Harvest & Curing From dry to jars no burping?

[Odissey]

Hey everyone,

I have a Mexican Airlines plant from FB that took a long time to start flowering and became a real beast. Unfortunately, I need to leave my place for 3 weeks in 17 days from now. The trichomes look good but she seems like she could go another 3 weeks easy based on the pistils and bud size. So my question is: since I would like to maximize her potential, would it be detrimental to let her run another 7 days, harvest and dry for 10 days and then put in jars with boveda knowing that I won't be able to burp for 3 weeks? Is this going to ruin her taste/potency or is it fine?

Thanks!

 

[Odissey]

The trichomes are around 90% milky and 0 amber (I dont like sedative highs so this is actually perfect for me) but the buds seem like they could still pack some significant weight. Here is the photo

 

[Olderfart]

You still have loads of white pistils. Are you sure that the trichs on the actual buds are all cloudy? Your plants don't look ready to me, but I am new at this.

If I were in your position, I would consider a partial dry, freeze, then continue the dry and cure when you get back. That's what I did with my summer grow, and it seemed to work fine, other than the fact that I over dried them too soon because I was chasing mold and chose to dry individual buds on screens. Could have worked, but I was too inexperienced to get it right.

If you freeze, just be careful when taking the bud out of the freezer not to disturb the buds while they are frozen because that will knock off trichs. OTOH, if you collect the trichs, you have kief. If you want to hang whole branches, I would put them in a plastic bag on a tray so that when you take them out of the freezer you can lift the entire tray out of the freezer without disturbing the bud. Then leave the tray to thaw completely before taking the branches out to hang. If you do not bag or jar the bud to freeze it, it will get a lot wetter from condensation on it as it thaws. Once the bud is completely thawed, it will need to be air dried carefully initially because it will likely have surface wetness from the freeze/thaw. Once that is sorted, the dry and cure should work fine in my opinion.

Cutting the grow process short at this point might be a shame. You have some really nice bud on the way.

Good luck with the rest of the grow.

 

[Odissey]

You still have loads of white pistils. Are you sure that the trichs on the actual buds are all cloudy? Your plants don't look ready to me, but I am new at this.

If I were in your position, I would consider a partial dry, freeze, then continue the dry and cure when you get back. That's what I did with my summer grow, and it seemed to work fine, other than the fact that I over dried them too soon because I was chasing mold and chose to dry individual buds on screens. Could have worked, but I was too inexperienced to get it right.

If you freeze, just be careful when taking the bud out of the freezer not to disturb the buds while they are frozen because that will knock off trichs. OTOH, if you collect the trichs, you have kief. If you want to hang whole branches, I would put them in a plastic bag on a tray so that when you take them out of the freezer you can lift the entire tray out of the freezer without disturbing the bud. Then leave the tray to thaw completely before taking the branches out to hang. If you do not bag or jar the bud to freeze it, it will get a lot wetter from condensation on it as it thaws. Once the bud is completely thawed, it will need to be air dried carefully initially because it will likely have surface wetness from the freeze/thaw. Once that is sorted, the dry and cure should work fine in my opinion.

Cutting the grow process short at this point might be a shame. You have some really nice bud on the way.

Good luck with the rest of the grow.

Thanks for the suggestion Older! Unfortunately, I do not have enough space in my freezer. But to be sure, how do you do it? You just place it in the freezer and then dry as usual? Won't it be exceptionally prone to mold? Can you also dry for 2, 3 days for the volume to shrink and then put in the freezer? Regarding the pistils, you are absolutely right in that they are too white, but this a 100% Sativa so some will almost never recede.

 

[Olderfart]

Thanks for the suggestion Older! Unfortunately, I do not have enough space in my freezer. But to be sure, how do you do it? You just place it in the freezer and then dry as usual? Won't it be exceptionally prone to mold? Can you also dry for 2, 3 days for the volume to shrink and then put in the freezer? Regarding the pistils, you are absolutely right in that they are too white, but this a 100% Sativa so some will almost never recede.

What I did that seemed to work is do a partial dry to get much of the moisture out before freezing, and then fire the buds in the freezer while I was away. Since I was doing individual buds, I froze them in canning jars. They were likely more than half or more through the dry before throwing them in the freezer. However, I think if needed, you could even freeze them fresh if you had to, and you could still accomplish a nice cure. If you froze them early, I think they would just have a tendency to be wetter earlier and dry a bit quicker due to the damage done to plant tissue by the ice crystals, but as long as you were a bit aggressive about the early part of the dry to get rid of the initial water loss, I think you would be ok.

Just theory on my part, but I am pretty sure that if necessary it could work. It would certainly be my preference rather than harvesting too early or buggering up a cure by drying too quickly. If you have a friend with a freezer who would be ok and trustworthy, I think in your boots I would still consider freezing as an option. Good luck with it.

