_-Drying-_

JollyGreenGiant

My friend is curing in his fridge this year. I don't know personally how that's gona help him but whatever floats his boat.

THE Roseman

What I do, and always do, is debatable, and different growers do it differently. I am not of the old school of pulling up and hanging the entire plant upside down and thinking the resin will run down into the buds. I know I'll get arguement here, and that is OK, we all do different steps, different ways. Potato, Patotoe, tomato, tomatoe. Soil - Hydro, CFL - HID.
I only harvest the buds when I think they are ready, after daily or twice a day trichome exams under a 30X lighted microscope. There are several excellent threads about Trichomes and Harvest posted on this site. I do not harvest the plant or buds all at one time. I take some buds with clear trichs and some with cloudy, some amber and some MIXED, and I kep them separate for the different highs.
What I do is what I do and the way I do it, is the way I do it. Why? I have forgotten why, I just studied and read up on harvest and decided which way to try and after 4 Harvests, and several experiments, I am set on the way I do it now.

I use Hydro. (not soil) Two days before I am going to do the major harvest and take over half the buds, I stop the nutes in my water and I change to pure water, with NO nutes. Two days before the major harvest, I stop all light and keep them in total darkness. For soil growing, you need to read up on FLUSHING, a very debatable subject.
I cut the bigger buds, and the smaller ones that appear ready, and I lay them on my kitchen table. I then take one bud at a time, and trim the trim leaves off, saving the trim leaves for kief and hash. I take large cardboard boxes, with lids, and I hang my buds from strips of masking tape, (cheap paper tape) in the boxes, close, in rows, but not touching each other. I put lids over the boxes, keeping the buds in darkness. (IN DARKNESS IS a must) I cut holes in the lower sides of the boxes so air can circulate and I put the boxes on my spare bed with an oscilating fan blowing over the boxes, circulating air in and around the boxes and buds. The fan does not blow directly on the buds. I let them dry for 5 days, some for 6 days, until the stems are dry and will "snap" easily, and not bend but will easily break. I make absolutely certain that the stems are brittle and easily "Snap". I would just hate to get bud rot or bud mold from being too anxious.
I take my fluff buds, my small popcorn buds, and I lay them on paper towels, in shoe boxes, with the lids off but with a paper towel over the box, to keep out the light. I dry them for 4 or 5 days in the boxes. I "jar" them separate from the stemmed buds.
AFTER they pass the snap test, I put them in wide mouth quart jars, and put the jars in a cool dark cabinet. EVERY DAY for two weeks, I re-open the jar, smell it, shake it a little and reseal it. I actually feel of a bud to see if it is moist. I turn the jar upside down, loosen the buds inside and reopen the lid again to air it again. If I smell anything funny, I leave it open for 3 or 4 days, in darkness, then reseal it again. There is a major difference in potency in properly cured buds and not properly cured buds. A BIG DIFFERNECE. Try it, try smoking a two week cured bud and compare it to a 4 or 5 week cured buds. Buds should "cure" in the jars for 30 days minimum.
The buds should remain in the jars and be re-examined daily for the 4 weeks. This has worked perfectly for me for 4 Harvests, except one time, one jar of fluff buds got slight mold and I do not know why except I left some moisture in it somehow, on just one bud.

__________________
Roseman
When you grow with Mother Nature, you Grow with God.
May Peace and Joy Be Your Companions.