How do you dry? Short explanation and why

[Wolverine97]

IMO, you can't address drying/curing without discussing wet/dry trim. It's all integral to the final product. If you wet trim, your stuff is going to dry much faster, and the plant tissue dies very fast.

I remove large fan leaves at harvest, the rest stays on the plant. Cut into 24" sections, sometimes I will hang whole plants, just depends whether it will allow air flow.

They dry for about 3 weeks, at 60 degrees, 60% rh, until stems snap. If the ambient air is too dry, I add a humidifier. From there it gets broken down to fit in food grade buckets with gamma seal lids. Those get burped daily, for another couple weeks. After that, it's ready, but continues curing for years. I'm currently finishing off a couple batches from almost 3 years ago, still absolute fire weed. The terps definitely change, in some strains anyway, over time.

If you dry your weed too fast, there's nothing you can do to save it. My stuff stays nice and spongy, until consumed. I can and do leave buds, branches etc laying out on my desk for weeks. They never turn crispy, or crumble to dust... because they were properly dried and cured.

 

[Wolverine97]

My system is built around the fact that terpenes and thc only degrade. I have found my customers prefer the freshest flower to something that’s been in a jar for weeks losing that pure skunk piss smell.

The cured weed is toned down but more complex. Again, my clientele prefers one super powerful smell/flavor to more subtle notes curing brings out.

I’ve also seen lots of under dried flower end up smelling like grass after weeks in a jar. Not mine, but a friend growing the same cut.


Good flower can be dried until it crumbles into a powder and still be sticky.

What you're talking about is very, very strain dependent. For instance; I prefer my GG4 when it's fairly fresh. As it cures, it loses some of the "bite" and pine elements with time. On the flipside, I have others that I prefer to let sit for a year before I start smoking it. There's no binary answer here.

 

[Hiddenjems]

What you're talking about is very, very strain dependent. For instance; I prefer my GG4 when it's fairly fresh. As it cures, it loses some of the "bite" and pine elements with time. On the flipside, I have others that I prefer to let sit for a year before I start smoking it. There's no binary answer here.

I don’t grow strains that need flavor and smell coaxing. My customers prefer flower that fills a room with stench from a gram in a baggie.

I understand that tastes differ, but I know my customers.

I 100% agree it’s strain dependent. Some good flower starts off with minimal odor. A couple weeks in a jar to kill any smells covering the good smell helps them out a lot.

I like 1980’s terp profiles in my weed. The old heads in my area also like these profiles. You can’t find them in dispensary’s here as they all have brown weed. By brown weed I’m referring to the color you get from all colors mixed together. The poly-hybrids all smell really similar to people who grew up with pine, skunk, and other terps very different from each other.

 

[Wolverine97]

I don't fuck with "modern" cannabis much at all. I do like the Chem's, Sour, OG (real OG's, hard to find today).

I grow a lot of NLD types. Hazes, Thai hybrids, Jamaican, things like that. Some of those absolutely need a long cure to bring out the best properties in the weed. Not just terpenes.

There are a couple Chem hybrids that I made, that have almost no smell at all before a few months curing. There is some kind of chemical alchemy happening there, it happens reliably with those in particular. Once they have cured for several months, the smell becomes intoxicating, but if you tried it after just a few weeks cure (not just dried, but early cure phase) it's almost without smell or flavor.

 

[xtsho]

Chop, wet trim, dry, smoke. I do not cure. I prefer fresh weed. Excess amounts of dried weed are vacuum packed and stored in the freezer until needed. It stays nice and fresh in the freezer. I do not like old weed that's been sitting in jars. The fresher the better as far as I'm concerned.

 

[bibi40]

I did prefer fresh dry buds ( like 2-3 weeks dry ) ,
i did dry them at ambient temp on single branches ,
then in a cardbox ,
then in a mason jar , bud prefer it before at a 2 week dry , whithout any curing , personnal taste ...

 

[Hiddenjems]

Part of me thinks the folks that get so much out of curing aren’t letting their plants finish.

 

[Wolverine97]

Part of me thinks the folks that get so much out of curing are letting their plants finish.

think what you like...

 

[xtsho]

Part of me thinks the folks that get so much out of curing are letting their plants finish.

I've always let my plants finish. I'm too lazy to cut and trim that I just keep putting it off. I despise trimming weed. I absolutely hate it. I've cured in the past but I prefer fresh weed. I like that slap in the face terpene hit you can only get from fresh weed.

 

[Ca++]

P is particularly vile, in a chemical kinda way. If your banging it in at 120ppm, right to the bitter end, then that about sums up the product.
These days, most folk are at about 30ppm P, and it's not usually accumulating in pots of soil. Soil is much less common now, and likely to be organic or professional. The need for flushing has moved on, as our growing has.

I don't much care for weed a week or under, but 2 weeks is nice, and 6 is getting on a bit. I'm a little surprised to see supporting views on that. Usually bro science blinds people to the facts, so it's good to see people know what they like, and are not afraid to say it

It would be nice to see tissue sampling over the drying period. Helping us assess the de composure of N and P (and others) by the enzymes that are still ticking over, until it gets too dry or they starve.

 

[Hiddenjems]

I think a lot depends on how the flower is used. I prefer joints in 1 1/4 thin papers as big as I can roll them.

Some like blunt wraps, flavored papers, bowls, bongs, extracts, edibles, etc.

This also would greatly affect what they look for in flower.

There is always going to be individual preference among people using the same methods of use as well.