First Harvest Storage Jar Questions

zurple

Well-Known Member
I have searched and read through several forums trying to get an idea of how many jars I need to order. I harvested and wet trimmed yesterday, so I have a few days to prepare for jarring.

Originally I was going to purchase 2 cvaults, one for each of my 2 plants, as they are 2 different strains.

I have no idea what my yield will be, but I will post a picture of everything I ended up with, so you can eyeball it for a guesstimate.

I have decided to go the wide mouth jar route, but trying to decide between 32 or 64 ounce jars with boveda packs and a hygrometer in each.

What size jars do you use, and why?

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I use what ever jars that are available, and seal properly. I don’t really think it matters. Canning jars works good. Go to wal mart and buy a flat of jars... :thumb:
I don't go to Wal-Mart but several local stores including supermarkets and hardware stores have singles of the larger sized jars complete with a ring and lid. Makes it easier to buy only one of each size to try out. If both jars are large mouth or both are regular mouth sized then the rings and lids are interchangeable. The rings and lids will last a long time as long as you do not use them for canning foods. We can food and I cure in the spare jars by just taking a ring of the right size from the drawer and pulling out a lid from the box of replacements. Lids come 12 to a box or they can come in a combo of a dozen lids and rings combined in one box of a dozen.

If the buds are left on the stick then each plant's harvest will take up more room in the jar. If the buds are removed from the sticks before being jarred then they will end up taking up less space.
 
Looks like everyone uses the 32 ounce jars, but they only hold an ounce of bud I think.

I want to order some hygrometer and bovada pack, so I guess I can jar them to see how many I need first.
 
Looks like everyone uses the 32 ounce jars, but they only hold an ounce of bud I think.

I want to order some hygrometer and bovada pack, so I guess I can jar them to see how many I need first.
I am not big on ordering on-line for several reasons but here is a short cut you could try.

Mayonaise style dressings used to come in 32 ounce sizes in glass jars and the lids were the same size as regular mouth canning jars. Now the stuff comes in 30 ounce and in plastic jars. If you have an empty plastic jar use one and see how much it holds.
 
I am not big on ordering on-line for several reasons but here is a short cut you could try.

Mayonaise style dressings used to come in 32 ounce sizes in glass jars and the lids were the same size as regular mouth canning jars. Now the stuff comes in 30 ounce and in plastic jars. If you have an empty plastic jar use one and see how much it holds.
I try to avoid ordering anything that raises any flags, but my wife orders canning stuff from time to time. Illegal here.
 
The pint (16 oz) canning jars hold about an ounce when right full, depending how fluffy your strains are. A wide mouth quart jar should easily hold 1.5 oz and a Boveda pack.
I re-use the mason jar lids as well as the rings so have piles kicking around.

Mostly I use the one gallon pickle ‘cookie jar’ type, which can hold about 4 oz. But I have all kinds. Whatever is around.
 
I try to avoid ordering anything that raises any flags, but my wife orders canning stuff from time to time. Illegal here

:hmmmm: can you clarify what you are worried about with the ordering? Surely canning isn’t illegal there?
 
The pint (16 oz) canning jars hold about an ounce when right full, depending how fluffy your strains are. A wide mouth quart jar should easily hold 1.5 oz and a Boveda pack.
I re-use the mason jar lids as well as the rings so have piles kicking around.

Mostly I use the one gallon pickle ‘cookie jar’ type, which can hold about 4 oz. But I have all kinds. Whatever is around.
Which boveda size do you use in the gallon size?
 
I use gallon mason jars from Walmart. I started using 32oz, then 64oz, now I use full gallons.
It gets to be a pain when you’re burping 20 jars twice a day. Lol.
All 6 plants used in average 2 Gallon jars per plant.

32oz and 64oz
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The Gallon is where it’s at.
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These are the Boveda packs I use.
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Which boveda size do you use in the gallon size?
I had to look that up- looks like the 60oz packs are the ones I use for everything.

There are plenty of places online that sell jars and you can find 1 or even 1.5 gallon sizes. Get glass screw-top jars. The snap-on ones can be iffy as far as sealing well, and the friction fit types that you push the lid onto (such as the 420 stash jars) definitely do not seal.
 
One thing that gets over looked, if you time your dry right you can go into jars without burping. I see so many people complain about burping it's crazy. Don't jar it up so wet. I don't jar and seal it till it's between 60 and 62 %rh. I harvest 20+ zips every cycle on two alternating flower tents. I never burp anything anymore fwiw.
 
Yeah I also meant to say- I do not ‘burp’ either. I’d never have the time to run around opening and closing all those jars every day.

To some extent its a bit of a growers myth. If your bud is already dried to the right range you do not need to burp IMO.
 
