Anyone else sick of growing a great plant, follow a seemingly correct drying method.... only to get a product at the end that has hints of hay, and you are sure it maybe could have been better? Maybe its just me but this seems to happen frequently, not always, but more than I would like to admit.
My regular method of drying is to remove all the fan leaves, cut down the plant and hang dry via branches for 10-14 days and keep the conditions around 60% humidity and around 20 or below Celsius. Also known as the 60 & 60 method you will see most growers recommending. After line drying for 10-14 days I remove most of the water leaves and remove the flowers from the stem before jarring. I then burp the jars twice a day for a couple of weeks and allow air exchange, before allowing to cure in the jars. But.....I feel the final product sometimes could be better and maybe I am missing something.
So I have been trying a new step and tech to my normal curing routine. I take no credit for the method. This tech comes straight from Notsodog, a grower from Mendocino. Side note - his podcast Breeders Syndicate with Mat Riot rocks for weed dorks like myself. Anyway, Notso has been growing for over 30yrs, this is the method him and his crew all use and swear by. He reckons it takes their final product up a notch to bring out the full terps and flavour for longer.
Step 1
Cut down the plant and cut up into branches to hang. You can either remove the fans leaves at this point or not. I chose to remove the fan leaves at this point. Most importantly, leave all the flowers on the stems. The reason being, one of the key principles of this method is to leave the flowers attached to the stems. The theory is that curing of the flower only occurs while the flower is still attached to the stem, taken from tobacco drying methods. Apparently there is an interplay of moisture between the stem and flower.
Step 2
Once you line dry for 10-14 days, you take down the branches, and cut the branches up until single stems, still leaving the flowers attached to the stems. You then place the branches in paper bags. If you haven't removed the fans, do it now. I choose to half fill the paper bags and not over stuff or jam them, the branches usually stack well together. The paper bags are porous and allow the curing method to continue for at least another 2 weeks. And this is the stage I usually mess up, by just going straight to the jarring process. The paper bags are a breathable desiccant, that allows the air exchange to take place. Instead of getting trapped in the jars they off gas and cure.
Also by putting into the paper bags, you are not weighing down and compacting the flowers together into an unbreathable space. Which is exactly what takes place in an air tight jar, when you jam it all in there and seal it up. When you seal it up the curing process can't really occur, the moisture can't escape inside the jar, so instead it equalizes in the flowers, that's the theory anyway. So instead you put the flowers in the paper bags and just fold them over. Subsequently any other weed dorks out there will know from the Green House videos with the fat cat Arjan and Franco (RIP), they always recommend putting your dried flowers in bags before allowing to cure for an additional 2-3months, the coffee shops in the Dam have been at it for ages, so this goes with the theory.
Once you have your paper labelled paper bags filled. You put the paper bags in the high tech storage container of black plastic rubbish sack. The paper bags are neat in that you can line them across and stack them ontop of each other, like modular little storage bricks. They keep their shape, and protect your drying flowers easily. So there is no weight or pressure on your flowers.
You then tie the blag rubbish sacks with a knot and you have your cure containers sorted. I normally tie a fairly loose not to allow air exchange to continue. And surprisingly the smell isn't too bad coming off them. You then store the bags for at least 2 weeks in a cool dry place before then jarring. At any time you can take the bags out if they are too wet and open them up to allow to dry. I haven't found this an issue at all myself. If I could only line dry for a 7 days and then paper bag, this might happen, but I can't see this occurring if your properly drying for 10 + days. Any way after 2 weeks the cure should be ready, but you can leave for months like this. Notsodog reckons he's left them for at least 2 months like this and they smoke has still been solid. I am going to try jarring some soon and leaving some in the bags to compare.
So I have just had the plastic bags sitting for two weeks. Now on opening up the bags, the smell is just tremendous, there are layers and smells I haven't really smelt on plants that I have been growing for multi runs, so thats kind of cool. I just find myself opening up the bags and pinching whole branches out in the evening to sacrifice to the volcano. The flavours and taste have been great, the best part...zero hay smell, just nice pungent weed aromas.
So there is a little show and tell. Feel free to give it a try, even try doing it with half your harvest to compare the two. I just hope everyone can have the terpiest terps... because that's what I want
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