nirvana ww- day 76 flowering 70/30 amber.
flushin it for last 10 days...
i was going to do it on sunday.. but today morning after checking the trics.. i disided to go for it tonight.. and switch the lights off about 10 am. its on 12/12. 8 am to 8 pm..
planing to cut them and hang them around 10/11pm..
i am too neverus.. feel like i wanna vomit..
please help me with drying and curing tips... pleaseee..
Preparing The Harvest
Curing your harvest is an important step in the cultivation process. Many new growers are so
eager to try the product they don't even wait for it to mature. They cut off buds that aren't ripe and
dry them out fast. I've heard of people putting buds in the microwave because they couldn't wait
for them to dry. If taste, aroma and maximum potency is important to you then you want to cure
your buds and not just dry them. There are many ways to do this and I'm just going to go over a
few basic things. You can find whole books on the subject if you are interested. See the bottom
of this page for books.
The First Steps.
Preparations must be made well before curing begins. The experienced grower harvests his crop
when 50 to 80% of the pistles have turned color. If you have grown out the strain before you have
a good idea when they will be ready. You will need to clear the plants of nutrients (fertilizer) right
before you harvest. The growing medium and the plants themselves store some of the nutes you
have given them. This will give a nasty taste if you harvest without clearing it out. Excessive
nutes will also make the buds hard to burn. Plants need fertilizer to grow and mature so you want
to wait right before you are going to harvest and give them plain water. They will use up the ferts
they have stored and will not slow down noticeably. If you are using hydro start clearing 3 to 7
days before harvest. This can be done by changing the solution and using only plain water.
Some growers will change the solution twice because the rockwool or grow rocks may hold a
little.
With soil you need to change to plain water at least a week and preferably two weeks before
harvest depending on how much soil in each pot. Don't use slow release ferts because they are
very hard to clear out. Outdoor farmers who need to use slow release can time it and use just
liquid ferts toward the end. So now you have harvested right at the peak. You cleared out the
nutes beforehand and you have fragrant, spicy highly potent buds you want to preserve. The
most important thing is that they must be dried. Mold is your biggest enemy once you harvest. If
you have excessive moisture in the grow room you may have battled mold well before harvest
and afterwards it's even more difficult. The trick is to dry them slowly so that certain biochemical
processes can go on but not so slowly that mold can get a foot hold. The key is to control
humidity.
A good cure can last up to 8 weeks or more and will leave you with a stash that's tasty
and fragrant and which has lost none of it's potency. A poor cure will leave you with nasty tasting
bud that's harsh on the throat. A poor cure can even cost you your harvest.
Curing The Crop
Immediately after the harvest comes the cure. The reasons for curing and not just quick drying
your crop are to make the herb sweet smelling and smokable. You want it mild, not harsh and you
want a good smell and flavor. After all that work don't ruin it with a too quick cure. A good cure
lasts for 3 to 8 weeks but good results can be had in two weeks or so. The idea is to remove
the water slowly enough to let biological processes take place that convert the sugars and
starches into harmless and flavorful compounds. Sugar or starch will give a harsh smoke that
hurts the lungs.
Plants need sugars to live on and they produce them from fertilizer and sunlight.
This curing process also breaks down some of the chlorophyll which give herb it's green color.
Too much chlorophyll gives an unwanted leafy taste. Your main enemy when you are curing is
mold. After pot is dried it's not very susceptible to mold but you have to maintain a certain level of
humidity to let the curing process do it's work. The way you control humidity is by controlling how
much ventilation you allow.
You want some ventilation but not too much. Too much and it dries
out without curing properly, too little ventilation and you may get mold. If you see or smell the
slightest sign of mold you must immediately stop the cure and let it dry out. If mold is unchecked it
can destroy your crop in short order. Mold can be detected by sight and smell.
It looks white usually and will be fuzzy. If you see it in one part you can be sure the spores are all over so you
may as well let it dry. Mold also has an odor which is always nasty. Never never smoke herb that
has mold on it. You want to avoid light and heat at all times with your crop after it has been
harvested. Light will destroy it and temps over about 80 degrees are bad. The best place to store
it is in the freezer or fridge. If that's not practical a cool dry dark place will do. You need an
enclosure to put your crop in for the cure. Depending on the size of you crop you can use a
cardboard box, a closet or an unused room. With the cardboard box you want to hang the plants
from a string. Don't just dump everything into the box because the plants on the bottom won't get
enough air and may turn moldy. I used to put string across the open top of the box and tape the
ends to the outside. I would crisscross several strings and attach the plants with twist ties. Make
sure the box is tall enough for your plants. If it's not tall enough you can cut the plant in half or
even cut off each branch and hang it in the box. The plants or branches should be loose and have
some space between it and the next. It doesn't take a lot of space just as long as air can
circulate. With a closet you do the same thing. You might want to put nails or thumbtacks in the
walls for the strings or the clothes hanger bar may be enough. If you use a whole room you need
to set up something to keep the plants hanging upside down off the floor. The first few days you
allow more ventilation and as the plants get dryer you allow less. In the box leave the top off, with
the closet leave the door open and if you use the whole room leave the door open and use a fan
to blow air in. After one or two days you will have lost a good bit of moisture and you can begin to
restrict the air flow.
I used to put a section of newspaper over the top not quite covering the whole top of the
cardboard box. As the cure progressed I would cover the top more and more. As soon as the
leaves began to get stiff I'd cover the top completely. They still got a little air because the
newspaper was not airtight. With a closet after a day or two close the door all except for a couple
inches. As the cure progresses and the plants get drier, close the door altogether. Almost all
closets have cracks around the door that air can come through. If you have a very large closet
treat it like a room. When using a whole room to cure, after a day or two of letting the fan blow air
in, close the door part way.
With the room cure, it's a good idea to have a fan inside moving the air
around and another fan in the doorway blowing fresh air in. Watch the plants very closely to see
how fast they are drying. As soon as you notice a little bit of stiffness to the stems they have lost
probably 50% of their moisture. When the leaves start to get a little bit crisp you have lost most of
the excess moisture and you must restrict ventilation some more. Using a whole room at this
point you turn off the fan blowing air in but you leave the door open a little. You never cut off
ventilation completely because mold is a threat right up until the end. The leaves should start to
get a little crisp after a week or two. If it happens sooner you may be using too much ventilation
and should cut back. Along about this time you should notice a very nice smell. This is the curing
smell and it smells a little like baking bread along with a piney or fruity or skunky smell from the
pot. This is the nice smell you want your herb to have. If you notice the least bit of a nasty or
rotten smell it is probably mold and you need to check very closely. After the leaves start to get a
little stiff and you have restricted the air flow it takes anywhere from a week to 6 week more to
finish it. When to stop is up to you.
You might want to decide by the color of the herb. It gets less
green as it goes along. Buds will retain the green color longer than will the leaves. Buds may still
be green at the end of the cure but not quite as bright a shade of green. You will be the proud
possessor of a stash of sweet smoking, good tasting buds without the harshness of fresh cured
smoke.
Hopefully that helped you out. That's about as basic and easy as it can get.
Lastly, I have to give scribd credit for that article.
peace.
