Whack it at the base - WHOLE plant drying

I've been contemplating cutting the plant at the base and hanging the whole thing for a few years now. I always did the wet trim, dry, and cure. Sometimes the finished product would smell great and sometimes it smelled like I just mowed the lawn. The grass smell usually would occured when my indoor grows were ready to harvest during the hotest parts of summer. I'm sure the reason was it was drying too fast. I wouldn't call my room the PERFECT environment, but I do what I can.

So a few months ago I stumbled on a thread by Mr. Green Thumb 01. The thread name was something like, "The dry is more important than the cure". I can no longer find it and think it got deleted, but I do remember a couple key points.

1. Cut the plant as low as possible above the soil.
2. Temps should be 65-70.
3. Humidity 50-55%

The plant can be hung right side up or upside down. I chose to hang it upside down so the leaves would protect the buds.

Here goes:

400hps
FFoF soil
Connie Chung main-lined



This is day 1. I cut the plant right above the soil and hung it up. Not one leaf was trimmed off.

I am also thinking of trying this just for the hell of it, got 4 afghan kush coming down in the next couple weeks. It stands to reason that it will prolong the drying process which will aid in getting that long, slow dry that is important for great tasting smoke. Make sure to update us on how it goes.

It stinks really good.



These pics were taken last night at lights on. This is 5 days of hanging. I still have not cut a single leaf off the plant. The only thing I did was tape a bamboo stick to a few stems so they wouldn't be so bunched up.

It does not smell one bit like fresh cut grass. I'll take pics everyday now until it goes into the jars. It is still wet. I'll guess total hang time to be 10-12 days.

View attachment 2445637 <<<<<< What a difference in appearance 5 days make.

I will be doing this too, as chopping it up into little pieces right away doesn't work well for me. I think it traps all the chlorophyll by drying too fast through all those cut points.
By accident, I found that letting the whole plant dry at once, (two weeks) made wonderful tasting smoke. By letting it transpire naturally, the curing process isn't disturbed. I will be hanging the whole thing in the dark, so it stays green (kush/skunk) at 70 days flowering (two more weeks) just snipping the 6 roots that go through the flowerpot bottom into the res were they have filled it. Have just been adding pumps and airstones. Up to 3 now, and she's heavy. -400w CMH

Subbing this thread! I'm going to do a full-plant hang if I can when drying -- my only problem is my plants are 5" tall AND I topped early, so I have 4 main stems, not one. But I think they'll be ready about a week apart, so the one I start drying first will have shrunk by the time I have to hang the second.

I've never harvested before, but from everything I'm reading, low and slow is the way to go. I'll have waited since August, so what's an extra couple of weeks?

I have heard that trimming wet is easier, so I might do just a little of that to make the eventual manicure a little easier. But I'm def hanging the whole plant.

Here are a couple more close up. 5 days of hanging.



There is some beautiful purple in there.


I'm doing my best to hold 65-70 degrees and 50% humidity. It's friggin getting cold. The dehumidifier is running and holding at 50%. The actual temps are 60-65 right now. It's hanging in the corner of my flower room with a barrier up to block the direct light.

Like I said, I'll be throwing some pics up every day until they go into jars.

-HLG

Did five like this one.

Just did a bunch of whole branches without trimming.. The smell was great but fuck trimming that shit.. The stuff I trim and dry and cure is still great tasting and smelling, not enough of a difference to me to try to trim all those little drid up leaves that are STUCK to the buds...

Just dried through this method, boy you gonna need time for the trim, but you will like the final result. tip: wear latex gloves

stumpjumper said:

Just did a bunch of whole branches without trimming.. The smell was great but fuck trimming that shit.. The stuff I trim and dry and cure is still great tasting and smelling, not enough of a difference to me to try to trim all those little drid up leaves that are STUCK to the buds...

Click to expand...

Ya I hear that is one of the cons of whole plant drying with leaves and all intact. I have three plants going at all times and all finishing at different times. Drying and trimming a plant every 3-4 weeks can't be that bad. This is my first go at whole plant hanging. We'll see.

I've had problems dialing in my trim, dry, cure. My main problems were heat and humidity in the summer and cold and humidity in the winter. Last month I finally bought a dehumidifier which I can dial in to whatever % I want. I also have a small heater/fan blowing into the intake. Doing my best with my room waaaaayyyyy out there in the not so insulated, non powered shop, being fed with a big fat extension cord.

I have the opposite problem with drying/curing; too dry. As in 5-15% humidity. My clothing closet was a real pain keeping moist enough but I made a 50"x50"x8' closet with a pvc frame, which worked great. Very easy to regulate.

After drying four plants in the clothing closet for a couple of weeks, they were small enouh to fit in the pvc drying closet. I had dried my biggest in the pvc closet first, then cleaned and bagged it in one gallon freezer bags. I just left them in the pvc closet on the floor with the tops open to cure while the hanging four cured. worked out great. They are still curing in their. In my case I filled a 31 qt. container with water on the pvc closet floor (I used two in the clothing closet) to maintain humidity (see second pic). I gapped the opening flap accordingly to regulate humidity.

