Dibs on first post I'll have my say when I get some sleep. Work was killer diller and I just got in. Have at it guys, what do you do for a tasty cure? Edit: Here's me. We grow healthy weed, and our paradigm is a little different than everyone elses. We don't 'flush', we don't 'nute' we don't add 'bomb assed bloom boosters', it took a while to learn a new route. It changed everything we did or did not do with the plant over time... others concepts went out the door, and one of them was how to cure the stuff for the taste we spent so much time trying to instill. We used to cut it to death, take all the leaves off, some threw all the buds into shredded newpapers to 'help' it along. I've stored it with carrots to re-introduce some of the stolen humidity, hoping it would help with the missing taste. I've tried curing in the freezer, as cold will dehydrate things too. I've left it in the attic, like the 'directions' always stated, and didn't realize my attic got to 125 in the summer. I was smoking hay. There must be a better way. Now, I cut and hang, all plant matter intact. I take the fans when they are dried up completely. The moisture has been drawn into the stems, up the merristem to the buds. I trim the other leaves when the plant's main stem looses the ability to be pliable, when it cracks, not bends. I take the buds when then. Burp well. The essential oils and other liquid allotment has increased over last time you did it, they cached in the buds, the oils are bound to water molecules, they will need to escape over time, burp the jars daily. Go by 'feel' for knowing when to jar...and develop your own method of figuring out what that's should 'feel' like, I'd heard squishing/squeezing a bud, feeling a bud with lips as they are sensitive, and letting your nose pick up on scent and humidity. Don't resort to curing in torn up newpaper, I'm sure rolling your sacred Marijuana in dead tree's has some karmic consequence.
Yeeeeeah, please.do. Pics and all. What you got, what you did, how it feels, where you stuck it and how it smokes... We all can learn. Organic Curing.
I personally enjoy a little LST time to time, so by the time I harvest I can remove all the branches from the main stem. Then I hang the branches in a dark 70degree cabinet and LITFA for 5 days. You should of course check for mold during this time, but over-handling is not something I would suggest, if your worried I would add a small PC fan to exhaust. Next I will remove the dried fan leafs before the become so fragile they turn to dust, note that this won't always happen on day 5, I had some Banana go until day 7-8 before the fan leafs were ready, as Skunk points out you should mainly "go by feel". About 4-5 days later the buds will be ready to pop right off the main branches, so I snip all the buds off and lay them on a glass sheet for another 24 hrs, at this point if your product has dried to far, I have heard adding an icepack would help, or even a cup of water. After 24 hrs I like to go in with the snips and remove anything loose or airy from the buds, this includes some of the smaller fan leafs and a very light trimming off the entire bud. And here ya are, after about 15 days your ready to cure! I waited 2 weeks after the drying to try my Pineapple, and wow. I never thought cannabis could taste so wonderful. Now I can't wait to make some hash! Note: When your breaking down the bud you will notice the remaining sugar leafs and stems still attached. I have heard some people hate this, but personally it goes right into the hash jar, so its personal preference on how much or little you trim.
nice thread I'd like to learn a few things about the cure today. I agree with all the above. Molds are my main concern, as with many growers I believe, however it is unclear to me how effective removing fan leaves are at preventing molds. from what I am guessing the only way to prevent mold, is to ensure the plants never had PM or other molds growing in the first place. and there was n I noticed that when I jar them before the branches snap, while they are still pliable, the jars reek way more and they even seem stickier. this is a nicer cure in my opinion, so I will continue to jar the buds before their stems snap in this manner.
