Harvested...how long do I have to trim them?

I just chopped my plants. How many days do I have to trim them? I have no idea what what my yield will be but i have 400 tops. I chopped all the stalks so they don't continue to grow and im trimming them now but its taking forever. How long can they sit there before it has an adverse effect?

Does drying need to be completely light proof? Because i go in and out of the room to get more colas to trim.

Right now theyre sitting in the trellis upright. I chopped 4 of the plants in sections and hung them upside down, almost looks like a whole plant hung up to dry.

I'm thinking of just letting the plants dry and trimming them at the same time as i get to each plant...is this a bad idea?

You can dry them out then trim. I prefer to trim dry so I just remove fan leaves, dry the plants out and then seal untrimmed buds in airtight buckets and check on them daily and burp until I've got it all done. I actually seem to prefer this method not only for flexibility of finding time to trim but it seems to get a great cure.

orangeade5 said:

You can dry them out then trim. I prefer to trim dry so I just remove fan leaves, dry the plants out and then seal untrimmed buds in airtight buckets and check on them daily and burp until I've got it all done. I actually seem to prefer this method not only for flexibility of finding time to trim but it seems to get a great cure.

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Thanks for the reply! How long can you typically keep them around if you don't put them airtight? And what do you think of my approach? With the dry and trim at the same time?

Why do plants have to be hung upside anyway? Can't I just chop them and leave them in the trellis?

You can let it dry out as much as you'd like but it really depends on your climate. I live in a very dry climate and my plants are dry in 5-8 days typically, your mileage will likely vary but a lot of people dry for 2-3 weeks in more humid areas. Trimming while they dry is no problem, especially if you're just trying to get it over with. I don't have a good answer as to why we hang the plants upside down but it's sure easy to hang them on the natural branches, I personally wouldn't leave them in the trellis, I have hooks on 2 adjacent walls of my room that I tie paracord to and hang dry on that.

Just don't let your plants get moldy, nothing worse than falling at the finish line

So if it takes me A week to trim all these plants i'm still good? Basically half of them will be wet trimmed and the other half will be dry trimmed I guess... I just don't want the buds to go bad due to taking too long to trim them

If you let bud dry out too much it will lose some taste and smell, may be a little more harsh as well but if it stays wet it will be moldy and become garbage. You'll be fine trimming half wet and half dry as long as you dry it all, then burp it in airtight containers daily until it's dry enough. I've left properly dried branches of buds in buckets for up to 3 months before even trimming them and it turned out great so don't worry about that, just remove the big fan leaves before that so you don't have to deal with separating them from the good trim down the road.

orangeade5 said:

If you let bud dry out too much it will lose some taste and smell, may be a little more harsh as well but if it stays wet it will be moldy and become garbage. You'll be fine trimming half wet and half dry as long as you dry it all, then burp it in airtight containers daily until it's dry enough. I've left properly dried branches of buds in buckets for up to 3 months before even trimming them and it turned out great so don't worry about that, just remove the big fan leaves before that so you don't have to deal with separating them from the good trim down the road.

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I hope I have enough air circulation. How long does it typically take for mould to take place. I had a little bit of powdery mildew on some of my larger leaves

I have a hole cut in my wall and I exhaust my room constantly, mold doesn't take long at all to take hold and once it does it spreads like wildfire. Do not leave that shit in a sealed room without at least a dehumidifier. if you don't have any exhaust setup for the room run as many fans as you can and open the doors very often to exchange the air, mold will take over in stagnant air, fresh air is the best thing to combat it

I have a dehumidifier, an intake hole, intake fan on the other side blowing fresh air from outside, and 3 fans as well as 1000 CFM exhaust fan. I hope I'm good I'm really scared of mould. I'm going to pull off the ducting off the air cooled lights and let that fan blow into the room as well

Thanks so much for your help, I'm really kind of in a panic here.

Get those fan leaves off the plants and out of the room and into a trash bag, they have lots of moisture in them. Get em upside down too out of the trellis and just do whatever you can to keep the room around 50% humidity and under 75 degrees f or so and you'll be fine. If you still have the buckets of soil or whatever in there that will also be a huge problem so make sure you got those out.

Make sure to get rid of the molding leaves wash your stuff as u go and hands to keep it from spreading flip the trellis inside down from ceiling if you have to!

You either chop hang and dry or chop trim hang and dry. Do not trim them if they are not finish drying ....i mean don't have them hanging for 2 days and then trim and re hang because handling of the buds when they are trying to dry can cause mold.

I like harvest in stages too, keep the plants in the grow room, start with the colas and go back to it every couple few days until I'm done trimming. Gives time for the lowers to fill in.

GreenSanta said:

You either chop hang and dry or chop trim hang and dry. Do not trim them if they are not finish drying ....i mean don't have them hanging for 2 days and then trim and re hang because handling of the buds when they are trying to dry can cause mold.

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What if you have a large harvest and it takes you like a week to trim...what do you do with the buds that are on standby waiting to get trimmed? And you don't want o let the plants flower for anotherr week because it would be too much

trimming is not needed at all....i trim my personal when i'm ready to grind it up, by pulling any of the larger leaves off.....

hot cheetos said:

What if you have a large harvest and it takes you like a week to trim...what do you do with the buds that are on standby waiting to get trimmed? And you don't want o let the plants flower for anotherr week because it would be too much

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I put mine in totes. Cheap ones. They're not air tight and I burp them often. If they're too dry I may place a tortilla in there to moisten them up. Next morning the tortilla will be crispy and the buds will be just right. I have stored buds in totes for well over a month with no problems.

Don't go crazy with the dehumidifier in your drying room either. You're in the curing process now technically and a good cure is paramount, no need to rush it.

Cut the fan leaves off the rest and hang them. Personally I like the sugar leaves as a sort of secondary protection around the buds and their trichs. You compare when you're done. Bet the dry trimmed buds will be way better.

I pull down 50 single cola plants every week & MUST focus on cleaning the table,changing the rez,then refilling the table with freshly rooted clones before I trim,the trick is to keep the freshly chopped buds cool .

I pull down roughly 8 lbs of colas & immideiately pop them into a refrigerator while I use 24 hours to clean & restock,I then take the next 3 days pulling plants out of the fridge & trimming them ,the big fan leaves still snap right off easily at the stalk,no leaves are wilted & the small leaf tips poking out of the colas aren't all curled up like they do when allowed to sit after chopping .

Keeping freshly harvested buds in the fridge keeps them in a fresh state which allows you time to trim,without creating Tue massive extra work associated with trimming after the drying .

i put cuttings in fridge for later use n to back up ones i'm trying to root......good for at least 3 weeks wrapped in wet paper towel in a zip lock.

hot cheetos said:

What if you have a large harvest and it takes you like a week to trim...what do you do with the buds that are on standby waiting to get trimmed? And you don't want o let the plants flower for anotherr week because it would be too much

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I've held over 10 lbs of freshly cut colas in the refrigerator for roughly 10 days before when I couldn't get to them in my normal 4 days,no I'll effects,potency the same,taste the same,zero mold,very very very little leaf wilt after 7 days .

Wrap the buds up using a material that can breathe,I use cheese cloth,then plop em in the fridge & you'll be good to go,I make 5 big ass bundles out of my colas & stuff each bundle on a shelf in the fridge .