Harvest & Curing Drying in a brown bag

[DankDoctor420]

Shit I'm drying 578 grams of wet bud 55°rh in my drying/ curring tent with a fan and a inkbird humidity controller...hooked to a cool mist humidifier so it doesn't get to low so I guess they should be done in 6 days right? It's 70-72°f 55%rh in tent and 54°rh in the bags......View attachment 1456475View attachment 1456476View attachment 1456477View attachment 1456478View attachment 1456479View attachment 1456480View attachment 1456481View attachment 1456482View attachment 1456483View attachment 1456484View attachment 1456485View attachment 1456486View attachment 1456487View attachment 1456488

Looks like a lot of white pistils still. Harvest a lil early?

 

[WildBill]

This is how I harvest: harvest a whole or part of a plant hang upside down in a cool dark place with gentle air movement 68°F 55% - 60% RH. in 4 or 5 days. When the sugar leaf points feel sharp in a gentle squeeze, remove all stemmed leaves, break down the big branches to fit in a brown paper sack, close with a second sack over the top. Rotate when you think about it. "Sweat" the buds for a day or two until your moisture meter reads 11% - 12% or a few test buds in closed in a jar read 62% RH. Do a final trim. Pack into Grove Bags with a hygrometer when you are confident they are 58% to 62% RH take the hygrometer out and heat seal the bag. I don't usually open them for more than a month or two. Wait at least 2 weeks.

Sweating means to give the water in the stems and center of the buds time to equalize the moisture throughout the entire bud.

If your ambient RH is high, remove the big fan leaves before hanging the plant. It is also helpful in high RH to brake the plant down into just large branches as opposed to hanging the whole plant.

If tried straight whole plant dry and straight take off stemmen leave and into the brown bag.
As far for the quality of the bud when and cured, I like the whole plant dry and trim the buds and into the Grove bag. For what I have now to do it with, that will tend to be a smaller girl and not having BIG fat colas. Depending on how fat and how dense, I may just nreak it down by cola or if I question whether I can dry it safely without mold, Fresh Froze is what I'll do. I'd trade flower for something else, than to lose it.

And that's why I'm going to at least adopt the first part of what you do, whole plant dry for a period of time.
When I use the into the brown bag as quick as possible method, the amount of moisture in the paper bags left me uneasy with a possibility of mold. Probably being paranoid, but it's what hangs in my mind.
The other point is I'm not super happy with how long for the bud to develop during the curing process. It seems to take longer for the true smell to come out. I thought it was strain related, they seemed to be very simular. It's is strong, especially after a month, it's not like the whole plant dry all the way.
I'll use your first part on all girls and then pick which direction I'll take the plant.

 

[DankDoctor420]

My next harvest i am going to conduct a experiment on drying. I will cut 3 branches off the same plant. 1 will be buds wet trimmed and in a paper bag and put inside crisper in my fridge. 2 will be wet trimmed and just buds in paper bag. 3 will be a branch broken down to fit in another paper bag with just fan leaves off and then dry trimmed. The rest of plant will dry as is with no fan or sugar leaves removed hanging upside down and i will do dry trim. I will share my experiment with the community and my results. All plant matter not dried in fridge will be done in 4x4 tent wit temp at 61 degrees F (low as my portable ac will go) 55 to 60 RH. Levoit Bluethooth humidifier to add humidity when needed and ac inifinty 6 inch fan controlling temp and humidity as well. 2 dehumidifers outside tent turned to 35rh for when my ac infinity pulls air inisde the tent if its too humid it pulls dry air in and helps fast to solve the high humidity problem. When all of the tests read 11 percent on my moisture meter if mot trimmed l trim then i will grove bag them and heat seal if humidity is good after a day.Then cure each for 2 months and then test the buds to see which was my favorite method. I will judge it with my wife and a friend based off of the smoke. I just wanna play around with different methods of drying a plant. I cant wait 2 share a thread about it when I do it.

