I’m getting ready to harvest my girl. The other day I found a small bit of bud rot in the middle of the main cola. I was able to remove the infected area. I trimmed the rest of the cola and placed the buds in a mesh drying rack. My question is, I’d like to do the rest of the plant in the same manor. So what are the cons of cutting, trimming, and drying in the rack. I know the buds will dry a bit quicker but they are so dense, it will be at least a 10 day dry. If I hang the branches it’ll probably be a lot longer. I just fear more bud rot setting in. It’s been 3 days so far and no signs on the plant. That top bud was sooo tight. What saved a good part of the bud is a week ago I started pulling the buds apart on the main for air flow. So, my question is should I trim and rack dry or just hand the plant?
I always wet trim…just because I find it easier. I just control the drying environment to slow the dry. I usually can get about an 8 - 12 day dry. Sometimes I start to sweat the smaller buds early to slow them.
Now that I have a Cannatrol, the wet trim allows me to get as much in there as possible…it only holds 1,000 wet trimmed grams.
Is that the machine that freeze dries the slowly adds back heat until it hit a set moister level. And its dried a cured in like a day. My drying room stay about 60° F with roughly 40% RH. Like I was saying, its been 3 days and the buds are no where close to being dry.
No…it does not freeze dry…it is a wine cooler case (company gets them cheap in China) and then the put their proprietary system in it here in the US. It tightly controls the dew point and dries weed in 4 days and cures it in another 4 days. It is completely shelf stable after 8 days. It does however still need some time to age and allow the complex terpenes to develop. It is expensive, but a game changer as far as quality and consistancy
It keeps the temp around 68 degrees. When I wet trim and put on racks I go for 60F and 60 rh
This company has been curing cheese this way for years. Their specialty is large rooms with this technology, but also make this small unit.
The pros, none rotten weed tastes and smells bad. The cons, you could get a lung infection and die. That is all.
I’ve already gotten rid of the bud rot. I obviously wouldn’t smoke mold. What I was asking was, whats the pros and cons of wet trimming your buds and drying them on a drying rack as opposed to leaving the sugar leaves and buds on the branch and hanging the the individual branches to dry.
First and foremost, I wash all weed before wet trim and then hang.
Hard to fathom, but clean weed smokes better (maybe).
Rot or mold, either is to be avoided.
Washing weed may help remove critters or debris (un-desired for smoke).
Wet trim is easier, for me.
Wet trim removes material better (stems easier to snip, wet).
Wet and wash are two different operations.
I am not sure what you are meaning for a drying rack. I use the net baskets to dry in my self. I use a 6 basket like this here. I would show mine but they doubled the price to 44 bucks. Super over priced. I have this hanging in a 3x3 tent with a fan pulling air from the tent. I can dry in about 5 days. Some times 6. I can normally get a nice plant to fit in 2 layers.
I like how my buds dry spread out on a screen. But also like them when they hang on limb. In either case I wet trim. The screen for when I use a bowl trimmer so buds come off branches. It’s the bowl trimmer that changes my method. I like both.
Thats exactly what I have. Never used for complete drying stage. Only time I’ve used it is when I hung plants, then when I started to trim felt like a bud could use another day or two to dry. So, I’d be go to go to trim and place in theses to dry? My dry room stays at 60° with 40%RH give or take and degree or 2.
My room is warm during the day and cold at night. @Myfriendis410 uses a basket like this too. Or used to in a spare room. I used to hang to dry. This basket makes things a lot easier for me. Plus. Once they are dry. I can go right into a grove bag. 
I like to trim all buds down when wet and dry that way. I have ocasionally found big tops with rot in the middle. I would not have seen unless I cut them all down to nuggets.
@4204life an easy way to catch bud rot as it develops is to take a picture with the flash on and the grow lights off. I have other pictures. But am trying to get my grow stuff in order. And seem to be worse off than when I started 
I found this to be a very good read on your topic question
That was quite interesting. I’ve always dry trimmed and dreaded trim day. I’m thinking the main thing is to control the dry time. Good thing is, I had to cut , trim, and dry the main cola, but the plant still has some time to go. As of now, I’ve got mainly cloudy with a few clear on the tricomes. Almost no amber. I figure I’ll leave the plant for another week and a half to 2 weeks. By that time the main cola buds will be dried and I can at least give it a taste. If the smell isn’t great or the tasted is bad I can hang and dry trim the rest of the plant.