Wow, fascinating all the different processes that work for everybody…
I remove the fan leaves, and hang dry with plants almost touching floor back part of my artrium ranch basement…temp avg 68-71f & H ~50-59% depending on what season in Missouri.
About 9 -10 days later—After crisp outer & squishy inner I move to large deep insulated freezer boxes not running (deep coolers as well work the same). Check humidity next morning, aiming for 61-64% & if low I’ll put some orange peels, piece of wet paper towel, etc just depends what mood I’m in… on the bottom of the cooler until my humidity comes back up to where I want it.
Forgot to mention I put the whole bud arm branches in the cooler with stem on floor pointing up & remove a good portion of the larger sugar leaves, but not all. (After a few grows those are used for Dry sift Hash).
So, i’ll keep the buds in the coolers for the next 4 to 6 weeks, opening the cooler once a day to burp & checking my humidity gauge (For me it’s amazing how constant H stays).
Then depending on what my plans are for the herb it will even go to 2 quart mason jars for further curing & burped
1 week. (Or simply be put on parchment to dry further for Icewater Hash or Hash Oil).
So…why do I do it this way, after a year of using large mason jars after the initial drying, I got tired of opening them twice a day…
So my wife said why don’t you just use those old coolers & of course I looked at her & said “brilliant”…Now my herb is easy to cure, smokes great, & my marriage will last another eternity
.
((Seriously though I noticed no difference in curing this way versus hang dry & right to the jars, Or completely trimmed & Buds to the Bud drying rack then jars…like I also had done for a while!!!
To me it’s the “aging” process that is the most important for a…smooth smoke))