One thing that gets over looked, if you time your dry right you can go into jars without burping. I see so many people complain about burping it's crazy. Don't jar it up so wet. I don't jar and seal it till it's between 60 and 62 %rh. I harvest 20+ zips every cycle on two alternating flower tents. I never burp anything anymore fwiw.
That sounds promising. How do you gauge that the bud is at the correct humidity? The hygrometer only measures the air right?
 
Yeah I also meant to say- I do not ‘burp’ either. I’d never have the time to run around opening and closing all those jars every day.

To some extent its a bit of a growers myth. If your bud is already dried to the right range you do not need to burp IMO.
I've maintained cigars for years. Having to store a large amount of cannabis is new to me. I've never had more than an ounce at a time. lol
 
For the first batches I would trim roughly a jar worth off the plants. Place that into a sealed jar with a hygrometer and monitor for 1-4 hours. If the humidity creeps over 62% it's not ready, I dump it out of the jar onto a drying rack, (dehydrator racks, stuffed animal hangers, laundry bags, baking racks) anything to allow airflow around the buds. It dries for another day or two and then into the jar to check.

Because everything is in a sealed room and the plants are hung whole now I know when they are ready based on the humidity readings in the tent. I use a graphing weather station so I can see the data from multiple days, when it settles down to around 55-57% in there for 3 or 4 days they are usually ready for jars. Now I can tell just by feeling the plants. I wait till the graph is close and start checking them daily. When they feel ready they get bucked and trimmed and Jarred.

If for some reason I don't have time to process it all I turn the dehumidifier up to 60% and I leave them until I can cut.

It was a learning experience and every set up will be slightly different. The main point is you don't have to burp if you dry correctly. But you do need to monitor then and run the jar test before committing to jar the whole harvest.

If you dry individual nugs/branches they tend to dry more unevenly than whole plants.
 
For the first batches I would trim roughly a jar worth off the plants. Place that into a sealed jar with a hygrometer and monitor for 1-4 hours. If the humidity creeps over 62% it's not ready, I dump it out of the jar onto a drying rack, (dehydrator racks, stuffed animal hangers, laundry bags, baking racks) anything to allow airflow around the buds. It dries for another day or two and then into the jar to check.

Because everything is in a sealed room and the plants are hung whole now I know when they are ready based on the humidity readings in the tent. I use a graphing weather station so I can see the data from multiple days, when it settles down to around 55-57% in there for 3 or 4 days they are usually ready for jars. Now I can tell just by feeling the plants. I wait till the graph is close and start checking them daily. When they feel ready they get bucked and trimmed and Jarred.

If for some reason I don't have time to process it all I turn the dehumidifier up to 60% and I leave them until I can cut.

It was a learning experience and every set up will be slightly different. The main point is you don't have to burp if you dry correctly. But you do need to monitor then and run the jar test before committing to jar the whole harvest.

If you dry individual nugs/branches they tend to dry more unevenly than whole plants.
This sounds like a good idea, thank you.

My wife works for a company that has a device that you point a laser and it tells you the humidity inside. She's bringing it home Friday for me to play with over the weekend. I'll post my findings.
 
I try to avoid ordering anything that raises any flags, but my wife orders canning stuff from time to time. Illegal here.
I just do not like using credit cards unless absolutely necessary. Credit cards are not free, even if the balance is paid off. Banks certainly are not issuing the cards and handling all those transactions just to show a loss on their books.
:hmmmm: can you clarify what you are worried about with the ordering? Surely canning isn’t illegal there?
I figure that what @zurple was saying was that since growing, possession and use are illegal. If ordering supplies on-line it might draw attention to a possible small personal growing operation. Since his wife already orders the occasional canning supply an additional several jars would fit in with the usual ordering pattern. It is all part of something in modern society called Surveillance Capitalism and many people do not know is going on or don't care.

Enjoy the day.
 
I just do not like using credit cards unless absolutely necessary. Credit cards are not free, even if the balance is paid off. Banks certainly are not issuing the cards and handling all those transactions just to show a loss on their books.

I figure that what @zurple was saying was that since growing, possession and use are illegal. If ordering supplies on-line it might draw attention to a possible small personal growing operation. Since his wife already orders the occasional canning supply an additional several jars would fit in with the usual ordering pattern. It is all part of something in modern society called Surveillance Capitalism and many people do not know is going on or don't care.

Enjoy the day.


If everyone that orders a flat of ball jars is put on a list that's a big ass list. I get what you're saying I was reluctant to purchase anything directly relatable to indoor gardening online until it went legal in our state. I still ended up ordering lights. But even without that the purchases are innocuous enough and have a plethora of other uses especially when it comes to storage stuff like jars or even hygrometers for that matter.
 
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