How's it goin blades? It's harvest season, and alot of you are anxious to try out your delicious product. But unfortunately you have to wait up to 2 weeks before you can smoke any. Not anymore! With my carefully devised methods, you too can be smoking some herb without having to indure those painful days of drying and without sticking your precious herbs in a hot oven. The main reason for this process is to not only dry your buds as quick as possible, but to make sure the the potency and flavor is preserved in your product. "The Slow Quick-Dry" --------------------------- 1.) Take all your biggest buds (Cola's, main branches) And hang them up in a cool, dark, ventilated room for about a week, you won't be needing these. Examine your branches for the smaller, particularly fluffier buds. Snip off all the little buds you find suitable for sampling. Trim them to your liking. (Less leaves = faster drying time) 2.) Hang the nugs upside down by any type of string. 3.) Put in front of a fan on the highest setting. (If it's winter you can put in front of a space heater which will speed up the process significantly, but at the same time your bud will lose more quality than if you just used a standard fan.) 4.) Within an hour or two the buds should have shrunken noticeably and lost alot of excess moisture. Let it sit in front of fan for a bit longer. (If your in a hurry than you can go ahead and skip this step and go to step 5.) 5.) The bud still has alot of residual moisture at this point. Break the bud down to small pieces, this will increase the surface area causing the moisture to evaporate much quicker. (Make sure you remove all stems, as they hold alot of moisture) 6.) Take the broken down bud and put it on a piece of paper or a paper towel or anything that absorbs moisture. Don't just leave the bud in a pile, spread it out evenly over the paper to increase surface area even more. Put it infront of a fan or space heater (on a lower setting to make sure the bud don't blow away.) 7.) Within an hour or so the bud should be getting crispier. Almost ready to be completely smokeable. Let it sit infront of fan/space heater for a while longer. (If you can't wait any longer you can attempt to smoke some to hold your self off for awhile till the rest dries.) 8.) The bud should be at a smokeable point by now. Depending on many factors your buds may still be wet, slightly moist, or bone dry. If your bud is completely dry than you can skip step 9 and go toke up. If your bud still contains moisture than continue on. 9.) Your bud should be either dry or slightly moist by now. If your not in any rush at all than you can let your bud sit out until it gets completely dry for a more enjoyable smoke. If your bud is mainly dry but still a bit moist, you can definitely smoke it now as the remaining moisture will dissapate once you start to smoke. 10.) All bud should be completely dry by now. Smoke up and enjoy your quick-dry bud! While your smoking, just think about how the shit slow drying is going to be even better than what you're smoking. Notes: ~ Never put your herb in an oven or microwave! This severely degrades the THC, and if it's hot enough, will start to vaporize your THC. The only time this is acceptable is if you HAVE to smoke NOW. Yeah, sure you may get to smoke within an hour but your bud's quality has been drastically reduced, your better off just waiting for a while so you can enjoy some quality smoke. ~ This method is only for small sampling, to hold you off till' your main crop is done drying the right way. If you do decide to use bigger buds, they can take twice as long to dry. ~ While my method concentrates on preserving potency and flavor, not all of it is preserved. The only true way to preserve your bud's delicacies is to stick with the standard drying and curing methods found in the stickies above. ~ The drying times posted can vary anywhere from a half hour, to 12 hours. This all depends on many factors such as Density, maturity, ventilation, surface area, and temperature. Premature buds will dry twice as fast as mature buds. ~ Ventilation and surface area are the key factors in this process. The faster the air is moving around it the faster it will dry. More surface area means more bud is being touched by fresh air, thus the rapid evaporation of water. If you try this process without proper ventilation, you might as well give up because ventilation is the MAIN factor in quick-drying. A fan on medium-full speed directly on the nugget will work wonders. But if you we're to break the bud up, all the wet inside of the bud is now exposed to fresh, properly ventilated air. - Temperature also plays a role in drying. As moisture carries best in warm air. So if it's cold in your house you can expect it to take a bit longer. ~ You can use a fan or a space heater. A space heater speeds up the process, but it costs you some flavor and potency. If you have a space heater with multiple settings, set it at Full speed fan but low heat. High winds and medium heat are optimum conditions. ~ Try not to handle and squeeze your buds too much, as surface trichomes are very delicate and thousands can be lost from being to rough. ~ For best results, I recommend following all the way through to step 10. Though depending on the factors discussed you could even stop at step 8. ~ If this process is too long for you, and you do decide to put your bud in the oven, make sure it is on a very low temperature. But I strongly advise NOT to stick the fruits of your hard labor into an oven. ~ If you are attempting this process with improper ventilation, you can expect dry times to be significantly longer. Enjoy!