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advise for drying rockhard flowers


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Hi All, 

 

I actually have two questions for this post. 

 

The first being... 

 

In the next few weeks I'll be getting ready to hang up my HSO Purple Trainwreck. 

The buds on this thing are very, very dense. Which lead me to wonder about how best to dry her out. 

If time permitted I would just hang it till its dry at the stems - but in this case I want a good dry with out stuffing the taste or how good the smoke is\could be

but in a fairly short time. I had read that drying @ 27c and no higher is a good start and perhaps could have it dry \ smoke able in about 3-4 days. 

 

But I thought I would ask for advise on this first. Due to them being so dense it will be easy to think they are dry until you try and chop it. 

 

 

 

The second is to do with weight off a plant. 

recently reading up on some threads here - a few members mentioned about a gram per watt for indoor growing is pretty much what to aim for. 

eg - 600w = 600g good grow. 

 

When weight is talked about in this sense - is it dry or wet weight? Also when people talk about weight from their plant - I had assumed it was always dry weight - but have seen many reporting wet weight. 

So should this be talked about in dry weight or wet weight for both cases? 

 

Thanks in advance!! 

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Itchy posted a very good link to a guy talking about drying. Dry it at no more than 25c if possible, hang up with all the leaf on to slow the dry and 3-4 days is to way fast in my opinion. You want at least 7 days, I like 10 -14 myself. keep it in the dark with some ventilation.

 

https://cannabis.community.forums.ozstoners.com/topic/75596-harvesting-curing-talk/

 

 

 

I just went to get link and see you posted in Itchy's thread, so ......you know already if you dry it in 3-4 days you will loose quality maybe a lot of quality. You cant get top grade with haste.

 

In my mind, you spend many months ( 8-9 in my case) growing with care and exercising patience getting those Trics to the colour you want, it deserves a week or 2 to dry right.

 

I don't know your reasons for a quick dry, but just maybe a take a tolerance break if your short of weed and then the PTW will really knock you on your arse. I only say that since you said the Bubble gum wont last long.

 

I just remember me at 18, me and my mate would get some wet bud of his mums plant, dry it a microwave at my house. head out to the pub on Friday night and it would pay for drinks all night, everyone was so pissed no one cared the weed tasted like fresh lawn clippings. :rolleyes:

 

 

Dry weight is the only weight worth talking about.

 

That Purple TW looks real nice Razzor. Sorry I cant help you dry it fast and get the best quality.

 

Edit. More info http://cannaversity.com/cannaversity/article.php?id=069

Edited by Husky
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I have to agree with Husky 'You cant get top grade with haste'.

Now, we all know that temptation (many might not admit it tho) and if you need then you can, but just do it with a single bud. Leave the rest to slow dry and cure.

The longer you cure the better it will be. The last thing you want is to force it and have a rough smoke that rips the guts outta ya throat IMO

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I think Husky has well and truly covered your questions Razz0r... apart from the gram per watt thingy...

 

It's a bit more complicated than just 600g equals a good grow from 600w... it's actually an measure of energy use during the grow cycle, so there is a bit more maths involved before we can get to a gram per watt figure that actually means something.

 

If you are interested I can give you a worked example of the formula, or you can google gram per watt and I am sure you will find examples yourself.

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Thanks heaps guys. 

 

Lou I'll google that and see what I come up with. With that is that dry gram or wet? 

Thinking about it - man I was stoned when I posted lol of course you can't get fast dry and retain good taste - I know that. (Stupid) 

 

I think it was more the buds are so dense I am not sure of how to best dry it - perhaps just letting it going till its done. 

:) 

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I've set myself the g/watt goal for indoors, don't know what the official calc that Lou's talking about is, but I take a simplistic approach to it (right or wrong).  I just use the final dry weight of heavily trimmed and destemmed bud that is good enough to avoid the hash bin, if I'd included popcorn I would have cracked it a couple of times, but I don't see that as being the right way to do it.  I also feel this needs to be based on a grow area roughly matched to the wattage of the lights, so I use 2.4*1.2m floorspace tent with 2*600w lights, which is pretty much in the zone.  I could take one of the lights out and easily crack 600g, but apart from cheating, a lot of the bud would be a bit crappy.  I have a background in accounting, so I feel the need to quantify everything with numbers :D

 

Having said all that, I only use it as a goal to indicate reaching a good level of competency, but don't get all hung up on it.  There are many more important things, like quality, strain selection (just because it's a good yielder doesn't mean it's good for your particular needs), and getting enjoyment from the grow experience itself.  Be more focussed on those things, and learning from your mistakes, and at some point the yield will follow.

 

As for the drying, so long as you avoid mould the longer the better, but sometimes weather conditions take matters out of your hands a bit.  With the dense buds, just relax and dry as normal, the burping stage of the curing process will take care of the residual internal moisture and balance moisture levels throughout the buds eventually.  You may need to take the buds back out of the jars for an hr or 2's airing once or twice at the start, but it works out fine in the end.  As the Hitchhikers Guide says, Don't Panic.

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I think the Gram per Watt was a marketing tactic from Hydroponic food companies to get people to buy there produces. It is possible to do, but I mainly see it in SoG set ups. With Auz laws its safer to have less girls which are bigger, I personaly run 1 girl 1 ligh, and think 1 elbow per light is great. Which works out to be about 0.75 Grams pre Watt, 0.5 grams per watt is nothing to sneeze at ........................ ( crazy name dude ...........).

 

One your point about drying and curing razz, it all depends where you are in Auz.

The reason why people hang there girls to dry is if there in an area where there is lower humidity.

In the case of myself and my mate, it is humid most of the year. So doing a full wet trim, and taking buds off the steam, then drying it helps stop mold grow. Also helps getting the cell walls of the plant ( THC ) ready for curing.

Old farmer year ago gave me a really easy explanation about drying.

He said you got to think of each THC cell as a grape, and your wanting to turn each grape into a sultana. If you dry them out to fast then the cell walls with be thin and brittle, and lose there goodness over time. If you dry them out to slow, you risk mold and the cell walls being really thick. Which leads to a longer curing time, which increases risk of mold during curing. Also do to the thick walls of the cells it will have a higher burning temp to get all the goodness out of you meds. 

On that last point, he was an old farmer that only smoked his meds via a joint.  And vapor where not around, so i dont really think is it do much of a big deal. Unless your a J smoker or via water pipes, you would not be getting all the goodness out.

That said, this is only the drying part which normally takes about a week, then you have your curing that takes about 2-3 week in my books to brake down the chlorophyll and sugars for a nice clean smooth meds. 

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