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Table of contents
- When And How To Harvest Marijuana Plants. Part 11. A Step by Step Guide
- The Cannabis Grow Bible & 9 Other Books for Growing Weed (2018)
- Product details
- How to Make Cannabis Oil: Ultimate Guide - Beginner
December 30, Sold by: Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. I would really enjoy contacting this Author and Thanking them.
I am 63 years old with a damaged lower back, a broken neck, sciatic nerve , knees, and a ton of other issues including my first heart attack I am being treated for as I write this. Our so called Doctors have turned liars and have broken their so called Oath to treat their Patients with everything at their disposal.
When And How To Harvest Marijuana Plants. Part 11. A Step by Step Guide
They say they Can Not write narcotics for that much pain, because the government says so. They have just lied to your face. The Government has NO in medicine. Their too stupid, just look at the kluster mess we have to live with. They need to stay out of everyone else's business and try to just do their own! The Doctors were told the facts from the government and I agree with them.
The Cannabis Grow Bible & 9 Other Books for Growing Weed (2018)
Too many Doctor's handed out opioids like suckers to little children, or Handicapped stickers to everyone. But since they can't be reasonable they choose to be disloyal to their Oath. All Medical people should be looking at Marijuana. It's possibilities and potentials for Real Healing are fantastic.
They should start by reading this books Forward Section. It is right on! I applaud this author and would look forward to another well written read from them!! One person found this helpful. The only thing you'll get from this book is a basic overview. I gave it two stars because at least you get that but really all the information, and a lot of better information, is available for free online. I am new to medical cannabis as a patient. I was hoping for more info in this book but not so. I also tried her recipes. If you are a patient don't do it! They are very weak and she is not extracting nearly all the medicine out of her buds using her methods.
Cannabis is expensive and I wasted money! For comparison I have to consume 4 -5 pieces of her chocolates to get the same benefit of ONE piece using better preparation methods! Also, chocolate chips are too soft to hold up. I use a hard chocolate now and that works better. I'm sure the author meant well but I can't recommend this book.
Great book for instruction and reference A fun and easy read. The recipes for medicinal marijuana are easy to follow. The descriptions about the medical benefits of marijuana are easy to understand with basic every day language. For a starting point on medicinal marijuana benefits and resources for the individual, this book covers the basics. Happy reading to all medical marijuana cooperative members and individuals in the community.
Very useful and interesting to read. Lots of good information. I have always been intereseted in the versatility and unique qualities of the Marijuana plant, even though I do not use it. This book was very well put together and thoughtful. Nice book for a beginner. It gives you the basics on how to grow your own, and how to prepare it for making delicious candies and other treats.
Did enjoy the two recipes! And the strain recommendations. Would have like to see more recipes explaining the different routes of delivering your medicine. For example tincture,salve, or suppository, not just sweets;. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. See all 20 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 1 year ago. Published on June 4, Published on July 19, Published on June 12, Published on March 9, Published on October 15, Published on October 6, Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers.
Learn more about Amazon Giveaway. Set up a giveaway. Customers who bought this item also bought. Occasionally, some Sativas have windows of peak harvest that actually open and close. That is, for a week or so the plant may exhibit signs of peak ripeness. However, a week later the plant may have a growth spurt, which lowers the trichome-to-fibre ratio and overall potency for a little while. Usually a fibrous growth spurt is accompanied by a trichome increase. Again, time and experience are the key elements in determining the perfect harvest time.
As the window closes, the more desirable compounds begin breaking down into less desirable ones. Which particular combination of chemicals is the most desirable is purely a matter of taste and choice, developed over time and with experience. Set and setting also play an important role in determining which type of product is best appreciated.
Pleasant head highs are often desirable for social occasions, whereas a narcotic late-window Indica may work better as an evening medicinal herb. Another important point is that much can be done to further enhance the chemical process, especially in regard to bouquet, aroma and flavour that is, as long as the proper curing process is followed.
The question of when to harvest cannabis plants is a question that puzzles many new growers. Realistically, the skills needed to detect the specific day or even hour when a plant is at its peak can only be acquired through years of experience. However, even the novice grower should be able detect the window of time during which the harvest results in premier crop of outstanding dank bud. Most growers consider the plant to be mature when the percentage of THC found in the plant reaches its maximum.
