Chew's chopping, washing, drying & cure guide

Chew · 07-03-16, 03:18 PM

Hey talkers,

I put this little guide together for Swifty a few days back and thought I would share it here. Hopefully, some others may find it useful. We all have our own way of doing things and this is mine. It works great for me

Harvest

Cut the main colas and remove side branches. Trim sugar leaves. Leave all buds on their branches

Washing

I used distilled water as I have a distiller, but one container was tap water as I ran out of time. Im sure using tap water in all three will be fine

3x 20 litre (ish) containers/buckets etc

Container 1:

Room temp
1x cup of fresh lemon juice, 1x cup of bicarbonate soda. Mix well

Container 2 & 3

Cold plain water

Gently dunk all branches up and down in each container for 20-30 seconds. Let the water drip off before moving to the next container
Hang to dry

It may seem like hassle but I can assure you, its well worth doing

Its removes all dirt, dust and anything that's been sprayed on the grow over the months. Just think how dusty your home gets after a few weeks. Your extractor is changing the air constantly so the dust build up can be quite horrific, although you can’t see it on the buds

This will NOT affect potency of your crop

Drying & Curing
Waiting till the stems snap is too dry imo

18-20c
Rh 50% ish

4-5 days is long enough in most cases.

After 2-3 days, or when the outsides start to feel dry, place the small buds in a large (Ish) container with an RH meter and put the lid on. This draws the moisture out and gives a more even dry. The sweet spot for curing is 60-65%. After a Hr or two, the RH has most likely increased over 65% and the buds may feel wet. Take the buds out and leave to dry another 12-24 hrs. Repeat this process until the RH is stable at 65% in the containers for around 18-24 hrs. Once stable they go into the jars for curing

Day 4-5 (Or when feeling dry outside) i remove all large buds from the colas and repeat the above. Fill the jars 2/3 full and do not pack them tightly.

Week 1 curing

Once the buds are in the jars, I burp once per day for around 20mins. I may empty all buds back into the large containers 2-3 times over the first week for 10-15mins just to be safe. Aside from that, my lids stay closed. Every jar has an RH meter in it.
Look for condensation inside the jars. If you see moisture or mould, they couldn’t have been dry enough. Make sure your RH meters read correctly. I check my cheap ones against my 4R which is calibrated.

Week 2 curing

I burp maybe every other day.

Week 3 & 4

I open all jars and have a quick sniff just to check for dodgy mould smells and give the jars a shake to loosen up the buds

For long turn storage add Boveda 62% humidity packs in the jars to keep your buds fresh
That’s it, easy as….