Born Again Vegan
Active Member
Here's my experience. I've followed all the sticky's for advice and then some. I've tried many methods of drying and curing and not once have I had a grassy, hay like product.
I do have a microscope and although I do like looking at the trichomes and seeing what's going on with them, I
find them irrelevant in terms or time to harvest, or maybe go so far as to say they can be misleading.
For example some strains never produce amber trichs so you could wait an eternity. Another example would be some strains like a Blue Cheese I had would at 8 weeks have mostly cloudy, some Amber trichs. Ready to chop right? Wrong! A day later new flowers pop out everywhere, trichs are now mostly clear and buds continue to swell for another week.
As for the argument chop early for a high and late for couch-lock, I counter with grow the right strain for the right purpose and harvest when it's ripe every time . For example a Sat Dom Thai will produce a nice mellow day smoke and a Kush will put out a night time smoke, harvest early for either and you are just preventing yourself from getting the maximum amount of weight and potency.
So, when is it ready? Well chances are it won't all be ready at the same time. Take a look at a fruiting tomato plant. A few tomatoes are red, a couple are a red/green mix, some are small and fully green. Is it ready?
I look at one of my Medicine Mans at eight weeks. The two main colas are ripe, almost all flowers have died and receded back to the calyx. The individual calyx's are fat and swollen like they are full of seed. In tomato terms she is red.
the lower buds are not quite there, a lot of white flowers and some calyx's are fat, others are still small. So I cut off the colas and hang them to dry and leave the rest for another week to continue to ripen.
Now on to the all important dry.
People say 5-10 days, 2 weeks optimum. Leave the leaves on, don't leave them on. 25 degrees 50% humidity. Air flow, no air flow, direct fan on buds, no direct fan on buds. Yada yadda.
Now I've tried and tested it all, using a hygrometer and fan controllers, fans for air flow and dishes of water to raise humidity, getting it all perfect and fortunately for all those of use that really cant be arsed getting high tech I'm here to say you don't.
The drying time is not important I've had buds dry overnight and after a week, both tasted fantastic. What is important is making sure you jar your buds before the stem snaps. BEFORE!
Okay you don't want it too hot, cold, or humid but inside it shouldn't be. I just hang buds on string in a cardboard box and stick it in my cupboard. I harvest and trim late at night and by morning the smell from the cupboard aint too bad, it's really just the chopping and trimming that produces so much smell.
So now it's hanging I check twice a day. When the buds on the cola feel dry and the stem still bends and not
snaps into the jar they go. At this point I chop the cola into more manageable pieces but make sure every but goes iinto the jar with a good bit of stalk on it.
What happens now is the moisture retained in the stalk now rehydrates the buds, so twelve hours or so later when I open the jar they all seem like they've just been harvested. Now they go in a brown bag, cardboard box, or drying rack for however long until they feel dry but slightly sticky. Back into the jar they go and on with the process. After a couple of rounds of jarring and bagging finally when you open the jar the buds will no longer feel wet but just moist, so now they are left in the jar with the lid off for a few hrs. This continues until the buds are sticky and perfect and then you forget about it.
As for grassy weed I've never had it so I can only assume it comes from either not trimming before drying, growing poor genetics, or not growing organically! Hope this helps.
PEACE
I do have a microscope and although I do like looking at the trichomes and seeing what's going on with them, I
find them irrelevant in terms or time to harvest, or maybe go so far as to say they can be misleading.
For example some strains never produce amber trichs so you could wait an eternity. Another example would be some strains like a Blue Cheese I had would at 8 weeks have mostly cloudy, some Amber trichs. Ready to chop right? Wrong! A day later new flowers pop out everywhere, trichs are now mostly clear and buds continue to swell for another week.
As for the argument chop early for a high and late for couch-lock, I counter with grow the right strain for the right purpose and harvest when it's ripe every time . For example a Sat Dom Thai will produce a nice mellow day smoke and a Kush will put out a night time smoke, harvest early for either and you are just preventing yourself from getting the maximum amount of weight and potency.
So, when is it ready? Well chances are it won't all be ready at the same time. Take a look at a fruiting tomato plant. A few tomatoes are red, a couple are a red/green mix, some are small and fully green. Is it ready?
I look at one of my Medicine Mans at eight weeks. The two main colas are ripe, almost all flowers have died and receded back to the calyx. The individual calyx's are fat and swollen like they are full of seed. In tomato terms she is red.
the lower buds are not quite there, a lot of white flowers and some calyx's are fat, others are still small. So I cut off the colas and hang them to dry and leave the rest for another week to continue to ripen.
Now on to the all important dry.
People say 5-10 days, 2 weeks optimum. Leave the leaves on, don't leave them on. 25 degrees 50% humidity. Air flow, no air flow, direct fan on buds, no direct fan on buds. Yada yadda.
Now I've tried and tested it all, using a hygrometer and fan controllers, fans for air flow and dishes of water to raise humidity, getting it all perfect and fortunately for all those of use that really cant be arsed getting high tech I'm here to say you don't.
The drying time is not important I've had buds dry overnight and after a week, both tasted fantastic. What is important is making sure you jar your buds before the stem snaps. BEFORE!
Okay you don't want it too hot, cold, or humid but inside it shouldn't be. I just hang buds on string in a cardboard box and stick it in my cupboard. I harvest and trim late at night and by morning the smell from the cupboard aint too bad, it's really just the chopping and trimming that produces so much smell.
So now it's hanging I check twice a day. When the buds on the cola feel dry and the stem still bends and not
snaps into the jar they go. At this point I chop the cola into more manageable pieces but make sure every but goes iinto the jar with a good bit of stalk on it.
What happens now is the moisture retained in the stalk now rehydrates the buds, so twelve hours or so later when I open the jar they all seem like they've just been harvested. Now they go in a brown bag, cardboard box, or drying rack for however long until they feel dry but slightly sticky. Back into the jar they go and on with the process. After a couple of rounds of jarring and bagging finally when you open the jar the buds will no longer feel wet but just moist, so now they are left in the jar with the lid off for a few hrs. This continues until the buds are sticky and perfect and then you forget about it.
As for grassy weed I've never had it so I can only assume it comes from either not trimming before drying, growing poor genetics, or not growing organically! Hope this helps.
PEACE