It is not practical for the average grower to actually measure THC in a plant, as the chemistry is somewhat complex not to mention measuring THC requires practically a full blown laboratory and is quite a daunting task indeed! In a growing plant, each successive pair of leaves contains more THC than the previous pair. The budding tips of the plant contain the most THC of all. Both male and female plants contain THC. Some research has shown that in the early stages of growth the males actually contain more THC than the females.
Many growers feel it is worth cutting and sampling shoots before the THC has reached its maximum. The size of the plant has little to do with its maturity. Outdoors, a plant might reach a height of over eight feet 2. The age of a plant has little to do with its maturity level. How quickly a plant matures is mostly dependent on the amount of light the plant receives each day photoperiod. Typically, a plant will transition from the growing vegetative stage to the budding stage when the light per day drops below 12 hours.
This is not to say that a 3-week-old seedling will begin to bloom when the light is cut. As a general rule, a plant must be a minimum of 60 days old before it is mature enough to respond appropriately to decreased light. For indoor growers, the decision on when to cut the photoperiod depends on available growing space, as well as the need to harvest weed. Some growers report that clones cuttings can be forced to bloom prior to 60 days old, perhaps since the cutting itself is somewhat mature at the time it is rooted. Almost always, male flowers will show prior to female buds.
Thus, once the males in the garden are detected, you can be sure that that the female budding process will start soon — usually within weeks. Many gardeners report that certain cannabis varieties take longer to mature than others. In particular, the narrow-leafed Sativas are said to take significantly longer to initiate and complete budding, as compared to the wide-leafed Indicas.
Under some conditions Sativas will require an additional month or more to mature after the Indicas have been harvested. Obviously, indoor growers cannot use the seasons as a guide to harvesting though a cold winter-time grow room can significantly retard the growth of the plants. Outdoor growers on the other hand can use the seasons as a predictor of the ideal harvest time. In the Fall, once the length of day drops below 12 hours, the count-down to harvest will be begin. Weather conditions will affect the exact harvest day from year to year, but generally you can expect to harvest within the same two-week window each year.
The best way to tell if the plant is ready is to examine the bud. Many growers like to pick each bud individually, as it reaches it prime. The bracts and tiny leaves may swell in size…The resin content of these buds may be higher, [but] the grass will smoke more harshly than if the buds were younger when picked. When a plant is at the peak of florescence, it has a sweet and musky fragrance.
Later, it loses the sweetness. As they turn from clear to amber, that is the optimum time to pick. Buds usually mature from the top down, if grown under artificial light, and you will end up with more high-quality pot if you pick each bud when ready. However, the plant will not just continue to produces buds at the same rate. Like any other plant, the flowering cycle lasts a specific period of time. If you wanted a further harvest of buds, the plant would need a second cycle of vegetative growth. This can be achieved indoors by simply turning the lights back up to a 24 hour cycle for a few weeks.
Outdoors though, you are dependent on the seasons. Frost and long nights will usually kill the plant. Of course, such a strategy is only variable if growing a few plants. Welcome to the funnest part of growing marijuana, Harvesting! Harvesting is the exciting part of the process when you get to reap your hard-earned rewards. First and foremost, if being discreet is a problem and you have any smell concerns I would like to warn you that Harvesting really really smells.
Harvesting will spread that potent marijuana odor into the air very quickly, so be warned if smell is a major concern for you. There is way more to harvesting marijuana plants than simply cutting them down. Plants are cut down at the stems below the base below the lower leaves with a sharp clean knife or hack saw. With a small indoor or outdoor garden less than 15 plants it can take a few hours to harvest, manicure, and hang the buds to dry. This can be time consuming for sure. Make sure you set aside a steady 6 hours of time to work undisturbed the first time you harvest a small garden.
This is to remove any fertilizer that has built up in the actual plants themselves, and the hydroponic media or soil they were grown in. After the plants are harvested they must be manicured and dried. The plants themselves and the hydroponic media or soil the plants were grown in will store some of the nutrients that have been fed to them. Marijuana plants need fertilizer so they can grow and mature to produce THC. In order to remove the fertilizer from plants, you feed them plain water with no nutrients for one or more feedings just before they are harvested.
