So you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken your plant from a tiny little seedling that you weren’t even sure would make it, to a giant flowering cola-king monster.  Your trichome color is just where you want it. Your plants are vibrant with colors, are thick and lush, and the nugs look so good you want to rip one off right there and start smoking. You’re ready to begin harvesting your cannabis. Finish strong and you will end up with buckets of excellent, smokable ganja.

However, at this point, you must realize that you are only 50% of the way there. Yes, you’ve spent the last 16 weeks cloning, growing, feeding, training, trellising, watering, inspecting, defoliating… whew.. the list goes on. You have spent months tending to your plants!

And yet, all of this progress can be destroyed by a bad harvest process. We must stress to you the importance of the harvest process. The liberties you take with regard to cutting corners will be reflected in the end result, regardless of how magnificent your beautifully raging flowering plant looks and is at this stage. It can all be ruined with a bad cure, a bad dry, or bad harvesting procedures.

The harvest process requires: 

  • Knowing when your buds are ready; 
  • Ensuring you have proper tools and environmental controls to get through the drying process, and 
  • Knowing how to properly trim, cure and store your cannabis for optimal taste and experience.

From the moment you selected your strains and planted your seeds, you had but one goal at the end of growing process – properly finished nugs. Because flower that is finished properly not only looks amazing, but it smokes extremely clean and smooth; it burns with white ash, and it tastes great. 

We’ve all experienced bud that is harsh of the lungs (too much moisture), tastes like chemicals (improper flush), looks terrible (a combination of doing everything wrong), or worst of all, lacks a good nose (improper drying).

We created this guide to help provide a comprehensive and step by step guide for novice growers to understand when and how to harvest so that they can find the most success with their own growing journey. We also want to share how we curate our cannabis plants at Smokey Okie’s Cannabis so that home growers can have access to industry knowledge.

Table of Contents

  1. Harvesting Your Cannabis Plant (jump to section)
    • How do you know when it is time to harvest? (jump to section)
    • Harvest time is largely determined by the strain (jump to section)
    • Light density can also affect cannabis maturation prior to harvest time (jump to section)
    • Physical indications that your plant is ready to be harvested (jump to section)
  2. “To Do” items, prior to harvest date (jump to section)
  3. Tools of the trade (jump to section)
  4. The harvesting process for indoor farmers (jump to section)
  5. Drying your cannabis (jump to section)
  6. Trimming your cannabis (jump to section)
  7. Curing and storing your cannabis (jump to section)

Harvesting Your Cannabis Plant

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How do you know when it is time to harvest?

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The first part about harvesting your marijuana plants has nothing to do with the “how,” and everything to do with the “when.” Harvest too early, and you sacrifice yields (and quality of experience). Harvest too late and you again sacrifice quality of the user experience.

Every marijuana plant has an optimal finishing time. This will vary depending on the strain (and its lineage). In outdoor environments, it will vary depending on the region or part of the world. 

But for us indoor guys, its all about the strain, and our growing conditions. For better or worse, we are in control of the process.

Harvest time is largely determined by the Strain

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When you purchase seeds or clones to grow, the breeder will be able to give you a flowering timeline. Most strains today from popular breeders are 8 to 9 week strains, meaning they are to be harvested between Day 56 and Day 63.

There are strains that have longer flowering times, particularly certain sativa varieties that require 10+ weeks of flowering. We do not grow those types of strains, because the length would throw off our perpetual flowering and harvesting schedule.

One thing you should know, however, is that flowering time is directly correlated to yield: the longer your plant flowers, the bigger it will get and the bigger the resulting yield.

It should not be surprising that that strains with shorter flowering times also result in less overall bud. We ourselves have noticed that the 8-week strains  are consistently smaller than the 9-week strains and that makes logical sense. The latter gets an extra week of growth.

