harvest, curing and drying help...

Im on my first grow and getting ready to harvest probably within 2 weeks..Pretty much everything ive learned has been from you guys and just reading about it online..one of my final questions (hopefully) is if anyone has a recommended drying and curing process..ive read a bunch of contradicting things about both..ive read that most people hang plant upside down but now supposedly that has been debunked as a myth that you dont have to hang the plant..do i hang or not hang, in light or in darkness, and exactly how long do i dry before im supposed to cure......i actually picked a small bud a few days ago, let dry for a day and put it in a jar for a day..and go figure it had mold on it......thanks ahead of time for any info, much appreciated..

Everybody has their own tricks but it is all pretty easy. Cut the plant down , hang it or whatever you want it doesnt matter. Make sure air is moving around the room via a fan or open window or whatever. Dont water your plants the last couple days itll help speed up the process. Wait 4-6 days until you can snap a bud off and burn it in a joint no problem. Then trim your shit and put the busd in a brown bag overnight. This will eliminate sweating and some excess moisture that may be inside the bud. Then throw it in a jar the next day and take the lid off once a day for a couple mins. There is really nothing to it. Aftet 3-4 days in a jar it will start to smell good again. At 10-14 days its way good and ready to be ummmmmm moved we could say.... Just be sure its bone dry before it hits the jar and youll be just fine

chernobe said:

Everybody has their own tricks but it is all pretty easy. Cut the plant down , hang it or whatever you want it doesnt matter. Make sure air is moving around the room via a fan or open window or whatever. Dont water your plants the last couple days itll help speed up the process. Wait 4-6 days until you can snap a bud off and burn it in a joint no problem. Then trim your shit and put the busd in a brown bag overnight. This will eliminate sweating and some excess moisture that may be inside the bud. Then throw it in a jar the next day and take the lid off once a day for a couple mins. There is really nothing to it. Aftet 3-4 days in a jar it will start to smell good again. At 10-14 days its way good and ready to be ummmmmm moved we could say.... Just be sure its bone dry before it hits the jar and youll be just fine

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preciate it...been some of the best help so far...thanks for taking the time to actually give some good info....

Invisighost said:

if anyone has a recommended drying and curing process..

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Get some Boveda 62 packs. They help you stay in the cure zone if you under/over shoot it.

Keep in mind that your dry/cure process will be different depending on your ambient humidity. I'm in a dry area. When it's 20%, I can hang only a day because it dries unevenly. I cut buds off into a Sterlite plastic bin. For the next couple days I frequently fan the lid over the container. Or, spread the buds out for 20 minutes. I have to do it this way to get an even dry over 4-5 days. I even use Boveda 65 packs to help keep it in the high end of the cure zone because when I burp every day it dries too much.

When it's 50%, I hang for 3-4 days, cutoff into Sterlite, not a lot of airing out to get it down to 65%. I'll use Boveda 62s to help hold it in the middle of the cure zone. Less labor intensive than when I have low ambient humdity and have to control the speed more.

I use Excalibur IV hygrometers. I can't imagine curing without a little meter like these.

az2000 said:

Get some Boveda 62 packs. They help you stay in the cure zone if you under/over shoot it.

When it's 50%, I hang for 3-4 days, cutoff into Sterlite, not a lot of airing out to get it down to 65%. I'll use Boveda 62s to help hold it in the middle of the cure zone. Less labor intensive than when I have low ambient humdity and have to control the speed more.

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you put these things in the plastic tub with dried bud?

butsack said:

you put these things in the plastic tub with dried bud?

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The bud is in the process of drying when I put it and Boveda in the plastic container. After I get the buds down <70% I put them in a 1 gallon Ball (decorative) canning jar for the first 10-20 days which is the remaining drying down to 65% (when I might burp for 20 minutes and/or 4-5 times a day to achieve), and first 2 weeks or so of curing when I might burp twice a day during the first week. Then they go into 1/2 gal Ball canning jars for another 2 weeks, burping every 2-3 days. I use Boveda 62 in the 1/2 gal jars. I use Boveda 65 in the plastic bin and 1 gal jar if the ambient humidity is low, otherwise I use Boveda 62.

It takes awhile to learn how long to air the buds out for drying (without overdrying), and how to balance that with the ambient humidity (which mine can be extremely dry). I'm pretty good at it now but still use Boveda. It's like gravity. It holds things closer to where I want them. But, they were a life saver when I started because I over dried a few times. Not extreme, like below 50%. But, down to 58%. The Boveda pull it back up quickly.

You can also breathe into your jar if they become a little too dry. It won't perform miracles, but if you miss the cure zone by 4% for a couple hours, breathing into the jar can pull it back.

Drying is the removal of moisture, curing is making sure the bud is uniformly the same dryness. Your tester got moldy because it was too wet for curing, needed to be dryer, eh?

I've had a perpetual grow for years now and I see no benefit to hanging a plant at all. In fact hanging is a hindrance. I trim my bud as each branch is removed. If you hang the plant you will find it is much more difficult to trim. Reason is that as soon as a branch is removed from the plant the smaller sugar leaves immediately begin to curl up around the bud. Makes it harder to trim the bud and easily doubles the time it takes me to harvest my plants.

Good luck, BigSteve.

bigsteve said:

Drying is the removal of moisture, curing is making sure the bud is uniformly the same dryness. Your tester got moldy because it was too wet for curing, needed to be dryer, eh?

I've had a perpetual grow for years now and I see no benefit to hanging a plant at all. In fact hanging is a hindrance. I trim my bud as each branch is removed. If you hang the plant you will find it is much more difficult to trim. Reason is that as soon as a branch is removed from the plant the smaller sugar leaves immediately begin to curl up around the bud. Makes it harder to trim the bud and easily doubles the time it takes me to harvest my plants.

Good luck, BigSteve.

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Hmm..that makes sense..thanx

I was trimmimg each branch as it came off the plant but there was a big rain coming and my husband had just had surgery so rather than have to try to yank them all down by myself in a hurry while it's raining i decided to chop them all and hang. it does work that way but i would much rather chop and trim 1 branch at a time. I'm curing in brown paper bags this year. I was also going to cure in plastic totes but decided against it. i may try that next year.