This is called flushing. That is if you do it correctly. If you do not flush the nutrients from the plants, the resulting marijuana will taste bad and may be very hard to ignite. If you have been growing the plant on organic nutrients then there is seldom a need to clear the plant since it has not taken up any foul tasting chemical nutrients. The extra N stored in the foliage will have been used up translocated for budding fuel as part of the natural process of final budding.
When growing hydroponic marijuana, start clearing about 7 days before harvest. With soil, same pure water rules apply above but instead of 7 days you need to change the water 14 days before harvest. Avoid slow-release fertilizers because they are hard to remove. If you have your heart set on using slow-release fertilizer, not to worry just replace it with regular nutrients for the last month. DO NOT stop the flow of water to hydroponic plants. It is best keeping as many leaves green on the plant until week 5 or 6.
Then, metabolize the remaining minerals present in the plant during the final 2 or 3 weeks. Total dissolved solids in the final flushing solution is between ppm. In hydroponics, it is important not to reduce the solution ppm much lower, as this will shock the plants by causing reverse osmotic pressure on the roots. The plant stores excess nutrients in the plant tissue, that are available for photosynthesis. If there is a lack of available nutrients to the roots, the plant will access these reserves and the final product will burn, smell and taste far better.
So its harvest time!!! But, you do not know where or what you should cut and how to go about it. Well the truth is that this is mostly personal preference. Regardless of how you cut and trim your plants touch the flowers as little as possible and avoid breaking up the buds. Damaging the delicate trichomes will reduce the potency of the marijuana a lot.
One way to safely handle your plants is to leave the plants in their pots more or less intact and spread out a couple news papers. Toss large sun leaves on newspaper and do small bud trimming over the other. Start with the sun leaves and then trim progressively smaller. This way you will have less in your way. For now, leave the buds on your stems. For trimming thebuds, first take all the tiny popcorn lower buds and put them where you are going to put your trim.
To trim the bud leaves, simply clip off the stem to remove it. Then begin to trim in a circular motion around the bud until you have cut back to the sugar coating. Trimming past this point is just wasteful. Some drying processes will involve just clipping at the main stem and hanging upside down to dry; others will require you to further break down the plant into smaller bud pieces. Also, you will find that you can trim the large top buds into smaller buds one node at a time. It is better to leave as large of a single bud mass as possible.
When plants finally mature, they are in their most vulnerable susceptible state to mold. Mold can be disastrous. Mold formation begins inside the bud and grows outward, making it invisible until it is too late. Molds can wipe out an entire crop overnight. Maintaining a low humidity during the final weeks of maturity will greatly reduce the chance of a mold attack!
You can harvest the plants by cutting them down at the base of the stem with a pair of scissors, sharp clean knife, hacksaw or some other cutting tool, just above where the plant meets the hydroponic media or soil. This allows you to harvest the entire plant at the same time. You can also wait for each individual branch to mature and cut it off separately. Try to leave a few inches of stem at the base of each bud.
If you do, it will be easier to hang the buds to dry. If growing outdoors due to the constantly changing growing conditions, you can not assume a particular strain will be ready in the exact amount of time each time you grow it. Harvesting outdoor plants that can grow up to 12 feet! These plants tend to be a challenge to harvest, as it is in no way easy.
In order to harvest your outdoor marijuana plants you will need a canvas spread or some other material you can use to wrap up and properly carry the bud in. Next roll up your canvas or other material and tie it down tight to ensure a safe transport. Your foot plant should be cut at the base, turned upside-down, and hung in a cool room with no light and plenty of fresh air.
Using a pair of clippers remove as many of the fan leaves as you possibly can you can also remove the big leaves by hand. Next remove the secondary small leaves around the tops and place these in a separate pile. For precision cutting you can buy a machine. Even the smallest tops can be cut away without any problem using one! A Sativa harvest is slightly harder than an Indica harvest, and takes a little bit more work but is so so worth it. It is done in the same way as an indica harvest basically.