Light Density can also affect Cannabis maturation prior to harvest time

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The lights you use (HPS vs. LED) can affect finishing time, as well as the amount of light (PPFD). Some strains have been reported to finish sooner under LED lights. And some plants need a minimum threshold of PPFD or light density in order to finish properly. 

Our Chernobyl would be an example of a strain that simply will not finish to full maturity if there is not enough light. On the other hand, our lightbulbs could start going out and Apple Tartz would still finish. It would just be a small version of itself.

Physical Indications that your Plant is ready to be Harvested

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If you are unsure of the flowering time of your current crop – or you simply lost track of your grow calendar and you’re not quite sure what day you’re on – you can use these key physical indications to determine whether the plant is ready for harvest.

  • Trichomes

The trichomes will be one of the largest indicators for harvest readiness. Trichomes cover the buds of your plant and range in color. Trichomes house all the THC and the coloration of the trichomes darkens as the plant ages. You will need a microscope to examine the trichomes on your plant and determine if your cannabis is ready for harvest. Allowing the trichomes to age can drastically change the type of high you’ll experience. 

  • Clear trichomes- This means that it is too early to harvest; your marijuana does not contain very much THC at this point. 
  • Milky White – This level of trichome color has adequate THC but the high will be energetic and short-lived. Some cannabis growers are seeking good daytime high that will not interfere with productivity, so they would harvest when their trichomes are milky.
  • Amber/Yellow – The THC potency begins to fade as the color darkens. This means that cannabis with colored or orange trichomes produces a more narcotic effect, Someone who wants a sedative high would harvest now.
  • Pistils

Pistils are the “hairs” that sprout out of the buds. Shaped like tendrils, their purpose is to capture pollen during breeding with males. These pistils begin as long, bright white hairs that begin to recede and darken as they mature. They will change from white to orange. When about ¾ of the pistils have darkened, you can expect the highest THC levels. Push it farther and you can expect a more relaxing and calming effect from your marijuana.

  • Leaves

Throughout the flowering stage, the leaves of the cannabis plant can begin to yellow. (NOTE: Yellowing of the leaves during the vegetative stage is not a good indication, and likely indicates a problem.) Alterations in color right before harvest are okay, and nothing to worry about.

  • Calyxes

Calyxes are pods that would have seeds if a cannabis plant were to be pollinated. When unpollinated, these pods will swell when your plant has reached maturity. 

All things considered, most cultivars are ready for harvest at around Day 60, more or less. 

With most strains finishing between 56 to 63 days, you will be perfectly alright harvesting your plant within this time frame, based on your own gut instinct. You will not ruin your crop by harvesting a day or two early or late.

At this point, you have bigger things to worry about, starting with your Drying Space.

Prior to your Harvest date, nail these “to-do” items to ensure the best outcome

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When you’re sure that you are within a week or so of harvesting, there are a few ways that we suggest you prepare your plant in order to maximize the flavor and potency.

1. Flush your Plants

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First, stop feeding your plants nutrients the last 7-10 days. Save the money, save the resources, and just use water. (Obviously, this only applies to hydroponic mediums and set ups).

2. Taper down Temperature and Humidity

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Next, start dialing down your temperature and your humidity in your flower room. You still want to maintain the same VPD parameters, so taper down your temperature and humidity in a corresponding manner. If you don’t use a VPD chart or don’t know what one is, that is okay. We will put out an article series in the near future explaining VPD (vapor, pressure, density metrics). For now, just know that you can and should start tapering everything down, cooler and dryer.

3. Stop Watering

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Lastly, stop watering altogether the last 2 to 3 days. You’re going to chop them down and hang them up to dry at the end of the week anyway, so go ahead and start drying them out now. No need to water up until the day of harvest.

Tools of the Trade

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When it comes to the supplies needed for harvesting marijuana (this includes cutting, drying and trimming), the good news is that it’s not much, and most of the supplies are not difficult to find. In fact, you may even already own many of them. 

