Question about the harvest/drying

[TommyDuhCat]

So I took a few premature cuttings and cut all the leaves off, giving it a really nice manicure. I noticed that they dried out very fast with the low humidity in my place due to winter (dried in 1 day). I do not have a humidifier, but may get one.

My plan is to, at harvest, remove the large fan leaves, but leave all the smaller leaves intact during the drying to help slow down the process by leaving more plant material attached, also slightly shielding the buds as the leaves droop over the buds.

Does this sound like an ok plan? Should I leave all of the leaves intact including fan leaves? Is this maybe not an issue since I'll have much more quantity in my drying box? I appreciate any input. This will be my first harvest.

Thanks

 

[TommyDuhCat]

I suppose it's also worth noting That the cuttings I took were fairly small and dried out to approximately 1.5 grams each after a week of curing. That probably played a role in the speed in which they dried out.

 

[Alienwidow]

Dude if they dried in a day id hang the whole plant without touching a leaf. Whole plant drying takes the longest, which would be very good in your situation.

 

[TommyDuhCat]

Thanks, Alien. Maybe I will just leave all of the leaves intact then, and trim as I begin getting them ready to break down for curing.

The box was made to help slow the drying, not speed up. It is has good air circulation in the box, but a fairly low intake/exhaust rate to try to maintain a more preferable climate for drying. If I can't fit the whole plant in, I guess I'll just remove them from the main stalk and hope that they dry slow enough. I'd like to reveg one of them for a project anyways.

 

[tazz&indy]

Maybe you should use only passive air for your drying box and if needed cut a hole to install a computer fan that pulls air from box.

 

[TommyDuhCat]

That's actually what I did. The air is slowly pulled through the box into one of the passive intakes on my flower cabinet and then through the carbon filter. Computer fans inside the box provide air flow. If needed I can reposition one of them to boost the air flow through the box.

 

[jeroly]

Am I understanding you to say that the leaves that you removed dried out in a day, or that you also removed buds that dried in a day?
You shouldn't freak out if it was just the leaves that dried in a day - that's to be expected as they're thin and less moist than the buds.

Also, if you removed really small popcorn bud(s) from the bottom of the plant they'll dry faster than the tops as they're less dense and less thick.

 

[TommyDuhCat]

I have no idea how long the leaves took to dry, I'm talking about the buds themselves.

To your point, like i mentioned above, itbwas a smaller bud that dried out to about 1.5g. Some of the larger ones are more than 10x that size. On average they're probably 7x larger than the ones i picked early. Theyre also more dense now, maybe that will help.

Im kinda thinking out loud at this point. Thanks for your guys' input. I'm starting to think that ill be just fine with the passive dry box as planned.

 

[bro54209]

My last harvest dried in 2-3 days and this next round Im going to water them right b4 i chop to hopefully extend that to 5 days, I dried them over my light in my flower tent next to the carbon filter w/o direct air movement. I think this time im going to try to mist the air above the light where theyll be (moving them out of the way first) to raise the humidity from 30->50-55% so that they take longer

 

[jeroly]

My last harvest dried in 2-3 days and this next round Im going to water them right b4 i chop to hopefully extend that to 5 days, I dried them over my light in my flower tent next to the carbon filter w/o direct air movement. I think this time im going to try to mist the air above the light where theyll be (moving them out of the way first) to raise the humidity from 30->50-55% so that they take longer

Watch out that you don't electrocute yourself by watering your light

 

[TommyDuhCat]

My last harvest dried in 2-3 days and this next round Im going to water them right b4 i chop to hopefully extend that to 5 days, I dried them over my light in my flower tent next to the carbon filter w/o direct air movement. I think this time im going to try to mist the air above the light where theyll be (moving them out of the way first) to raise the humidity from 30->50-55% so that they take longer

I wonder if it makes a difference harvesting right after watering vs after 2 or 3 days of drought.

I read in a high times article (i figure they SHOULD be a fairly reputable resource) that ideally, temps for the first few days of drying should be a bit higher, so perhaps i could consider putting the dry box in my flower room on top of the T5 for a couple days before moving them to the outside and connecting it to the passive intake.

Id like to shoot for about 1 week of drying, ill have to get another temp/humidity meter so i can keep details on the process.

I think i mentioned before that this is my first grow, so I'm tying to do things as well as i can with no experience, and lots of advice (and selective reading). I'd really like to get some top notch bud. A friend tried my 7 week cutting and said it was amazing, so that's encouraging. He doesn't know the source either.

 

[bro54209]

I wonder if it makes a difference harvesting right after watering vs after 2 or 3 days of drought.

I read in a high times article (i figure they SHOULD be a fairly reputable resource) that ideally, temps for the first few days of drying should be a bit higher, so perhaps i could consider putting the dry box in my flower room on top of the T5 for a couple days before moving them to the outside and connecting it to the passive intake.

Id like to shoot for about 1 week of drying, ill have to get another temp/humidity meter so i can keep details on the process.

I think i mentioned before that this is my first grow, so I'm tying to do things as well as i can with no experience, and lots of advice (and selective reading). I'd really like to get some top notch bud. A friend tried my 7 week cutting and said it was amazing, so that's encouraging. He doesn't know the source either.

I was going to try and hang them inside the flower tent within a cardboard box but i didnt like the idea of fitting in multiple boxes since the plant wouldve touched the sides of the box, do you mind sharing how you constructed this box? I figured containing them instead of them directly exposed in the flower tent would help a lot aswell