I have gotten the grow part somewhat down and now I am attempting to find the proper way of curing. If some one could give me a few hints or a good website that is true and not full of crap. I feel as if a perfect cure can make or break your crop. Thank you for the help!!
New Grower Curing Question
- Thread starter MaInEgReEn
- Start date
Trapper
Rocky Mountain...High
Paper bag dry until you reach an initial RH of 62%-68% then throw in jars with 62% Boveda Packs. Seems to me (and this is academic research not experience) that it would be that easy.
Seems like hitting and maintaining 62% RH is the goal....all the burping and checking and all that seems to be handled automatically by the Bovedas.
At least I haven't heard anything yet that says this approach is in any way inferior to anything else....
My 2 cents.
Seems like hitting and maintaining 62% RH is the goal....all the burping and checking and all that seems to be handled automatically by the Bovedas.
At least I haven't heard anything yet that says this approach is in any way inferior to anything else....
My 2 cents.
Grey Bear
Confidential Cultivator
This is the method I use
It is pretty basic and repeated here on this site.
Assumes plant is ready for harvest, flushed, medium has been allowed to dry.
It is advisable to do at least some fan leaf trimming at this point. Some people will do most of their trimming now, others will wait.
Cut plant down and hang upside down somewhere reasonably dark and with a bit of air movement. (it will smell heavily, so some people have to dry in their grow area for filtration)
And most people don't hang the whole plant, they de-branch it first to make it more manageable.
Leave in this state for roughly 1 day per 10 points of average rh (relative humidity) so someone with an average rh of 65 will need to let their plants hang for roughly 6.5 days
if your rh is higher than that you want to keep a close eye on it and make sure the air flow in the drying area is moving the air around the buds but not directly on them
It this point, I will cut off a few of the mid sized buds and jar them with a digital hygrometer, give it an hour or so to confirm that I the buds are at least down to 70rh
If not, give the lot another day.
If so, I do my final trim and cut the buds into "jarrable" size and toss in a small boveda pack with each jar and just one hygrometer for the whole batch.
That was the dry.
This is the cure
I burp them at least daily at this point until they reach 65rh. I have found at this point you are in good shape for most purposes.
If you are in no hurry, I have found you get the best flavors about 6-8 weeks into that cure. it will be ok before that, but better at that point.
- - - Updated - - -
PS this is not "my method", just the basic method most people use some variation of.
Also
Big mistake that many first-timers make is wanting to preserve that "big cola" intact.
Big risk for mold to develop in the middle of that sucker and spread like wildfire.
It is made of many buds, until you know what the hell you are doing, go ahead and reduce that cola down into buds before you jar it.
It is pretty basic and repeated here on this site.
Assumes plant is ready for harvest, flushed, medium has been allowed to dry.
It is advisable to do at least some fan leaf trimming at this point. Some people will do most of their trimming now, others will wait.
Cut plant down and hang upside down somewhere reasonably dark and with a bit of air movement. (it will smell heavily, so some people have to dry in their grow area for filtration)
And most people don't hang the whole plant, they de-branch it first to make it more manageable.
Leave in this state for roughly 1 day per 10 points of average rh (relative humidity) so someone with an average rh of 65 will need to let their plants hang for roughly 6.5 days
if your rh is higher than that you want to keep a close eye on it and make sure the air flow in the drying area is moving the air around the buds but not directly on them
It this point, I will cut off a few of the mid sized buds and jar them with a digital hygrometer, give it an hour or so to confirm that I the buds are at least down to 70rh
If not, give the lot another day.
If so, I do my final trim and cut the buds into "jarrable" size and toss in a small boveda pack with each jar and just one hygrometer for the whole batch.
That was the dry.
This is the cure
I burp them at least daily at this point until they reach 65rh. I have found at this point you are in good shape for most purposes.
If you are in no hurry, I have found you get the best flavors about 6-8 weeks into that cure. it will be ok before that, but better at that point.
- - - Updated - - -
PS this is not "my method", just the basic method most people use some variation of.
Also
Big mistake that many first-timers make is wanting to preserve that "big cola" intact.
Big risk for mold to develop in the middle of that sucker and spread like wildfire.
It is made of many buds, until you know what the hell you are doing, go ahead and reduce that cola down into buds before you jar it.
Last edited:
AndyBotwin
Weed Whisperer
I agree with gtron's method and have never had a bad dry/cure doing something similar. Trapper, one point about burping the jars. Even though the Boveda packets are absorbing excess humidity, a big part of the curing process is the removal of chlorophyll and other undesirable compounds from the flowers. Burping the jar gets that stuff out of the space and replaces it with fresh air, so it's still an important part of curing. I continue to burp my jars occasionally until they're around 30 days old. After that they're ready for long term storage.