You will need:

  • A magnifier to inspect the trichomes (Tip: A high-quality smartphone app or camera on zoom can help with this)
  • A tool to cut down the plant (Tip: use a pipe cutter; makes a clean cut and can be found at any hardware store)
  • Disposable gloves (for the stickiness of the trichome resins)
  • A designated drying area where you will take the plants

The Harvest process for indoor cannabis farmers

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Here is the best part of this whole process: it is pretty simple.

When it is time to harvest, you merely chop the bottom of the plant, at the stalk, and remove your plant from the stem that is stuck in the dirt. You can use a saw or heavy clippers. However, we suggest using a pipe cutter. You can buy one at your local hardware store, and they offer a really clean cut.

After cutting down the stalks, you will be ready to begin the drying process for your plant.

Heads Up:

Beware the aroma on harvest day. Cutting a fresh plant releases a sweet floral aroma that is very strong. If you are trying to remain covert with your cultivation – for example, inside an apartment – good luck with that. While you may be able to conceal odors within your dry space, you will have trouble avoiding the pungent smell of freshly cut cannabis on the day of harvest.

Drying Your Cannabis

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Here we go, now it is go time!

Nailing it in your dry room is critically important because it impacts the overall quality of your plant and your smoking experience. 

Properly done, drying helps to conserve the properties and active components within the cannabis. In fact, THC isn’t active until it’s dried. This process should take a minimum of 10-15 days, but longer is alright. 

Improperly done, and you just wasted the last couple months. A poorly managed drying process can result in bud that has lost all life: no smell, no taste. Even if it looks pretty, if it has no smell and no taste, you’ve failed as a grower. (It’s okay, we’ve all failed at achieving a perfect drying process at one point).

What’s important to remember is simply this: Don’t rush the process.

Remember, commercial grows are purposely optimized to accomplish the task of drying on a set schedule. When you are home growing, you get to take the craft approach and dry as long as the plant needs without rushing it. Unlike us, you’re not working on a deadline!

Setting Up Your Drying Space

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Choosing Your Room

Selecting a room in which to dry your cannabis is the first step in ensuring that you are not destroying what you worked so hard to grow. It’s important to think about this space prior to harvest, since your drying process will begin right away.

At Smokey Okies, we have an entire harvest department that has multiple dry rooms, all with their own separate environmental controls. We are set up so that if we have a problem arise in one room, we have multiple spare rooms ready to go. We understand that’s not possible for home growers, but we want to stress the importance of pre-planning and selecting your room. 

You want the room to be clean, dry, of adequate size, and you need to be able to control the climate. Unpacking those four main items, let’s take a look at the criteria for a great drying space:

  • Clean – Your drying room should be as clean and new as possible. It’s also important to try (if you have space) to only use that room for drying. Other odors that may be in a room that isn’t clean can affect your flavor and experience.
  • Dry – Of course, when you are drying cannabis, the room itself needs to be dry, as well. That means using a damp basement or a room close to a bathroom that may collect shower steam is off the table.
  • Adequate size – The drying room should be large enough that, when adding in your presence and the harvest, there is still enough space between branches and enough room for airflow.
  • Climate Control –  However, you don’t want an overly large room when drying; this could cause issues when trying to control the climate and temperature in the space. Things like overly large room, rooms with lots of drafts or high ceilings may not be your best bet.  

The astute among you might be asking, “Can you dry your plants in a grow tent?” The answer is “Yes!” And that may be the most optimal choice for the home grower, because it meets all of the criteria above, but most importantly, you can tightly control the environment inside the tent.

In Oklahoma, the maximum amount of plants allowed for home growing is six plants. You should be able to hang six plants inside a grow tent, depending on the size of your tent, and depending on how big your plants are (which is largely determined by the length of your veg cycle).

How to Achieve the optimal environment for Drying Cannabis

If you are new to growing, you want to do the best you can with the resources you have. But you must tightly control your dry room environment, including the temperature and relative humidity. 