 

[Odissey]

What I did that seemed to work is do a partial dry to get much of the moisture out before freezing, and then fire the buds in the freezer while I was away. Since I was doing individual buds, I froze them in canning jars. They were likely more than half or more through the dry before throwing them in the freezer. However, I think if needed, you could even freeze them fresh if you had to, and you could still accomplish a nice cure. If you froze them early, I think they would just have a tendency to be wetter earlier and dry a bit quicker due to the damage done to plant tissue by the ice crystals, but as long as you were a bit aggressive about the early part of the dry to get rid of the initial water loss, I think you would be ok.

Just theory on my part, but I am pretty sure that if necessary it could work. It would certainly be my preference rather than harvesting too early or buggering up a cure by drying too quickly. If you have a friend with a freezer who would be ok and trustworthy, I think in your boots I would still consider freezing as an option. Good luck with it.

I might have the space if the buds shrink significantly in size. Have you noticed any difference in taste or potency? But anyway this might buy me 5 or 6 days, do you think it is worth it?

 

[Olderfart]

I might have the space if the buds shrink significantly in size. Have you noticed any difference in taste or potency? But anyway this might buy me 5 or 6 days, do you think it is worth it?

I can't answer your first question confidently because I overdried the buds, and in any case, I have no previous experience with the strain involved, so have nothing to compare it with. Having said that, I can tell you that the buds are potent, and have a typical Kush odor to them, but a slight grassyness overtone due to the overdrying. As a very experienced friend of mine said, "they smell good, they taste good, and they kick my ass". As freezing seems unlikely to change the cannabinoid contents, I seriously doubt that it would lower potency or change the stone significantly. The main issue is that initial wetness of the drying buds once they are thawed is likely to be different due to the plant tissue changes caused by the formation of ice crystals combined with migration of moisture to the external portions of the buds while frozen.

As to whether the time you gain is worth it, that has to be up to you. All I can say is that, given a choice, I would not harvest my bud earlier than I prefer in order to avoid using the freezer. I think the risks are low, and the chance of getting what I want out of the grow higher than with a premature harvest.

One option for you would be to freeze some, and do whatever else you want with the rest, and compare the results. Not a lot to lose, because you can choose whatever proportion you want for each treatment, and you might generate some good information for all of us. Should I end up in your position, that is exactly what I will do later this summer.

Good luck with it, if there is anything else you would like me to blather on about, you know where I am.

 

[Odissey]

I can't answer your first question confidently because I overdried the buds, and in any case, I have no previous experience with the strain involved, so have nothing to compare it with. Having said that, I can tell you that the buds are potent, and have a typical Kush odor to them, but a slight grassyness overtone due to the overdrying. As a very experienced friend of mine said, "they smell good, they taste good, and they kick my ass". As freezing seems unlikely to change the cannabinoid contents, I seriously doubt that it would lower potency or change the stone significantly. The main issue is that initial wetness of the drying buds once they are thawed is likely to be different due to the plant tissue changes caused by the formation of ice crystals combined with migration of moisture to the external portions of the buds while frozen.

As to whether the time you gain is worth it, that has to be up to you. All I can say is that, given a choice, I would not harvest my bud earlier than I prefer in order to avoid using the freezer. I think the risks are low, and the chance of getting what I want out of the grow higher than with a premature harvest.

One option for you would be to freeze some, and do whatever else you want with the rest, and compare the results. Not a lot to lose, because you can choose whatever proportion you want for each treatment, and you might generate some good information for all of us. Should I end up in your position, that is exactly what I will do later this summer.

Good luck with it, if there is anything else you would like me to blather on about, you know where I am.

Thanks a lot Older! I am seriously considering the freezing now. I have some soul searching to do hehe

 

[Olderfart]

Thanks a lot Older! I am seriously considering the freezing now. I have some soul searching to do hehe

You are more than welcome, I hope you give it a try and let us know how it goes. If you go for it, I suggest being a bit more aggressive than usual with the initial day or so of the dry after thawing the buds. Once you get past that, they will dry a bit quicker, so slow things down a bit once you get rid of the initial moisture. I'll bet you end up with quality product.

If you get your buds to perfect ripeness in time to get the dry started before freezing, that may help, and certainly will not hurt.

 

[Odissey]

You are more than welcome, I hope you give it a try and let us know how it goes. If you go for it, I suggest being a bit more aggressive than usual with the initial day or so of the dry after thawing the buds. Once you get past that, they will dry a bit quicker, so slow things down a bit once you get rid of the initial moisture. I'll bet you end up with quality product.

If you get your buds to perfect ripeness in time to get the dry started before freezing, that may help, and certainly will not hurt.

I did some research on this topic and there even seems to exist a whole concept of "freezer curing". However, the advantages of this method are specifically for frost-free freezers and mine is not one. I am bit concerned this could ruin the buds. My worry is that the freezer will create frost from the humidity left in the buds and essentially ruin them (ice burn). I am curious to hear your thoughts on this