Grab a coffee, and a smoke! This could be a long read!
Keep two things in mind, slower the better. & mold is death, avoid at all costs and throw away any tainted buds if it ever happens.
That being said, you want to take as much time to dry your product as you can, without molding it. Chlorophyll gets soaked up by the water, and when the water leaves the flower it takes the chlorophyll with it. This is why our plants go from fresh cut grass after chop, to dank smell after a good cure - the fresh cut grass is a result of the chlorophyll. The longer it takes the water to leave, the more chlorophyll it takes with it - resulting in smoother less harsh smoke, and tastier medication. It's not an exact science, as every grow and strain is different - but this is pretty much the outline of my process below:
Day one: Remove big branches in one piece from the plant, clip all the leaves off it that you can, without removing any buds on the stalk (of course cut yourself a handle, avoid carpal tunnel)..
Day 2-3 proceed to break it down to only the fattest nugs, and densest stalks. Remove
excessive stems, but leave tiny buds on the stems (takes longer for them to dry this way). Then I put everything on racks, and let them sit on one side for a day, then I flip them over. This whole time not blowing air on the flowers themselves, but blowing air around the room.
After 3 days the stems should shrink hella, this is where I continue to break down the stalks and remove more and more thick, wet stems.. Once I remove the stems sometimes leaves are hiding in the crevice between the stalk and the bud so I do some extra trimming at this point.
Around day 4-5 we are pretty much watch the finished product dry and wait for it to get *crispy*.
5-7 days of drying later, we are ready to start sweating the buds. I'm finding out this is best to start early, rather than later. Some people in between jars, and screens will use like brown paper bags to draw extra moisture out - but I don't. I go straight from rack to jars, and if they are still really wet I simply leave the jars open for 4 hours twice a day until I can simply burp them a few times a day without worrying about mold.
There are many indicators that a bud is ready to be jarred, some people say wait til the branch snaps, but at that point I think it is already too dry. Wait til the branch bends, and
wants to snap but cant, you know? You don't want wet spaghetti stems, but you don't want dry spaghetti stems either. Imagine spritzing a pile of dry spaghetti sticks with water, and then imagine how the spaghetti is still wet, but is still too dry to break. This is where I think you want to stop drying and start curing.
The point at which you decide to stop drying, and start curing is the
most important thing that decides how well cured your bud is. There is a perfect window for sure, and it takes a few hands on tries to perfect. I'd say the
second most important thing is understanding when your bud needs to breathe, and when it is ready to be opened only once a day. The easiest
(third most important) is likely environment, keep humidity from 50-60% (you might find something better but it's what i use), and temp around 72-78 for the entire time your drying.
I go by feel, and smell (if you've smelled moldy bud, you know what it smells like, and what the build up to it smells like).. If it's smelling really damp, nearly sour, like ammonia almost, let it BREATHE! Shake your buds up to get fresh nug surface touching the air and leave the top off til the unplesant smell goes away, then jar it again, check it sometime later and repeat. Every day you cure you get further away from mold/mildew chances.
Your burping schedule should look something like this, but again, think about the above and don't go against instincts, use this as an outline.
Week 1 cure: First few days lid off, sifting buds around to keep the drying even. Being inside glass will make them sweat even if the lids off the mason jar. Last few days add a lid, burping 4-6 times a day if possible for about 10-15 mins each. If you can only burp a few times a day, let the lid stay off longer to make up for it.
week 2 cure: If your not molded by now your on the right track
. Keep following the routine from the end of week 1, and by the end of the week only open 2-4 times a day.
week 3 cure: Pretty easy now, open once or twice a day... in the middle of the week let it sit with the lids off for an hour or something, and then see how it is.
week 4 cure: Once a day, if not once every 2 days
Week 4-6 cure: Once every 2 days, if not once every 4 days by week 6.
By week 4, your THC-A has degraded into the psychoactive compound THC. Your weed is now peaking in potency, now is the time to say[brag] to friends, "Hey check THIS stuff out!"
By week 6 your at the best cure possible, week 6-10 it will still be good but after about 10-12 weeks you will notice the smell might dip down a little, and the high will get a little more body and medicative as the THC eventually breaks down into CBN and CBD.
Yeah man, I'll take some pics this morning for you!
Pretty much you get a line of zip ties connected to eachother, and form a band around the pot the plants in. Make it as tight as you can, you will still be able to slip zip ties under neath.
Now on your zip tie pot band, add single zip ties, in rings, to the band. This will be your HOOK or anchor. Now I add a few adjuster zip ties, I add one normal sized zip tie, and then I add a small zip tie to that. Now I pull the branch down where I want it, and use an additional zip tie, to hook the branch to the line of zip ties that eventually hooks to the pot. Now as your branches grow up into the light, you tighten the adjuster zip tie down and it pulls the branch down. You never have to worry about the branch out growing the zip ties, because the loops are very large that are hooked to the actual branch, to adjust, you tighten the zip tie connected to the zip tie that your branch is hooked up to !
(this will ALL make sense with photos trust me don't be nervous about my terrible description).
Basically I have like 30 of these hooks at the base of my plant, that are all connected to all the branches up in the screen. I do this as early as possible, so that it's super easy to train my plants when they become huge bushes. Now that they are in flower, all hooked up - if I see one cola, that is a few inches above all the other colas, I reach down to the pot, tug on the ties until I see the branch wiggle that needs adjusting, and literally pull on the zip tie to permanently bring the branch closer to the pot, evening out the level of the flower tops
.