More On Drying....Read FAQZandor's Posts of course!

Cut down my first grow (29 plants total) Monday night and they have been hanging in there since. I trimmed off larger fan leaves before they were hung, and just took a peek to go in there. Decided to try to start trimming some of it, and I felt like it was a tad too dry, that I was almost ripping the leaves out rather than a nice cut. Now, they have been in there almost three days, I am curious when they should be put into the paper bags. What things do I look for in it to know it's ready to be moved? I assume at that point I will trim the herb as it will be nice and dry (though everything shrinks when it's dry so who knows if it will be easier) and then place it into paper bags and begin the curing proccess. Anyone...Bueller?

Just took down a plant and cut the buds off branches, and trimmed. They arent completely dry (this was the single plant that was hung on saturday) So I put them on a window screen and placed them back in the drying room. The buds should be able to "snap" before placing them into paper bags for the cure, correct?

From what I hear snapping stalks is time for curing. Why did you choose paper bags? It was my understanding that when you cure you seal the bud in an air tight copntainer like a jar to allow the moisture from the middle to dissippate to the dryer bud, causing nice evenly dried weed. Wouldn't a paper bag let air in anf prevent the even spread of moisture?

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Originally Posted by Chronic Chrissy

From what I hear snapping stalks is time for curing. Why did you choose paper bags? It was my understanding that when you cure you seal the bud in an air tight copntainer like a jar to allow the moisture from the middle to dissippate to the dryer bud, causing nice evenly dried weed. Wouldn't a paper bag let air in anf prevent the even spread of moisture?

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Paper bags are used commonly as well, though I do agree with you a jar might be better. I am dealing with a relatively large quantity (hopefully!) and jars is a bit less practicle than laying the bag down on it's long side (big grocery bag, not the lunch bag type) and putting an inch or two of buds in there. This way there's not heavy weight on any given nugget, and not too much moisture in any given spot. Ya dig?

makes sense

Busy busy times around here, a whole lot of trimming - what a beautiful thing we able to do to create our own medicine! Very much so a blessing...

The herb that was harvested on Saturday (most was harvested Monday) is going into glass jars tonight. It's not *completely* ready for jars, so I'm going to loosely pack it, and leave the jar off for a solid day... then start the real cure proccess. As for the rest of it that came down Monday, I am working my fastest to get it trimmed, and then placing it on window screens inside the dry room. The buds are getting flipped over every 14-20 hours, and then they will be put into glass jars within a few days. Hopefully the glass jars will really bring out that beatiful Diesel smell!


Y'all convinced me, jars are better than paper bags depsite being a tad more work! Cheers all. Pictures to come soon

Trimming is a lot of work, eh? I like to take all the big leaves off as well as trim the small ones close to the bud. I save these leaves separately.
I hang the buds to dry for a few days, then put them in large paper grocery bags (open) in my cedar wardrobe until the stems snap. Then the glass jar routine as mentioned. The strong smell doesn't really kick until you bust up a bud to pack a bowl or roll one.

Looking forward to pics, I'll post my buds in a week or so too.

Shovelhandle

i had a question for you guys... i just had my first ever harvest a few weeks ago, and the bud was a little too dried out (i think i had it hanging for 7 days). The buds weren't very big, the biggest being just over an 1/8o ... so how long do you think I should dry for? 5 days instead?

Did you use a dehumidifier in the room that you dried in? If so, keep your relative humidity right around 50-55 and don't put much if any direct air-flow on your plants... that could be the reason they dried up pretty quickly on ya. You want slight air movement, nothing that will dry em out though. With reguards to the size of your buds, that has more to do with growing conditions (lights/nutes/enviornment) than the drying proccess.

I just got done with a 2000 watt Sour Diesel, not enormous buds on most of my plants either, but I had a fine yield! You don't always need huge buds to have a worthwhile harvest. Cheers!

Pictures will come tomorrow gang. I am pretty far into trimming, about 30-40 percent I would say. It looks as if I will get a pound and a half + so there's plenty of work to do. I still have a bunch on windoe screens, as well as in jars (lids off) The stuff smokes fine, and smells good too! The buds aren't really cracking in half which is when I am supposed to start the real cure right? I took about an 1/8 out, and put it in a small jar..covered her up for about 8 hours, and have been rotating... so far no problems at all... does this mean the rest of it's ready? It's been cut for a week now...