Drying: Whole Plant, Branches, or Two Stage?

[Cerebral Goo]

Which method(s) do you prefer in general and why? My first plant is ready to come down. As usual, there seems to be multiple ways to accomplish the drying process.

Since I'm new, I did different things to different plants to see how the grew on purpose. Some plants I took quite a few nodes off and trained fairly heavily. Some I didn't take too many nodes and lower branches off at all resulting in some larfy buds. Also had an issue with crowding in a small space and couldn't really open the plants up to receive more light. Therefore, the lowers didn't get enough light. I did a pretty good job of keeping the canopy level so I don't have any colas more than 5" taller than anything else. Is a two stage harvest the correct thing to do in those cases? Ripe on the top buds and a little lacking underneath...

 

[Orion]

Staggered harvest is ideal in my mind. Not everything is ripe at once. If time isn't an issue I would do staggered

 

[Phobos]

I second staggered harvest. It allows every part of the plant to taste some light + you get different high if you want.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

whole plant on anything under 24 inches. bigger plants maybe agree with above

 

[mohawk warrior]

The second you start removing any branches you run the risk of initiating the plants natural a sexual tendency aka hermi

Or even something as drastic as a DNA shuffle so to speak and the final buds left to finish throw a completely different genotype and you get 2 smokes one plant
Way more possible on f1’s I’d think

With that being said I always snip tops & let the lil stuff go longer if I can. or leave it right on and stuff plant in24hr light to reveg

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

You may have a week or two left on the top of the plant. New growers often harvest too soon. That said I like the speedier buzz the lower buds have so I just harvest the whole plant at once. The tops are usually about 20% amber with all cloudy. The lower are mostly cloudy to some clear. It gets the grow space available sooner so yearly turn over can be efficient. Oh did I mention I am lazy . It is a factor.

 

[CannabisMingus]

Which method(s) do you prefer in general and why?

I generally harvest once to minimize turnover delay but I grow in a small tent and try to maximize yield. I have done it both ways and didn't notice much difference on quality or effect, if any.

I branch hang for 24-48 hours, then trim to bud and place in paper bags until 65% RH (jar and hygrometer). Then into Grove Bags. I monitor RH for the first week in the GBs but after that forget that it's there.

HTH, IMHO, YMMMV, etc.


Edit: Forgot to mention that I bogarted @Mañ'O'Green 's protocol for this. I do that a lot. @Grove Bags

 

[Cerebral Goo]

You may have a week or two left on the top of the plant. New growers often harvest too soon. That said I like the speedier buzz the lower buds have so I just harvest the whole plant at once. The tops are usually about 20% amber with all cloudy. The lower are mostly cloudy to some clear. It gets the grow space available sooner so yearly turn over can be efficient. Oh did I mention I am lazy . It is a factor.

Thank you to everyone that chimed in!!! My first plant is 3-4 days ahead of the rest and is over 20% amber on some of the sugar leaves and around 10-15% on the bud. Mostly cloudy heads everywhere with a few clears. It is a strawberry nuggets x skywalker and is all 2ish" rock solid top bud. Maybe a little speed will counteract the indica heritage...Will be lurking with the microscope and bring the laptop down in the am to get enlarged pics.
Although I still have a ways to go (dry/cure) I feel like a kid at Christmas! Will have a few days in between chopping the others, so will see how it goes with the first one...Am supposed to go to Portugal at the end of January so the quick flip might be prudent to completely finish another grow.
Thanks again everybody!!!