Drying question

[Canuck3]

Hey guys, I've been having a tough time deciding what is the better method to dry. Either trimming wet then hang, or hang the whole plant and trim after... It's like 50/50 with people posting their technique. Also, have any of you tried leaving your plant in it's pot to dry out? Just leave it for like 10 days or 2 weeks, however long it takes, then trim it after. I guess that would be the same way as the method of hanging the whole plant and trimming after, just no hanging part...
One last question, I've read the thread by budbro18 saying to partial trim, then hang, then full manicure and put in paper bags before curing. Has anyone tried this? Does the paper bag speed up or slow down the drying?

You guys rock, thanks!

 

[Canuck3]

Also, my relative humidity is around 15-20%, quite low. Incase you need to know...

 

[hornedfrog2000]

With that low of rh hang dry the plant complete. Slow drying is essential. If you can let it go5 days that would be good. It will break down a lot of clorophyl in those days. The plant ntobasicallystay "alive" it continues biological activities and needs to. Drying is part of the overall curing process. Google yellowing in tobacco curing. The information is invaluable. The only problem with the way thwey dry/cure is they can use high temps where we cant with thc degrading above around 110 degrees f.

Sorry im on my phone.

 

[imchucky666]

Hey guys, I've been having a tough time deciding what is the better method to dry. Either trimming wet then hang, or hang the whole plant and trim after... It's like 50/50 with people posting their technique. Also, have any of you tried leaving your plant in it's pot to dry out? Just leave it for like 10 days or 2 weeks, however long it takes, then trim it after. I guess that would be the same way as the method of hanging the whole plant and trimming after, just no hanging part...
One last question, I've read the thread by budbro18 saying to partial trim, then hang, then full manicure and put in paper bags before curing. Has anyone tried this? Does the paper bag speed up or slow down the drying?

You guys rock, thanks!

If you are stuck with low RH, and/ or high temps, the paper bag will help slow down the process.
The object is to dry long enough to let the plant get rid of all the chlorophyl it can, but not keep it moist so long that you get mold.
I did a little a couple weeks ago, and trimmed everything before, (even knowing I have cool dry air), but I was in a hurry to try and share it.
The other thing to think of, is are you going for bag appeal or not......
If you trim as close as you can, then dry, what little tassles of leaf you leave that are still visible, may shrink enough so that they can't be seen after it is dry.
If it's your first time, which it sounds like it is, I would suggest doing a few buds each way, and keeping track of which one looks better if you're going for that, and which way is easier, and end result..... Which one you like better overall.

 

[glann]

I can say I have tried a ton of methods trying to get my buds to have full potential smell, wet trimming all the way to hanging the entire thing upside down for a week.

I will say the entire plant left upside down for a week smelled pretty insane as I was cutting the buds off the branches into the jars (if you have any real quantity the trim job is going to suck balls trimming after its hung upside down for a week untouched, unless you are a freak and enjoy 8-10 hours of precision trimming) but as they slowly got down into the optimal RH in the jars for curing (the simon method) the smell faded away and smelled not much different than my much easier wet trimmed buds. They smelled just a TOUCH sweeter, but they didnt radiate any smell just like the wet trimmed buds.

If your RH is 15-20%, I can tell you i've been doing some random ass tests and tossing a few FRESH off the vine buds into my refrigerator sitting in an uncovered tupperware.... It gets to about 40F and the RH swings when you open the door, but its about 15-20%. It def slows down the dry. I leave them in there for 2-3 days then brown bag em, I dont have it down to an exact science yet. (only tested with popcorn buds)

with all that said, and having tried every method of drying/trimming under the sun.... I think the major things are: enough moisture in the buds when you jar them, AND....a good plant.

I can say I got some advice from another member on here to just shut the jar for a week if they were stable under 70% RH in the jar and the "grassy" smell was just wet bud. He was right. It was an "off" smell that all my strains have when they go into the jar, and I always tend to keep drying them thinking that smell is associated with too much moisture in the bud. After 14 days the grassy smell started fading and the bud started smelling like it did on the plant. It was a pretty significant change when the grass smell stopped being there.