Cut your plant at its base and hang it upside down in a cool room with no light and plenty of fresh air. Take your pair of clippers and remove leaves you can also remove the bigger ones by hand and trim as mentioned in the harvesting Indica section. Sativa plants tend to be very bushy. You may have to cut the branches and hang these up separately. Also be sure to keep your room dark as light will degrade your precious THC quantities. Try not to expose your harvest to any direct light as much as you can. After the marijuana plants have been harvested it is now time for the next part in the cultivation process, we need to manicure them and then dry them.
Leave the plant as it is until you can easily break a branch between your fingers, once you can do this, you are ready to cure the bud. Manicuring, simply put, is cutting off the leaves that were growing from the buds. Cut off all the leaves surrounding the bud, so that just the bud remains. Manicure immediately after harvest when plant leaves are still soft and supple. Trimming immediately also increases drying times. Simply put this is the process when we remove the non resin-covered fan leaves around the buds before hanging. These do not contain high concentrations of THC.
This is a very time consuming process, but you will find if done properly and with care it produces more potent, less leafy, better looking buds. This can be done before or after drying, but you will find it is much easier to do it before. Remove the entire leaf stem!
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If not it can attract moisture and attract mold. Tear fan leaves away from the stock while handling buds as little as possible. The degree to which you trim your buds is a matter that is entirely personal choice. A good time to begin manicuring is when your plants are nearly dry.
When they are too dry, many of the glands will fall off with handling. When there is moisture most of the glands will remain intact. Work over a smooth surface such as a glass table. This will make it easy to be able to see and collect all the material that has been cut away from the buds. It is lower in THC than the buds, but rather than throw it away you can make hash oil.
When manicuring your buds, be sure to use a pair of scissors with small blades to reach the hard to get leaves that is comfortable. If you have a small crop, you can handle the plants with your bare hands. For the larger crops, be sure to wear powder free latex gloves. If you want to consume the resin, be sure to place the latex gloves in a bag and then place it in the freezer for hours.
The trichome resin can easily then be peeled from the latex gloves and consumed the way you would use hashish. If it is absolutely necessary, you can postpone manicuring the buds. However, the job will take even more time if you choose to wait. Manicuring right after the plants are harvested will also speed up the drying process tremendously. At this point the buds should be a little moist, including the inside of them.
After trimming it is now time to dry out buds. Drying and curing marijuana is a critical step in the growth process. During this stage you can lose, preserve, or cultivate odor, flavor, and potency. Odor and flavor must be carefully cultivated. The drying and curing process allow the plant to purge sugar and if desired to purge chlorophyll although some have developed a taste for the chlorophyll in the plant.
Improperly dried and cured marijuana can lose almost all of its original potency and lower potency marijuana can be concentrated to slightly higher potency if handled properly. Four things reduce the potency of marijuana those things are exposure to light, heat, damage to the plant tissue, and air. Additionally, marijuana that is not dried and stored properly can contain too much moisture and grow mold. It is important to remember that many rapid drying techniques will dry only the outside of a compact flower and that slow techniques like curing may be needed to draw that moisture to the surface.
The virtue in drying and curing as with all stages of growing is patience. Initially drying can be preformed free hanging or enclosed in cardboard boxes or paper bags, both of which will act as a desiccant. Drying can be performed by taking the branches and hanging them up side down so the fan leaves droop and cover the buds. During this step you need to put the branches in a cool dark place not humid with enough good ventilation. If you dryyour buds too fast it will make your buds smell like pine needles, hay, and taste very bad. Proper drying and curing also ensures the maximum potency of the marijuana you have grown.
Hanging your marijuana upside down in a cool dry place of total darkness is essential for potent buds. This way all the leftover THC is forced down into the buds. Marijuana is typically not potent just after harvest — some of the THC is in a non-psychoactive acidic form. Drying marijuana the right way will also convert the non-psychoactive acidic compounds into psychoactive potent THC.
The area where drying is done should be completely dark. Air Drying is probably the most popular method of drying marijuana today and for good reason! It can be very well controlled — by controlling the amount of airflow, you control the speed of drying. The most common technique of air drying is to suspend the plants upside down in a room with a circulating fan blowing but not actually blowing on the plants themselves to keep air moving.