HighLowGrow, I actually printed out, "The dry is more important than the cure". I can re-print it if you want it. 50-55% is too dry, by the way. I actually preferred 60-65% instead of his 55-60% recommendation but that's probably due to my climate.

HighLowGrow said:

Ya I hear that is one of the cons of whole plant drying with leaves and all intact. I have three plants going at all times and all finishing at different times. Drying and trimming a plant every 3-4 weeks can't be that bad. This is my first go at whole plant hanging. We'll see.

I've had problems dialing in my trim, dry, cure. My main problems were heat and humidity in the summer and cold and humidity in the winter. Last month I finally bought a dehumidifier which I can dial in to whatever % I want. I also have a small heater/fan blowing into the intake. Doing my best with my room waaaaayyyyy out there in the not so insulated, non powered shop, being fed with a big fat extension cord.

Click to expand...

i dont believe that to be true. i dont slow down one bit compared to wet trimming. in fact, i think the opposite is true.
maybe not for the first few times, because it was something a bit different, and i didnt want to screw it up, but after getting used to it... its quick.

you do have to be a bit more gentle with the buds, if you are going quick and pull before fully cutting the leaves, you can remove parts of the bud.
but you should really be gentle no matter which method you go with.

this is the best way to do it. best of luck

vilify said:

i dont believe that to be true. i dont slow down one bit compared to wet trimming. in fact, i think the opposite is true.
maybe not for the first few times, because it was something a bit different, and i didnt want to screw it up, but after getting used to it... its quick.

you do have to be a bit more gentle with the buds, if you are going quick and pull before fully cutting the leaves, you can remove parts of the bud.
but you should really be gentle no matter which method you go with.

this is the best way to do it. best of luck

Click to expand...

I thought it was easy, also. The humidity made a difference, too. I found about 60% to be the easiest. But I didn't trim the smallest leaves as my breeder, Mandala, said not too as their leaves were very high in thc. So, that would make a difference.

Hasbroh said:

I have the opposite problem with drying/curing; too dry. As in 5-15% humidity. My clothing closet was a real pain keeping moist enough but I made a 50"x50"x8' closet with a pvc frame, which worked great. Very easy to regulate.

HighLowGrow, I actually printed out, "The dry is more important than the cure". I can re-print it if you want it. 50-55% is too dry, by the way. I actually preferred 60-65% instead of his 55-60% recommendation but that's probably due to my climate.

Click to expand...

Thanks Hasbroh. No need to reprint it. If I remember correctly at harvest:


1. Cut at the base and hang either right side up or upside down
2. Temp 65-70
3. Humidity 50-55%
4. Hang for roughly 10-12 days
5. Trim and jar

You prefer 60-65%. At what temp? And how long did they hang before trimming?

HighLowGrow said:

Thanks Hasbroh. No need to reprint it. If I remember correctly at harvest:


1. Cut at the base and hang either right side up or upside down
2. Temp 65-70
3. Humidity 50-55%
4. Hang for roughly 10-12 days
5. Trim and jar

You prefer 60-65%. At what temp? And how long did they hang before trimming?

Click to expand...

Temps were 68-75, so a little warmer. I started trimming after they were hanging about two or three weeks and I took a few weeks to clean, lol. Took my time as I was experimenting with it all. When I do seal the bags they will be around 58-60%. They've been curing for about 6 weeks approx. Sounds silly but I don't want to bag them up and take down the closet. It smells so good in there I like to just sit in there and hang!

HighLowGrow said:

Thanks Hasbroh. No need to reprint it. If I remember correctly at harvest:


1. Cut at the base and hang either right side up or upside down
2. Temp 65-70
3. Humidity 50-55%
4. Hang for roughly 10-12 days
5. Trim and jar

You prefer 60-65%. At what temp? And how long did they hang before trimming?

Click to expand...

He said 55-60% and if lower the cure will stop.

"Below 55% RH - the RH is too low for the curing process to take place..."

Ok. Right now I'm running 50%. Better bump that up a bit. Just trying to stay away from mold.

At first I kept bumping up to the mid 70s% but all survived. I did do a container experiment for mold but forgot to put the humidistat in at the time it molded, dohh! I smoked it anyway, in the interest of science...

I think I'll bump it up to 55% and see what happens. I'm not going to do a long cure. Hopefully the long slow dry will be enough with maybe a 1 week cure in jars.

If it turns out perfect great. If not, I'll adjust it for the upcoming plant either up or down. As soon as the current plant comes down, I have another ready to hang.

I end up grinding it down anyway. Da Buddha insists.....

vilify said:

i dont believe that to be true. i dont slow down one bit compared to wet trimming. in fact, i think the opposite is true.
maybe not for the first few times, because it was something a bit different, and i didnt want to screw it up, but after getting used to it... its quick.

you do have to be a bit more gentle with the buds, if you are going quick and pull before fully cutting the leaves, you can remove parts of the bud.
but you should really be gentle no matter which method you go with.

this is the best way to do it. best of luck

Click to expand...

I don't know what you're trimming, but I just let some really super frosty shit hang with all the leaves and trimming it sucked.. Because all the leaves were glued to the buds from the trichomes..