im going cut my plant in a week or so an i was after a few tips i was wondering when i cut the buds of is it best to leave the leaves on it an cut them off after or just cut them of straight way
I harvest by first chopping off all fan leaves (with no trichs) and dumping 'em in my compost bin. I LST heavily, so this makes it easier to see and chop each branch one at a time. For each branch, I trim away all the sugar leaf and store for later use, then hang the leaf-less stems with buds in a cool, completely dark place until dry. In 4-7 days, when all the buds are dry enough, I snip 'em from the now bare stems and jar until cured. Some people leave the sugar leaves on while the buds dry and trim 'em off before jarring, if at all, but I find it easier to trim 'em away while the plant is still alive.
As soon as i take down a plant, i usualy cut the branches off, then do a rough trim of all the larger fan and sucker leaves, these larger leaves are always easier to trim when the plant is still wet and alive, also it lets air circulate a lot easier makeing sure their are no problems with mold or anything like that when drying the plant. After doing a rough trim of the larger leaves i then hang them for 2 to 3 days. Next i trim leaf around the budsites and save that meterial which is called trim to make hash. Depending on how dry the plants already were aftering hanging for 2 to 3 days they either hang again for a few days or go right into a cureing jar. Their are many guides here and all over the net on how to properly harvest cannabis. Everyone has their own technique but i hope this helped.