Another technique to put the buds on a half open drawer or tray in a place with moving air. The further along in the drying process the more you close the drawer to reduce airflow. A simpler way to dry the marijuana is to put the buds in a layer in a brown paper bag. This is simpler but faster and therefore the output is less desirable. The speed in this process is a trade off. If you dry too fast then it will take longer to cure the marijuana properly. If you dry too slowly you will be exposing the marijuana to more air therefore reducing potency.
Many growers shoot for about seven days drying time. If you are not going to cure the marijuana the plants should be dried until the stems snap easily rather than bend. If you are going to cure then you can begin with slightly more damp but still mostly dry marijuana. In order to dry the crop is to hang the buds upside-down from their stem, from a string or wire that has been secured to a wall or any other stationary object.
You can use nails, screws, thumbtacks etc to attach the string or wire to whatever it will be held to.
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Make sure your setup is secure enough to be able to hold the weight of the marijuana that is going to be hung drying on it. Nails or screws in wood is typically very sturdy and recommended. Make sure you leave enough room between the plants for air to properly circulate. It is good idea to check up on the buds every day to watch for signs of mold and mildew and correct the problem if it happens. After the fan leaves droop down over the flowers and turn crisp or break off easily, you would want to start trimming off the fan leaves only. The drying marijuana must have some circulation blowing over it at all times.
A gentle breeze that circulates all over the plants is necessary. A fan or two will circulate the air within the drying room perfectly. Fans aid in drying the plants evenly and reducing the chances of mold forming on your buds. If mold is prone to grow due to your drying environmental conditions, it can ruin all of your crop. Mold looks like white fuzz or white spots and has a distinct unpleasant odor.
NEVER ever smoke moldy buds, as this can make you very very sick and might even kill you! A dark cool drying environment is critical. In order to ensure optimum drying results, you are going to have to keep the temperature and humidity within a certain range for optimal results. Conditions should remain somewhere between the following ideal ranges;. To measure these levels, be sure to keep a hygrometer and a thermometer in the the drying area very close to the plants.
A hygrometer allows you to keep tabs on the relative humidity level in the room and a thermometer will display the temperature. Some hygrometers have built in thermometers so you can measure both temperature and humidity at the same time. Depending on the time of year and your current location, a heater or an air conditioner might be necessary to adjust the temperature. To control the humidity levels a dehumidifier can lower the humidity and a humidifier can be used to raise it.
There are two types of humidifiers — warm mist and cool mist. There are also humidifiers that allow you to switch between a warm or cool mist. Warm mist actually heats up the water and releases warm humidity. In most cases a cool mist works best. Never rush the drying of your buds that is, if you want to make sensational bud!
A bud is completely dry, cured, and ready for consumption when the stem in the middle of the bud snaps rather than fold easily with the fingers. The snap is easy to detect with practice. You can test a little bit about a half a gram or less in a joint if you want to be absolutely sure it is dry enough. The surface of buds should be dry to the touch. Good ventilation in the room will allow buds to grow faster, but any air that is directed at buds will cause them too dry out too quickly. In time you will get a feel for the perfect drying methodology, no worries.
Light will rapidly decompose THC! And remember, you can use all sorts of little tricks and methods to increase drying time, but ultimately — the longer and slower your buds dry, the smoother the smoke will be in the end. The bud will smoke smoother if it takes around a week or more for the moisture to evaporate; quicker drying will harshen the taste and degrade the burning properties.
So please, for the sake of your smoke and your buds! It will pay off in the end, I promise. If you MUST dry your buds faster then peeling stems is a much quicker way to dry the product.
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The first day of drying you would normally cut all fan leaves off and score the main stem with a sharp knife. You can do this scoring ritual everyday for 5 days until all is dry. Should a sample of bud become over-dried before proper curing is complete, many different techniques may be used to slightly re-hydrate the bud and continue curing as normal. Fresh buds, orange or lemon peels, lettuce, apple or many other fresh fruits and vegetables can be added to a sealed jar of pot to allow more moisture to diffuse into it.
