ed rosenthal , jorge cervantes drying issues big time

[ukbigbud]

Hi all, ive read both their books a few times and always refer to them. i need help with drying because it never smells like "jesus whats in that bag" like other peoples. jorge says, drying room 30-40% humidity 21-25oc temps no air exchange. ed says temp 21 humidity 40-50% oscilating fans and extract fans on and low level light?????

second part........ i take my plant fresh straight out the pot, cut all the buds off and put them straight in a spinpro wet. is ALL the odour in the thc if so that machine manicures amazing but trashes the bud really???

i leave all the buds on nets for 8 days solid with no air exchange at all because havin extract fans on will dry it super quick by ripping all the moisture out wont it?????

if this is another thread on this then v sorry its just doing my head in now. many thanks for people who read and help. uk

 

[Sea Of Green]

second part........ i take my plant fresh straight out the pot, cut all the buds off and put them straight in a spinpro wet. is ALL the odour in the thc if so that machine manicures amazing but trashes the bud really???

Umm...yeah. Not going to start a bash fest here, but those machines are a fucking joke IMO. Major trichome destruction.

While your net method doesn't sound that much better in those regards. It would work...I guess. I like to hang buds by their stems. Just seems more practical, and it eliminates physical trichome damage. Anything that touches the buds/trichomes before they are dried, and/or cured, kills the aroma and potency potentials.

My drying times generally take between 4-8 days. Any more or less and the room was too hot/cold/dry/humid.

Try shooting for less humidity/higher heat and/or more circulation/ventilation, but not too much. Less than 4 days is pushing it.

 

[norcal215]

man its a simple process hang em in dark for 6-7 days put em in paper bags for another 6-7 days then cut em up and mason jar them to your liking

 

[mrdizzle]

I do things a little different, I let them completely dry out for about a week, then I bag then with a small 1inx3in piece of sponge that was dipped in water and squeezed, I leave the bag sealed for about 24hrs, then open and check the sponge, if its dry I will re-wet and repeat, slowly add back moisture until its perfect

when I do this the smell gets very intense

 

[devilrays]

stop cutting the buds off right away!!! leave them on the branch for a week!!

 

[Blaze]

no air exchange

That right there is on of your problems. No air exchange = funky cure. You will often get a color shift towards the yellow/brown/dark green color spectrum as well when you dry w/o any air exchange either. The buds will stay more bright green and retain more of their purple/blue/silver colors (if they have it). Drying cannabis creates a lot of off-gassing, you gotta get those gasses out of there, or they can impart a weird smell. You don't need to do anything extreme, like say setting it up to exchange air 2x a minute like a grow room, BUT you don't want your drying area sealed tight either. Just an open or even cracked door/window w/ a fan is all it takes.

 

[ukbigbud]

so on harvest day if i just cut a branch take all the big leaves off and hang it up then manicure it 7 days later or so it should be miles better, and during this i have a small extract fan on it should be alot better???

would the use on the spinpro degrade by bud cos all the thc was being stripped???

 

[Sea Of Green]

so on harvest day if i just cut a branch take all the big leaves off and hang it up then manicure it 7 days later or so it should be miles better, and during this i have a small extract fan on it should be alot better???

would the use on the spinpro degrade by bud cos all the thc was being stripped???

It should be better. But that's not taking into account all the other factors that could affect the aroma. Pretty much all the different aspects of the growing conditions can effect the final product's smell too. Nutrients, mediums, lighting, prefered harvesting maturity, etc., can all contribute to it. Basically, the overall health and vigor of the plant has as much or more importance than drying and/or curing.

My hypothesis on why damaging trichomes during trimming/drying/curing contributes to aroma loss is:

The trichome can be considered a vessel, or container for the essential oils of the cannabis plant. The preservation of these essential oils are what gives the plant it's aroma/flavor, as well as potency. When the trichome is damaged it exposes these volatile oils to rapid degredation via O2 and/or UV-B light. The essential oils are much more likely to be retained for the drying and curing processes if the trichomes are unmolested.

During the drying and curing processes the essential oils will be gradually slowly released from the trichomes in their vaporized/evaporated forms. As the plant material drys it has the ability to reabsorb these vapors in it's dried fibrous matter(leaves, stems, etc). Hence why it's good to dry buds quick enough so as to not lose a lot of them before the curing process. Because the curing process is where they really need to be in the highest quantity/concentration to get the best results. Curing works by trapping the vapors from the essential oils close to the dry buds, which can readily reabsorb them into their dried fibrous tissues. Thereby allowing them to achieve levels of smell/taste that are richer/fuller than if not processed in such a manner.

Smell is all about terpenes, and terpenoid compounds/chemicals. Cannabanoids are all terpenoids. So THC isn't soley responsible for it. AFAIK.

 

[ukbigbud]

sea thanks for the reply, its helping alot ive got a fair few grows done and it never seems to be bang on even thou the quality looks great smell sells. another qu in eds book adding high levels of uvb in last 3-2 weeks forces more thc out can anyone confirm this. many thanks, im going to do a test two in the next 3-4 weeks regarding the chapping so i will keep people updated on my result ha ha

uk

 

[Pockets]

a mh light will provide some uvb but ive also read how people use a reptile light for 4hrs a day during the middle of the lighting period after 4 weeks in. but many plants wont react the same way for the given amount so one would have to start low (about 1hr) and ease up the duration of uvb use until the plant shows mal effects to find its limit.

 

[MIway]

maybe u just don't have very smelly weed. a lot of weed, dried proper, still smells like shit... compared to others that is, all other things being equal. genetics my friend.

 

[St3ve]

8 days sounds WAY too long hanging them on a net.

I used to hang mine on the stems for that.. on a net I shoot for 3-5 days and then cure. The drying room I shoot for 50-55% rh.

While they are curing I watch for them to get up to 70-75% then I burp them in the 50% room and repeat. I continue this until they stabilize, which could be up to two months sometimes.

 

[treehugger]

maybe u just don't have very smelly weed. a lot of weed, dried proper, still smells like shit... compared to others that is, all other things being equal.

We call that weed "hydro" around here... lol

:character0095:

 

[St3ve]

You just continue to be offensive don't you treehugger.. :(

 

[iscrog4food]

sounds to me like you need new genetics. Personally I have grown a lot of strains and the ones that I find to be keepers stink to high heaven! It really doesn't matter what I do to my headband or sour D that shit stinks from chop to the joint and everywhere in between. There are a lot of people here who will tell you the machines destroy buds and may be they degrade them a bit. Enough to effect odor? No, not significantly. I have the trim pro rotor and now I can trim in a single day, with one partner, what would have taken a full week with 3 people so If I loose 5% quality, it is well worth it for the time savings. I suspect many of the people who swear that it destroys buds have smaller grows that are manageable to do by hand. Another overlooked fact about the machines is that once you trim the buds are alreaddy off the stem so you dont have to spend hours after the buds dry clipping the buds from the stems into the jars!