coming until you hit the bong

 

[StealthySteve]

haha cool.. nice little plant man how long did you veg it for? good stuff they look nice enough to eat

 

[TechnoMage]

keep them pictrues coming until you hit the bong

That I will.

haha cool.. nice little plant man how long did you veg it for? good stuff they look nice enough to eat

Vegged for 39 days under CFL.

 

[TechnoMage]

Some very boring pictures.


Cabinet read as 37% with nothing in it, 41% after I loaded the rack up last night and was at 56% when I opened the doors tonight. Buds aren't super large so I'm going to slow things down now a little bit.



Dropped the bud in a brown paper grocery bag. Climbed to 59%.


Fold the bag over once and clip it. I checked the humidity again after 10 minutes and it had climbed to 72% I'll check it again tomorrow night. If it's below 70% I'll just mix the bud around a little bit and then seal it back up. If it's over 70% then I'll leave the bag open for a night. I'll keep doing this until I hit 60%. After that I'll move to a jar. I'll keep checking the humidity and "burping" the jar until I get it down to 58%. Then I'll vacuum seal it after a smoke test.

 

[lietuvonis]

for how long you where keeping them in drying rack before putting them into paper bag?im about harvest first crop litle bit confused wich method to use etc..

 

[Nizza]

vacuum sealing will stop the curing process it needs the air elements to further break down.. im pretty sure you only vacuum seal if you plan to freeze your bud, and if you do be careful knocking buds around frozen as theyre brittle and the trichs will fly off. but as i said you shouldnt vacuum just get to the right humidity with your hygro and leave it shut for a month, then you can vacuum seal it.

 

[TechnoMage]

for how long you where keeping them in drying rack before putting them into paper bag?im about harvest first crop litle bit confused wich method to use etc..

So I only had the bud on a drying rack for a day before putting them into the paper bag because I wanted to make sure they don't dry out too fast. I know some people who do all their drying in a paper bag but I think you're running too much of a risk for mold. If you dry them out too much however, you kill any chance of a curing later on.

vacuum sealing will stop the curing process it needs the air elements to further break down.. im pretty sure you only vacuum seal if you plan to freeze your bud, and if you do be careful knocking buds around frozen as theyre brittle and the trichs will fly off. but as i said you shouldnt vacuum just get to the right humidity with your hygro and leave it shut for a month, then you can vacuum seal it.

I should have been more accurate. You're correct that I'll let them just sit in the jars for a while before vacuum sealing. I can assure you however that vacuum sealing does not stop the curing process. If you check out the smoke report in my sig, I ran an experiment where I vacuum sealed four jars at the same time and then popped one every 6 months for two years. There was definitely a difference between the jar sealed for 6 months and the one sealed for 24. I've got one jar that's been sealed for 3.5 years that I'll open on it's 5 year anniversary.

 

[lietuvonis]

can you recomend any other good drying method ?and how much weight you can expect from your plant as i have almoust the same size buds

 

[Chillintxstlye]

Looks sweet bro!

 

[TechnoMage]

can you recomend any other good drying method ?and how much weight you can expect from your plant as i have almoust the same size buds

I don't usually weigh since I grow just for myself, my wife when she's in the mood or when friends come over but you made me curious. Right now the batch weighs 71g or 2.5 ounces. I'm guessing I'll lose ~20g still to drying. That would leave me at 50g or 1.75 ounces.


Humidity was at 76% when I opened the bag.


I'm going to leave the bag cracked open overnight and see where things are later.

 

[TechnoMage]

And more updates. So I checked the HBL this morning and humidity in the bag was right around 58% so I popped the bud in a jar and sealed the hygrometer inside to get a true reading. After a few hours, humidly leveled out at 72% so back into the paper bag with the top loosely clamped closed.

Also chopped the LSD today.


Right before the chop



After running through the spin trimmer



HBL is inside the bag, LSD is spread out on the rack.

 

[Nizza]

good info on the slow cure, i get what you mean you burp it and re vac slowing down your cure, good shit man great looking plants too!

 

[TechnoMage]

Thanks Nizza. I'm glad this grow is finished. I had a couple of girls waiting for the flower tent to free up.

 

[TechnoMage]

Some more updates.

This morning I looked in the bag and humidity read as 50%. I stuck it in the jar and after a couple of hours it had leveled out around 55% which was ok but dryer than I really wanted. This evening however when I checked it again I found this.

Exactly where I wanted it. Actually I would have been happy with anything between 55 and 63. From this point, it stays in the jar. I crack open the jar once a week but will seal it right back up again. After about a month I'll vacuum seal.



LSD still feels a little "damp" to the touch. I was going to leave it on the rack for another night but I changed my mind and moved it to the paper bag after I took this photo. I'd rather go a little slow than overdry my bud.

 

[TechnoMage]

Update but no pictures. Humidity on the HLB in the sealed jar was reading at 70% when I got home today so I'm going to crack the jar for a few hours. LSD still felt a little damp and the hygrometer in the bag is readying 71%. Stirred the bud around a little to mix it up but I'm pretty sure it's going to be drying in the bag for a couple more days.

 

[mrblu]

i really like your drying method. how much do you recommend putting into 1 paper bag at a time? lets say you had to do around 1-2 lbs would you still do it the same way? I was curious because i was afraid of putting too much in 1 paper bag at a time.

 

[I2icho]

I always use rumples drying method it works wonders. You can fill the bags as long as you put layers of cut paper bags between layers of buds.

The only pain in the ass is triming a few days after drying cos they are sticky as all shit. Its totally worth it to avoid the "smelling like hay" weed.

http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-medical-marijuana/424138-simple-harvest-cure-step-step.html

 

[TechnoMage]

i really like your drying method. how much do you recommend putting into 1 paper bag at a time? lets say you had to do around 1-2 lbs would you still do it the same way? I was curious because i was afraid of putting too much in 1 paper bag at a time.

I've prefer to only have a single layer in a bag. You can always use multiple bags and just stack them..

I always use rumples drying method it works wonders. You can fill the bags as long as you put layers of cut paper bags between layers of buds.

The only pain in the ass is triming a few days after drying cos they are sticky as all shit. Its totally worth it to avoid the "smelling like hay" weed.

http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-medical-marijuana/424138-simple-harvest-cure-step-step.html

Trimming looks like too much work, that's why I bought the spin trimmer in the first place. I can see the advantage of the paper strips in separating but it would be a pain to "mix the bud" which I do on a daily basis.

No new photos because I'm just too fucking burnt from work today to take the photos. Pretty boring photos anyway, bud in a jar, bud in a paper bag.

HBL was at 69% when I got home and I left the top off the jar for four hours tonight before sealing back up. I'm also storing the jar on it's side now. Gives more surface area when jar is open and makes it easier to mix the bud up. When I was storing it upright, it was compressing into a sticky block. I do however consider "sticky block" a good predictor that this is going to be some nice smoking bud.

LSD is still feeling a little damp so I'm keeping it in the bag for another night. Tomorrow I'll put it in a jar to get a more accurate humidity reading.

 

[mrblu]

what do you mean by stacking the bags you lost me there.