Drying: just hang or paper bag method?

[Emeraldo]

What's your environment?

My girl is flowering a bit early so she'll be done beginning of August. My environment is relatively humid and warm. I'd probably have to cut it by branches then trim off fan leaves. Leave sugar leaves on for slower dry. Double bag it after a few days to slow dry even more.

That's the question: How humid is it? I hung the whole plant for a week from a rope strung horizontally in the garange in late October in California, humidity around 35% and pretty warm, say 30C/85F. After a few days, I trimmed and continued drying in bags inside, where the AC can cool it down, to slow it down. Then jars and burping for a week. It all seemed too fast, but you have to work with what you have.

 

[Dbdub]

I cut the branches and put them in my dry box. It's a cardboard box with strings in it. I hang the branches on the string and let it dry for about a week. Then I do it in the paper bag. I shake the bag a few times a day. Next day bag is saturated, I get a new bag. I do this until stems snap easily. Then I put in jars and burp daily for a month. The next month I open the jars for about 30 40 minutes once a week. After 8 weeks you're good to go. This is how I do it anyway. Happy growing

That's down to a science. Live seeing how other people do things!!

 

[Dbdub]

My 2 cents = don’t use dehum, dries out too fast. If you decide to hang it, keep air moving & don’t point fan right at your harvest. Dry indoors where you can control environment, if you do dry outdoors then keep it in deep shade.

Ever clean a pair of trim scissors? The goo is trichs stuck to your trimmers, it is not water soluble proving that trichs don’t wash off with H20. It takes strong solvent like alcohol or acetone to clean scissor hash off your trimmers. Said all that to get to this........Strongly suggest bud washing first. Hang dry for 4 hours afterwards. If plant is very bushy then probably best to break it down to main branches for better air flow.

Save your crispy and burnt up fan leaves & sugar leaves, don’t waste- great for making cobs or oils.

Yo I watched someone do this on YouTube.
Washing buds , imma try it!!
Cheers mate, any pointers you could give on the procedure ?

 

[Stunger]

Hi Stunger.this is my first grow..almost ready to harvest..wanting to.hang whole plant and root...so did you have to trim.and rinse root or just shake off? Also I have some immature under growth..would it be better to harvest in stages with just branches? I'm leaning on whole plat harvest and hang...im.in basement also....50 rh tween 65 and 70.

I would endeavor to remove the plant whole, including some of the root mass even if just, say, 8 inches of roots and wash/hose out the dirt, give it a pat dry and leave it to dry upside for about 3 weeks, and then dry trim and jar by which point probably little burping is required. My last plants grew quite big so they all hung for about 3.5 weeks and then I spent half a week dry trimming into paper bags before jarring on completion. I first considered this when I saw @nickeluring's thread where he grows wonderful buds and dries the plants whole.
Here's what he said
"If the plant isn't defoliated, remove some leaves if needed to dry without risk of getting mold.
Chop plant by the roots, keep tap root intact, and hang plant whole to dry. Light is good the first few days but no direct sunlight, then it should be dark.
Trim when dry.
This way dries the plant slower, and if you've got a good rH it'll be more or less cured once dried. It usually takes 2-3 weeks. The plant will be alive for the first few days, and if it gets some light the photosynthesis will still be working. This cures the plant".

 

[Timhomegrow]

Previously I dried mine in a paper bags a couple of layers deep, then jarring and burping.
But this year I did whole plant drying for 3 to 4 weeks and then dry trimmed and jarred, I have only burped the jars twice as they were semi cured on jarring they seem perfect now after 3 months. I will whole plant dry next grow too, I thought it worked really well, at least for me in my environment.

What's your temp/humidity? My one basement room is 67-68 degrees and 57-58 humidity. I have a few rooms in the basement so I may try the bag on one plant and just hang the other one in the other room

 

[Stunger]

What's your temp/humidity? My one basement room is 67-68 degrees and 57-58 humidity. I have a few rooms in the basement so I may try the bag on one plant and just hang the other one in the other room

Where I am, outside humidity is often in the 70% - 80% range, but the room I dry in would be less than that but what exactly I can't say as I don't yet have a hygrometer to check the actual percentage. Everyone's drying environment is different so you have find what fit you best, but I feel doing it this for me seemed to work really well, it was less bother, and after trimming the buds were already looking on their way to being cured.

 

[Timhomegrow]

How's this trim pre-hang.....too much, not enough, or good?

 

[013]

Clean up 3 buckets like clean & sanitize, fill with room temp water. First bucket gets plain water plus 1/2 cup baking soda 1/2 cup lemon juice, other 2 buckets just clean water. Dip branch in first bucket, swirl but don’t bang on sides of bucket. Move to branch to the 2nd bucket do the same then repeat with 3rd bucket. Give it a shake & hang to dry.

You don’t have to use the baking soda & lemon juice if that doesn’t work for you. 3 buckets of plain water is great. First bucket does the wash, the other 2 are rinses, but I think you will be amazed by how nasty the water is afterwards. It actually helps the drying process to work more evenly.

 

[013]

Congratulations THG, that’s a bushy monster!!!

 

[Timhomegrow]

Clean up 3 buckets like clean & sanitize, fill with room temp water. First bucket gets plain water plus 1/2 cup baking soda 1/2 cup lemon juice, other 2 buckets just clean water. Dip branch in first bucket, swirl but don’t bang on sides of bucket. Move to branch to the 2nd bucket do the same then repeat with 3rd bucket. Give it a shake & hang to dry.

