The Ultimate Growing Competition

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

I just noticed something. I think most of us probably use Boveda packs. If you don't they are great for storing flowers, since they both give and take moisture as needed to maintain a certain rH.

How do I know if my weed is dry enough to cure? After it seems dry, I always roll it out and play with it because I love it. I'll let it and the container air out for 10-15 minutes, then jar it back up. I also weigh it before and after I air it out and note the weight on the lid. In the past I have been looking for the amount of weight loss between burps, with the goal being zero.

This morning when I rolled my last (2oz) harvest out, it actually weighed almost a gram more than it did when I jarred it back up yesterday. That tells me it dried beyond the 62%, and the pack rehydrated it a bit. Never thought about it before, but I will be using that as a checkpoint in the future.

Happy smoking!

homebrewer · May 7, 2019

H.A.F. said:
I just noticed something. I think most of us probably use Boveda packs. If you don't they are great for storing flowers, since they both give and take moisture as needed to maintain a certain rH.

How do I know if my weed is dry enough to cure? After it seems dry, I always roll it out and play with it because I love it. I'll let it and the container air out for 10-15 minutes, then jar it back up. I also weigh it before and after I air it out and note the weight on the lid. In the past I have been looking for the amount of weight loss between burps, with the goal being zero.

This morning when I rolled my last (2oz) harvest out, it actually weighed almost a gram more than it did when I jarred it back up yesterday. That tells me it dried beyond the 62%, and the pack rehydrated it a bit. Never thought about it before, but I will be using that as a checkpoint in the future.

Happy smoking!

You may or may not know this but it's never a good idea to handle your herb unnecessarily. You can easily take 'A grade' to a B+ by fudging with it too much. It's my theory as to why dispensary herb is never as good as well grown homegrown.

My unsolicited suggestion would be to quit handling your herb and let the packs do their thing.

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

homebrewer said:
You may or may not know this but it's never a good idea to handle your herb unnecessarily. You can easily take 'A grade' to a B+ by fudging with it too much. It's my theory as to why dispensary herb is never as good as well grown homegrown.

My unsolicited suggestion would be to quit handling your herb and let the packs do their thing.

I do once it is dry - and when I say "play" with it, I make sure none is stuck together, so it is able to completely air out.

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

homebrewer said:
You may or may not know this but it's never a good idea to handle your herb unnecessarily. You can easily take 'A grade' to a B+ by fudging with it too much. It's my theory as to why dispensary herb is never as good as well grown homegrown.

My unsolicited suggestion would be to quit handling your herb and let the packs do their thing.

Don't get me wrong, every time I roll it out it's onto my keif screen, any goodies that come off are not lost. You can see wear-marks with no trichomes on some of the bud-leaf bottoms that have curled around the bud. I think that the trichome loss is what people are talking about, because air while drying is not an issue.

My point is that I think I found a safe identifier as to when it is OK to jar it up long term.

J.James · May 7, 2019

H.A.F. said:
Possible new stain name for something really pungent? "Creepy Uncle Joe"

"Biden Breath"

H.A.F. said:
Don't get me wrong, every time I roll it out it's onto my keif screen, any goodies that come off are not lost. You can see wear-marks with no trichomes on some of the bud-leaf bottoms that have curled around the bud. I think that the trichome loss is what people are talking about, because air while drying is not an issue.

My point is that I think I found a safe identifier as to when it is OK to jar it up long term.

H.A.F. said:
I do once it is dry - and when I say "play" with it, I make sure none is stuck together, so it is able to completely air out.

H.A.F. said:
I just noticed something. I think most of us probably use Boveda packs. If you don't they are great for storing flowers, since they both give and take moisture as needed to maintain a certain rH.

How do I know if my weed is dry enough to cure? After it seems dry, I always roll it out and play with it because I love it. I'll let it and the container air out for 10-15 minutes, then jar it back up. I also weigh it before and after I air it out and note the weight on the lid. In the past I have been looking for the amount of weight loss between burps, with the goal being zero.

This morning when I rolled my last (2oz) harvest out, it actually weighed almost a gram more than it did when I jarred it back up yesterday. That tells me it dried beyond the 62%, and the pack rehydrated it a bit. Never thought about it before, but I will be using that as a checkpoint in the future.

Happy smoking!

I do the same thing. After I think the plant is properly dried, I trim and weigh it. Then place it in my C-Vaults with Bovida packs and burp it twice a day for a week, Just to be safe. I find that after 7 days of doing this, I have 3% - 5% more weight.

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

J.James said:
I do the same thing. After I think the plant is properly dried, I trim and weigh it. Then place it in my C-Vaults with Bovida packs and burp it twice a day for a week, Just to be safe. I find that after 7 days of doing this, I have 3% - 5% more weight.

I am getting more fond of the bowl trimmer for everything but the tops. Since I am ending up with fat round nugs having all the leaf-tips removed helps them dry more even, but there's enough leaf left to protect the bud itself (and all her trichomes) when they dry and curl up. but not enough to close around the bud and keep it from drying

I actually like the flavor that having some sugar leaf in the grind gives.

J.James · May 7, 2019

H.A.F. said:
I am getting more fond of the bowl trimmer for everything but the tops. Since I am ending up with fat round nugs having all the leaf-tips removed helps them dry more even, but there's enough leaf left to protect the bud itself (and all her trichomes) when they dry and curl up. but not enough to close around the bud and keep it from drying

I actually like the flavor that having some sugar leaf in the grind gives.

