curing days 1-3 with the leaves on

Has anyone ever heard about this? I've got someone teaching me new techniques. I was told to cut my branches and leave them hanging in the dark for 3 days with the leaves on. He said that the buds will continue to feed on them for that time. Anyone have any experience with that or opinions?

can.i.buz said:

Has anyone ever heard about this? I've got someone teaching me new techniques. I was told to cut my branches and leave them hanging in the dark for 3 days with the leaves on. He said that the buds will continue to feed on them for that time. Anyone have any experience with that or opinions?

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Yes chlorophyll continues to be used-up during drying, if that's what you mean.

he said it would add a substantial amount of weight to the final product

IMO, this would be an unnecessary step in curing and make removing the leaves much more tedious?
I have read of this method, but thought it old school?

MrFishy said:

IMO, this would be an unnecessary step in curing and make removing the leaves much more tedious?
I have read of this method, but thought it old school?

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they may be old school but they have the biggest dispensaries in SoCal............so? Maybe they know what they're doing?

can.i.buz said:

they may be old school but they have the biggest dispensaries in SoCal............so? Maybe they know what they're doing?

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I reckon it is old school, that was the way I was taught oh so many years ago. Makes the drying time a little longer. Yeah trimming is more tedious, but that is what I worked all season long for....lol. Also, gives me a chance to inspect the buds after they have dried. I guess just one of those things one of the many ways to reach the same goal. Old school but learning new tricks here

canefan said:

I reckon it is old school, that was the way I was taught oh so many years ago. Makes the drying time a little longer. Yeah trimming is more tedious, but that is what I worked all season long for....lol. Also, gives me a chance to inspect the buds after they have dried. I guess just one of those things one of the many ways to reach the same goal. Old school but learning new tricks here

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That's cool. We all have a lot to learn. Especially if you're trying to be legal. The laws and attitudes are changing daily. These guys have three big dispensaries and no one has put a foot in jail even after many years of operating store fronts. I find that amazing.

Yeah, I'm old school myself (4+ decades growing) and anything I can do to make harvesting go a bit faster, or easier (for me) I'm interested in.
IMO, harvesting is the most labor intensive part of growing.
I reckon it all really depends on the scale of the mission.

Some folks pull whole tomato plants up and hang 'em, but I prefer picking the fruit off.

MrFishy said:

Yeah, I'm old school myself (4+ decades growing) and anything I can do to make harvesting go a bit faster, or easier (for me) I'm interested in.
IMO, harvesting is the most labor intensive part of growing.
I reckon it all really depends on the scale of the mission.

Some folks pull whole tomato plants up and hang 'em, but I prefer picking the fruit off.

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It's the most labor intensive and it makes me sad. I like veg.

I can think of two reasons this might be a bad idea. Don't get me wrong, I wanna know how it does, but here's my opinion/theory.

If you leave the fan leaves on, its more of a pain in the ass to manicure your buds.

If you're still pulling off fan leaves after cutting, you're allowing them to pull nitrogen into the buds, which affects taste. I might be wrong on this one, but I know for sure it makes grooming a bigger pain in the ass.

Keep us posted, you should do a side by side.

wilsoncr17 said:

I can think of two reasons this might be a bad idea. Don't get me wrong, I wanna know how it does, but here's my opinion/theory.

If you leave the fan leaves on, its more of a pain in the ass to manicure your buds.

If you're still pulling off fan leaves after cutting, you're allowing them to pull nitrogen into the buds, which affects taste. I might be wrong on this one, but I know for sure it makes grooming a bigger pain in the ass.

Keep us posted, you should do a side by side.

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Ok, that's a deal. I should have clarified. The fan leaves go, just no other leaves unless they are dead.

You can get the best of both worlds just by leaving them in total darkness for that long before cutting.. (When you decide its cutting time, flip the lights out and wait..
Yes the plant will continue to draw from leaves after cutting.. Anybody who's ever cloned knows that.. But they obviously wilt alot less is you leave the roots intact..
Also, cannabinoids in the trichromes/resin is in a constant state of flux between varous forms, and light degrades THC.. Studies have shown an increase in THC ratio to other cannabinoids in samples harvested after a dark cycle..

It will add weight but only because you are leaving the leaves intact which will result in a harder smoke. Trim your flowers nice and neat then save the smallest leaves that grow closet to the flower and use it for brownies or butter or whatever floats your boat.

97HDSFTL said:

It will add weight but only because you are leaving the leaves intact which will result in a harder smoke. Trim your flowers nice and neat then save the smallest leaves that grow closet to the flower and use it for brownies or butter or whatever floats your boat.

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No they will not be intact. He said to trim them after 3 days hanging in the dark.

Hey ppl, I think this might not be a good method. Don't try it unless you want to increase your work by 1000%. I think maybe I'll see 4% or more weight increase but I'm not even sure of that yet. I don't think it's worth it.