You don’t have to use the baking soda & lemon juice if that doesn’t work for you. 3 buckets of plain water is great. First bucket does the wash, the other 2 are rinses, but I think you will be amazed by how nasty the water is afterwards. It actually helps the drying process to work more evenly.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[013]

Anytime.... It’s nice to finally get to harvest!

 

[Timhomegrow]

Clean up 3 buckets like clean & sanitize, fill with room temp water. First bucket gets plain water plus 1/2 cup baking soda 1/2 cup lemon juice, other 2 buckets just clean water. Dip branch in first bucket, swirl but don’t bang on sides of bucket. Move to branch to the 2nd bucket do the same then repeat with 3rd bucket. Give it a shake & hang to dry.

You don’t have to use the baking soda & lemon juice if that doesn’t work for you. 3 buckets of plain water is great. First bucket does the wash, the other 2 are rinses, but I think you will be amazed by how nasty the water is afterwards. It actually helps the drying process to work more evenly.

I'm going to try the bud washing on my third girl which should be ready in a week or so. She's really busy and I noticed on the plants I have already hung I have lots of immature buds down low, feels like I wasted weed . So....I'm going to select harvest the third one and wash.

How much do you trim the branches before the wash? One video I watched he didn't trim at all, the other guy trimmed most of it. What do you do?

 

[013]

I wash everything first, you could do either way. i just do rough trim, no one sees my produce. Fans, petioles anything crispy or burnt goes into cobs. I may trim up a few nice nugs for 1 “show” jar but mostly I leave it un-trimmed.

Chop in sections, it’s disappointing cuz you don’t get to see 1 big harvest but take big tops & few mids at first pass, then let them grow another 7 to 10 days and get mids & lowers at final pass.

I like that low & slow dry too, have you read that? here is link, big thread but read first page or two and you are good. Low & Slow

 

[Timhomegrow]

I wash everything first, you could do either way. i just do rough trim, no one sees my produce. Fans, petioles anything crispy or burnt goes into cobs. I may trim up a few nice nugs for 1 “show” jar but mostly I leave it un-trimmed.

Chop in sections, it’s disappointing cuz you don’t get to see 1 big harvest but take big tops & few mids at first pass, then let them grow another 7 to 10 days and get mids & lowers at final pass.

I like that low & slow dry too, have you read that? here is link, big thread but read first page or two and you are good. Low & Slow

I booked marked it and will get my notebook out, my memory sucks...wonder why. But that is interesting!!! Living alone I just need beer and eggs in the fridge, why not my produce! I think I'll try it, wanting to do the 3rd one completely different just to learn and see what's best for me. Grow 2.0 is just around the corner and I already have my bigger smart pots, FFOM, megacrop and a better understanding of it all now. It's been a fun trial run

 

[Stunger]

I booked marked it and will get my notebook out, my memory sucks...wonder why. But that is interesting!!! Living alone I just need beer and eggs in the fridge, why not my produce! I think I'll try it, wanting to do the 3rd one completely different just to learn and see what's best for me. Grow 2.0 is just around the corner and I already have my bigger smart pots, FFOM, megacrop and a better understanding of it all now. It's been a fun trial run

I've not done the fridge low and slow method but I've read plenty of praise for it, so please post back if you try it and let us know how you get on. Cheers

 

[MedicalMe]

Seems like there are as many methods as there are growers!

I dry in my basement, 70 degrees F and about 40% RH. I clip off the main stem at the soil level and hang the whole plant until the buds are kind of crispy (4-5 days in my basement), then cut the colas from the main stems and lay them aside to dry until many of the stems break when bent. Then they get trimmed and jared with a hygrometer. If, after 6-8 hours the humidity is 60% or higher, I remove the colas from the jar and place the colas in a dehydrator on the lowest temp (90 degrees F) for 6-10 hours, then it's back in the jar for 6-8 hours and check the humidity. At this point I'm looking for 45-50% RH in the jar. Most growers consider this too dry, and I agree. Once I get the buds down to this "too dry" stage in the jar, I place within the jar a 62% Bovida pack. Gradually the humidity comes up, and the result is a product that I describe as "leathery;" some would say The Perfect Cure. But essentially, all I really do is get them too dry, then bring the humidity up.

 

[013]

That’s the right attitude, experiment - make a few changes and document or label what’s different.

My regular hang dry buds were exceptional, the low & slow buds were phenomenal. But it seemed like my grinder had much more keif accumulated from the low & slo. Not scientific- totally anecdotal but that’s what I observed.

 

[Redwiggler]

What about drying in these tiered mesh bags

 

[Ghost Farmer]

I personally wet trim and then use drying rack for 4-5 days, then finish in paper bags for 24 hours. Buds get put in jars with daily burping for 1week followed by twice weekly burping. After 3 weeks bud should be ready for extended lid on periods which really dial in the smell and flavor.

 

[Timhomegrow]

After 4 days of hanging drying, here is the comparison...with flash and without flash. Every day I go in the room to make sure buds aren't touching, branches are spread, and not seeing any mold. 57rh and 66-68 temps. Still wet on the outside and leaves are still plyable.

Looking good so far?