w/c is better? to trim first before or after drying?

which is better? to trim the excess leaves off before hanging or to trim them after drying?
because i heard it dries slowly but surely when i hang em to dry BEFORE trimming
i have all the time in the world and i dont care if it makes trimming easier or not

while i was curing the buds the moisture levels were spot on based on the thread "a perfect cure every time"

i did trim first before drying like you would normally do..

i noticed one 1 of 3 still has a hint of grassy smell but not too much just a hint but you can really smell what it is and when i grind a bud it doesnt, doesnt even affect the taste but it still smells like was quick dried

i dint know what happened as far as i know i dried and cured them properly @ the optimum levels

im asking this for the sake of my future grows lol and for others who want to know

tested the humidity & temps in my jars earlier and the moisture inside the jars reads @56-57% temps are 25-26C

BTW all my plants were on organic nutes and flushed regularly had some little mistakes here and there but they still pushed through harvest

I trim after drying, its more of a pain but I like the end result better.I think you will hear lots of opinions on this, it is all preferance.

I have tried both techniques and have come to the conclusion that I get better flavor when i trim after. The reason I believe this based off my experience and things I've read is that the terpines, and resin has a chance to mature a little further, and begin to cure while the plant dries. Then when you trim the trichs get agitated and the smells and flavors show them selves. Were as when you trim first the trichs get agitated before they finish maturing. Drying with the leaves on also slows the drying process, which helps to develope better profiles of taste and smell. I believe its very common to trim after, as many guys hang their plants whole to dry them. I've also toyed with leaving the plants in their pots in the grow room and not watering them for the last week before I would cut them, then leaving them a few extra days to start the drying process on the plant. This seemed to work very well also.

the grassy smell should go away with the longer you cure. some strains have a more grassy smell and it takes a while for that to go away.

i prefer to trim before dry as its easier. i have done both ways but not enough times to give good advice. but the grassy smell is always there, try letting them go to a lower moisture level in the jars and make sure your burping them.

i think ima try both on my next run and see which one is better

i trim after dry, i find trimming fresh, your buds dry too fast, this can be fixed by making sure the RH is right in the room, but for me its easier to leave the leaves on(not the big fans, get rid of those before hanging) have a fan kickin air around to prevent mold, and the leaves hanging over the buds create somewhat of a micro climate in there, ensureing a slower dry. Seems easier to me than trying to keep my humidity in the room just right

Depends on the variables .. Go with the flow and do what you need to in order to insure the best slow dry possible ..

thanks for the input guys! keep it comin!

I am on day 48 of flowering. I am aiming for a february 22 harvest date, and after reading up on all the various methods I think I will go with a combination of not watering the last week to start the drying process while the plant is still in the pot, then hanging the entire plant to dry. But it is all a matter of preference.

on my 1st run i think i gave them too much N because they didnt seem to yellow on the last weeks before harvest coz all i had was the multi purpose 4-5-5 ive read somewhere that more N = more chlorophyll? though i used 15-30-15 on one plant and she did yellow a bit on the last few weeks and she had a big difference in bud size among the rest.. but she has a quite an off-taste even if i flushed a couple of times before harvest compared to the ones that were on organic. had those N related clawing too but i fixed it with regular flushing i just wish for the next run i could get some decent nutes im thinkin of going chemical + soiless and organic + organic using the GH 3 part flora series + calimagic and GH Go Box with an extra bottle of camg+ what you reckon with these nute lineups? are they good? most of the pros here that i pm'd recommend GH though

Number216 said:

I am on day 48 of flowering. I am aiming for a february 22 harvest date, and after reading up on all the various methods I think I will go with a combination of not watering the last week to start the drying process while the plant is still in the pot, then hanging the entire plant to dry. But it is all a matter of preference.

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wish u luck bro! give us an update on your harvest for input

It is a good thing for your plants to stay green till the end. That means your plant is healthy and growing the best it can. Some yellowing is common, partly due to the tendency of bloom nutrient lineups not having enough N. Ideally though a green plant is a healthy plant.

RetiredMatthebrute said:

the grassy smell should go away with the longer you cure. some strains have a more grassy smell and it takes a while for that to go away.

i prefer to trim before dry as its easier. i have done both ways but not enough times to give good advice. but the grassy smell is always there, try letting them go to a lower moisture level in the jars and make sure your burping them.

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I was told that the grassy smell is the gases expelling from the bud, and it should go away when the bud is dry if the room is ventilated correctly. I just did my first harvest and had this smell only the first few days of drying, and nothing after a day of curing. My 6" inline clears this whole room every 10 minutes, and the tent i grow in every 2 minutes or so, so I know the draft is nice. I would imagine that if you dried it in a stale closet it would cause the gases to be trapped. Also note that I pre-trimmed, which might have helped this.

i see. i kept the vent on while drying but without a fan blowing on them.. was that a mistake?

Thundercat said:

It is a good thing for your plants to stay green till the end. That means your plant is healthy and growing the best it can. Some yellowing is common, partly due to the tendency of bloom nutrient lineups not having enough N. Ideally though a green plant is a healthy plant.

Click to expand...

cool! ima try using bloom specific nutes on my 2nd run and see what happens

I think it depends on the humidity where you live. Where I am, the humidity is less than 20% so I have gone back to the old school way of cutting, hanging to dry, then trimming, paper bag it, then jar it.

When I trimmed and then dried, I experienced the same issues of loss of smell and taste. I hypothesise that my pre trimmed buds were just drying too quickly and effectively preserving the buds with the chlorophyll not breaking down.

With trimming and then drying, you have to babysit the buds for the first week by opening and closing your jars to properly control the rate of drying. This is where I was having issues because I have a busy work week that takes up 60 hours on average and I definitely can't bring my jars with me to work so the buds would sit in the humid jars and begin to decompose, not molding but definitely decomposition of terpines. I would be left with buds that had a non descript, light funk with a hint of hay.

The difference is like night and day for me. Well this is my observations so take them as you will.

Cheers and happy growing.