Harvesting for noobs

Cut plant into branches with buds, toss main stalk.

Trim buds carefully. SAVE THE TRIM (good for hash, go buy bubble bags & stay away from butane unless you want to poison yourself)

Lay or hang buds to dry in 60-65 degrees with 50-55% humidity for at least 5 days. Branches should snap when bent. BEND BRANCHES DAILY so you catch them right when they reach the SNAPPING point, if they go too far all hope will be lost and you're have crappy bud. If stems BEND but don't snap they ARE NOT READY.

Once the stems are snap-able cut the buds off of the stems and jar them. I recommend packing buds in tight but not so tight that you're breaking buds apart. Now let these marinate for 3 weeks, thats 21 days. Be sure to uncap once a day for 20 minutes or so to let new air in and any moisture escape, at 2 weeks into curing you might be able to get away with opening it every 2 or 3 days. It will be at least 21 days of curing until you get that super awesome potent smell we all know and love.

*Note on harvest: Everyone talks of the 'green smell'- There is a lot of misinformation on this so lets clear it up. The green smell is NORMAL on fresh cut bud. Typically fresh cut bud will stink like great weed for a day and then go to the green smell. During the drying process a lot of this green smell will go away. When you go to jar there will likely still be a very light green smell. When curing is complete, at least 21 days in a jar, that smell will break down and will be replaced with that good stinky aroma.

Thats it, plain and simple.

I cut my plants at the base then hang them untrimmed to dry, makes for a slower dry and a better cure.

intenseneal said:

I cut my plants at the base then hang them untrimmed to dry, makes for a slower dry and a better cure.

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I agree with you hanging them whole.

As for trimmed vs non trimmed I have a whole new outlook on this recently. I have tried both and disliked both. There are pros and cons of each. However I now do a sorta hybrid trim. I give the whole plant a haircut, but not a buzz, more like some hippie kids style. Then you get some of the advantage of the small leaves protecting the buds for a slower dry. However you dont need to trim much (if at all) after they dry before you cure. I dont trim at all because the initial trim prevents a full "wrap" so the excess will break away with slight friction (like moving jars around, opening lids, reposition buds etc), so you will get some dry shake at the bottom of the jar.

I'm too anxious to use my trimmings in bubble bags to not trim them before they hang. Plus I find trimming dry leave to be a pain

I third the hanging whole business. Lots of thc and flavour in that stalk that flows to your bud when hung whole.
Trimming comes after hang dry.

Hang whole until branches snap clean (buds will still have moisture).
At this point cut off the branches and throw away the stalk if you won't use it. Trim the leaves while bud is still on branches (just easier to maneuver).
Then when trimmed, cut the bud off the branch into bowl and throw away branch if you do not use it.
Cure.
Bam, done.

I understand the idea behind whole plant drying and I agree that it CAN produce a better cure/dry when done properly. My only issue with this method is removing dried up leaves- they tend to crumble and stick themselves to the buds, you've gotta shake the buds to get the small pieces of leaf off and in turn lose some trich's.

All about the trimming technique. Trim the leaves close to the bud and pull off with the scissors.
When it looks nice, cut the bud off.
It's in the wrist

^^^^ Yep totally right. Personally I find it easier to trim once the plant is dry. Hanging upside down makes the leafs droop so that you can get right to the stem of the leaf and cut it off. I am not big on giving the buds much of a trim, I just trim off the sweet leafs and call it good. I only grow to supply myself with good smoke so I dont care about bag appeal but I dont want to smoke leafy buds either so a little trimming and into the jars.

I don't know if you guys are aware of this but if you wait till the stems snap you've dried too far. I don't like how people are giving tutorials full of misinformation. Research guys come on.

Not misinformation....

The stalk (stem) and branches are two different things/pieces.
My research come from experience. It's not hard to dry weed.
Snap/bend (do not break) the same branch in different spots every day until you hear it crack. If you wait longer than THAT, then you've gone too far.

If you're cutting you're buds off before that, your buds are too moist to cure. Unless you continue to dry them on screens.
But if you do it right the FIRST time, then you don't need screens.

By the time CURING is done, your bud should be around 10% -13% humidity.
Any more you're adding water weight to your bud and good chance it will mold, any less, it's too crumbly...

dopeboi69 said:

I don't know if you guys are aware of this but if you wait till the stems snap you've dried too far. I don't like how people are giving tutorials full of misinformation. Research guys come on.

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Your incorrect

dopeboi69 said:

I don't know if you guys are aware of this but if you wait till the stems snap you've dried too far. I don't like how people are giving tutorials full of misinformation. Research guys come on.

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Yeah I trim and jar a few days before the stems are dry enough to snap. If they bend and break up but not off or snap IMO they are ready to cure. Not saying dopeboi is correct but you dont want the plant so dry that the buds start to get dried out.

Its important to make sure you wait until the stems snap.

You want to check every day or twice a day around day 5/6 to make sure you get to them right when they reach the snapping point. If you were to go a day or two beyond this point you might ruin your crop. If you were to go the wrong way and start the cure when stems bend you stand a chance at mold or at least the dreaded green smell sticking with your buds with a LONG cure time.

I would advise against cutting the buds off of the stem and drying them alone. During the drying process sugars are still being transferred between the cells of the plant. You want to let the plant move those sugars to the stem, if you prevent this you sacrifice the smoke.

Point of curing is to redistribute the moisture in the buds evenly as well as to let some useless gases evaporate and now useless nutrients to degrade.

allow me to clarify. if you wait until your stems snap (meaning snap in half) you've dried too far. put a hygrometer in your jar after snapping a stem and see what it says.

I've never use a hydrometer, however, based on first hand experience I can tell you if you catch the stems as soon as they reach the snapping stage and then move to jars you're going to have an outstanding harvest. If you let it go say two or three days beyond the initial snapping point well then you've probably ruined the crop.

If you jar before stems snap, when they're only bendable, you're going to see the humidity in your jar sky rocket daily. You'll likely have to empty the jar everyday for a week and let them air dry a bit, for maybe 30-60 mins. 2-3 weeks later the buds will still not be ready since the drying process was prolonged. Prolonging the drying process in the jar sets you up for mold. At the end you'll have buds but they won't smell great and the smoke will likely be a little rough. They won't break apart like good bud.

To each their own!

Let me put it this way then I want dry stems that brake not bend and buds that are not totally dried out.

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it true that the best cure happeneds at or slightly above 55% humidity in your jars. I have hydrometers that I use in curing and have bud that has 50% humidity for well over a month with no mold what so ever. Once you go below 50% humidity there is no longer a proper cure so its best to keep that moisture in the 50 to 55% range for as long as possible and slowly deplete it until its at 20 to 15% then its perfect.