I've hung my plants in my grow tent for a week but the stems are quite thick and still just bend rather than break. Also, one of the buds is about 6 inches long and might not be fully dried. It's hard to tell and I don't want to handle it too much. Advice please.
Snapping stems is way, way to dry. More bad stoner info. Below 55% plant humidity it won't cure. Dry to fast it smells like lawn clippings and smokes like swallowing a sword. Hang till smallest popcorn firms up. Remove from branches. Control the dry for 7 days. 777 is the perfect dry. 7 days 70 % humidity 70 degrees. What does curing your bud do? What Factors a Cause an "Earth" Smell BNW
Yeah thats a little over the top. If its good weed, drying a bit to fast will make a difference but it will still be good weed. As for the question, how heavy are the buds? You can usually feel when buds are still to wet to jar. Big kolas will take longer to dry.
It's hard to mess up too bad if your environmental conditions are stable (cool temp, comfortable humidity, air movement/ventilation, darkness). The most important part is slowing down the dry in these conditions. I go for a real long dry, past 2 weeks, If you were to fully dry at this point, it would smoke nice and clean. Then I buck the buds into turkey bags for the cure. The cure should be done in the same conditions, but sealed up. If you're going by stem snapping, I'd say apply that technique to the smallest stems, and you don't want a bone dry snap, you look for a bend to about 45 degrees then a crack like splintering wood, not a clean break. The buds when squeezed should have a little spring back. Then no need to burp and just start the cure.
Put the bud in a jar with a hygrometer overnight. Check it first thing in the morning you'll see what level of dryness your buds are at. If it's over 70 keep drying.
Joe this is Southern California. Humidity can be in the single digit numbers come Oct with temps at or near 100 degs. I've ruined way more quality buds then I care to remember when I left it hanging for a few hours to long. Once below that magical 55% you can't rescue it either.. 45 years I've been growing here. BNW
I actually do get it done under those conditions as the wife restricts me to the garage. I hang till the smallest popcorn stiffens up then I bag and container it over the next 7 to 10 days. Set the bags out a few hours per day and sealed up over night. It slows the dry down and I get good results now. BNW
I do BNW's 7/7/7 dry. Third time now, hasn't failed yet. But one thing I have noticed that I can't explain. I hang the plants upside down like everyone else does. My plants dry bottom up. That is the biggest buds, colas hanging lowest, dry first. then as you get closer to the cut, the wetter the smaller buds are. Bigger buds in a jar might be 62% overnight the first night. Smaller popcorn buds from the same plant might hit 70% and go back into the bag again.