I hear ya man, that's where Sour Diesel and Chemdawg came from to... I been leaving the popcorn on my plants this time around because outdoors I figured out you can harvest sections of the plant as they ripen, just take down everything except the pop-corns and let them finish up for another two weeks, I do it because I hate the paranoia off of immature stuff. I don't how practical it'll be indoors but its only 2 weeks and they don't take up too much space. I guess you can make medibles out of the pop corns or extracts.
I also been leaving the sugar trim on my plants so they dry out slower, seems to retain most of the flavor and smell of the growing plant even without a full cure the stuff I trimmed up when it was dried tastes better than the stuff I trimmed up good while it was wet. I think the sugar leafs trap in some of the flavor and oils in the buds and make it smellier.
Yeah I have no tried and true concept just yet as its my first grow, but the first chop i trimmed and hung, it was up too long, not total darkness and too hot so it ended up crispy and tastes like plant. Puts the dome out tho, so i can deal with the smell and taste.
This time I dried in a box with minor airflow, temp is around 75f so it only takes a couple days before I trim and jar. I took it down after 3 days, felt damp and gooey on the inside so I smoked a little to be sure, burned nice and clean. Jarred closed for 24 in darkness, then left jars open last night. This am they were a bit too dry for my liking, but still nice and sticky, closed them up and left them in the dark.
I leave my popcorn growth an extra 1 - 2 weeks after cutting the top kolas and 3 - 4 nodes down. Lets them fill in a little more. I pulled about 10g of popcorn per plant so far. Thats alot of butter lol...
Speaking of which any special butter making techniques? I found some online, but figured I would ask here as we all know how accurate the www is....
From left to right:
Jar 1: Popcorn from 2nd plant cut.
Jar 2: Popcorn from 1st plant cut.
Jar 3: Main Kolas from 2nd plant cut.
Jar 4: Nodes just below Kolas 2nd plant cut.