Advice required on drying and curing

[theshed430]

Hi,

Spent a lot of time reading on here to learn before starting. I am in the process of building a HPA system but had never grown before. So decided to do a grow or 2 in soil just to improve my knowledge before launching into something which does not give you the safety zone of larger time frames to correct issues.

The first grow basically was absolute dog shite... I completely fucked it up and I'm sorta glad in a way. I did end up with bud but not much. I had humidity problems that when fixed turned into heat problems, over feeding under feeding, not trimming properly, not close enough to the light etc.. the list goes on but I'm confident I know where I went wrong and how to fix it next time which I have already started.

My question is related to drying what I harvested:

I made a dark area of my room
with a small fan just circulating the air (not directly at the buds)
an extractor fan changing the air with a filter attached
a dehumidifier keeping the humidity at around 50%
when I harvest I chopped each branch, removed all leaves and hung on a line

I had read it would take up to 14 days before placing into jars to cure.
They have currently been hung 3 days and feel bone dry. should I trim them and place them in the jars now? or am I jumping the gun?

Sorry for the longwinded version but it was like a mini introduction

 

[Calvados]

Don't apologize for you "intro". It's very good. Sounds like you are jumping the gun. They may look dry, but they won't be inside. Open one up and look/feel/smell. Turn your extractor off for an hour or so. Is there any hay smell in your room or coming off your buds. That's chlorophyll, which you want to evaporate. 7 - 10 days should be good, if the stems snap. Do you have Boveda packs? If they do over dry a bit, the packs will re-moisturize them to the correct level. The worst thing you can do is not hang them long enough.

 

[theshed430]

Thanks for the reply. No hay smell, what would that signify? rot? What is a boveda pack? Ok great thank you. Ill crack one this evening and see what we are looking it.

 

[Calvados]

Google Boveda. Get the 6% ones. You put them in your jars with the buds. It keeps the humidity constant. It's for cigars, herbs, etc. Works great with pot. The hay smell is the chlorophyll evaporating.

 

[dj1714]

Google Boveda. Get the 6% ones. .

Calvados did you mean the 62% ones.

 

[Calvados]

Doh !! Yes.

 

[KingJoe83]

Advice required on drying and curing.

I would have cleaned the buds first washed them I'll never go back to not washing . Thanks to doc on 420 here for sharing that . Can grab you a link if interested as well.

But it's all about slow drying to keep those trichromes going .

There is also another way called by putting them in fridge but you need to have the fridge dialed in to certain temps and humidity.

Also there are brown paper bags of you keep it closed the bag it will help not try it out as fasts

But I was told 55% room humidity around 68-72 with like you said a fan lightly hitting buds. Do you hang them upside down?

Once chopped in dark for 24 hrs?

So many ways ya know ..

Hope it helps

Once it is dry throw it in jar air tight curl twice a day for ten mins

Throw one of these packs sizes in up to an ounce per pack

 

[theshed430]

Thanks guys.. Left it hanging and controlled the RH up to 60%. Gonna jar it on around Friday. Will let you know how it goes. Again thanks for the input. Cant wait for the HPA run. It is a sick DIY setup and am so pleased with it, just need to gather the knowledge now so I can maximise its full potential.

 

[theshed430]

Hi guys. Just an update on this. All went well thanks for the advice. Just need to up my return for next time

 

[Dwight Monk]

Hi guys. Just an update on this. All went well thanks for the advice. Just need to up my return for next time

I'd rather have a smaller amount of "quality" stuff rather than a bunch of "so so" stuff It will happen as you improve your skills, like other things in Life sometimes if you try and force it you muck it all up