Don't resort to curing in torn up newpaper, I'm sure rolling your sacred Marijuana in dead tree's has some karmic consequence. What about rolling it up in thin little pieces of paper and lighting it on fire? Hehe Mrs. P, I'm taking yours and Possums advice in the last few weeks and working on drying and curing my own flowers the same way that you stated above. I'll guarantee that I never would've tried it without you guys telling me to. I'll keep you posted as I progress. J
Nice and I noticed that the buds like it better this way too... meaning at the point the lower stalk- that's 6''-1' away from the buds- cracks, the buds stems themselves are still pliable, The leaves are totally dry and the plant holds on to that last bit of moisture in the buds for several more days before drying out. The difference is of dank cannabis odor as opposed to a scent of hay. IMO
Have only done 2 cures so here's latest strategy. Chopped and hung in a dark closet. Used a small fan 1st time and it was too dry. Believe the small de-humidifier was the best money spent.. on(basement). Makes a big difference(RH). So no fan in there just the air circulating from the de-hum. Let air dry 3 days with all the leaves on like SkunkP does. Put them in a brown paper bag for a day then trimmed meh and jarred. Think I need good ol Mason jars though. Mine are the kind with the plastic seal and its gotta be leakin a little. Got my bud too dry. Like it sticky and dank. So I was lookin for something to put moisture back in. fuck. Found some celery and its loaded with water. Be careful as I almost overdid It agin. Think this will get better as time goes on. If theres something ive learned in this lifestyle its that a Little can go a lonnng ways. less is more and yes the kush is good
Marley speaks the truth! 62% humidipaks are easy and idiot proof. Throw one in the jar and burb as usual
there are at least a couple more variables in the decision about how best to dry and cure that I would like to understand better. First, SkunkP proposes (as Possuum has and others I'm sure) leaving fan leaves on for at least the first stage of drying, in part to hold on to the fluid in those leaves. It seems to me it might matter what condition the fan leaves are in....For example, leaves that are faded like this ("catabolic") are obviously gonna be different chemically from fresh green leaves where the chlorophyll hasn't yet broken down. Do we want the sap from fresh green leaves saved just as much as we want the sap from catabolic/organically faded leaves? Does it break down different when hanging than when on the plant? I dunno...maybe when Ock gets back we can get him working on plant leaf chemistry. It just makes intuitive sense to me that the state of the breakdown process for plant matter left on the plant when drying should be a factor in the taste. Second, my guess now is that cuts you make across stems will have a much faster drying effect than cuts across leaves, like sugar leaves. Cuts across stems open up bigger xylem and phloem channels so the water vapor and other gases in the plant can just flow right out. Like cutting one of your veins or arteries compared to cutting small capillaries--big difference in blood flow. I also wonder if the plant stays able to scab and close off the wound after it's been chopped and hung, or not. Leaves like the yellow fan in the pic above will already have started to form a scab at the stem I imagine Ms. SkunkP is like this at my overthinking the problem. Maybe so, but this thread has got me wondering about just what we want to hold onto in the finished bud. The terpenes and flavanoids that give good aroma and taste, for sure, but assuming most of those are in the resins inside trich heads, what about all that other plant tissue? I assume the less undegraded chlorophyll, the less "hay" taste and the better tasting the bud. I'll bet someone knows the chemistry better than that, though....ok stoned rambling off
I was wondering when you were going to join the party Marapa! Keep us posted if you figure out anything, I am surely interested in that and don't call me Surely.
FWIW, my method is covered in some or all of what has been described herein. But what about the cure or longer term storage? I think that too is critical for maintaining aroma and taste. I'm told, and I don't know this for sure, but I'm seriously considering doing away with the jars and going back to bags for storage. I'm told the oven turkey bags are the best because of the plastic they're made of. IDK, something about storing herb in glass jars seems to take something away from the flavor longer term. What about youse?
I just cut mine a lil above soil level, and hang the whole damn tree, like many others I take off all the big fans as they dry out. When the stem snaps they get a full trim, then into jars, burp daily for a week or so, then it!
heya 420inMI, just a quick question. Do you know what type bud is in pic 3? Grew some bagseed and some of mine looks just like yours. Think mine is of the Kush variety. It has a sweet berry smell to it. Stoney too. sorry for gettin off topic SkunkP
[quote name='"Xproject"'] heya 420inMI, just a quick question. Do you know what type bud is in pic 3? Grew some bagseed and some of mine looks just like yours. Think mine is of the Kush variety. It has a sweet berry smell to it. Stoney too. sorry for gettin off topic SkunkP[/quote] That my friend is NorthernLightsxBigbud, that a friend just harvested (I learned my procedure from him) Great organic smoke