 

[Squatch]

Here's a thought, what if you just left the plant in its pot to dry for say 5 days, then take some "Lunch Bags" (small lunch sized paper bags) and put a lunch bag over each cola and cut the stem right below where the bag comes down, seal up the bag...and now instead of all your colas rubbing up against each other in a paper bag...each cola has its own bag to dry in. Or you could leave the bags ON the plants without cutting and it would look like a bag of golf clubs with covers!...lol...I'm high so disregard anything and everything I just said...

 

[hornedfrog2000]

Some people say the three sevens. Seventy degrees, seventy percent rh and seven days. I understand that is good for memory but he only thing that scares me in that saying is the 70% humidity maybe more like 50-60% unless you have great air movement. Like said before mold is the enemy.

 

[hornedfrog2000]

I can say I have tried a ton of methods trying to get my buds to have full potential smell, wet trimming all the way to hanging the entire thing upside down for a week.

I will say the entire plant left upside down for a eweek smelled pretty insane as I was cutting the buds off the branches into the jars (if you have any real quantity the trim job is going to suck balls trimming after its hung upside down for a week untouched, unless you are a freak and enjoy 8-10 hours of precision trimming) but as they slowly got down into the optimal RH in the jars for curing (the simon method) the smell faded away and smelled not much different than my much easier wet trimmed buds. They smelled just a TOUCH sweeter, but they didnt radiate any smell just like the wet trimmed buds.

If your RH is 15-20%, I can tell you i've been doing some random ass tests and tossing a few FRESH off the vine buds into my refrigerator sitting in an uncovered tupperware.... It gets to about 40F and the RH swings when you open the door, but its about 15-20%. It def slows down the dry. I leave them in there for 2-3 days then brown bag em, I dont have it down to an exact science yet. (only tested with popcorn buds)

with all that said, and having tried every method of drying/trimming under the sun.... I think the major things are: enough moisture in the buds when you jar them, AND....a good plant.

I can say I got some advice from another member on here to just shut the jar for a week if they were stable under 70% RH in the jar and the "grassy" smell was just wet bud. He was right. It was an "off" smell that all my strains have when they go into the jar, and I always tend to keep drying them thinking that smell is associated with too much moisture in the bud. After 14 days the grassy smell started fading and the bud started smelling like it did on the plant. It was a pretty significant change when the grass smell stopped being there.

Yep thats the chlorophly breaking down smell. I know simons method as well. Some of the beat bud ive made was slowly sweated in jars (probably too wet) but was sweated like twice a day. After a whilevi only open like once a week. The lid would literally POP off signaling gas was building up and some aort of biological proceaa was going on to release gas.

Again, sorry im on my phone...

 

[mr. green thumb 01]

Some people say the three sevens. Seventy degrees, seventy percent rh and seven days. I understand that is good for memory but he only thing that scares me in that saying is the 70% humidity maybe more like 50-60% unless you have great air movement. Like said before mold is the enemy.

I wouldnt go anywhere near 70% thats a friendly mold invitation. 60% is plenty to keep the dry slow. Feel free to read my thread on whole plant drying. Most people that have tried both ways prefer drying and then trimming as it seems to bring out the taste & smell more. I got all my info from different forum growfaqs then tried all the ways and finally got it with a whole plant dry. Many many searches on drying cannabis and many flawed attempts, but not anymore!

https://www.rollitup.org/harvesting-curing/560707-perfect-dry-more-important-than.html

 

[Canuck3]

Thanks guys, I appreciate all the tips and ideas. I'm just gonna try each method and see how each one turns out, and how easy one is over the other. Probably the best way to know for sure. I'll post back when it's all said and done and let you guys know what I found!

 

[kushnotbush]

If your humidity is really low hanging the plant whole works really well, in fact if you let it go long enough it's not much harder to trim than fresh bud IMO. You can also dry them partially whole then chop them down to manageable size pieces,trim them and then wrap them in a sheet of news paper leaving the ends open which works like the bag method. For me I use this technique on my sativa/less dense buds to keep them from drying too fast. Just make sure they are dry enough to the point you would jar them. Your going to have to experiment though and find what actually works for you and keep in mind that what works this time might not work as well when your conditions change.
KnB

 

[Canuck3]

Thanks man, I like the idea of hanging it whole. I'm going to try each method, like you said experiment a little bit!