Manicuring and drying questions

Drumfounded said:

Hey guys! I'm about 4-5 days from harvest on my first grow and have been thinking a lot about how I want to dry. There's just so much info out there and I was really hoping to find a seasoned grower who has experimented and experienced different methods. As far as the enviornment, I will be drying in my grow room. So temp and humidity should be perfect, as well as complete darkness with no light leaks. My confusion is more with manicuring. From what I've read, for the best day, smell and smoke, it is best the hang the entire plant. Some say this is unnecessary and that you can simply do individual branches. I've also read that it is best to manicure after the dry. I know a lot of growers manicure before the dry as it is supposed to be a lot easier. My question is, how many if you have actually experimented with different drying techniques? What did you find? Ideally, I would manicure completely and snip individual buds from the stems and dry in those hanging mesh shelves. However, after all the time, energy and money I have out into my grow, I don't want to risk any o the quality. I'm sure I'm not reading bogus information, I'm more just wondering how different it really is? If I don't recieve any good feedback I plan to do side by side drying methods and I will report what I find but if I can manicure first, without sacrificing too much, I'd like to keep it simple. Hoping somebody out there may be able to tell me what I can expect. Thanks!

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kmog33 said:

I trim wet or dry depending on how much i have to trim/how much time i have/how lazy i feel about trimming. All work, just really a preference thing. Trimming wet is easier imo than dry but buds sometimes seem more resinous when manicured dry.

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weedenhanced said:

I do this 4 to 5 days before I harvest I completely trim the plant while it alive full manicure while it's alive this speeds up the drying method gets rid of 80% of chlorophyll I also get humidity in last few day down as low as possible I add 4 to 5 of these
View attachment 3287483
On the harvest day I will give plants at least 20 hours complete darkness as thc lvls r highest in the morning so just before the 20 hours r up I will chop
I like to cut the main stems and hang individual buds not whole plant I leave all the stem on the buds

Once u have dried for about 5 days cause u have all rdy taken most of the moisture out the plant before u chopped due to low humidity and the alive manicure
I like to the jar it and then just cure as long as u like in first 2 weeks I open jar once or twice a day for about 5 mins sometimes I'll tip the buds out and repackage checking for mold
And that's how I do it other do it rastly different

Get the mold things with out air freshener lol I dled pic off net

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weedenhanced said:

I do this 4 to 5 days before I harvest I completely trim the plant while it alive full manicure while it's alive this speeds up the drying method gets rid of 80% of chlorophyll I also get humidity in last few day down as low as possible I add 4 to 5 of these
View attachment 3287483
On the harvest day I will give plants at least 20 hours complete darkness as thc lvls r highest in the morning so just before the 20 hours r up I will chop
I like to cut the main stems and hang individual buds not whole plant I leave all the stem on the buds

Once u have dried for about 5 days cause u have all rdy taken most of the moisture out the plant before u chopped due to low humidity and the alive manicure
I like to the jar it and then just cure as long as u like in first 2 weeks I open jar once or twice a day for about 5 mins sometimes I'll tip the buds out and repackage checking for mold
And that's how I do it other do it rastly different

Get the mold things with out air freshener lol I dled pic off net

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Drumfounded said:

This is most likely how I plan to dry as it seems like the easiest/most efficient. Have you ever dried any other way? Do you think you are loosing any important sugars and such by manicuring while the plant is still alive?

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weedenhanced said:

U keep the sugar leaves and make hash man and no by chopping while it's alive the plant produces more resin cause resin is like sunscreen for a plant so u expose the plant to stress from manicuring alive and low humidity it will produce more trichomes but this does not mean the smokes any better just looks better lol and stickyer also stressing a plant right at the end is good 2 do I reakon ur buds before u chop will be crunchy lol half dry all rdy and don't water last few days

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Drumfounded said:

Thanks for the reply dude! My plan was to not water the very last day and then 24 hours of dark before harvesting. Should I cut the water earlier? And I planned on keeping the sugar leaves for hash and tincture, but you are saying that it is okay to trim all these while the plant is still standing? How about plucking all the fan leaves early on? I've read a few posts about people defoliating a week before harvest, just to make it easier. I was thinking of doing this tomorrow, but I'm worried about stressing them out.

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bigsteve said:

I harvest 100 plants a year in my perpetual grow. I've done a lot of experimenting in all phases of growing -- from germinating seeds to drying and curing. Here's the basics:

I always manicure my plants while the lights are on in the flower room. The small sugar leaves are going to be 90% of your manicuring and you want to catch them when they are standing up and not curled around the bud. Takes 2 to 3 times as long to trim a plant that has been hung to dry. There is no benefit to hanging as far as quality goes. So trim and manicure by cutting off branches from the living plant.

Drying is actually a 2-part process - drying and then curing. Drying is the removal of moisture from the product. Curing is when we seal the partially dry product so that the remaining moisture is evenly distributed throughout the bud. If we didn't cure we would end up with small crispy buds and soggy big buds.

Drying -- spread the trimmed buds on a wide portable surface. I use 16 x 20 x 1 inch furnace filters via Walmart @ $0.88/per. I cover the filter with paper towels and distribute the buds so they are only one deep. I place filter and all under a ceiling fan for 48-72 hours. This is the drying process. After 2-3 days under the fan my bud is about 90% dry. I then put the product into a large glass jar with a rubber seal. Now we're curing. By sealing the jar we start the process where the remaining moisture is spread out evenly among the nugs. After 12-24 hours I check the product for overall moisture levels. It is always still too damp after the first check. When you need to dry some more put the product back on the filter for another 12-24 hours. You will then need to seal up the jar again to allow proper curing. After 2-3 shifts in the glass jar I know I'm getting close to the proper final dryness. One way to check is to gently shake the sealed glass jar and note the sound. Properly dried and cured product will make a raspy scraping sound. This indicates to me the moisture level is where I want it.

Note - I see you have been around here almost a year. So you know there is a lot of "experts" out there ready to help. So check to see if you are getting advice from someone who has been around a while. There are other OGs like me who circulate in the newby forum to help out beginners.

Good luck, BigSteve.

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bigsteve said:

I harvest 100 plants a year in my perpetual grow. I've done a lot of experimenting in all phases of growing -- from germinating seeds to drying and curing. Here's the basics:

I always manicure my plants while the lights are on in the flower room. The small sugar leaves are going to be 90% of your manicuring and you want to catch them when they are standing up and not curled around the bud. Takes 2 to 3 times as long to trim a plant that has been hung to dry. There is no benefit to hanging as far as quality goes. So trim and manicure by cutting off branches from the living plant.

Drying is actually a 2-part process - drying and then curing. Drying is the removal of moisture from the product. Curing is when we seal the partially dry product so that the remaining moisture is evenly distributed throughout the bud. If we didn't cure we would end up with small crispy buds and soggy big buds.

Drying -- spread the trimmed buds on a wide portable surface. I use 16 x 20 x 1 inch furnace filters via Walmart @ $0.88/per. I cover the filter with paper towels and distribute the buds so they are only one deep. I place filter and all under a ceiling fan for 48-72 hours. This is the drying process. After 2-3 days under the fan my bud is about 90% dry. I then put the product into a large glass jar with a rubber seal. Now we're curing. By sealing the jar we start the process where the remaining moisture is spread out evenly among the nugs. After 12-24 hours I check the product for overall moisture levels. It is always still too damp after the first check. When you need to dry some more put the product back on the filter for another 12-24 hours. You will then need to seal up the jar again to allow proper curing. After 2-3 shifts in the glass jar I know I'm getting close to the proper final dryness. One way to check is to gently shake the sealed glass jar and note the sound. Properly dried and cured product will make a raspy scraping sound. This indicates to me the moisture level is where I want it.

Note - I see you have been around here almost a year. So you know there is a lot of "experts" out there ready to help. So check to see if you are getting advice from someone who has been around a while. There are other OGs like me who circulate in the newby forum to help out beginners.

Good luck, BigSteve.

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teamdinero said:

Seems like everyone's got legit ways of doing this. I don't have plants I have trees so when I harvest on day 63 typically I cut branches off as big as I can, I'll pull all the water leaves off because I do not want that in my trim. I'll hang them on a line packed as full as I can side by side. I go 5 days @ 70 degrees and 50 percent humidity. I trim dry because it's faster and the day it's dried I can get everything turned around in my room. And I also am able to bag the p's up right away after trimming. 24hrs later I'll give em a burp. (Opening and closing) and then there rdy to go. This is actually only way I know how to do it.

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spek9 said:

I trim wet. Chop off each branch as I go. If I don't get done, plant goes back into the flower room until tomorrow.

Trimming dry is a pain in the ass imho. I find that the dry leaves crumble and stick to the buds (and the scissors and your hands) far worse.

Each to their own though. When I grew outdoors years ago, I had to chop a whole bunch of plants, and by the time we were done pruning, many were inevitably already dry.

-spek

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teamdinero said:

I don't see how people could say dry trimming is a pain in the butt. I trim with 10 to 15 other people week after week trimming hundreds of pounds of indoor quality OG. The flowers are so dense and rockhard maybe that's why I think it's easier? Will never trim wet again.

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