# Okay, I suck at the hanging and drying part



## 420benny (Aug 30, 2009)

I hung a couple ounces of buds on foot long branches in a dark room. They are near my A/C unit and black curtains are waving that hang on both sides of the buds. After 3 or 4 days, the leaves felt too dry, so I chopped all the buds off and placed loosely in mason jars. I open the jars every day, but the buds seem too wet. I removed a qt. jar's worth and they are laying out on a plate, drying before I put them back. There are trichs all over the glass inside the jar they came out of. I am missing something here. I need help before I harvest and mess this up again. Last year, I went to the brown bags with wet buds too soon and knocked off lots of trichs. Oh, temps in the room are 70-76, with 45% humidity. I am assuming the moving air dried the outer leaves, but not the buds? How can I retain all those trichomes I worked so hard to get?


----------



## OGKushman (Aug 30, 2009)

I have a saying...it cant be too dry.

Now it can be...but a good solid 5 days in a warm room with a fan taking out the moisture is the best. Dont blow air directly on the buds.

Let it get dry enough that some of the bigger buds/stems can snap*, then put in jars with lid off for a day, then close it up and check it each day. Moisture comes out of the biggest buds/stems.

If you leave them on big trunks to dry, the dry time increases a lot.* If you split the big trunks with a razor, they dry much quicker.*


----------



## SkunkPatronus (Aug 30, 2009)

420benny said:
			
		

> I hung a couple ounces of buds on foot long branches in a dark room. They are near my A/C unit and black curtains are waving that hang on both sides of the buds. After 3 or 4 days, the leaves felt too dry, so I chopped all the buds off and placed loosely in mason jars. I open the jars every day, but the buds seem too wet. I removed a qt. jar's worth and they are laying out on a plate, drying before I put them back. There are trichs all over the glass inside the jar they came out of. I am missing something here. I need help before I harvest and mess this up again. Last year, I went to the brown bags with wet buds too soon and knocked off lots of trichs. Oh, temps in the room are 70-76, with 45% humidity. I am assuming the moving air dried the outer leaves, but not the buds? How can I retain all those trichomes I worked so hard to get?


 
I'm supposing that just leaving them longer where they were might help.  Have you considered making a bud dryer?  Basically it's a plastic box with air flow in and then out thru a carbon filter, i think that they advantages are less humidity and you can move it where you want it.  I mostly use a hanging line in my flowering room like you seem to be doing, high up because the heat helps, and leave it for a longer time that i think i need by about a week.  If it's a skunk, i hook it outside on my fence, because baby's arm sized dehydrating skunk buds in my house smells like an actual skunk got in,,, and my carbon filters cannot handle it.  I think you are just going to have to do what you have been doing, but let it do it longer?  The buds aren't dry when they feel dry on the outside... and i have lost lots of bud over the years to mold, so leave them alone for a while more.  My 2 cents 

oh, don't worry about triches on your jar insides, just swill some rum around in it after they really build up and make a marihito with it!


----------



## 420benny (Aug 30, 2009)

Thanks OGK. Sounds like I was too soon. I like the splitting idea. What do you do with a lot of popcorn buds? I thought of window screen on wooden frames hung near the buds? I am not sure about the trichs on the screen getting knocked off though.


----------



## 2Dog (Aug 30, 2009)

people I know have dried the popcorn on baking sheets just making sure to flip the buds..Like with a spatula. Less you touch them less crystals to fall off


----------



## 4u2sm0ke (Aug 30, 2009)

420benny said:
			
		

> I hung a couple ounces of buds on foot long branches in a dark room. They are near my A/C unit and black curtains are waving that hang on both sides of the buds. After 3 or 4 days, the leaves felt too dry, so I chopped all the buds off and placed loosely in mason jars. I open the jars every day, but the buds seem too wet. I removed a qt. jar's worth and they are laying out on a plate, drying before I put them back. There are trichs all over the glass inside the jar they came out of. I am missing something here. I need help before I harvest and mess this up again. Last year, I went to the brown bags with wet buds too soon and knocked off lots of trichs. Oh, temps in the room are 70-76, with 45% humidity. I am assuming the moving air dried the outer leaves, but not the buds? How can I retain all those trichomes I worked so hard to get?


 

do you not  brown bag b4 jar?


----------



## OGKushman (Aug 30, 2009)

I dont. I dry, jar, burp, seal for minimum of 3 week cure


----------



## SativaWeed (Aug 30, 2009)

I scrape the outer skins of the branches on opposite sides and then hang. Inspect every day, after about a week start checking twigs for "snappness". When dry enough to "SNAP!" trim into jars or ziplock bags to finish cure, open/close every day or so. Of course the less amount of time spent actually handling it the better, untill smoked.


