I don’t think it’s ready, but since this is my first time can someone help?
And what do I do once it is time?
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Welcome to the forum.
You probably have 4 to 5 weeks to go. Begin looking at trichomes when the white pistils have browned.
Here’s a video that lays out the consequences of harvesting too early.
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Everybody has their perfered trim, dry, and cure method and they can be pretty different, but there are a few key factors to keep in mind. You will need a drying space. It should be dark cool and have plenty of air circulation. Your tent is perfect if you don’t need it for other plants. Temps between 60 and 68 degrees and relative humidity between 50% and 60% are ideal. Warmer can lead to some terp(flavors, smells, some medicinal properties in addition to cannabinoids) loss and cooler could lead to things drying too fast due to cold air’s poor ability to hold water. Higher humidity can cause mold and bacterial growth as well as condensation in cooler surfaces. Not enough and again you will dry too fast. We want a low slow dry to remove moisture and decompse chlorophyll(tastes terrible, harsh, and gives some people headaches) with out damaging more volatile compounds like terps. 8-10 days minimum. Don’t feel like your going to ruin you plant if you can’t maintain a perfect environment. I just want you to know what’s ideal so you can try to get as close as your setup allows and you will get the best results possible. A few degrees or a few days won’t ruin your harvest. You can hang the whole plant leaves n all or manicure it wet and dry the buds on screens or anything in between to suit your preference and environment. The more you trim before drying the faster it will dry. If high humidity is the concern then maybe bust it down a little and hang individual branches and pic of the water leaves or wet trim and manicure every bud and spread them out if it’s really high. If it’s really low you migh want to hang the whole plant but It might not dry evenly in the middle so you may have to jar in sections when the time comes so the middle can dry more. Some of it comes with practice and personal experience. I would recommend leaving the buds on stems during the dry so you can do a snap test. At least until you have a few rounds under your belt and have the experience to determine by other means when to jar. I still do because the snap test is easy, accurate when done well, and requires no extra tools cuz lets face it building a grow op is not cheap. To perform a snap test take an exposed section of branch and fold it in half Your looking for the branch to make snapping and crackling sounds but not break in two pieces. Even if it does break a little to dry is way better than a little too wet. Too dry leads to poor flavor and texture, but will still smoke. Too wet leads to ammonia and mold both can make your harvest unusable. always use a fresh section of branch to perform additional tests that may be needed. Once jarred you should check them for signs of mold or ammonia. You will smell it when sniff the jar and if you ever see condensation inside the jar empty it and air it out immediately. I say jar because I use jars cuz I hate storing my medicine in plasic, but that’s just me. You can use grove bags and save a little time effort and money if you don’t store it long years. You can also get the little hygrometer/thermometers from amazon and drop them in the jar with your buds if your worried about not being able to get final moisture content right without a way to measure. It should read 55%-60% after being closed in a mostly full jar. Allow 10-15 min for the thermometer get an accurate read.
If you want more details on my exact method I’m happy to give them if you’d like, but this response is already pretty long. Hope that helps you get the most out of your girl when the time comes.
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