The big challenge is that these metrics will fluctuate, not only day to day, but hour by hour. And not only in one direction, but up and down. Sound confusing? It is, especially when you are new to it. The memory is still embedded in our skulls.

Using Equipment to help you optimize your Dry Space

Do yourself a favor and invest in high quality meters that can read both temperature and relative humidity. Now, on to the actual process of drying your weed. 

The idea is to pull the moisture out as slowly as possible to preserve the terpenes. 

At Smokey Okie’s, we do utilize both our HVAC system as well as separate dehumidifiers to remove moisture from the dry room, though we temper the pull incrementally over the course of the week. 

The temperature should be in 60’s (farenheit) and the humidity should start at around 70% and be incrementally reduced over two weeks down to around 55%. 

You can buy a household dehumidifier for around $100 from a big box store like Walmart, and that should be sufficient to pull out the water that will be coming off of your plants. Just remember you will have to empty it out daily. 

If you can’t afford or don’t have access to a dehumidifier, you can use small fans on low to help increase air flow. However, this will increase your dry time, but that is okay. 

You can drag out the drying process into three or more weeks. If you do this, then it is okay if the relative humidity remains at around 70% that first week, but you should be in the 60% RH zone by the end of Week 1, going into Week 2. 

You also want to keep your dry space cool, as in 65 degrees or less. Now, when you bring the temp down, it will make it more difficult to pull water out of the air, which is why having equipment like a dehumidifier is so important. If you were growing in a Tent, then you should already have the cooling capacity to easily accomplish this. For other dry spaces, keep in mind you want it cold and dry. 

The importance of Properly Sizing your Equipment

Something to keep in mind as a cultivator is sizing your equipment appropriately for the job at hand. This applies to everything you do in veg and flower, as well as in your dry space.

When using an air conditioner and a dehumidifier, you are better off using undersized equipment rather than oversized equipment. Let me explain by using an example.

When an air conditioner is larger than necessary to cool the room in which it is in, it will cool the room very quickly, and then shut off. It will not kick back on until the temperature has risen several degrees. If the space is small and insulated, the temperature will remain stable for some time. If it takes close to an hour for the temperature to begin rising, then you have an A/C unit that kicks on one time per hour. Stay with me. 

If we placed your temperature on a graph, it would look rather stable. The temperature would be low at the start of the hour when the A/C is running, and after the A/C shuts off, the temp gently climbs up, before being kicked back down at the start of the next hour when the A/C kicks back on. 

In this scenario of an oversized A/C unit, your temperature might be stable, but unless you have properly sized Dehumidifier, you can be guaranteed that your humidity will be anything other than stable!

That is because your A/C unit, which also acts as a dehumidifier, is only pulling water out of the air for 5 minutes per hour. Therefore, the amount of water in the air will shoot up the second that A/C unit shuts off. 

Unlike your temperature graph, your humidity graph will have sharp spikes and dips.  What’s wrong with sharp spikes and dips? Well you are essentially reintroducing moisture back into the plant after pulling it out. 

In everything that we do, we want minimal variation in atmosphere. You want to avoid sharp fluctuations and seek very smooth, incremental changes to atmosphere.

To achieve this, you are better off with undersized equipment that is forced to work harder, and longer. By keeping the equipment running all the time, you achieve a much more stable and consistent result. Your atmosphere will fluctuate as your equipment shuts on and off. The less frequently it shuts off, the longer it is working to pull water out of the air. 

Properly sized equipment will assist you in combating the sharp fluctuations described above. The atmosphere simply cannot fluctuate rapidly if your equipment never shuts off. 

Now, if your equipment is running all the time, you will have to deal with more frequent maintenance, more frequent trips to empty out your dehumidifier bucket, more energy consumption, and a greater likelihood of your equipment failing. These are all things that commercial cultivators deal with every day in the quest to achieve the highest level of quality. 