----------



## OGKushman (Aug 31, 2009)

SativaWeed said:
			
		

> I scrape the outer skins of the branches on opposite sides and then hang. Inspect every day, after about a week start checking twigs for "snappness". When dry enough to "SNAP!" trim into jars or ziplock bags to finish cure, open/close every day or so. Of course the less amount of time spent actually handling it the better, untill smoked.


+1


----------



## 420benny (Aug 31, 2009)

Thanks everybody! I will try to reduce the air flow some, so they aren't getting so dry on outer leaves as quick and wait longer. 
4u, I used to use the bags until I accidentally kiefed almost 2 elbows of extremely sticky, giant buds. Now I want to go straight to jars, even if I have to babysit them.


----------



## BBFan (Aug 31, 2009)

Hi Benny-
Congrats on the chop.  Nice that you can stagger your harvest time.

I've had that problem myself.  It's amazing how the leaves were so crispy one day and after the jar for a day seem completely rehydrated.

Now that their cut off the main stems it becomes a real pita to hang them again.  I used window screens (didn't hang mine, but put it between 2 chairs to elevate) with a fan moving the air underneath (not at the buds) and gently turned the buds once a day.  It too is a time consuming task (and based on the pics from your journal I'm sure you're dealing with a good amount), but it worked well for me.

I think the big thing is waiting for the stems to snap when drying.  I thought the buds were getting way too dry based on the outer leaves and even though the stems were still a little pliable, was afraid I was over drying them.

Hope this helps.


----------



## PencilHead (Aug 31, 2009)

420benny said:
			
		

> What do you do with a lot of popcorn buds?


 
Give them to your friends who want free smoke.  

 Lollipop severely next grow and you won't have that annoying popcorn problem--just big fatties all over the plant like this:
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?p=531379#post531379


----------



## The Hemp Goddess (Aug 31, 2009)

Give away popcorn buds  ?  No, save them to make hash.

I trim absolutely every single bit of leaf material that I can see off my buds before I hang them.  Leaves will dry days before the buds have even started to dry.  IMO, there is no way that you can give the buds enough time to dry without the leaves getting crispy if you leave them on.  Also, I personally find leaf material nasty to smoke (but it makes great hash).


----------



## 420benny (Aug 31, 2009)

THG, I do remove fan leaves before hanging. I was talking about the smaller leaves mixed in with the buds getting crispy. Sounds like yours are all trimmed before the hang? Then just de-stem them and jar the buds, once dry enough? What about making kief with the popcorn buds? Is it a better or worse idea than making hash?


----------



## tcbud (Aug 31, 2009)

I do as the Goddess does, I trim all leaf off.....all the pointy trich covered leaves.  Leaving only the flower, bud.  Sticky Ickey work.

I show this pic of the purple bud, because you can see the leaves in Green. Some harvesters leave on the leaves to curl around the bud to protect it, but it means longer hanging time.


----------



## MindzEye (Aug 31, 2009)

I cured by hanging then straight to a jar for a long time... A simple rule you need to follow for that method is, wait until you can snap the stem the bud is on before putting it into the jar..... If the stem bends then there is too much moisture in the bud, the outside of the bud will be dry and crispy... When you can snap the stems and put the buds in jars the little bit of moisture that is left in the bud moistens the dry outside of the buds... When buds are drying they can look like you have over dried them, but when put in an air tight container moisten back up...


Now I just wait until the outsides of buds are crispy then I go to a brown bag, I check the buds twice a day and if they get really moist I just leave the bag open until they get crispy again and then fold the bag... Once the stems can snap I go to jars...


----------



## PencilHead (Sep 1, 2009)

Man, I gotta jack this thread for a moment to show some amazement in TC's purps.   That's some damned handsome bud, friend.


----------



## 420benny (Sep 13, 2009)

PH, now you know why I had to paint a painting of one of her purple buds. They rock!


----------



## cmd420 (Sep 13, 2009)

Yo Benny! just to chime in...just wait for the stems to snap not bend and that's pretty much all you have to look for...


----------



## Locked (Sep 13, 2009)

Yeah I hve started skipping the brown bag part as well...I hang in my drying closet for 5-7 days then check the stems for snappyness...if they snap and not bend then they go into mason jars and get burped at least once a day for 2 weeks...I hve had zero problems with this method...


----------



## 420benny (Sep 13, 2009)

Thanks gang! Seems like you all think alike, so I will go with that. Good timing, I have 25 ginormous mango buds swinging in the breeze. Can't mess that up, especially because they got the chop due to seeing bud rot. I am wondering if I shouldn't just cut them in half to air out the very dense centers. Look at my gj for today's pics. Let me know if you think making the buds smaller is wise.


----------