 

[Seaweed88]

My next harvest i am going to conduct a experiment on drying. I will cut 3 branches off the same plant. 1 will be buds wet trimmed and in a paper bag and put inside crisper in my fridge. 2 will be wet trimmed and just buds in paper bag. 3 will be a branch broken down to fit in another paper bag with just fan leaves off and then dry trimmed. The rest of plant will dry as is with no fan or sugar leaves removed hanging upside down and i will do dry trim. I will share my experiment with the community and my results. All plant matter not dried in fridge will be done in 4x4 tent wit temp at 61 degrees F (low as my portable ac will go) 55 to 60 RH. Levoit Bluethooth humidifier to add humidity when needed and ac inifinty 6 inch fan controlling temp and humidity as well. 2 dehumidifers outside tent turned to 35rh for when my ac infinity pulls air inisde the tent if its too humid it pulls dry air in and helps fast to solve the high humidity problem. When all of the tests read 11 percent on my moisture meter if mot trimmed l trim then i will grove bag them and heat seal if humidity is good after a day.Then cure each for 2 months and then test the buds to see which was my favorite method. I will judge it with my wife and a friend based off of the smoke. I just wanna play around with different methods of drying a plant. I cant wait 2 share a thread about it when I do it.

Sounds like a plan..

 

[Dankerson]

Do you guys reuse your brown bags? I just finished up with some and it feels kinda like a waste to just get rid of them after 1 use.

 

[DogterB]

Do you guys reuse your brown bags? I just finished up with some and it feels kinda like a waste to just get rid of them after 1 use.

I did. After emptying the bags, I let them sit open and upright a few days (if I have the room) to let any absorbed moisture evaporate. After that I just fold them back up and stash them away until the next harvest. They only lasted me a couple times, as folding over the tops and clipping them ends up tearing them up a bit. I stick with pizza boxes for the most part now as long as the buds/branches fit

 

[MrAutoGrower]

Do you guys reuse your brown bags? I just finished up with some and it feels kinda like a waste to just get rid of them after 1 use.

Yes it’s fine to reuse them providing you never had any mold issues or anything as it will grow in the bag and attach itself to fresh buds

 

[757grower]

How long does it usually take to "Sweat the bud in brown bags"? I'm using grove bags to cure in but was wondering if should put in jars first to get the humidity to the right % before putting in the bags?

I hung dry for about 6 days then trimmed up some more and put a layer in brown bags and fold once, did that for about a day and humidity was still around 63% 66% so then I took another bag and sleeve over top to draw the moisture out more/slowly but still when check today the humidity is around 63% 65%. But some of the buds have gotten crispy when i touched them same with the denser bigger buds. Anyone with any advice on what I should do? Really appreciate I've done a good job I think of growing and wana sure I do same for dry and cure part. Thanks yall

 

[MrAutoGrower]

How long does it usually take to "Sweat the bud in brown bags"? I'm using grove bags to cure in but was wondering if should put in jars first to get the humidity to the right % before putting in the bags?

I hung dry for about 6 days then trimmed up some more and put a layer in brown bags and fold once, did that for about a day and humidity was still around 63% 66% so then I took another bag and sleeve over top to draw the moisture out more/slowly but still when check today the humidity is around 63% 65%. But some of the buds have gotten crispy when i touched them same with the denser bigger buds. Anyone with any advice on what I should do? Really appreciate I've done a good job I think of growing and wana sure I do same for dry and cure part. Thanks yall

Sweating all depends on your rh environment. Not the rh inside the brown bags. Sweat them somewhere with rh that is lower than inside the bag. Sweating can take days. It really depends how much buds you have in the bag and how dense

 

[757grower]

Ok thanks I was thinking of putting them into the jars overnight to see what the temp reading then if higher than 62ish then would take lid off for a few? Or should I jus leave in bags and move to lower rh and let them sweat out more? Thanks.