Brick Top said:

For one the thread title says curing but what is being talked about would be in the drying process, not the curing process.
　
Next there is the leave the leaves on so the buds feed off of them during the 3 days of darkness. Dead buds don’t really feed. When you hack up a plant into sections of whatever size you cut all natural flowing of everything.
　
What happens then is different substances begin to breakdown, which in most cases is good, but the plant itself is dead, there is no transpiration occurring, nothing is moving from point ‘A’ on the plant to point ‘B’ anymore. Expecting that to happen would be like expecting the blood in your arm to keep pumping into your hand after your arm had been cut off.
　
The idea of darkness increasing levels of THC is not something that happens after killing the plant, it happens while the plant is still living and in one piece and still functioning. Studied have been made where, if I remember right 100 female plants were grown and half of them, 50 female plants were given a 72-hour period of darkness BEFORE being harvested and in some strains there was an increase in levels of THC of as much as 30%.
　
Light rays, natural or artificial break down THC. Every day some THC is lost to light rays but during the hours of darkness the lost THC is replenished plus a little more is added so there is a slow continual increase until it maxes out due to genetics or poor conditions that hold the plant back.
　
The basic idea of the 72-hours of darkness BEFORE harvesting is the plants will continue to remain alive but in darkness and there will not be any THC degradation due to light rays but there will be the continual creation of THC at whatever rate that strains genetics will cause it do produce. Making the period of darkness longer isn’t of help because by then the plants will begin to die from lack of light so all functions/processes would then stop and the production of THC would stop just like it does when you hack up plants and let them hang to dry.
　
What makes pot more potent/better after a proper drying and a proper curing is that when harvested not all of the THC in the trichome-heads/resin-heads is in a psychoactive form. It needs time to change and to become psychoactive and if properly dried and properly cured you will them allow the THC to become the most potent it can be. So that is what makes dried and hopefully cured pot more potent and not because a dead plant still had leaves close to the buds while it dried and the buds drew from the leaves.

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Interesting. Thank you. It makes sense. Why do you think these guys are telling me to do it this way?

I took two buds that were close in size an did a little (very non scientific) experiment. Here's what I have:

Bud #1 leaves on: day 1 8.6 grams, day 2 4.2 grams, day 3 3.3 grams after trimming the leaves 2.9 day 6 2.1

Bud #2 leaves off: day 1 9.5 grams, day 2 4.2 grams, day 3 3.2 grams, day 6 2.4 grams.

I'm not sure what the % of loss is there but I think that's what they were after.

Brick Top said:

Even a scientific test would have to include some margin for error, however small it might be, because of how difficult it would be to pick two buds of the exact same size, shape and weight and density and also exact same percentage of moisture content at the moment of harvesting etc. and without that results would differ.
　
About the most accurate thing they would do in terms of weight would be test the bud moisture content at harvest and then at the end of the 3-day (or whatever) drying and see what percentage was lost and if it differed to any amount other than might be easily explained away due to bud size, shape, weight, density etc. and if so then look for possible reasons for it.
　
In other words taking buds that appear to be at least somewhat similar enough for a home test and then weighing them will give you dots to connect but they likely will not when connected draw an accurate picture.
　
I guess I would be curious as to why the additional weight gain was sought after? Any additional weight could not have been made up by massively increased levels of THC. If there is some increase it could only be in moisture because the plant(s) would be dead at that point and not growing. The flow of fluids that carry all the various substances plants need and use would halt once whacked into pieces so nothing more would go anywhere to increase anything in any way.
　
The transformation of non-psychoactive THC into psychoactive THC would not increase either weight or volume. If allowed to mature to long and the trichome color turned to fully amber or more that would mean increased levels of CBN but that comes from the lost THC that oxidizes and becomes increased levels of CBN so there again there would not be an increase.
　
Why do I think the guys told you what they told you? Because they likely believe it is true. But I tend to believe there is an inaccurately perceived cause and effect being accepted as being accurate and that is what was told to you.

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I'm going to see them this week. I'll ask. Anyway I'm not happy. If I had his number, I would have called him and kindly asked him to help me because it was horrible. You make a good point. I did a water cure on part of my first grow because I had spider mites. Water curing is unpopular with commercial growers because of it's difference in volume and appearance. I thought it was great because it saved my buds and there was less smoke with the same THC.

can.i.buz said:

I'm going to see them this week. I'll ask. Anyway I'm not happy. If I had his number, I would have called him and kindly asked him to help me because it was horrible. You make a good point. I did a water cure on part of my first grow because I had spider mites. Water curing is unpopular with commercial growers because of it's difference in volume and appearance. I thought it was great because it saved my buds and there was less smoke with the same THC.

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I dont think leaving leaves on is going to add weight.But what i do know about this method is that the buds stay crystalier,and smell way better.By manicuring after its dry you dont get all the fresh thc stuck on your hands ,gloves ect.Therefore more left on the bud.By leaving those leaves on it preserves the smell better.Manicuring when this way is not that much harder.The leaves practically fall off.This is the only way i dry its the best.