drying questions

[paddy1]

HI Guys

 

Been feeding two plants nothing but water the past 6 days and getting ready to harvest.

 

This will be my first harvest and dry, so all help appreciated. These are the steps i'll be taking and questions I have

 

1) Put plants in complete darkness for 24 hours before harvesting. Is this necessary?

 

2) Pull out plants, cut at base, just above soil and then trim off all leaves.

 

3) Run safety pin through base stem and use that to suspect the plants upside down

 

4) Put them in a dark well ventilated area. Does it matter if a little bit of daylight seeps through or does it have to be complete darkness?

 

5) Leave to dry for 4-5 days, then cure if they're sufficiently dry. If not leave a little longer. The stem will snap (not bend) when dry enough.

 

Now does anyone have any ideas for a makeshift box or something i can dry out in? I was thinking of building something out of a cardboard removalist box, but i will need to make small holes for ventilation, so some light will be getting through. Is there any problem just putting it on (for example) the floor of a large wardrobe with doors shut and drying it that way?

 

Finally, I promise I won't do this (was such a hassle getting to this point, i can wait another couple of weeks) but what's wrong with microwaving? I assume it just means the THC isn't at its maximum, but just wondering.

 

thanks .

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hey Paddy, Ok, thats a lot cleaner, lets go again =)

 

1) Yes, It makes the plant think it's dying and it produces more resins etc to protect itself, which you want for nice smoke so It works good.

 

2)You can do this, I would cut closest to the first clump of buds so you don't have too much stem on it, just more moisture to dry out.

 

3) Yes or use the first bud branch off main stem as a hook over a line etc, works good too.

 

4)Yes and light and heat are the enemy of THC, least of both is best.

 

5) You might have to leave them for 7 if it is a bit damp or humid around, and snap test good =).

 

6)The drying box of death- get just an old stereo box or medium size box. Make a door on the front with a stanley knife.

Poke as many holes in 3 sides as you can, get some wire and run it across the roof of your box, a couple of runs and hang buds to dry in there, you can put paper on the bottom to catch lil bits and to put your smaller stuff on to dry for testers. I put mine in a cupboard but I had a fan on drawing air out as this dry box design works by air flowing through it, Hence the holes.

Micro waving will destroy it, basically cooks it from inside out. Use a small paper bag leave the end open and put in a semi warm place out of the sun, will give you a bit to smoke fast in a couple of days 2-3.

Have fun mate =) GH72

[Frazz]

Finally, I promise I won't do this, but what's wrong with microwaving?

thanks .

i was really glad to read this promise paddy , cause microwaving your homegrown weed is wrong on so many levels

you ner heard of that couple who used to microwave their weed as they grew it yea i know its sick aint it in a rush for a rush ...

well turns out they ended up being black witches!! held regular 'spell meetings' an of course the mandatory drinking of a virgins blood before it clots and all that sort of rot ..

well if thats what micro-waved weed does to you i dont want a bar of it and nor should y0u

 

all da best

[jimbojones5678]

i was really glad to read this promise paddy , cause microwaving your homegrown weed is wrong on so many levels

you ner heard of that couple who used to microwave their weed as they grew it yea i know its sick aint it in a rush for a rush ...

well turns out they ended up being black witches!! held regular 'spell meetings' an of course the mandatory drinking of a virgins blood before it clots and all that sort of rot ..

well if thats what micro-waved weed does to you i dont want a bar of it and nor should y0u

 

all da best

yeah............ok................I must have missed that post Frazz......thanks though

 

Jimbo

[paddy1]

Hi all

 

thanks again everyone for your help. Most appreciated

 

I have harvested now. Pruning was a hell of a task. A lot of friends of mine who grow the one or two plants outdoors didn't prune and ended up with piles of leaf and stuff around the buds. I'm glad i took the time to prune properly (after seeing how to do it on various youtube videos) but it was a fairly long and painfully pedantic task - though the youtube videos warned about this. Also good news - I cut a bud about 4 days ago, dried out and smoked it. By god it was strong, so I must have a good strain here. That said, the taste was a bit average. Not terrible - I've had friends homegrown that tasted awful. I think this might improve with drying and curing.

 

Anyway just a few things:

 

1) Is there anything I could check for during drying? I have read that i should be weary of mould and I will be, but it's a small quantity so I'm not too stressed about that. Anything else to be concerned about?

 

2) I have left over leaves and clipping and some has a lot of crystals on them. I want to make hash eventually. However should I freeze this material fresh or should I let it dry out? Seems most people use dried out plant material, but just wanted to check. Also, if i have to dry out, do i dry out in darkness as well?

 

3) Just a final word on my yellow leaves/purple stems forum post. When I pulled the roots up after harvesting, I saw that the top 2-3 inches was like a hard cake of soil and roots. Below that, the roots looked pretty grey and ordinary. It was nearly out of room, but it wasn't terrible. Nonetheless a bigger pot would be wiser.

However, it seems that you guys (Grasshopper) were correct - i was not getting any real run off from feeding and watering, so i wasn't adding enough. I believe this explains why the top two-three inches were dense hard 'cake' as the fluid was only going that deep and no further, but caking up the soil. I suspect the soil or coconut fibre should be fairly loose and fluffy throughout. Good point to know for next time. I think GH got it in one

 

The ones still going definately need bigger pots so i'm about to repot. Wish me luck, hope they don't die as a result.