You do what you can with your own set up, within your own limitations and budget. But understand the principles of what we are saying: seek to avoid sharp fluctuations in your environmental settings, if possible. 

Finish your Dry Space Set-up

To drive the point home, your room needs to be cool, clean, dark and dry. Any type of odor, chemical or excess moisture can cause mildew and ruin your buds. Your equipment should be properly sized so it runs more frequently, which results in a more consistent atmosphere.

Finally, your dry room should be dark. U/V lights can damage buds and can also dilute your terpenes and cannabinoids. We know you didn’t spend all those weeks growing marijuana to trip at the finish line and have your batch lose its edge! If you have lots of windows (or any windows) in your dry room, be sure to cover those up. 

Hanging Your Plant to Dry

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At Smokey Okie’s Cannabis, we hang the entire plant upside down to dry. However, you may choose to hang just the individual branches. The key here is to dry in a low and slow manner. Let’s learn and understand the difference between hanging a whole plant versus a branch. 

Whole-Plant Hang vs. Hanging individual branches

Hanging a whole plant to dry will put more moisture in the air of your dry room, and thus require a longer dry period. In a way, this slows the drying process. It also puts more demand on your dehumidification equipment and HVAC system. 

By breaking off the individual branches and hanging them separately, you discard a lot of excess material. You also have less material shielding the buds. These branches will now dry quicker. Therefore, you can go easy on the pull of your Dehumidification equipment.

 If you don’t have the room, or you aren’t able to control the climate control in your space with precision, then hanging branches might be the right choice for you. 

The main thing to remember is to keep the stems and buds on the branches as long as possible during the drying process. The moisture left in the branches keeps the buds from drying out too quickly. This is important for a low and slow drying process, which optimizes your marijuana. 

You can use wire hangers, and hang the branches therein, or you can hang the whole plant by tying the bottom stalk to something on your ceiling. In commercial grow spaces, rooms are specifically designed for this process. 

How to Know When Your Plants Are Fully Dry

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There are tools available for purchase that can tell you moisture content, but the easiest way in which to know if your buds are dry enough is to select a large branch and snap it. If there is a clean and crisp break, you are ready to begin the trimming and curing process. If it bends or you need to work to break the stem, give your cannabis more time.  Just remember: don’t get in a rush! The slow and steady tortoise wins this race, not the over zealous hare.

How to handle the Challenge of drying out big and small branches equally at the same time

Now here is where you will see the nuance and complexity of this process. Your plant will have some small, thin branches as well as some big, thick branches. The thin branches will dry out quicker than the thick ones. And you may need extra days to leech out the water in the thicker branches. 

So this now creates the risk of uneven drying. If some branches dry out quicker than others, you risk losing those valuable terps, which you can never get back. That means lost flavor and aroma. Not good!

So how do you manage this delicate balancing act?

When you hang the whole plant, fan leaves and all, your smaller buds and branches gain protection from that extra material that enshrouds them, as do the bigger branches. 

While you add extra days to your drying cycle in order to pull out the remaining water inside the thicker buds and branches, your smaller buds should remain somewhat protected encapsulated inside that hairy mess of plant material that covers them. This is why we prefer hanging the whole plant, as opposed to individual branches. We prefer the protection that the extra plant material provides. 

There is a trade off, though. 

Is your objective to have good bud, or good by-product?

More plant material means more time spent trimming it off. But we gladly accept that trade.

Some growers insist on yanking off the large fans leaves before hanging the plant. They have several reasons. 

One is that this will reduce the workload on the trim crew. Why spend twice as much time trimming shriveled, dry material that is basically embedded into the nugs, when you could yank big fat leaves off a live plant before hanging it? You can see where they’re coming from. 

The other reason is the market value of the trim. When you trim nugs from a whole-plant-hang, the fan leaf material gets combined with the sugar leaf – it all gets trimmed simultaneously and collects together in a pile labeled “trim.” However, in our industry, not all trim is equal, which is why some growers insist on removing as much material as possible before hang drying.