Plain water either sprayed directly on or applied via towel to the buds is also a good way to re-moisten them. Be very careful when re-moisturizing buds though, because sometimes the remoisturizing material can carry pathogenic fungi and bacteria, which if not monitored carefully, can destroy your crop. Adding moisture to a smoking bag of over-dried, crispy buds is easy! All you need is a sealed container A Ziploc bag or a glass jar works just fine , fresh fan leaves and about a days time.
Put your over dried buds into a Ziploc bag or a 1 quart mason jar a jar being the better choice. Add a few freshly cut fan leaves fresh shoots work great too to your jar or baggie. Use about leaves to half a mason jar. Start with a few leaves; add more leaves as necessary. Fan leaves will become dry and shriveled when they give up their moisture.
A paper towel with a few drops of water on it also does the trick. The final step is to wait about a day. How long it takes depends on how much is in the container and how dry the buds were. It can work as fast as 5 hrs. Check the container at least once a day. The buds will have a nice, soft texture will not feel crispy or brittle when they are ready. They will smell better too! To re-moisten larger amounts of dry bud, simply scale everything up. You may want to separate large and smaller buds into separate containers. Once a day, turn the pile of buds over to expose the bottom buds.
Check for any signs of rot. The process may take days. It is possible to harvest plants and then rejuvenate them vegetatively for a 2nd and even 3rd harvest. A second harvest can be realized in as little as 6- 8 weeks. Leave most healthy fan leaves in the middle of the plant, cutting buds off branches carefully. These will be the part of the plant that is regenerated.
The more buds you leave on the plant, the faster it will regenerate. Feed the plant some high nitrogen plant food immediately after harvest. When you intend to regenerate a plant, make sure it never gets too starved for nitrogen as it is maturing, or all the sun leaves will fall off, and your plant will not have enough leaves to live after being harvested. Harvested plants can come inside for rejuvenation under continuous light or are left outside in Summer to rejuvenate in the natural long days.
It will take days to see signs of new growth when regenerating a plant. As stated before, and in contrast to normal growth patterns, lower branches will be the first to sprout new vegetative growth. Allow the plant to grow a little vegetatively, then take outside again to re-flower. Or keep inside for vegetative cuttings. You now have two or three generations of marijuana growing and will need more space outside.
But you will now be harvesting twice as often. As often as every 30 days, since you have new clones or seedlings growing, vegetative plants ready to flower, and regenerated plants flowering too. Regenerating indoors can create problems if your plants are infected with pests. It may be best to have a separate area indoors that will not allow your plants to infect the main indoor area.
An alternative to regenerating indoors is to regenerate outdoors in the Summer. Feed it nitrogen, and make sure it gets lots of sun. It will regenerate all Summer and be quite large by Fall, when it will start to flower again naturally. Curing is essential in order to smoke marijuana without damaging your lungs and for getting the best taste possible out of your buds. A fan leaf will be an okay smoke, the middle leaves a little bit better, the trim is very good, and the bud is obviously the PRIME that will give you the best quality euphoric high. The last critical step is to create a way to bring out the full flavor and best smoke possible from your marijuana buds.
This is the final step in which moisture is redistributed throughout the bud. If left dry bud will dry from the outside-in. The problem with this is that by the time the buds center becomes dry, the outside will become overly dry — it is crisp and crumbly. In order to dry the center without over-drying the outsides, your buds will need to be cured.
These will distribute them moisture evenly throughout the bud. Glass is recommended because most plastics will impart a gross taste to the marijuana. Containers that have a rubber seal work best, but any tight fitting lid will do. They have a rubber seal and hold about 2 or more ounces of marijuana per jar. When the buds feel firm and crisp, it is time to seal them in an airtight light proof container and stored in a cool dark place. The sweet spot is when marijuana is dry enough to be stored in roomtemperature airtight containers without growing mold, and being moist enough wont break down and crumble when handled to ensure a sensational smoke.
Once they start to cure and sweat, you will see how much moisture is left. Drying bud converts crude acidic THC from its nonactive form into a neutral pH psychoactive substance. When the water exits the bud, the THC becomes slightly different in molecular structure. However, aging is equally as important too. Curing builds a more uniformly dried bud with a better burn and taste. Almost all the THC converts to the usable psychoactive cannabinoid over the allotted time without the degradation gotten from heat drying the bud quickly. Cured buds pack in bowls easier and break down into blunts and joints without difficulty.