I still hand trim, What "Bowl Trimmer" are you talking about and how much time does it save you?

homebrewer · May 7, 2019

H.A.F. said:
Don't get me wrong, every time I roll it out it's onto my keif screen, any goodies that come off are not lost. You can see wear-marks with no trichomes on some of the bud-leaf bottoms that have curled around the bud. I think that the trichome loss is what people are talking about, because air while drying is not an issue.

My point is that I think I found a safe identifier as to when it is OK to jar it up long term.

As you mentioned in a previous post the packs 'both give and take moisture as needed to maintain a certain rH'. You're already safe.

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

homebrewer said:
As you mentioned in a previous post the packs 'both give and take moisture as needed to maintain a certain rH'. You're already safe.

Not if they are stuck together in a clump and get hot spots. What I am doing is burping, that is not a new thing. I just remove it from the jar instead of just opening the jar.

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

J.James said:
I still hand trim, What "Bowl Trimmer" are you talking about and how much time does it save you?

Look at my avatar bud - what I used to do was have big buds hanging like that, but as it dries you could see the sugar leaves between the nugs staying moist. So you either pull the nug away and trim those sugar leaves as well, or you just hope it doesn't mold before it dries.

Since I ended up pulling and trimming, I no longer had "a big bud" - I had some cherry-tomatoes on a vine, and a big top. I use the bowl trimmer on all those nugs now and it saves tons of time. I still hand trim the tops (the 'post-flip' growth) and hang them, but everything else goes in a drying rack.

It has silicone fingers that roll the buds around on the grate, and a blade under the grate that spins at a 20:1 ratio to the hand crank. As you slowly crank the handle it chops off any leaves that poke through. I was skeptical, because they are don't seem gentle. But it isn't as harsh as it would seem.

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

@J.James here's a before and after

ChronicWonders. · May 7, 2019

H.A.F. said:
@J.James here's a before and after
View attachment 4329422 View attachment 4329423

Are you doing that after drying your buds or is that a wet trim through the bowl?

J.James · May 7, 2019

H.A.F. said:
Look at my avatar bud - what I used to do was have big buds hanging like that, but as it dries you could see the sugar leaves between the nugs staying moist. So you either pull the nug away and trim those sugar leaves as well, or you just hope it doesn't mold before it dries.

Since I ended up pulling and trimming, I no longer had "a big bud" - I had some cherry-tomatoes on a vine, and a big top. I use the bowl trimmer on all those nugs now and it saves tons of time. I still hand trim the tops (the 'post-flip' growth) and hang them, but everything else goes in a drying rack.

It has silicone fingers that roll the buds around on the grate, and a blade under the grate that spins at a 20:1 ratio to the hand crank. As you slowly crank the handle it chops off any leaves that poke through. I was skeptical, because they are don't seem gentle. But it isn't as harsh as it would seem. View attachment 4329421

H.A.F. said:
@J.James here's a before and after
View attachment 4329422 View attachment 4329423

I have been skeptical for the same reason, Seem like it would roll the small buds around and knock off all the trichomes. I'll have to pick one up and give it a try. Thanks for sharing. Are they easy to clean out what you do lose?

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

ChronicWonders. said:
Are you doing that after drying your buds or is that a wet trim through the bowl?

I've tried both, and I think wet turns out better. Less goodies fall off for one thing, and none of the leaves have curled yet so it does a more even job on them.

I hand prune all the fan leaves as close to the stem as I can, and as I go instead of trimming off sugar leaves and gumming up the scissors, I just snip the nug and move to the next one, until I get to the top. I'll wait and trim all the tops at once with 3-4 sets of scissors so I don't have to stop and clean them.

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

J.James said:
I have been skeptical for the same reason, Seem like it would roll the small buds around and knock off all the trichomes. I'll have to pick one up and give it a try. Thanks for sharing. Are they easy to clean out what you do lose?

If you look at that pic there are some dime-size nugs that didn't fall through or get chopped up. If I end up with a strain that has fluffy nugs instead of dense ones, I wouldn't use it.

DesertPlants · May 7, 2019

Definitely works better with wet trim.

ChronicWonders. · May 7, 2019

I’m a huge fan of Cali meds and their tight manicured buds so this is incredibly appealing to me. Might be a future purchase...

Just worry about the small nuggets drying to fast.

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

I'll show you in a few weeks.

H.A.F. · May 7, 2019

ChronicWonders. said:
I’m a huge fan of Cali meds and their tight manicured buds so this is incredibly appealing to me. Might be a future purchase...

Just worry about the small nuggets drying to fast.

They would dry almost as fast hanging on a stem, they're still small

When I "play" with the weed that's drying I also sort it after a few days by size, and some hits the c-vault before the rest. Scroll back a few pages and there's a pic of my results (my 1st QP pic)

homebrewer · May 7, 2019

H.A.F. said:
Not if they are stuck together in a clump and get hot spots. What I am doing is burping, that is not a new thing. I just remove it from the jar instead of just opening the jar.

Pro tip: get yourself a broad, shallow container from Rubbermaid or Tupperware for 'burping'. All you'll need to do is remove the lid.

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