So here's how I currently use my HerbsNow dryer.
I first harvest the plant by taking time over the few days (2-3 days) leading up to the harvest by taking off the large fan leaves off each day till the night before harvest it has just a few left (I leave the bottom few fan leaves attached to the plant so some light can penetrate and it can photo synthesize but the bud can get the last of the light). I remove the fan leaves by either gently snapping them from the base of the branch, or (usually the case) I will pinch them off a bit further out so I have some stem attached.
The night before I will water the plant so it has the most water possible for the easiest possible trim from the leaves being as crisp as possible.
I then take one part of a branch off at a time and trimming each part to one whole branch starting from the bottom up. I will break down large branches into smaller pieces and leave the smaller pieces to trim first and then trim the bigger pieces after ive spent my time trimming the popcorn bud. For a few buds I will leave the stem longer so I can have some reference points to know when the dry is over, and the rest of the left over stems i throw out. While I am trimming, i dont worry about sugar trim as I am leaving most of the sugar trim on. I trim loosely when i can because theres a lot of thc in those leaves and those leaves will not taste like chlorophyll or harsh when you dry with the herbsnow dryer.
I will break down the buds into sizes where the bud weighs no more than a gram but most weight about 0.25g most. I leave maybe 5 bigger buds (I grow in DWC, so I get a lot more budsites than soil growers) and then put the buds into a brown paper bag as a holding bin for them while i am trimming.
After all of the trimming is done, i get a rough estimated wet weight with a scale, I multiply it by 0.15 to get a guesstimated dry weight. I also at that time make a guesstimated 25% dry weight ((wet weight * 0.25)), then I hold on to that number for post dry weighing (ill get to that later). I then arrange the buds as close together as I can (they touch each other completely) without them being overlapping or on top of one another. I will use some of the trays as spacers, but when you break your bud up, and dont worry about having the buds having to be like a huge single nug, you can get better tasting, better drying, bud with less stems.
I put a 1.6oz shot glass in the center of the herbs now dryer (Libbey 1.6 oz shooter works perfectly, and may need to be refilled or may now) to keep a bit more moisture because I run a bit low RH and high temp in general.
I then let it dry. When the bud begins to have a clear snap sound i take it off. The first few times you're going to be worried you fried your weed to a crisp, but you didnt. What you can do is take your bud out, and weigh it. Remember those guesstimated weights i talked about? Well if you're so overly worried, try to see if the weight is anything like the guesstimated dry weights. So if you got 100 grams wet, you should (when properly dry) see about 15-17.5 grams. You may very well see that a "crispy" bud is still at about 35 grams. Obviously that means stick it back in the dryer.
Once the buds have a clear and decisive snap, I immediately take them out of the dryer, note the time left on the dryer and weigh the bud. If it's between 15-20% of it's wet weight (if you have 100g wet, that's 15-20g dry) it's usually about spot on, but you want to be very careful to watch the bud when it gets close to the end of the dry or it can get over dry (but not in the same classical sense, it is a bit different).
If they are over 25%, the buds are either on stems and should be taken off and a small sample bud should be ground up to see how wet it really is (let it sit out for a few hours), or if you have no big stems on all the buds to test the snappability, then they are definitely too wet and they go back in and need to be watched
If they are about 15-20% dry weight I jar it up loosely in 1 pint jars with 58% boveda packs (58% NOT 62%) and hydrometers. They will seem very crispy at first, but they wont remain that way for more than a few days to a week and they will end up being perfect nugs once the cure sets in. I watch the jars for the first few days like a hawk. If the humidity goes above about 63-64% I throw it back in the dryer for another half hour to an hour to finish it off drying what i must have missed when I didnt dry it right the first time around.
While that's happening, i sterilize the jars so no mould grows (THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP). Then, I'll take out the buds again and jar, and the buds should be good and tasty.
im sure i missed out stuff. my exact method keeps changing as im learning the unit more
