After I hang for several days until the stems are semi-brittle but still a bit pliable, I’ll trim and place nugs in glass jars. I bought 8g Boost packs and a multi-pack of small hygrometers.
My strategy is to place the buds loosely in 1 qt wide mouth glass jars with a hygrometer - lid on the jar. I’ll burp the jars daily for the first week of maybe 15-30 min daily before resealing. I’ll burp with less frequency the second week with shorter burp durations. I’ll scale back the burp frequency and duration until I see the hygrometer hit 62% which is my magic number since the Boost packs are 62% packets.
I’ll remove the hygrometers, drop in the Boost packs and consider my cure complete in around 2 - 3 weeks.
If I am heading in the wrong direction and any savvy grower/curer sees potential issues, please let me know before I get in too deep. Thanks!!
Looks good to me. I wouldn’t put any humidor packs in them to start out. I generally burp them every day for two weeks, then go down to two or three times a week for another two weeks, then after that month go down to once a week for a month… then just every now and then when I think I should do it. So far I haven’t had any go bad, get mold, or dry out on me.
I do have 62% Boveda packs and I have used in them in the past, but I try to avoid it if at all possible. My basement has a pretty ideal environment for storing bud as it is. The Boveda packs seem to alter/change/remove the terps, especially if you use them in one jar on one strain and then use them again on a different jar with a different strain.
Looks pretty good to me. I wait until smaller stems aren’t pliable, with definitive crack when bent. If larger ones still a little pliable is fine. I would also probably burp couple times a day first week if you do like that. Everything else pretty much exactly what i do.
Good tips! I had read that I needed the bud at the correct RH% before adding in the humidor (Boost) packs since a common misconception is that these packs do the curing for you. I learned that was not the case, so I’ll hit the correct RH% first.
Perfect! Will 50% humidity at around 60F in my curing room be about right? If so, what length of drying time is typical? I plan to hang individual colas and not the entire plant.
Your jars will smell different on different days and at different times throughout the curing process. Don’t freak out if one day you open them and they smell like the most awesome weed in the world, and the next day they smell like cut grass. Just like growing the plant, this part of it takes patience too.
That being said I always start smoking it as soon as it’s dry enough.
This should be just about perfect. Drying time can take anywhere from 5 days to two or three weeks. Depends on bud density, how much stem you leave on, environment, etc. Generally one or two weeks.
In general I also like to keep my fans running (I dry in one of my tents usually) to keep air moving, but nothing blowing directly on the buds. I like to dry slower if I can, so I usually keep humidity around 50% myself… I think a lot of other people prefer it slightly less humid (40-45%).
I have a grow room where I have my tent setup. Its very well temp and humidity controlled, so I’ll shut down my tent/lights/fans after harvest.
I’ll set my humidifier at 50% in the room and have a small portable fan I’ll position under my hang lines so I’ll get a gentle circulation airflow but no direct air on the buds. Just a gentle air current
I’ll have the room dark so the chlorophyll can break down.
Having those hygrometers in there you can cheat quite a bit. When you first har them, go back and check jars about 45 min after capping. If you see any of them around 70% or higher, dump tge jar on plate for 20-30 minutes and then jar them back up. Check again after 45 min, you can repeat this process as much as you want. If you get to 65ish % plenty good to just burp.
I’m trying to think of everything, and wanted some experienced opinions to back my plan up. I much rather prefer to go the slow and well planned out route and get excellent weed as opposed to rushing thru this critical stage and getting shitty weed. I invested $$ and 4 months to get to this point, and I really want this grow to set the pace for many stellar grows to follow.
I feel you there. I’ve been fortunate enough to get a return on my investment in every rotation so far. You know that operator saying, “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast?”
