Quote Originally Posted by copobo
I would be curious to hear what others are doing to cure.

I've been enjoying going back to some old stuff, and can really appreciate the difference after a month or two over just-harvested of the same variety.

The biggest problem is letting them hang too long. It seems like sometimes 1 day is too short and two days is too much, with it getting too dry.

Lately, I've been just hanging for 1 day, then I remove the buds from the stems and put in a 1 gallon jar, leave the lid off, fill it about half full, and lay it on its side. Then I roll and turn it daily mixing stuff up for a week or so, then I lid it up and remove the lid every few days until the moisture is just right.

At this point, I notice if it is refrigerated in its jar it holds its color really well for a very long time.

what are y'all doing? Any tricks for best color?

If you're drying them out in a single day you're locking a lot of clorophyll in the buds, and if they get too dry the curing process will not continue, even if you add moisture it will not continue from what I've read.

One guy on here said he drys at 70% humidity, at that level I believe things could mold, especially with the moisture level in the buds. Theres a great writeup on icmag about curing, all of you're questions are explained in it, hell I think it was even posted here in the colorado section as well.

Anyways, if its in the jar and above 70% humidity it's going to mold. Thats why you need to monitor the rh while its in the jars, start jaring when the stems are still somewhat plyable but do not snap, buds should be hard to the touch. I bought the recommended hygrometer but it's really close to the $7 walmart units so I'd just use them.

When you first jar them, and the humidity goes over 70 which mine normally do, the buds need to be pulled out and put over a screen for a couple hours and try again. As you get a week-two weeks cure, open the jars periodically for a half hr or so and slowly bring their RH down to 60, stems will snap at that rh and thats where I like it! Burping the jars will help. Just don't let the buds dry out too quick or too much or they'll taste like grass when you smoke them. And don't let them mold by keeping the jars 3/4 full while monitoring the RH. Once it's stabalized at 60% 36hrs I find the smoke is just right and I pull the hygrometers out and go ahead and store them. Some like to store at 55% humidity which is the lowest rh that the curing process can handle.

Hope this helps :stoned: