Stems Bendy or Snappy? (with pics)

Hi,



I harvested my first grow last week. I have everything hanging up in my closet drying with some fans to circulate air but not blow directly on the buds. It seems that everything is going ok, but I'm worried about over drying my bud.

I hung it up to dry six days ago. Two or three days ago, I noticed that some of the stems would snap. I took those branches and started to jar the bud. Halfway through however, I noticed that on other parts of the same stem wouldn't snap. So a stem that snapped in one place would only bend in most other places. In fact, it seemed that only the thick stems and thick parts of the stem would snap and none of the small parts would.

I hung some of that back up to dry thinking that maybe I was jumping the gun. Six days later, even the smallest, I mean, the ridiculously small stems won't snap, they will only bend (see pic.)



The bud feels completely dry to the touch on the outside. The stuff that I had put in the jar three days ago seems fine with no signs of mold (I've been burping them twice a day) AND I haven't seen any evidence of moisture in the jars at all. It doesn't seem to be "sweating" at all. I thought maybe it's because the jars are barely full. I just don't have the experience to tell when it's "done" drying.



And then reading through threads of the past year (yeah, I really did that) on the subject of drying, I found posts by several RIU members and staff that I completely respect (like fdd2blk for example) saying that they start to cure when the stems are still bendy.

So now I'm a bit confused. It seemed so simple before to wait until they snap, but now that...

1. The buds seem dry to the touch
2. The buds in the jar are not sweating any moisture.
3. The smallest stems are still bending

I'm concerned that I'm going to over dry and it will turn crumbley and maybe I should jar now even though the stems are still bendy. People say that you want 10% moisture content in the middle, but how in the world are you supposed to measure that?

What is your advice for me?

PULL THEM NOW, jar them and you can fine tune them that way, i also waited until the stems were bending and not completly snaping. 6 days is plenty of time to hang them.

And those jars are to big you need much smaller jars or more weed. jars should be full or weed the idea is too have as little air in the bottle as possible. nice looking plant tho.

Thanks for the help Jointskie. Your advice about fine tuning them makes a lot of sense. I will get them into jars tomorrow. I will have a lot more weed in those jars once by the end of the day.

I've seen some advice saying to only fill up the jars half way though. Are you thinking that you want the jars mostly full to reduce the amount of air inside? I guess the jar half full thing is so you can 'tumble' the bud instead of having to dump it out to stir them.

Phew. Well, that's over. Clipping and pulling off cat hair is a bit tedious. But I got it all into six jars now. I think it's safe to say that it's dry. Nothing felt wet to me but nothing crumbled either. So I think it was good that I jarred it today.

that looks like a satisfying harvest! hope it smokes well.

looks fuckkin good
you will learn quick after the first harvest or two
yea i jar mine even if i still get some bendy stems
like the other guy said fine tune them in the jars.
What strain is that?

I usually like a little more room in my jars and I burp twice a day for a week then once a day for 30 days. I like a little more air to move around my buds. I also move them around a little each burp that helps with a little more room in the jar. Just my $0.02. Your's look great though!

grassroots said:

looks fuckkin good
you will learn quick after the first harvest or two
yea i jar mine even if i still get some bendy stems
like the other guy said fine tune them in the jars.
What strain is that?

Click to expand...

Thanks Grassroots. I don't know what strain it is. I got the seeds as a birthday present from a friend. They come from somewhere in Mendocino, and that's all I heard about them.

I know that next time that I will do it right. I'm a little bummed about this time because I suspect while waiting for the stems to snap, I wound up drying it too fast. It doesn't seem to sweat at all in the jars and I'm worried that the 'hay' smell won't go away because of it. I don't know why, but I thought the 'stem snapping' tip was solid. Oh well. Grow and learn.

I've been reading about how to re-moisten, but that seems to be more for moisture preference than to help the chlorophyll and the sugars break down. It seems that people think that re-moistening doesn't help compensate for drying it too fast as far as the taste goes. I may try to moisten it just a little anyways. I guess i will know in two to four weeks how it really is going to taste, smell, and how potent it is. Maybe it's because I've been getting junky weed all my life, but this stuff knocks me on my ass already.

I just checked out your grow, nice job, congrats!

When I need to add moisture to a bag I add some orange peels, fluffs it up and gives it a citrus smell and better taste.

lol i wish i got presents like that on my b-day.
Mendocino, Ca eh? must be good genetics, sure can tell in the pictures
the bud looks dank.
Yea my nugs had that grassy, shitty smell to them after but after 1.5-2 weeks of curing
the grassy smell went away and smelt like how it did b4.
time will tell.
Good Growin