My first harvest, Curing tips!

Hey guys and gals i just wanted to give you all a little insight on my first harvest, i have 16 total plants in flowering half girls scout cookies and the other half is a mixture of cookie kush which is OG mixed with Girl scouts and a couple plants called THC bomb, so i moved these plants from veg to bloom around October 22nd, 2015 im nearing my harvest at the end of this month around the 29th of December, besides a couple over nutes i manages a pretty good low stress crop, so my question today is really about curing, ive been reading up a whole bunch about it and ive participated in a curing process before but i still get the gitters and the anxiety that i will fuck it all up. I currently stocked myself with a dehumidifier, drying nets, a couple coat racks and hangers to hang my buds, of course the traditional trimming scissors, i even bought some mini hydrometers to put in my jars during curing, even with all this im still scared im gonna fuck it all up, any advice?

I wish I could help-I just hung mine upside down for about 10 days then put them in mason jars-I think I could have done better and Im VERY interested for the experts to pipe up on this one!
Good luck!

newbuddy said:

I wish I could help-I just hung mine upside down for about 10 days then put them in mason jars-I think I could have done better and Im VERY interested for the experts to pipe up on this one!
Good luck!

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best of luck to you brother!!

Jwatch said:

Hey guys and gals i just wanted to give you all a little insight on my first harvest, i have 16 total plants in flowering half girls scout cookies and the other half is a mixture of cookie kush which is OG mixed with Girl scouts and a couple plants called THC bomb, so i moved these plants from veg to bloom around October 22nd, 2015 im nearing my harvest at the end of this month around the 29th of December, besides a couple over nutes i manages a pretty good low stress crop, so my question today is really about curing, ive been reading up a whole bunch about it and ive participated in a curing process before but i still get the gitters and the anxiety that i will fuck it all up. I currently stocked myself with a dehumidifier, drying nets, a couple coat racks and hangers to hang my buds, of course the traditional trimming scissors, i even bought some mini hydrometers to put in my jars during curing, even with all this im still scared im gonna fuck it all up, any advice?

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so you're more worried about the whole processs other than curing..
remember this when it comes to drying and curing..
dryer the better ....terpines and essential oils spoil in moisture. to get that rich, crisp flavor, the resin needs to be dried to the point where they are the primary ingredient by weight and content


trim hang to dry... you want your buds to be DRY and i MEAN DRY AS FUCK when you jar them... now the stem won't be dry as fuck... and know the center of the bud is most likely stilll moist...... you really want to get the entire bud dry and the little moisture that is left in the stem.... will rehydrate the bud.. and start the curing process. you never want it over 62 RH.. and when you are ready to store you want it under 30rh.

zubey91 said:

so you're more worried about the whole processs other than curing..
remember this when it comes to drying and curing..
dryer the better ....terpines and essential oils spoil in moisture to get that rich, crisp flavor, the resin needs to be dried to the point where they are the primary ingredient by weight and content


trim hang to dry... you want your buds to be DRY and i MEAN DRY AS FUCK when you jar them... now the stem won't be dry as fuck... and know the center of the bud is most likely stilll moist...... you really want to get the entire bud dry and the little moisture that is left in the stem.... will rehydrate the bud.. and start the curing process. you never want it over 62 RH.. and when you are ready to store you want it under 30rh.

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thanks for the advice bro, i have a question when you say store it under 30rh do you mean set my dehumidifier at 30rh?

no RH is relative humdity... so if you have a meter in the jar and it says like 30 rh.. the level of moisture in the jar is 30

i wouldn't use a dehumidifier unless you live in a really humid state.. like florida or soemthing

i live in michigan, what is considered high humidity?

no thats probably average humidity... you can use it.. but you also don't want your buds to dry too fast... what i would do if i were you.. is cut a few buds or a branch off now.... try to dry and cure it before you cut your crop .... try to get it right with a small amount .. that way if you screw up you won't ruin your crop.

You want your buds to be around 65% RH when entering the jars for fermentation at 28°C for as long as you want to cure it. I usually go for 3-10 weeks and really depending on the strain. Check weekly to see if you'r happy with the results thus far.
This is the humidity in which a bud is elastic once lightly pressed. If the bud stays pressed after you remove the pressure it is too wet and if it cracks open it is too dry for this stage.
You will need to change the aim in the containers twice a week while at the first 2 weeks more frequent check ups help to get the perfect humidity corrected once humidity redistribute itself after jarring.

After you are happy with your results you need to dry the buds to 35-40% RH and store them at 2-4°C for storage.

Zubey hit the nail on the head, don't be too afraid of letting them hang for awhile. My first two harvests I fucked up and jarred too soon cuz the outside of buds felt dry, but i lost all the smell. I realized my problem because after jarring the buds i left the stems lay around and of course after the stems dryed out they stank like skunk and i ended up with nonsmelly weed yet smelly stems lol

Test run idea is genius, seriously pull some buds and get your feet wet with drying it correctly, it's pretty disappointing to end up loosing the smell after all that work...

I say wait until the small stems snap, and large stems just about snap(some say wait until big stems snap but other half of ppl say what i just said, so i guess it's choice?), buds have tons of moisture still inside them even though they feel dry on the outside, once you jar them it'll really bring it out so no worries. But as mentioned above, don't dry too fast, so no dehumidifer(unless in an extreme humid environment) and no fan directly on the buds, have a fan circulating air in the room but not blowing on them

PS: if you've never trimmed a harvest before beware it takes FOREVER haha so plan for it, i never had any clue when my first harvest came and ended up sittin there trimming for 6 hours straight, and that was with someone helping me halfway thru lol 1 plant 3oz's. And it really sucks to trim after it has hung for a day or two cuz the leaves curl around the buds and become a pain in the ass to trim off and makes it take longer

^^^ What he said with the harvest time. I took a day off of work during my first harvest and I'm very glad I did hahaha

and do yourself a favor and get some latex gloves too! I couldn't imagine trimming without it, it just gets so sticky and you never get it off your hands.

Yekke said:

You want your buds to be around 65% RH when entering the jars for fermentation at 28°C for as long as you want to cure it. I usually go for 3-10 weeks and really depending on the strain. Check weekly to see if you'r happy with the results thus far.
This is the humidity in which a bud is elastic once lightly pressed. If the bud stays pressed after you remove the pressure it is too wet and if it cracks open it is too dry for this stage.
You will need to change the aim in the containers twice a week while at the first 2 weeks more frequent check ups help to get the perfect humidity corrected once humidity redistribute itself after jarring.

After you are happy with your results you need to dry the buds to 35-40% RH and store them at 2-4°C for storage.

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I used to do it that way (65rh)but learned that in the long term.... all that moisture that sits in the buds for weeks ruins the essential oils. the initial dry is the most important.

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zubey91 said:

I used to do it that way (65rh)but learned that in the long term.... all that moisture that sits in the buds for weeks ruins the essential oils. the initial dry is the most important.

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If you use a dehumidifier and run it at 65% the buds should dry in 3-4 days given ample air circulation is provided.
65% RH in the jars will not ruin the essential oil, with 28°C+ it will mature them and the cannabinoids. Controlled degradation.
Once you degraded your oils to the point you want to keep them, you need to dry the buds further. That way they are stored without degrading much at the exact point of curing you want them to.

What RH do you think the buds should be in for curing?

i jar it and the max i take it to is 62 ... i used to get them in at 65 and slowly brought it down to 62 and let it ride for a week an then over the next couple weeks bringing it down to 50 then 30 for storage. its just how i do it.. eveyone dries and cures different... it could be my climate.. but at 65 it ruins the bud (in the long term) if its kept at that level for too long, its possible that i didn't bring it down fast enough and the moisture got caught.. but after about 3 grows doing it the way i do it now.. it doesn't end up like it used to after 6 months in storage

I don't find any notable difference between 62 and 65. I put my dehumidifier on 65 and it is not that exact so I can't even tell the difference... That's up for the fine tuning and really would depend on the RH of the room your burping (air exchanging) in more than the initial RH. It is important to make sure the temps are over 26°C for proper fermentation.
With storage at 40% RH and 4°C I found almost zero degradation even after a year. For more than that (and I got bud stored for over 5 years no prob) I rather go -18°C.

Took me 8 years to get to these numbers and numerous tries.

i'm not talking about a dehumidifier..i'm just talking about the rh inside the jar. wait... are you saying you room cure? yeah where i'm at today it took about 4 years of fine tuning.. but isn't that a never ending thing with growers? never ending fine tuning. lol

Get some boveda packs. Makes all of it too easy. Absolutely nothing better than some great bud chilling in a dark cool place at an exact 62.

LOYDINCEBU said:

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Hey. Sweet buds