Added fan leaf and branch material in the resulting trim decreases its value to a processor. In a commercial cannabis context, all trim is eventually sold to a processor. 

If the trim has excess water leaf, the total THC content of the trim will be reduced, and this will decrease the yield of the concentrate rendered. Therefore, either the processor must go through the trim and sort out the large leaf material (which means he pays less for the trim), or the grower must sift through it before he sells it. Or the processor settles for a lower yield of concentrate.

From this perspective, the grower decides to remove extra material from the plant before hang drying.  

From our perspective, we are seeking out the best possible finished nugs, and we’re less concerned with the quality of our trim. We are growing top shelf cannabis.

Similarly, if we create more work for our trim team, so be it. You want top shelf fire, right? Well, news flash: you might have to work a little harder to get it! That’s okay in our book. 

In conclusion, we hang the entire plant, which creates a giant, shriveled, hairy mess that requires a lot of work to peel apart. But it protects the nugs in the process, and results in some really terpy weed. The additional material also shields the nugs and locks in the terps, so that if we have to drag out the drying process, we can, while still preserving the nugs that are already dry.

Additional tips in determining if your plants have finished drying

You can also use moisture meters to test your buds. You are shooting for 10% or less. But know that you will continue to lose moisture during the post-trim cure as well. 

This is where we start getting into fine tuning, and the details matter, which make it hard at this point to generalize for every person’s set up or skill set.

You can err on the moist side, knowing your plants may sit in bins waiting to get trimmed. Or you can allow your plants to hang another day or two or three to pull out more moisture. 

You will base your opinion using all the factors involved: 

  • whether you hung the whole plant or individual branches; 
  • whether you have equipment in the room assisting with moisture removal, and what size of equipment; 
  • the temperature of the room; 
  • the relative humidity of the room; 
  • the amount of light in the room; and
  • how long you intend to spend shucking, bucking, trimming and curing.

Trimming Your Cannabis

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When your plants are fully dry and ready to be trimmed; that is when the real labor starts. You do have some helpers ready, right? Even though this part of the process can be more tedious than others, when you get a crowd together to trim, buck and shuck, it can actually be a lot of fun (and gets done a lot faster!).
If you choose to hang whole plants, you will need to break off branches for trimming. You will then need to shuck your plants, which means you pull the buds off the stem, or you pull the stem out from the center of your buds (bucking). 

Preparing your trim space

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You will need:

  • A large table, standing height or sitting height
  • More gloves
  • Trim Bin
  • Trimming shears
  • Isopropyl alcohol to clean your shears
  • Trim bins
  • A Comfortable chair 

Shucking and bucking: what it is and how to do it

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Shucking and bucking the cannabis plant consists of trimming the extra stem pieces off the bottom of the harvested branch pieces and removing all the buds from the branches and stems. In order to do this, we snip the buds off so that they can be delicately hand trimmed of any remaining leaves. 

There are machines that do this, and they work by sucking the stem through a hole, but the buds do not fit so they fall straight down (into a bucket or whatever you have underneath). However, we do not even use machines at Smokey Okies for shucking. We do this by hand. 

Once your buds have been shucked off the plant, you should have a bucket full of hairy, messy buds. Most commercial facilities will run these chunks through a machine to get the large leaf and plant material off. They will then proceed to either fine trimming by machine, or hand-trimming to a manicured finish. 

Machine trimming vs. Hand trimming

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In today’s cannabis scene, trimming machines get a bad rap, which is not entirely justified. Sure, there are crude machines that can damage the bud, but let me tell ya, an inexperienced trimmer can surely mangle some weed.

In a commercial setting, machines are a time saver. They reduce the load placed on the trim crew by removing excess, so that the hand-trimmer can work on the fine details of a good manicure, and not have to do the redundant task of pulling of larger leaves.