Hash that has been cured forms a beautiful rhine around the outside with a rich creamy inside. Cured bud and hash is great and worth the trouble. The taste is awesome as all the excess chlorophyll has been broken down. A smoother smoke is created. Curing bud makes it more tasty and much more enjoyable to use than it already is. There are many variables to consider when it comes to drying-time: Establishing an environment that promotes slow and uniform drying is key. Commercial growers take the colas from the plant and manicure them before drying.
They usually dry them on a line, upside-down, which is fine. However, usually airflow is forced, temperatures too high, and humidity too low. As soon as the buds are considered dry usually within a few days , it is sold. This results in harsh, grassy tasting weed that lacks the full-bodied flavor and smooth stone of properly dried and cured bud. To Do It Right: At harvest-time all you have to do is cut the plant as low as possible and hang the whole thing upside down to dry on a line. The room you use to dry should be the about the same size you grew in if not the same room.
Too high and buds will mold, too low and they dry too fast and taste bad. Make sure the room is dark, as you learned that light degrades THC pretty quickly. All kinds of processes, like the transport of sugars inside the plant still take place, even when you cut it down. These processes will slowly come to an end while the drying progresses, but are the main factor for the end-taste of your smoke.
The second reason is the way that a plant dries. Plants are made up of cells and, as we all know, cells contain mainly water. By removing the stalk and cutting off the individual colas, you prevent this natural process by taking away the extra moisture that would be drawn from the stem to the leaves and bud. Make sure you hang the plants so that they do not touch each other invites mold. With constant temp and humidity, the plants should be ready for manicuring in weeks.
At this time trim colas from the main stalk, and trim large and medium fan leaves save them for making hash , leaving most of the smaller leaves sticking out of the bud in tact. The stems should snap when you bend them, and the bud should be dry, but not brittle. Trim all remaining leaf save for hashmaking tight to the buds, and trim smaller buds from larger stems.
Store them airtight; air at this point degrades THC. Ziplock bags are not airtight! You could use buckets with an airtight lid like used for food and sauces and such, but the best containers are those glass jars with the rubber seal and latch. Just put as much bud in it as possible using light pressure. The point is to fill it as much as possible, so not too much air remains in the container.
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The less air, the better. Any excess moisture at this point will invite mold. If it did sweat and is moist soft again, lay the bud out on something other than newspaper and put in a dry place to get the last water out. Repack and place the container in a cool, dark place, like a refrigerator. Fridges have high humidity so they must be absolutely airtight. The longer it sits up to around a month, maybe longer in the fridge the better it gets, both in taste and potency. At around the month mark, you can move it to the freezer to almost stop the aging and curing process. The high will be mellow, and longer lasting.
If you grew enough to last you a while, then after a few harvests you will be able to have properly cured buds at your disposal, with no downtime waiting for the next batch to cure! Once you have learned how to grow a crop the next step is to cure it. Here are some basic tips and a few advanced ones you can experiment with. Preparing the harvest curing the crop adding flavors. Curing your harvest is an important step in the cultivation process. If taste, aroma and maximum potency is important to you then you want to cure your buds and not just dry them. Preparations must be made well before curing begins.
If you have grown out the strain before you have a good idea when they will be ready. Remember — the growing medium and the plants themselves store some of the nutrients you have given them. This will give a nasty taste if you harvest without clearing it out. Excessive nutrients will also make the buds hard to burn. This can be done by changing the solution and using only plain water. Some growers will change the solution twice because the rockwool or grow rocks may hold a little. With soil you need to change to plain water at least a week and preferably two weeks before harvest depending on how much soil in each pot.
Outdoor farmers who need to use slow release can time it and use just liquid fertilizers toward the end. So by now you have harvested right at the peak. You cleared out the nutrients beforehand and you have fragrant, spicy highly potent buds you want to preserve. Immediately after the harvest comes the cure.
