Whack it at the base - WHOLE plant drying

rocpilefsj said:

Great thread with great info! I tried to rep you again but need to spread it around some more first. I will indeed be trying this on my upcoming harvest. Thread 5 starred!

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Awesome - When you do, come back and throw some pics up with some info. I haven't seen many whole plant dry threads around.

I just cut 3 from the base, removed all large fan leaves by hand and hung them. Will let you all know how it goes.

I'm subbed on this thread and will return with my own experiment in a few weeks. I have two Jillybean plants about 3 and 4 weeks away from harvest. One will probably be ready about a week before the other, so I do have the option of trying two ways.

But I'm such a newbie I'm happily following most of the advice in the Cannabis Grow Bible and it hasn't steered me wrong yet. I've needed supplemental help from the experts here, but in general that book has been 90% right on. It's suggestion is whole-plant dry, but cut off fan leaves and the sugar leaves that extend beyond the bud. Then dry. Then manicure more precisely before jarring.

Will let you know how it goes! I'll take pics, too.

im about 3 weeks from harvest and from what ive read ill be trying this way sounds like a good idea

thinkingreen said:

I just cut 3 from the base, removed all large fan leaves by hand and hung them. Will let you all know how it goes.

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Don't forget to snap some pics as it's drying before it's too late. Maybe even document temps, humidity, hang time, and whatever problems you encounter. When I was looking up whole plant drying, I found a good thread by "Mr Green thumb 01" that had some pics with great info that I was going to go back and reference. Unfortunately, it has been deleted. I know it's simple to tell someone to just cut at the base and hang. For myself, I learn a lot by pics and I know I'm not the only one. For example, you can tell someone that a male has balls and the females show hairs. But a pic of both helps tremendously.

It can be intiminating trying out a different dry method.

These are conditions I have had success with in the past. 20c, 40-50RH, closer to 40. One fan at the bottom is on low. Exhaust on. No big fan leaves, but I kept all small ones and sugar leaves.
Nothing is touching. No light.

thinkingreen said:

These are conditions I have had success with in the past. 20c, 40-50RH, closer to 40. One fan at the bottom is on low. Exhaust on. No big fan leaves, but I kept all small ones and sugar leaves.
Nothing is touching. No light.

View attachment 2450894

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1. Under those conditions, what was the hang time?
2. When you do a final trim, do you have any problems with dry leaves sticking to the buds?

I'm gonna try this with my blue cheese, i really want her to keep that amazing smell she's giving off. The only thing that concerns me is the thing that seems to be concerning everyone else, the leaves sticking to the bud trying to dry trim it. But i'll give it a shot in about 2 weeks .

I have allowed the plant to dry in the pot and gotten good results. This would be if you have rather low humidity as higher humidity would be a mold problem I am guessing.

Either way, you want to leave all the leaves and stem together till the plant is dry. Cure in jars is minimal after that, not much improvement.

yesum said:

I have allowed the plant to dry in the pot and gotten good results. This would be if you have rather low humidity as higher humidity would be a mold problem I am guessing.

Either way, you want to leave all the leaves and stem together till the plant is dry. Cure in jars is minimal after that, not much improvement.

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I trimmed my plant up yesterday on the 8th day of hanging. The BUD stems were NOT totally dry (maybe 85%), but the buds were dry and rock hard. Jarred everything up and went to burb them today. The buds texture and smell were the same as yesterday with no sponginess or moisture seen. I blame that on the low humidity (35-45%) on the 6th and 7th day. Was shooting for 55-60% but it didn't happen. I'm still very happy with the final product.

I am armed now.

Got the heater, humidifier, and dehumidifier ready.

Will be hanging another plant up tonight and shooting for 55% humidity and temp right around 65 degrees. More pics to come.

HighLowGrow said:

I trimmed my plant up yesterday on the 8th day of hanging. The BUD stems were NOT totally dry (maybe 85%), but the buds were dry and rock hard. Jarred everything up and went to burb them today. The buds texture and smell were the same as yesterday with no sponginess or moisture seen. I blame that on the low humidity (35-45%) on the 6th and 7th day. Was shooting for 55-60% but it didn't happen. I'm still very happy with the final product. I am armed now. Got the heater, humidifier, and dehumidifier ready. Will be hanging another plant up tonight and shooting for 55% humidity and temp right around 65 degrees. More pics to come.