[brick]

Ok, good luck paddy.

I dry mine in a wardrobe hanging off coat hangers. Works ok for me. If you want to dry some small buds quickly and have a crt pc screen just place a few on top of the screen where the vents are, couple of days and you should have a nice smoke.

Did you have any perlite in your soil?

10% perlite 90% good potting mix. Mixed up goodly should help with getting the water to the bottom. Or higher ratio of perlite to soil.

Try different things until you get something that you and your plants are comfortable with.

[Foreskinnius]

Hey Paddy - good going on getting a nice strong smoke going on...

You're right on the pruning/taking leaves off, I've only done that once so far and bloody hell it took myself and a couple of friends like a few hours on just a couple of plants...I suppose with practice comes time saved...

With your leftover leaves (esp the ones with lots of trichs etc on them) I would put them aside and yeah like you said do a hash thing with a little bit of bud too, or, you can always cook those, some bud and even some stem into a butter.

 

With your mould thing, just check in on it - be vigilant but there's no need to be fanatical about it.

If you have them in a dark area with good airflow/ventillation you should be right through the drying process. We personally hung ours on (what seems to be a popular choice) a clothing rack inside a wardrobe with a large oscillating fan on low speed pointing at them, did not see ANY mould at all.

 

If you find any, remove it immediately, either the whole bud or just cut around it if you are able because it will spread.

I have never been certain of this but the general consensus seems to be that mouldy bud is useless. I would say that smoking it or vaping it would be a pretty bad idea - though, I've often thought if you only found minimal mould on surface level you MAY be able to knock all off that you can, and use it for a butter etc, making sure to strain it very well during use - though this is just a theory I had, I'm not sure if it would effect you in a negative way if used as such.

 

You can buy anti mould sprays - I would not put this stuff on buds/plant matter, but say if it were hanging in a wardrobe or something of an enclosed area, you could spray all the surfaces around it?

 

A final point on the flavour - my first lot didn't taste crash hot either, at first.

Some people put a measure of molasses in their watering, supposedly it can improve flavour and has been known to increase bud ?density? I think, it doesn't just get pushed out as the same but like works as extra energy too - there are also commercial products designed to do much the same.

Though we didn't use any of this last time - grew in coco, with a&b nutes, barely any ventillation (not a great idea...but hey, you go with what you've got at the time) and yeah the flavour was average at best.

Though seriously, curing helps this a LOT.

I put some of my personal supply in jars to cure. Three seperate amounts.

The one that was just the bud on it's own smelled stronger and sweeter over time and tasted a lot smoother and almost like fruit-like? after a week or so curing. I actually stuck some (wrapped) grape flavoured gum in one, and watermelon in the other which KIND OF effected the flavour a little bit but also it absorbed the smell like mad...if you like that kind of thing, well it works to some extent.

Though yeah just standard curing will improve your flavour over time - I would suggest basically storing your own in a constant state of curing - you will lose a minimal amount of weight, but the quantity will still be the same, and yeah it just gets better and better in my opinion.

 

Oh, and the microwave thing?

In my experience it just makes it taste and smell like shit...if you need a quick fix I would suggest just cutting some up, putting it in some absorbent paper towel with some airflow, mix it around every 15 minutes for an hour or so, and it should be dried *enough* to smoke etc not long after that. Though really, it's in no way reprasentative or anywhere near as good as your final product.

But yeah, microwaving...not sure what it does effects wise, but it overdries it, it smells like lawn clippings and tastes feral.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Foreskinnius

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hey paddy, sounds like your into it =) Great that you are drying and stuff, best is still to come.

the guys are giving you pretty solid advice, so I have nothing to add for you dude, except have a great time getting the others potted and ready for another blast, bet they go nuts after the initial transplant shock, but should be minimal, just be careful and slowly, slowly. No Worries!

have fun smoking your testers =). GH72

[paddy1]

Hi Guys

 

Just two questions:

 

1) Should the drying area be a well-ventilated area or do i actually need to have a fan or ducted fan blowing air on/around the drying buds?

 

2) As heat is an enemy, I am drying them in a cool place. But how cool should it be as the area I'm using might be a little too cool? (perhaps what min or max temps should i be looking at ?)

 

Also, what's wrong with a warmish area if it's dry?

 

Thanks.

[The Hash Nibbler]

Hey Paddy, sorry dude, was busy today.

1) As long as air can circulate around the buds a bit it should be fine, it is still damp air that is the problem, this promotes mould in your buds and then it's bin time.

2)You just want it to dry slowly, too warm and it will dry too fast, this degrades THC and makes it not so good.

Try and hang it in a clothes cupboard with plenty of room between them and the doors a little open so the air can circulate, some people do this, I use the drying box of death I told you how to make. I suppose a temp around 10-15 degrees would be a good starting point. I just did mine in the B O D in my cupboard with the outlet fan on to move some air and the door slightly open, worked great.

Too much warmth will dry the bud too fast, crisping the outside and leaving the inside full of moisture, increasing the risk of mould when you end up curing. Hope that helps. Peace. GH72