The reasons for curing and not just quick drying your crop are to make the herb sweet smelling and increase the quality of smoke. You want it mild not harsh and you want a good smell and flavor. Some growers cure their bud for years! The idea is to remove the water slowly enough to let biological processes take place that convert the sugars and starches into harmless and flavorful compounds.
Sugar or starch will give a harsh smoke that hurts the lungs. Plants need sugars to live on and they produce them from fertilizer and sunlight. Too much chlorophyll gives an unwanted leafy vegetable taste. Your main enemy when you are curing is mold. The way you control humidity is by controlling how much ventilation you allow.
You want some ventilation but not too much. Too much and it dries out without curing properly, too little ventilation and you may get mold. If you see or smell the slightest sign of mold you must immediately stop the cure and let it dry out. If mold is unchecked it can destroy your crop in short order. Mold can be detected by sight and smell. It looks white usually and will be fuzzy. If you see it in one part you can be sure the spores are all over so you may as well let it dry. Mold also has an odor which is always nasty. Never never smoke herb that has mold on it. You want to avoid light and heat at all times with your crop after it has been harvested.
The best place to store it is in the freezer or fridge. You need an enclosure to put your crop in for the cure. Depending on the size of you crop you can use a cardboard box, a closet or an unused room. With the cardboard box you want to hang the plants from a string.
Many growers put string across the open top of a box and tape the ends to the outside. They then would crisscross several strings and attach the plants with twist ties. Make sure the box is tall enough for your plants. The plants or branches should be loose and have some space between it and the next. With a closet you do the same thing. You might want to put nails or thumbtacks in the walls for the strings or the clothes hanger bar may be enough. If you are using a whole room you need to set up something to keep the plants hanging upside down off the floor.
The first few days you allow more ventilation and as the plants get dryer you allow less. In the box leave the top off, with the closet leave the door open and if you use the whole room leave the door open and use a fan to blow air in. After one or two days you will have lost a good bit of moisture and you can begin to restrict air flow. Put a section of newspaper over the top not quite covering the whole top of the cardboard box. As the cure progressed cover the top more and more. As soon as the leaves began to get stiff cover the top completely. They still got a little air because the newspaper was not airtight.
With a closet after a day or two close the door all except for a couple inches. As the cure progresses and the plants get drier, close the door completely. Almost all closets have cracks around the door that air can come through. If you have a very large closet treat it like a room.
When using a whole room to cure, after a day or two of letting the fan blow air in, close the door part way. Watch the plants very closely to see how fast they are drying. When the leaves start to get a little bit crisp you have lost most of the excess moisture and you must restrict ventilation some more. Using a whole room at this point you turn off the fan blowing air in but you leave the door open a little. You never cut off ventilation completely because mold is a threat right up until the end.
The leaves should start to get a little crisp after a week or two. If it happens sooner you may be using too much ventilation and should cut back. Along about this time you should notice a very nice smell. This is the curing smell and it smells a little like baking bread along with a piney or fruity or skunky smell from the pot. This is the nice smell you want your herb to have. If you notice the least bit of a nasty or rotten smell it is probably mold and you need to check very closely. After the leaves start to get a little stiff and you have restricted the air flow it takes anywhere from a week to 6 week more to finish it.
When to stop is up to you. You might want to decide by the color of the herb. It gets less green as it goes along. Buds will retain the green color longer than will the leaves. Buds may still be green at the end of the cure but not quite as bright a shade of green. You will be the proud possessor of a stash of sweet smoking, good tasting buds without the harshness of fresh cured smoke. People pay a lot of money to get seeds they think will grow pot that smells like blueberries or chocolate or something else. Often these strains are hard to grow or may not be as potent or high yielding as other less expensive varieties.
People want to know if orange bud smells and tastes like an orange. With the proper techniques you can make your favorite variety smell and often times taste like anything you want. You want to do this without ruining the cure. Do not pour any syrup or similar flavorings on your pot. The sugar will make it very harsh and you are inviting mold. There are better ways. The best flavor enhancing starts while the plant is still growing.
There are two main approaches, inside out and outside in. Many growers learn this lesson the hard way. One grower even reported fertilized using fish emulsion right before he topped the plant. His resulting top smelled like fish and had a foul taste. What you want to do is select a flavoring that is very concentrated.