DRYING AnD CuRInG!

Anybody...

I'm certainley no 'pro' but in the same boat as you-trying to find some real answers. It seems that everything written is around the same ballpark as everything else, albeit some small variations. Since it seems everything is strain dependent, you should probably do what I am doing...test out nugs at different stages and see what works best for you. Make like a mad scientist and start examining your plants and conduting as many tests as possible, taking notes, charting, plotting, and I'm sure you will come up with your own scientific conclusions, as general as they may be and apply them to your grow. I have taken clippings from several nugs, on several areas of the plant from top to bottom and recording average trich colors and seeing what the results are. I believe drying and curing has alot to do with personal preference, so set yourself up with nugs in different drying stages and cure them in the same manner. Than this can all be applied to your next grow. Im am postive that harvesting is not an exact science unless you have everything controlled, including the strains, in a lab under ideal circumstances. After reading hundreds of articles, posts, answers, etc, at best I believe you will find general rules of thumb and from there you will have to seek out your own strategies for personal preference. I think it may be impossible to perfect your science on your first grow and will undoubtofdly change with your next grow unless you are using the same exact strain. If you experiment with different things you will find the answers you will seek. Also try meditating with your plants and listen for what they are telling you.

You can always add moisture back if you get too dry.
But You can not remove the mold tho, if you do not dry them enough.
A small bud needs less dry time that a big bud, so I first sort mine by size, small, medium, large and popcorn size. The popcorn size goes in a box, shaken daily and moved around alot. Also, do not pile them atop each other.
I cut my buds, manicure them of leaves, sort them, and hang them upside down in a card board box, using papertape. (masking tape) DO NOT ALLOW THEM TO TOUCH EACH OTHER.
I also sort the trimmed leaves, the ones near the flowers, with Trichs from the ones without trichs (the fan shade leaves) I make oil with the fan leaves and hash with the trichome leaves.
I dry the small ones 5 days, with a fan gently blowing OVER them, not on them, not toward them, but OVER them, making a gentle breeze.
I dry the large ones 8 days.
The stem WILL snap, but the buds will still have some moisture in them.
After that, I put them in large mouth jars, and I re-open the jars for a minute, daily, for a month, everyday for 30 days.
Works for me!

thanks roseman!

make sure you sweat them also, put them into a ziplock for 12 hours at least twice during your dry. this will make for a much more uniform dry.

You do want the stems to snap, the stems dry much faster than the denser nugs.

once curing, I open the jars daily. Um I bought a little pump thing that takes all the air out of the jars, first time for this.sealer

nathenking said:

make sure you sweat them also, put them into a ziplock for 12 hours at least twice during your dry. this will make for a much more uniform dry.

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When I do this, should I hang dry for a few days and then stick em in a ziplock then back to hang dry? And should I try to keep as much air out of the ziplock as possible or it doesn't matter?

Thanks everyone for the tips, This is the kind of information I am looking for!

Has anyone heard of sticking them into brown paper bags for some time during the drying? I'm curious what this is for..

But again thanks anyone! If anyone else has any more of their own Drying and Curing tips.. please post! I'm up for any suggestions! Thanks!