Drying Buds

Hi, my husband and i have been growing bud for about a year now and we have been getting some great bud, but we have been having some problems with the drying process. One harvest we let the bud hang in a box for about four days and then put it into jars. the bud was potent, but it tasted really bad, smelled bad, and was pretty harsh. This last harvest we did what the books said and left the bud in the box for about nine days until the stems snapped, but the bud was bone dry and when we put the bud into jars it has not gotten any moisture back. it is still bone dry.
Can anyone tell me what we are doing wrong? Give me more details than i can find on the internet or in a book?
thanks!!

Dont wait until the stems snap to put it into the jars, or maybe you just didnt keep the jars sealed long enough before opening them for the first burp.

My 2 cents.............I was having the same problem... Are you able to check the humidity of where u are drying? Mine was drying out sooo fast....then smelled like hay/tea/grass type smell. My humidity in my house is 16 %. I read alot where they say hang 7-10 days till stem alomst snaps but that is in perfect humidity conditions. Mine was dried in like a day and a half.... so at that point the jarring process did nothing.


Miss M

to be honest youll find more details on the internet then just here lol, but, this could be considered the most crucial part to a successful grow to many. First off the harshness, this is mainly due to not flushing any nutrients out of the soil or hydro container. Need to feed plain PH'd water around 6.5 for the last couple waters. This will eliminate the Harshness.

Let the plants sit in total darkness atleast 48 hours before harvest. Make sure you dont water for a couple days also otherwise it will take longer to dry. They only need 5-9 days max for a perfect dry. 1-2, and sometimes 3 days is too fast. They need fresh air, yet you dont want a constant breeze on them. Just a fan moving on the other end of the room or the best u can do to match that. But i can say it seems the longer you manage to get a plant to dry the better it is if you get what i mean. But dont do that stuff till you master your setup now.

If you can bend the stalk and not break it apart your good to go. I would say 4 days hanging in a dark still room would be perfect in most cases. Temperature and humidity is crucial too. say 50% humidity and 60-80 degrees is optimal for drying.

Manicuring them is also important. It doesnt really matter when u do this, but you may want to experiment on your given conditions. So you trim some buds up real nice so theres no leaves or whatever you like, then hang to dry. OR you can cut off minimal and then manicure them after drying which would take a little longer for them to dry. Either way is fine.

Curing is going to be the real second half of a grow. If its moist going in the jar its gonna stay moist. Get a crisp on the outer layer of the bud (usually 3-4 days of drying for me to get this) and put in a sealed mason jar in the dark for atleast another week. most would say 2 weeks atleast, but this is up to you and your waiting time. Curing the bud will really give your finished product its goodies.

A tip i learned for sprucing up a dried bud. Steam. I have a clothes steamer i got at sears for like 40 bucks, and one day messing around put a dried nuggie in the steam vapor and POOF! the nug soaked up the water and came back to life. Wasnt perfect obviously, but wasnt nearly as dry and was spongy again. So steam can help a bit.

Whats growin? hope this helped a bit!

Why would you wait until they were bone dry to start the curing process? Check them everyday dont let them get bone dry before putting them in jars. Then burp if needed. Thats what I used to do.

do not wait till stems are dry enough to snap.the bud should be fairly crispy on the outside and the stem should still have a little moisture in it,so dry but not so dry they snap.thats when they are ready for the jar and curing process.

The "trick" is to use hygrometers in the curing process. Allow the bud to dry, hung from stems for 3-4 days. stems will be pliable, outside of bud just starting to feel crispy. Jar it and place a hygrometer inside. Everytime the hygrometer goes over 70%, open jar and allow to drop to about 60%, before resealing the jar. This will slowly pull out the moisture from the center and allow the THC to break down into psychoactive chemicals due to the cells still metabolizing. Even though you have cut the head off the plant so to speak, molecular processes continue at the cellular level. THC is broken down into cannabinoids, the buzz, while the plant rids itself of chlorophyll and other undesireds.

At first, you'll have to burp your jars a lot. Gently stir the buds around so that their entire surface, over time, is exposed to air and not resting on another bud. For this purpose, only fill about 80% full. Allow room for moisture to accumulate near the top and room to gently stir up the buds. Burp the jar until the hygrometer is slightly above 57%, then seal it again. After a few days, the hygrometer will stop hitting 70%. At that time, I start doing my one minute burps anytime I see that the hygrometer is over 60%. For the first two weeks, I open jars regardless, at least once a day to move bud around and inspect for mold. If you use a chopstick or other item to stir up your buds, make sure each jar is mold free before using it to stir up the next jar. I like to open all jars, grab a stick and stir slowly as I look for mold. I also sniff for it. Sometimes you'll smell it long before you see it. If you do smell mold, leave that jar open and when done with other jars, spread out the contents and allow to dry for a few hours before replacing.

and serapis comes in hitting a home-run, Even i just learned summin lol.

i8urbabi said:

to be honest youll find more details on the internet then just here lol, but, this could be considered the most crucial part to a successful grow to many. First off the harshness, this is mainly due to not flushing any nutrients out of the soil or hydro container. Need to feed plain PH'd water around 6.5 for the last couple waters. This will eliminate the Harshness.

Click to expand...

This has been proven not be true on many occassions, right here on RIU.... Harshness can also be caused by improper curing that allows chlorophyl to become trapped in the buds. Even quick drying will produce harshness in bud that was flushed before harvesting.

There are several threads that explore why final flushing isn't necessary. Look them up, they contain good information. The plant has already broken down the more complex cells in the nutrients by the time the roots have absorbed and passed them up. You aren't tasting chemical nutrients, you are tasting plant chemicals that create harshness, mostly chlorophyl.

i8urbabi said:

Let the plants sit in total darkness atleast 48 hours before harvest. Make sure you dont water for a couple days also otherwise it will take longer to dry.

Click to expand...

Good advice. Light degrades THC. Turning off the light at the end allows the plant to produce trichs non-stop that aren't degrading. This allows you to chop when they are at their peak potency. Good timing with trich colors is crucial here.

I don't water for several days before chop for this very reason. The dry goes so much better, more control. We don't go from fast dry to slow, it is a more even dry because the exteriors are nearly dry at chop time. If growing hydro, cut off water last two days and let them sit in the dark to finish ripining up.

i8urbabi said:

and serapis comes in hitting a home-run, Even i just learned summin lol.

Click to expand...

We are always learning, that's why I love it here. I learned the hygrometers right here on RIU, but don't ask me to find the post.... it's as if it disappeared....

420 Dream Team said:

My 2 cents.............I was having the same problem... Are you able to check the humidity of where u are drying? Mine was drying out sooo fast....then smelled like hay/tea/grass type smell. My humidity in my house is 16 %. I read alot where they say hang 7-10 days till stem alomst snaps but that is in perfect humidity conditions. Mine was dried in like a day and a half.... so at that point the jarring process did nothing.


Miss M

Click to expand...

Yep I was having the exact same problem as well!! I found paper bags helped to slow the drying process, however when you have a lot of bud you either need a lot of paper bags or you stack them on top which won't dry perfectly even. Seems drying is tougher than growing! lol I have some plants finishing in a few weeks and still not sure what process i'll use

hanging them is generally the best way to get an even dry. run some type of string where u can, and when u chop at harvest keep in mind to leave some places to hang ur branches. ive had lots of success with the paper bags myself, dont stack buds tho unless u gotta. drying and curing is half the grow for sure.

Slurpy said:

Yep I was having the exact same problem as well!! I found paper bags helped to slow the drying process, however when you have a lot of bud you either need a lot of paper bags or you stack them on top which won't dry perfectly even. Seems drying is tougher than growing! lol I have some plants finishing in a few weeks and still not sure what process i'll use

Click to expand...

Well I have my theory in process at the moment. I will prob harvest one of my shortriders next week...even though its pretty much ready now. Yesterday I did a mini harvest. Will prob be a qt when dried. I am trying to create a humidity controlled cabinet...in my apparently dry ass house...So far so good. I want to do this test run before I do the bigger harvests

Miss M

Good Luck

raise the humidity in the room to at least 45-50% this will help with drying time, a slow dry/cure is ALWAYS best.. as one of the users said, u may have burped the jars too often and too soon which is making it difficult for the buds to be re-moistened.. i burp jars 1-2 times a day for first week, then 1 a day for second, and then 1 every 2 days on the third week

the best why to tell if your buds are good and not to dry is to smoke it.

Serapis said:

We are always learning, that's why I love it here. I learned the hygrometers right here on RIU, but don't ask me to find the post.... it's as if it disappeared....

Click to expand...

here you go, this is where I read it : )
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=156237

Wanted to offer what we've learned. We live in Colorado at about 8500 feet elevation, for whatever that matters.

We had success with 2 different dry rooms so far...I'm about to build my third. First time we had a folding door closet in the flower room where we hung 6mil black plastic over the doorway and hung trimmed branches of bud. We used a simpe twin-fan style window fan hung near the ceiling in the flower room and attatched a 6" tube to it with wire so it was drawing air, and put the other end into the closet. Then we put another piece of 6" somewhere else through the plastic(preferably on the opposite side of the closet) thereby drawing ideal 50% humidity and 76-80 degree temp air passively through the tube and closet. The underpowered fan is good at moving air just a little through the room, or more if you turn it up. This achieved drying and smell control simultaneously.

After I added co2 to the flower room I read that co2 can inhibit ripening, so I decided to move the dry room. Second dry room we put in the veg room. Again it was in a closet covered in plastic but the concept would work with just making a plastic 'room' within a room. This time The dry room was in a room where humidity is kept at 60%- too high to dry. So we put an 8" passive intake that runs first through the dry closet-the intake goes into the ceiling and then another tube sticks out the bottom. Then there is a Canfan75 with a 417cfm inline fan that draws air through the filter and then through the lights and out the room. Guess the key is that it first draws air through the dry room. I think the third dry room will mirror this method.

Next topic is strain. While we can't claim to be masters of any one strain yet, we have been growing a lot of different strains. Drying different strains is kinda hard to master. I'm still learning that's for sure, but I tried to follow the books advice about 'wait till the stems are snappy', but it's not that simple.

Best rule of thumb we've found is it all depends on how big and dense the buds are. If the buds are big and dense then you can wait till the stems snap and burp the jars a lot and expect about 5-7 days hanging and then about a minimum of 2 weeks in the jar(it will be usable at this point but usually gets better over 2 more weeks). However, if the buds are not dense but wispy then you need to jar them before the stems snap. We have have pretty big buds that were also wispy so size does not indicate, really only denseness. It will almost seem like you are jarring the wispy bud too soon and it may prolong the jartime but too slow is better than too fast, just burp more.

One note: mold is not much of a problem in CO so maybe theese methods are region specific. Peace!