Harvesting, Drying and Curing

Quickie Guide on Harvest, Trim and Cure of Cannabis.

Preface: There are as many ways to do this as there are people doing it. I will share some of the methods I have used here along with any suggestions if I remember them. However keep in mind this isn't the only way to do it, just how I do.

Also, how you harvest, trim and cure will depend on what your target use is for the cannabis. For smoking, you definitely want a really nice slow cure plus you trim the buds for whats known as "bag appeal" or how nice/seductive your buds look. If your intent is turning it all into wax, RSO or hashing, curing adds nothing to the product and the trim matters little since you are chemically removing the THC anywyas and will never taste the flower.

Before Harvest Day:

Get the stuff you need to do the job together first so you are not scrambling for things at the last minute.

* Trimming shears. I get them a dollar each at a local dollar store.
* Cardboard "flats" from cases of soup or other canned goods. 6 is a good start.
* Shallow dish of alcohol and paper towels
* Herbal drying rack or more cardboard flats, probably 3 per plant harvested.
* Medium sized paper bag.
* Latex gloves like doctors use. Cheap at Walmart, etc.

Ok the morning of the harvest I pick an area to work in, usually the living room works best for me. I set up a jug of water, a tallboy of coffee within arms reach of the couch or wherever I was working. Lots of great tunes on shuffle/repeat. Good light.

Also, I set up 3 of the cardboard flats near the work area along with a second large paper bag for trash. The three cardboard flats are for buds waiting to be trimmed, second is for the finished buds as you finish them and the final one will be the main work area.

Now you are ready. Put on your gloves and take a pair of trimming shears and the largest cardboard flat with you into the grow room. On the target plant, I start at the top and work my way down the plant. The main tops or colas are simple, just snip them about a foot down or whatever makes sense based on the plant. The rest are all off-shoots of the main branch so as you work your way down, snip each right where it meets the main branch and set them in the cardboard flat you brought for the purpose. Something I have done here to help things is right before putting the branch onto the flat I quickly snip off the fan leaves; you get more branches on the flat that way.

Once you have snipped all of the branches with buds from the main branch take the flat out to your work area. I take maybe six of the branches from that pile at a time and set them in flat #1. For each branch I first trim off all remaining fan leaves, then carefully snip each bud into the flat you have for that purpose. Toss the remaining branch into the garbage bag.

For each bud, I just trim off any plant material that doesn't sparkle, ie has trichomes and therefore THC. Once done, I add to my finished flat/pile.

Once all buds are trimmed and on the flat, I start the dry process in one of two ways, depending on the amount usually. If I have alot, I hang one of those herbal driers in the grow room and just distribute the buds over all the "levels". Finally I place an oscillating fan near it so the buds periodically get a little blast of fresh air. If I just have a small amount I distribute the buds over a few of the cardboard flats and then place them on a high shelf to stay out of sunlight. Both methods work although the latter can probuce "pillow head" which is no big deal to me.

How long to dry?

If you are doing this to produce smokable product, you want to wait until the buds are about 75% dry and then place them in air-tight jars to start the cure process. The idea here is to pop the top on each jar for a few minutes each day, giving the buds a gentle stir each day to redistribute the wetter ones with the drier ones. I use a chop stick and it works great. The goal is to complete the final 25% of the drying process as slowly as possible since that alone can have a major impact on how smooth or harsh your smoke is.

Once each jar had reached the stage where the buds seem uniformly dry you can just clap on the lid to the jar and stick it in a cool dark place until needed.