Heya fellow blades, what do you guys think is the best havesting method? I've visited various websites/guides and there's different information everywhere I have a friend who grows large scale and simply lets his buds dry on a net placed in his flowering room for 60 hours, he also does no curing. I've sampled his weed and even though his plants grow beautifully, the end result is quite disappointing, the buds seem to burn too slowly in a joint and its basically unsmokable unless it's mixed with tobacco, I'm assuming this is because they haven't been dried properly? His weed also seems to have a slight chemical taste even though he only waters with water 20 days prior to harvest, perhaps because he's not curing the weed? In any case, he's looking to suggestions on making his weed better and I thought I'd pass by and ask y'all experienced growers what you've found is the best drying/curing method Any input would be greatly appreciated!
When you say he waters 20 days before, that last 2 weeks or 20 days he is watering with only water, correct? Chemical taste is because the plant was not flushed with straight water long enough before harvest. A good method is it hang cuttings upside down in dark space with oscillating fan for 3 days. They may still feel moist or may feel real dry, but either way, throw them into glass mason jars for curing. That will bring out the smell and taste. You should cure for 2 weeks minimum. ps: let tap water sit in open container for 24 hours prior watering.
Yeah, 20 days before harvest his plants are only watered with water every couple days. He lets the buds dry after trimming them, by placing them on a net with oscillating fans for 60 hours in his flowering room, but since his flowering lights are on 12 hours a day would he be better off letting the buds dry in a separate *dark* unused room? If so, what temperature/humidity should he maintain in there for proper drying? And you're saying even though they're moist or real dry after the 3 days of drying the curing process will make the buds perfect to smoke? Thanks again for the input
curing the buds in a glass container for 2-3 week is what brings the taste out of the buds.. it also dries the rest of the weed from the inside out!! The best way i can explain it or refer it too is a good old mature liquor the older it is the better the taste. However on a much smaller scale.
Not exactly sure but you want it to be pretty dark in there and upper 60's or low 70's should be perfect.
He only waters or he flushes? Hydro, soil, or soiless? The nugs sound like they aren't dry yet and that's why they burn poorly. The only experience I can pass on is patience. Proper drying and curing takes patience. It's as hard as waiting for the plant to finish blooming before harvest. Letting the weed cure is torture but worth every month that is put into it.
have u cured any yet.your telling him to hang them for 3 days,then throw them in mason jars.that shit will mold and he will have ruined all his harvest. here sounds like you need help too. http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-marijuana/424138-simple-harvest-cure-step-step.html
if you want to do it correctly follow these directions exactly. http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-marijuana/424138-simple-harvest-cure-step-step.html
As Rumple states, once cut take off main leaves and tie upside down to dry for 3 days. I had that right, I just didnt mention the 1-2 day drying in a bag. Ive heard of people doing a harvest without the 1-2 drying. After the 3 days they would go right to curing with no issues. Also, Atleast 3 days of initial drying, I would go up to a week.
This is the most comprehensive step by step I have read http://forum.grasscity.com/harvesting-processing-marijuana/424138-simple-harvest-cure-step-step.html Enjoy your smoke
It's dry here in the high country. I only had regular flourecent fixtures w/plant and aquarium bulbs. So my girls didn't get that big but man they are sweet. I had new good soil so i rarely gave them anything. I had a bloom mixture but ended up dilluting it. The last couple of weeks only water. cut em, trimmed them hung upside down warm darkish place two days. They felt dry and a medium stem would break, and or almost stuck em in a jar if they felt wet open it for a while, when they felt dry again closed it up. It's amazing they're so different and so dank. Quite the gift! kilo
He only waters, no flushing. He's using Pro-Mix, it's soilless I believe Thanks a lot for posting that guide guys, it really helps a lot. I'll simply print it and hand it out to my friend, hopefully he'll finally be able to produce great weed Any other comments are welcomed
anytime.i too am still new to the grow scene but learned real quick that the curing process is real slow,but worth the wait.
You want to flush the nutes and all the salts otherwise you will be able to taste it. Two wks to twenty days before harvest just water with regular water every few days. Then stop watering 3 days before harvest. From this point give it 48-72 hours of darkness. Hows that sound?
Here si what I follow: cut plant into sections to hang. basically anywhere from 3" to 12" of branch per section. cut off large fan leaves. Basically leave any leaf that will wrap around and protect a bud. hang cut sections on wire hangers (or just a strong wire, whatever). leave hanging until exterior is crispy to the touch. Primarily the leaves, bud itself doesn't have to be crispy. This process should take 7 days. If it's faster or slower than that by more than a day or 2, your humidity is off. Ideally, 50% humidity during this phase. Place sections inside brown paper grocery bags. Sort them loosely inside. there's a fold in the lower section of the grocery bag, fill to there basically. Fold bag to close tightly. Place paper bag inside turkey bag, close turkey bag tightly. Then you're basically playing the "crispy / not crispy" game from there. Check on nuggets daily. flip them daily so the bottom of the bag goes to the top etc. When exterior is not crispy, open the bag. When it's crispy again, close the bags. This process should take 1-2 weeks (dependent on the humidity/speed/length you went with in the first phase as well as the humidity of the area these bags are in, again the room humidity should be about 50%). Once the bags stay sealed for 3 strait days without going non-crispy, place all the nuggets in jars. "burp" the jars daily - leaving jars open in 50% humidity room for 15 minutes per day. If at any point you notice things went non-crispy, just leave open jar until crispy and then extend burping times a bit for the following couple of days... Do a 15 minute daily burp for about a week then switch over to 5 minute burps for the next 1-3 weeks... the 15 minute burping sessions can really stretch anywhere from like 3 days to 2-3 weeks. On the flip, there might be stretches of 2-3 days where you don't want to burp at all... This will be based entirely on the smell you're catching from the jars. If you go too long with the burping, it'll lose the punch of it's nose. If you don't burp enough, you'll be left with a permanent musty undertone... So be careful during this phase, probably better to undershoot than overshoot. Just do this by feel of how you want things to smell when you open the jars - do they smell with a bit of must or moisture? do they smell/look like they're maybe a bit overdry? If you overdo the burping, moisten the tips of a couple of Q-tips and throw them in the jar and leave sealed for 2-3 days and see how that took it.
the 1st time i cured i didnt do it correctly and the bud just didnt taste that good or even smell that good at all.but the 2nd time I cured w/rumples way and the smoke was fantastic. thanks to rumple for the proper curing method I have enjoyed many of tasty buds and will use this method from now on.seems the slower the cure and the longer it stays in the jars the better it gets. honestly the first time i cured the same smoke my way it tasted like hay.lol good luck and read all the stickies here on GC.this place is by far the best place for growing techniques and harvesting great MJ. and many thanks to all the ppl here that have helped me along the way. GC ROCKS
i believe your right on w/ the last few days to a week of darkness.tested this method and the buds seem to have swelled up nice during the last days of harvest.it just crazy how ppl discover new methods of harvesting their MJ.
Applause for mr greeny Well said. I had to learn what you wrote, the hard way! my first grow was crap! the second grow, I used above method and it was a really good smoke! Definitely the longer drying/curing the better! You wouldn't of guessed it was homegrown but ........... I have a friend, he dries his weed by hanging it in a grow tent with a dehumidifier set on medium and his results are close to Amsterdam weed. covered in dust, dry and dank shit, crazy! Not sure to use this method, what you guys think ?