Once they’ve been trimmed, it’s time to hang your plants up to dry. This is a very important process and growers shouldn’t take any shortcuts here. How long plants need to dry out satisfactorily will depend on several factors like the environment they’re placed in, atmospheric humidity, etc.
A simple drying rack can be made by unwinding a wire clothes hanger near the top, sliding several wooden or plastic clothes pins down along the flat bottom, and then twisting it back together again. Assigning one clothes pin to each plant, hang them upside down.
Since too much light and too high temperatures can degrade THC potency, hang your harvested plants in a place that’s dark and cool. Although your plants have been cut down, biological activity continues in them as they move any remaining internal water out to the buds’ exterior surfaces.
Ensure, also, that there’s a little bit of constant airflow around your hanging plants, as that will help prevent molds or fungus from forming. Buds that are particularly dense run the most risk of developing molds right now, so keep a close eye on them. You may even have to break them apart slightly to see if mold is developing inside and to provide them with a little airspace.
The easiest way to tell when your plants are dried out enough is to bend a stem. If it doesn’t noticeably snap or break cleanly when bending it, it’s still not dried out enough. Plan on giving your plants a couple of weeks to dry out suitably.
Once the majority of the stems on a plant are suitably dried out, the buds should be snipped off their stems and placed in an
air-tight glass container for the final step of curing. (Glass is preferred as it won’t give your buds any off-flavors and odors like plastics, cardboard, and other substances will.) Quart-sized Mason jars used for canning fruits and vegetables are ideal for this purpose.
Loosely fill each jar with your dried colas and buds, making sure they’re not packed too tightly, and store them in a cool, dark place. The curing process entails opening (“burping”) the containers every other day for a few hours to allow any remaining moisture to escape. It also give the THC enough time to finish its own chemical development for highest potency. Curing should take no more than 1 -2 weeks.
You can store your buds wherever it’s cool and dark. Storage in the refrigerator is common; you can also store your buds in the freezer as long as they are completely dried out. If there’s any remaining water in your buds, as it freezes it will expand and burst those delicate trichomes containing the THC, weakening the potency of your buds.
The entire production cycle is now complete and you should have some really nice buds to enjoy. All the work and rigor you put into your closet grow is about to pay off, because it’s now time to enjoy the fruits of your labor! Congratulations!