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Wait, why are you running a humidifier and a dehumidifier simultaneously? Shouldn't it be one or the other?

HighLowGrow said:

I trimmed my plant up yesterday on the 8th day of hanging. The BUD stems were NOT totally dry (maybe 85%), but the buds were dry and rock hard. Jarred everything up and went to burb them today. The buds texture and smell were the same as yesterday with no sponginess or moisture seen. I blame that on the low humidity (35-45%) on the 6th and 7th day. Was shooting for 55-60% but it didn't happen. I'm still very happy with the final product.

I am armed now.

Got the heater, humidifier, and dehumidifier ready.

Will be hanging another plant up tonight and shooting for 55% humidity and temp right around 65 degrees. More pics to come.

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Sounds like the weed got overdried.
Do you have a hygrometer?
If the moisture inside the buds falls below 55% RH then curing effectively stops and there's no point in leaving the weed in the jars any longer.

Redoctober said:

Wait, why are you running a humidifier and a dehumidifier simultaneously? Shouldn't it be one or the other?

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I guess the answer is yes and no.

We are getting rain on and off. Couple days rain then 3-4 days of sun.

When I cut the plant to hang, it rained for 3-4 days and all I needed was the dehum. Everything was fine and holding at 55%. Then it stopped raining for a few days and RH went down to 35-45% despite my effort of adding bowls of water with a fan blowing over them. I never got it back up. The result was dry bud that is uncurable in the jars. I actually like the bud the way it turned out, but that was not what I was after.

So now I will sometimes need the humidifier to bring rh from 35% up to 65% or so. In return, I need the dehum to keep the rh at 55-60%. I can't set the humidifier to a certain number, but I can with the dehum. It's a balancing act.


My room is inside my uninsulated shop so I have to watch the room environment a little closer than you guys growing in the house.

Hope that makes sense.

k0ijn said:

Sounds like the weed got overdried.
Do you have a hygrometer?
If the moisture inside the buds falls below 55% RH then curing effectively stops and there's no point in leaving the weed in the jars any longer.

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^^^^ Yes, this is exactly what happened. At least I know the cause and it has been corrected. I really need a hygrometer.

HighLowGrow said:

I guess the answer is yes and no. We are getting rain on and off. Couple days rain then 3-4 days of sun. When I cut the plant to hang, it rained for 3-4 days and all I needed was the dehum. Everything was fine and holding at 55%. Then it stopped raining for a few days and RH went down to 35-45% despite my effort of adding bowls of water with a fan blowing over them. I never got it back up. The result was dry bud that is uncurable in the jars. I actually like the bud the way it turned out, but that was not what I was after. So now I will sometimes need the humidifier to bring rh from 35% up to 65% or so. In return, I need the dehum to keep the rh at 55-60%. I can't set the humidifier to a certain number, but I can with the dehum. It's a balancing act. My room is inside my uninsulated shop so I have to watch the room environment a little closer than you guys growing in the house. Hope that makes sense.

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I gotcha! This is the humidifier that I have: http://www.amazon.com/Air-O-Swiss-AOS-Ultrasonic-Humidifier-7135/dp/B000J4LCS6/ref=pd_sbs_hg_1

I realize that it's not cheap, but it does have that feature where you can set the Rh and it will turn itself on and off to maintain a certain humidity. That alone is worth the price. I'm sure there are probably cheaper models out there that do the same thing but it's worth considering. Then you wouldn't have to run your dehumidifier at the same time and you'd save some $$ on your power bill. I don't own a dehumidifier but I hear they use a decent amount of juice. In the long run it might even out the price of the humidifier.

Here's the humidifier I will be using in the meantime. It's an old one left over from when the kids were young. It only has low, medium, or high. Seems to be doing the job for now.

a quick light application of heat midway through dry you can crumble the leaves off, saving mucho's time. after this i chop everything and put them into paper bags paper into plastic. The Plastic bag stays on until i have time to trim the leaves off and while the bag is on, moisture transfers out of the main stem back into those dry buds. most of the time though i dont apply heat i just remove fan leaves and ugly leaves prior to hang drying, leaving all sugar leaves intact till dry trim time.