Im 7weeks into flowering and think i have about 2 more to go. The thing is im going on a holiday in 2 weeks for about 16days. Would it be okay to leave the bud to dry in my grow box for the next 16days with the fan and filter running? I hope there won't be a problem with the smell coz i live in a apartment building. Is 16 days of drying in such a manner too much and what would the effect on the quality of the harvest be? I do plan to cure the weed in jars afterwards too...
16 days will turn them to dust, especially with the fan going. There's a whole forum for this, check out the guides in there.
i still see some problems with this. even if u pulled the plant a week early, dried it for a week and then put it into jars before you leave. 16 days wuold be too long without cracking your jars to give your nugs fresh air.
Maybe dry them in between stapled together peices of newspaper, and leave them hanging upside down somewhere with a fan on low just moving air, not blowing directly on them. 2 weeks of hang dry probably wouldnt be too bad. A guy I know leaves his hanging dry till he uses it...makes it pretty dry but its not bad. *edit* Overall I meant I think it would be ok to have it hanging the whole time while you are gone. You may loose some flavor/quality etc. But its not going to ruin the pot.
Hmm maybe if you don't trim them, the moisture from the leaves will slow the drying? Yeah I think either way you're not going to get the best cure so I wouldn't even think about that, just making sure your buds don't grow mold. I think actually there is a way to get moisture back into the buds if they've gotten to dry, but I forget what it is. If I can find that, you can just try to slow the dry as much as you can without risking mold, and when you get back try to rehydrate them so they don't crumble when you put them in whatever container you're going to use.
Hmmm, on another forum I've been advised to slow dry them by cutting them and hanging them upside down without any trimming. I did read the massive article on curing and that wasn't mentioned there I does make sense to me, if it takes 7-10 days for trimmed bud to dry, my plants should be alright with 16days of drying with all the leafs intact. Any thoughts on that? The fan isnt blowing air, it is on the outside of the air and is sucking air out, and it is necessary to leave it on to regulate the smell. It isn't a powerful RVK fan, so i hope it wouldn't turn them to dust