How to dry & cure while away?

[Toomuchcoffee]

Hi everyone, I wanted to find out if it would be possible to dry and/or cure the buds with no human intervention while I am away?

I started my first grow around two months ago and according to everything I read, it should be ready to harvest soon.

My problem is that I should go away for three weeks in 15 days. I will have to cut off my buds before I leave, but I am worried about how to let them dry an cure while I am away and can't do anything with them (monitoring humidity, temperature & air flow, move them to jars, open the jars occasional, etc.)

My other option would be to cut them a little sooner to be present for the drying process, put them in jars and leave them alone to cure. The problem is that I am a first time grower and am having a hard time predicting when the harvest will be, so I'm not sure when I will have to cut and how much time I will have with the drying buds before I leave.

So here are basically my questions:
- Is it possible to somehow leave the buds right after cutting to dry and cure by themselves without monitoring or doing anything to them (for about three weeks)?
- Is there something that can be bought or made to help with the process and prevent mold while I am away?
- I understand that the plant is not ready yet, but would it maybe be a better option to cut it in the next few days and then have around 10 days to dry and cure while I'm here and then leave it alone for the rest of the time?

I understand that the curing process probably won't turn out perfect, but at this point it's most important for me to not get any mold or anything similar, save what I can and hopefully have smokable buds when I get back.

Some info: Plant is an autoflower, day 62. I have a grow tent in a big closet I could somehow use, I am crafty and have no problems with D.I.Y-ing something for this or buying if it's not insanely expensive, and no, unfortunately I can't ask anyone to come and open my weed jars every now and then.

I am also including a few (hopefully successful) pictures of my buds and trichomes at the current stage.

Thanks so much, this forums has been a major help for a beginner! :)

 

[threatco]

A climate controlled room would be the simplest solution.

As long as you can control the humidity and temperature while you are away then you can just leave your buds hanging up.

Indoor living temperature is usually pretty easy you will just have to find a humidifier with a built-in humidistat sensor and a large enough Reservoir that you can leave it on and keep the drying room at the ideal humidity.

Any sort of situation where you leave them in a bag box or jar I would avoid because without you there to burp them mold would be a real problem

I would error on the side of too dry instead of a chance of mold.

 

[Jimster]

One option, maybe not the best, but you can just stop watering the plants and keep the air moving. The plants will die from lack of water and light, but will turn alighter color and taste more like hash. After a grow and before the next one, I often just leave the small or larfy buds on for the times when buds are scarce. They smoke fine but aren't usually the hard nuggets... but then again, it would depend on the size of the buds to begin with.
Another option is to wrap them loosly in newspaper and store in a frostless refridgerator. The humidity levels inside are perfect for drying buds slowly as long as there is air circulation. This doesn't work well with manual defrost fridges. The buds will slowly dry over the next few weeks and shouldn't suffer if left for a bit longer. Just keep the mold and mildew away!

 

[growsince79]

Depending on your temp/rh, you could probably just cut them and hang them till you get back.

 

[growsince79]

Another option is to cut 5 days early, wet trim and hang 5 days in front of small fan, then put them in paperbag.

 

[quirk]

I'm with @Jimster. This Auto BlueBerry Domina was trimmed and has been drying in the pot, in a dark room since 5/24.
72F-64%rh w/ air circulation.

 

[Toomuchcoffee]

Thanks so much for all the ideas, and what a relief to hear that not all is necessarily lost! I think I will divide the buds and try a few different things and see how it goes. I travel often, so I would love to find a way to automate most of the process in the future.

For anyone else maybe searching for something similar, here is an interesting video I found for automating the curing process, it doesn't seem like a complicated system:

 

[Dan789]

Curious though on what the trichomes are saying regarding the assumption they're done...? How many are clear/cloudy/amber?