To state the obvious, you don’t need a machine for a home grow trim job (although there is nothing wrong if you decide you want to invest in a tumbler if you plan to harvest regularly). Regardless, you will definitely want to call in some help of some sort, human or machine. 

If you’re not a professional trimmer, it will take you an entire day to trim a single pound. (Side Note: most pro’s easily handle 2 lbs a day, and our top trimmers can hit 4 lbs in one day, depending on the strain!).

Tips when hand-trimming

To trim by hand, grab the bottom of the stem in one hand, and then with the other hand, grip the stem below a bud group and move it up. It should disjoin and then carry on up the stem until you run into the next bud group, and just keep it moving. Do it quick and fast, and shuck those buds off.

Ideally, your bud should have a moisture level of 6 to 8% when you trim it, but up to 10% is doable. You can allow for a longer cure, and pull out the moisture during a slow cure, which will get you to a more suitable smoking experience.

Did I mention you need to wear gloves? Oh yes, the sticky icky goodness of cannabis is on full display with this activity. Wear gloves or else your hands will be covered in adhesive (ever wondered where the name Gorilla Glue came from? The famous strain name refers to the glue that covers your hands during trimming!).

You will come to learn that trimming speed, technique, and quality will all vary based on the strain. Some strains are delicate and some are chunky. Just take your time and do what feels best.

Curing and Storing Your Cannabis

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The Importance of Proper Curing and Storage

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Finally, once your buds have dried and trimmed clean of any leaves or excess vegetation, it will be time to cure the buds for consumption. Curing is a process that should be done at just the right time and is also necessary in order to maintain the highest quality from your yield and ensure smoothness when smoking. Curing helps chlorophyll and sugars within to break down and escape, leaving only what is desired behind–potency and flavor.

The curing and drying of marijuana is all about process. If done well, you can really look to optimize the potency of the marijuana. Done incorrectly, you can end up with a lackluster experience. A long, slow drying of cannabis flowers ripens the flavor and, according to some, also ripens the potency. This is because research has found that THC actually decomposes to CBN under these conditions and is responsible. CBN doesn’t actually develop naturally, but only with light and heat, so the curing process is what really optimizes the CBN and its interactions with the THC, resulting in a stronger or more potent high.

How to Cure Your Cannabis

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Most people cure and store their marijuana buds in glass jars. Glass really is the most ideal container because it helps to create the perfect environment for curing. The glass allows any remaining moisture from the buds to rehydrate the exterior without becoming too wet, which can cause rotting. 

We use C-Vault containers and our harvest manager burps them frequently in the beginning and then decreases the burping over the course of that first week after trimming.

Burping your Cannabis during the first couple weeks of curing

For the first few weeks, you will want to open your glass jar and allow any build up of condensation to escape. The goal is allowing the buds to dry until they are at a nice moisture level, not too dry and not too brittle. This is called “burping” your cannabis.

During the first week, you should open the curing container for about ten minutes or so every day. In the second week, you only need to burp the container for a few minutes a day, or every other day. 

Into the third and subsequent weeks, you will just want to make sure to open the jar a few times a week. If you are already opening it to grab bud to smoke, then that is fine and no additional burping would be necessary. If you plan to cure your cannabis for months, then you will need to continue burping at least once per week.

The Entire Harvest Process done properly is what takes Cannabis from Commodity to Craft

Overall, the proper trimming, drying and curing of cannabis helps to create a smoother smoking experience and creates a less harsh marijuana taste. The process decreases any chance of mold or bacteria build up and helps to rid the weed of any harsh characteristics that can cause coughing, etc. Finally, if you are able to complete the process successfully, you can store and keep your buds in glass jars for years. However, with Smokey Okie’s buds, we doubt they will last that long. 

Once you have trimmed and jarred your bud, sit back and admire your accomplishments. Regardless of yield, you should have a lot of weed for a personal smoke session. Enough to get you through until the next harvest. Blaze up and enjoy the fruits of your labor.

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