7th week of flower, need help/tips for drying & curing

[Johhnyblaze44]

I just had a couple quick questions

-Whats the best scope to check trichomes 60x 100x? And what do you look for when deciding that they are ready?
-Whats a good guideline for drying/curing, iv seen two different ways that seem to be the most popular. Using a drying rack which seems pretty simple and the other way i seen was just hanging the plant upside down.

Heres a pic of where I'm at right now

 

[stihgnobevoli]

i use one of these little plastic things you can but at most placed for a dollar or 3.

http://www.indigo.com/images/products/23202-3-cm-plastic-10X-geology-loupe.jpg

you only need magnification strong enough to see if the heads are cloudy/clear/amber.

 

[there goes edro]

x60 should do the trick. Ordered mine from some science website. Ran about 11.00 US. It has a x60 and x100 setting. Good luck and happy growing!!

 

[Jhhnn]

I have an inexpensive 30X loupe from Ebay that reveals trichome color rather well. Even better is a digital camera w/ macro lens. My limited experience is such that I think seedmakers will not tell us to harvest late- if they say a strain needs 70 days of flowering, it needs at least 70 days of flowering.

Simon's curing method works well-

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?threadid=156237

The only thing I do any differently is that I add a large 62% boveda pack to each jar once I get the RH down into the 60-65% cure zone. It prevents over drying in jars that don't seal perfectly, and the RH in the jar bounces right back when material is removed.

62% RH isn't the optimum for smoking, just curing. I let ground material sit in the open air for a while before short term storage in a serving container. It smokes smoother when it's a little dryer.

 

[stihgnobevoli]

for drying and curing i just chop, take off all fan leaves, and trim the budleaves down to all sugar, depending on density i either hang the whole branch or as i've been doing lately i just put em in an old shoebox or a large paper bag, single layer in the bottom, check em after 3 days then every other day after to make sure they don't start molding.

after dry enough to snap or...just "dry enough"... you can tell with experience. then you chop and jar. burping once a day for like 15-60 minutes till the moisture is mostly all gone. 'when you can't wipe any moisture out of the inside of the jar after opening it, or the top doesn't "POP" off once you unscrew the lid. (mason jars) after that i keep em in the jar and open like once a week or when i need something to smoke on. gonna be a little moist for smoking right away like someone said earlier. just let em sit for like 10 minutes or so before you smoke.

in the future the weed will get to a cool little ancient scroll thing. you take it out the jar and it'll be still moist like when it's fully dried in jar. but after sitting out like a minute that shit's gonna get dry to the point you can crumble it to dust. this is the best. imho. burns white ash by then.